Paltrow Lines Up Postpartum Projects

An Apple--and a Moses--a day couldn't keep Gwyneth Paltrow away. Though for a time it was fairly tempting.

The Oscar-winning actress and two-time mama has announced plans to end two-plus years of maternity leave and return to the big screen starting this fall.

"For a long time, I thought, 'I've done it. I've done what I wanted to do. I'm not interested. I just wanted to be home with my family,' " she told Harper's Bazaar in its September issue, on stands next Tuesday.

"I had no spark for work, but I feel the feeling back. And I'm excited about the prospect. I want to do something kind of fun. I don't want to do anything depressing or mad. I want to do a really great, funny, weird character."

She's on her way.

First up is a small role in Running with Scissors, the adaptation of Augusten Burroughs' best-selling memoir. The movie, out Oct. 11, marks her first time onscreen since last fall's Proof, and was filmed prior to her getting pregnant with her second child, four-month-old Moses.

And the drama is just the start of her cinematic comeback. According to IMDb.com, Paltrow has no fewer than five films in the pipeline, three of which have already completed production.

In addition to Running with Scissors, the actress has wrapped roles in Infamous, another take on Truman Capote's writing of In Cold Blood, and The Good Night, a romantic comedy written and directed by her brother, Jake Paltrow. Her highest-profile gig, however, is her casting as the legendary screen goddess Marlene Dietrich in an untitled biopic next year.

Still, despite Mrs. Coldplay's desire to get back into the movie mix, she told the magazine that taking time off to experience motherhood was "a total joy."

At least, it was after she decided to enlist some helping hands, and not just from her hubby, Brit-rocker Chris Martin.

"I do not know how single mothers have more than one child with no help," she said. "It requires so much of my life, and I don't have to change sheets and clean toilets, you know. My hat--no, my clothes go off to the single mother with no help; I stand naked, kowtowing before her."

Of course, while Paltrow speaks with nothing but praise for her sisters in motherhood, she's slightly less enthused by the position's effect on her camera-ready body.

"The first time, you are horrified," she said. "It's all lovely when you are pregnant; but when you are not pregnant and haven't been for a couple months and you are still carrying tons of extra weight and everything's all hanging and sagging, you think, 'How is this ever going to go back?' But it does. If you do a lot of working out.

"With Apple, I kept the extra 20 pounds on until she was three months old, and then it came off," she said. "And that's exactly what's happening now."

Still, maternity hasn't made the 33-year-old soft in all areas.

"I curse when I drive. I'm like a horribly aggressive real New York driver. I'm always yelling, 'F--k you!' at truck drivers and honking my horn."

Paltrow also told the magazine that the diminished media frenzy on her personal life was an added bonus of her extended leave of absence.

"I just hope the paparazzi thing continues in a way it's been going, which is with less interest in people like me and more interest in people like Nicole Richie--who I think is an excellent dresser, by the way. She's my favorite. She's supercute.

"It's really fair that the press attention goes to those who want it and court it. I think that's great."

And in some cases, like that of Paltrow's ex-fiancé Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, the unwanted press attention can sometimes be beneficial, albeit in a surreal way.

When asked about her thoughts on the supercouple's $4.1 million price tag for Shiloh baby pics, she said, "I'm sure they gave all the money to charity, didn't they? Well, then, fantastic."