I first fell in love with Gwyneth Paltrow on the night she was awarded an Oscar for her move “Shakespeare in Love.” I am lucky to be subscribing Harper’s Bazaar’s magazine. Ironically, it was some years later that I watched the movie. (This I will discuss later). What actually made me love her is her striking understated appearance in the Oscars.

Yes, the irony is correct. I found her strikingly understated. She was in a pink gown, little make up and effortless hairdo, but she still has that aura that makes her one captivating lady. The following year’s Oscars. I was saw her again, but this time, her face was heavy with make up and her eyes became more penetrating, an eagle would have cringed in terror.

Then, I fell more in love with her in the movie “Shallow Halle,” where she naturally dished out a light rule while inside a heavy prosthetics. But when I finally saw her movie “Shakespeare In Love,” then I became truly convinced of this actress’ versatility. I can still remember Viola’s intimate scene with William Shakespeare, played by Joseph Fiennes, wherein they conceptualized the immortal lines of Romeo in Juliet while in most wondrous act of togetherness.

It is a bonus therefore to see another beautiful slice of Gwyneth in an interview by Anamaria Wilson in Harper’s Bazaar, wherein she talks about how she gets to maintain her appearance despite the rigors of her different characters that required her to be out of herself. True enough, actors are meant to metamorphose one project after another, and sometimes, such metamorphoses come literally, as in her case of her latest project set in Nashville. It reminds me of Kevin Spacey in “American Beauty”, Tommy Lee Jones in “The Fugitive”, Charlize Therone in “Monster”, Cate Blanchett in “Veronica Guerin”, “Aviator”, “Elizabeth”, and Meryll Streep in God-knows-what-else-has-she-not-performed role.

Despite all these, what strikes me most about Gwyneth is how she is able to juggle her family life and her career, and how she greatly prioritizes the former from the latter. She has decided to pull out from an ambitious project “Danish Girl” where she’s supposed to team up with fellow Oscar laureate Nicole Kidman.

So what’s in her family life? She’s got a husband, who has to be away due to his equally hectic business commitments, and two kids who are beginning their journeys at school, and I really admire how she squeezes up her commitment to raise their children, be with them during meal times, and even send them off to school. I’ve seen children gone berserk due to their parents’ absence, and I know that for Paltrow, that would be the last thing that could ever happen to her children.

Indeed, she has come to realize that the family is the most important thing a person could ever have; and where everything else falls, the family remains to rescue.

Perhaps it is good to write about showbiz families who can serve as role models for other parents. We’ve known lots of sons and daughters in the limelight who have lost their way despite their parents’ equal Hollywood status, but we’ve known also of some who are noteworthy family men.

It is but proper to give kudos to them.

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