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Mom to Gwyneth Paltrow: "I Want You to Take Care of Yourself"

Blythe Danner on her multitasking daughter, the grandkids and a muscled-up Zac Efron

By Marc Malkin Feb 03, 2011 2:00 PMTags
Gwyneth Paltrow, Blythe DannerStephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Is there anything that Gwyneth Paltrow doesn't do these days?

Probably not.

And that makes Blythe Danner sometimes worry about her overachieving daughter...

"She's a multitasker," Danner told me the other day at the Standard Hotel in West Hollywood, where she was promoting her new film, Waiting for Forever (in theaters tomorrow). "We had dinner last night and I said, 'Honey, please, it's great that you multitask, but it's a lot of stress to do that, and I want you to take care of yourself. You've just got to.'"

One of Paltrow's most recent accomplishments? Singing and playing guitar in County Strong. One of the movie's songs, "Coming Home," is up for an Oscar.

In other words, Gwynnie will be performing the tune at the Academy Awards next month, Danner said. "She was nervous when she performed at the Country Music Awards, but once she got into it, she was fine," the proud mom boasted. "They stood up—these 2,500 professionals! She's singing in front of the industry and she got a standing ovation. I was thrilled for her. She loved it."

When asked if Paltrow and rocker hubby Chris Martin's kids, Apple and Moses, have the show business gene, Danner smiled, "I think it's inevitable."

Danner recently wrapped The Lucky One, the drama in which Zac Efron packed on 18 pounds of muscle to play a war veteran. "I remember the first day not really knowing who he was because I'd only seen him as, you know, 'little Zac Efron,'" she said. "It was, 'Who is this guy?'

"They wanted us all to gain weight," Danner continued. "It was the strangest thing. I don't know why. I guess because we were country folk?"