Feature for Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow

Gwyneth Paltrow has just taken on her biggest role to date - that of a mother. Despite the challenge of playing a Shakespearean beauty, a cheating wife and a 300lb woman in her 13-year movie career, the Oscar-winning actress has landed a real life role that would test anyone. But Gwyneth, who is married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, is loving every minute of caring for baby daughter Apple, who was born on May 14 this year, weighing 9lb 11oz.

The actress is first to admit it wasn't easy bringing her baby into the world - her 70-hour labour was so agonising that previous plans to have a natural birth went straight out the window.

Gwyneth recently confessed to chat show host Oprah Winfrey: "I'm like this yoga, hippie person, but after 62 hours or so, the doctors said, 'This is getting serious, you need to have an epidural.' So I had it."

But the pain was worth it, as Gwyneth and Chris couldn't be happier being parents - or being married to each other.

Prior to meeting Chris, Gwyneth set the trend for high profile celebrity relationships when J.Lo was still a spinster. She fell for her handsome co-star Brad Pitt in 1994 when she played his wife in the crime thriller 'Seven'. Brad claimed it was love at first sight, admitting he went "goofy" whenever he got close to the Park Avenue Princess.

The couple announced their engagement within months and were widely expected to marry. Gwyneth described Brad as "the love of my life", but, in hindsight, inheriting the poisoned chalice of Hollywood's hottest couple appears to have put a death sentence on the relationship that ended after two and half years, with Gwyneth admitting later: "My heart sort of broke that day, and it will never be the same. When we split up, something changed, permanently, in me."

The couple cited work differences, claiming it was impossible to maintain a successful relationship alongside a film career. An Oscar win in 1998 seemed to prove this claim and sealed Gwyneth's life professionally, and her tearful acceptance speech has become legendary, but her personal life remained at odds with her career success. A subsequent romance with serial dater Ben Affleck - she gave him a £21,000 watch for his birthday - was followed by a string of failed relationships with actors, including 'Royal Tenenbaums' co-star Luke Wilson.

Gwyneth's search for true love finally came to an end two years ago when she met British rocker Chris backstage at a concert.

The couple shared a strict diet and ultra-healthy lifestyle, but more importantly it was Chris who supported the young star after the sudden death of her beloved father, Bruce.

The loss was especially hard for self-confessed daddy's girl Gwyneth, who once gushed of her father: "He's my best friend. He's so funny. He's so open-minded. He's just the most incredible man ever." Quite a challenge for any man, particularly from a woman who once claimed that she was lucky to get a relationship "past six weeks."

But sensitive Chris - who wed the actress in a hush-hush Santa Barbara ceremony last December - managed to meet Gwyneth's strict dating criteria and a new, more relaxed Gwyneth emerged as she adapted to laid-back London life.

With a new baby to care for, it seemed initially that acting would take a back seat for the star as she entered her thirties. "I think I worked too much in my twenties," she admitted recently.

Before giving birth, Gwyneth controversially slammed working mothers, insisting that she would be looking after her daughter herself. She said: "There are certain women in this business who have children and I just think, 'You must never see them.'"

However, despite clearly cutting down the number of film roles, within weeks of greeting the new arrival, Gwyneth had already been confirmed to play jazz singer Peggy Lee and legendary screen idol Marlene Dietrich.

Her latest movie 'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow' will propel Gwyneth back into the top of the Hollywood A-list, despite her intention to lead a quiet life. Set in 1930s New York, Gwyneth plays Polly Perkins, an intrepid reporter searching for the truth about the disappearance of the world's leading scientists.

Gwyneth once again shares the screen with her 'Talented Mr Ripley' co-star Jude Law, who co-produced the movie with ex-wife Sadie Frost. The pair have built up a strong working relationship since working together five years ago and Gwyneth recently admitted that she planned to turn to Jude, himself a father of three, for childcare advice. She said: "I'm going to call him all the time and say, 'What do I do?'"

'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow' might be unlikely to garner Gwyneth another Oscar to keep her first statuette company, but it has opened her up to the action genre and marks a move away from the romantic comedies and period dramas that spring to mind when her name is mentioned.

And, as she embarks on her biggest role yet as a wife and mother, Gwyneth looks set to build upon the family foundations laid down by her parents - TV producer Bruce Paltrow and 'Meet The Parents' actress Blythe Danner - both professionally and privately, and pass the Paltrow name, and the success that brings with it, on to the next generation.

- Lar Gould / BANG