"Gal" Friday! Gwyneth Paltrow

Actress and singer Gwyneth Paltrow has portrayed supporting, as well as lead roles, in films such as Hook, Se7en, A Perfect Murder, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Bounce, The Royal Tenenbaums, Shallow Hal, Austin Powers in Goldmember, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and of course, Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and she is currently part of the large cast filming Marvel's The Avengers (reprising her role of Virginia "Pepper" Potts; bottom photo).

The 1998 Best Actress Oscar winner (for Shakespeare in Love) has already more than earned a space in the Catacombs as this weeks official "Gal" Friday choice, but as overdue as this dubious honor may be, she certainly aided my arbitrary selection process this week with her topless photo session in Vanity Fair magazine.

It's funny to me that the whole point of her pictorial spread is actually to promote Louis Vuitton jewelry. Now tell me, isn't the very "first" thing that you notice in that photo (above; right) are a few sparkly baubles? No.

I didn't think so.