What's A Paltrow To Do?

I'm sure you have all heard the news that Gwyneth Paltrow is dropping out of The Danish Girl with Nicole Kidman. Two of the most media-hated stars together in a movie (and about the world's first transsexual!) was too good to be true.

Gwyneth claims she dropped out in order to spend time with her family (she's married to Coldplay's Chris Martin, you know).

So what's a Paltrow to do? Her career is hardly enviable, with her last big "meaty" role in 2005's underperforming Proof.

Advice: Television. It may seem below you, Oscar winning actress Gwyneth, but I just don't see you snatching these good dramatic parts that we all know you can do. Why wait for something good to fall into your lap again? The roles are few and far between for women of a certain age (you'll be 38 soon!) and we all know that TV is a comfort zone for actresses who get the cold shoulder from the silver screen (Sally Field, Glenn Close, Holly Hunter, and this summer Laura Linney).

I could totally see Gwyneth doing some sort of Desperate Housewives series, but not network television. Take Desperate Housewives and turn it over to HBO or Showtime, and I think we have our first Paltrow-success since... since Shakespeare in Love perhaps!

What do you think? Should Gwyneth turn to the small screen, or should she keep trying to find that next big role in cinema?

The Muse...

One of my favorite story-lines for movies is the muse who inspires the artist...

What are some of your favorite story-lines?

Gwyneth Paltrow Vs. Saving Private Ryan

I re-watched Shakespeare in Love yesterday with a friend of mine who had never seen it and, despite all of the hate it and Gwyneth get from the blogs, it still holds up today as fresh, funny, romantic, and one of my favorite films of all time. The ensemble is alive and manages to get the most out of a master piece of a script. I'll never understand those who hate Gwyneth Paltrow's performance in favor of the more predictable and less-interesting role that Cate Blanchett had in Elizabeth. I'm a big Blanchett fan but, compared to Shakespeare in Love, Elizabeth does not hold up at all.

Saving Private Ryan was obviously the front-runner in 1998 so Shakespeare's win was a surprise to everyone. It's certainly a good movie, great even, but it is filled with those war cliches and the ensemble (Vin Diesel... really?) cannot match that of Shakespeare in Love. Also, being more inclined to the actresses, I have to say "Where are the ladies!?" when I watch Saving Private Ryan. If Spielberg had lost the directing Oscar to Madden that year I could understand that the statuette was completely bought by the Weinsteins, but Saving Private Ryan got its due as did Shakespeare in Love, the best motion picture of 1998.

So all of you out there that hate this performance and Gwyneth in general, just re-watch the film and you'll see the magic still on screen 11 years later.