Shakespeare in Love costars Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck split after more than a year in the spotlight
If Gwyneth Paltrow remembered her mid 1997 engagement meltdown
with a certain blond hunk as the Pitts, she was determined to keep her
next love affair as low-key as possible. At a press event in New York
City last month, journalists were kep at bay while Paltrow enjoyed
a kiss and cuddle in the hall with Good Will Hunting and
Armageddon star Ben Affleck. But at the mention of his name a cold front
swept into the room. "I asked here if she was now the happiest she had ever
been," recalls one reporter,"and she said, 'Let's not go overboard.'"
She said nothing about man overboard. Paltrow and Affleck, both 26,
broke up just after the holdiday-- even as moviegoers were lining up
to see them both in Shakespeare in Love, the critically acclaimed
satire about the playwright's own love life. Even many who knew the pair
were caught off gaurd by the split. The two were together at the Dec. 3
New York premiere of Shakespeare in Love On New Year's Eve, Affleck
parties without Paltrow in Manhattan, but the pair spent that weekend at a
romantic Savannah bed-and-breakfast, The Gastonian. "If they were mad at
each other, it sure didn't show," says assistant manager Denise Harrison.
The break up is reportedly amicable-- a good thing since the two share a
circle of friends (Affleck's Good Will buddy Matt Damon is dating
Paltrow's pal Winona Ryder) and may well bump into each other around the
buffet table.
Both have been wonded before. Paltrow, who grew up in Manhattan and the
L.A. area as the daughter of actress Blythe Danner and TV producer Bruce
Paltrow, was once linked to rock singer Donovan Leitch and actor Robert
Sean Leonard. But her love life turned positively stellar when she met Brad
Pitt while filming Seven in 1994. Affleck, from a working-class
family near Boston, dated high school sweetheart Cheyenne Rothman for many
years until 1997. "Women want to take [a] guy and make hime different,"
he told USA Weekend last summer. "I can bend real far, but then it
snaps back." Maybe Affleck, who was spotted buying gym weights in Manhattan
two weeks ago, plans to work out the kinks."
Reprinted with out permission from People Magazine, 1/25/99
| Robin Quivers of the Howard Stern show reported that Gwyn has been dating Viggo M. her co-star in a Perfect Murder. | 
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