Gwyn: To be, or not to be quiet – that is the question

Gwyneth Paltrow says the publicity about Brad Pitt‘s breakup with Jennifer Aniston could have been avoided. “It would have been a lot easier on Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston now if they had not talked to the press about each other and everything to begin with,” Paltrow tells Time magazine.

The 32-year-old actress went through heavy tabloid coverage herself when she dated Pitt in the nineties. They broke off their engagement in 1997.

“I learned my lesson at (age) 24,” Paltrow says.

Paltrow, now married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, values her privacy. The couple have a 1-year-old daughter, Apple.

“Our marriage is between us,” she says. “If we decide to continue being together or not, it’s our business.”

While the Pitt and Aniston continue to be tabloid fodder, Paltrow, a best actress Oscar winner for 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love,” sounds almost ready for quiet retirement.

“Everything I wanted to achieve, I achieved,” she says. “I’m not one of those people who keeps raising the bar.”

Suppose they used a chaplain?

Robert Downey Jr., the Oscar-nominated “Chaplin” star whose struggles with drug addiction made headlines in the late 1990s, has married for the second time.

Downey, 40, and producer Susan Levin, 31, were wed at a private home in the Hamptons on Long Island, N.Y., on Saturday.

They met in 2002 on the set of the film “Gothika,” which Levin co-produced. They were engaged in 2003.

Astin’s new day job

Former “Lord of the Rings” hobbit Sean Astin will again find himself in a situation where the fate of the world hangs in the balance – albeit in a slightly more condensed time frame.

Astin, the son of actress and Coeur d’Alene resident Patty Duke, will join the cast of Fox’s “24” this season as a member of the CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit).

Also joining the cast is Jean Smart (“Garden State,” “Designing Women”) as First Lady Martha Logan.

Dirty old women

Patrick Swayze never knows when “Dirty Dancing” fans will strike.

“It’s incredible,” says Swayze, who played the hip-swinging Johnny Castle in the 1987 film.

“All of the sudden I’ll be pinched on the rear and jump and turn around, and I’ll see this little blue-haired old lady running back to her group of friends going: ‘I did it Martha. I did it!’ “

Now, that really stings

Robert Redford and Paul Newman, one of Hollywood’s most popular duos three decades ago with hit movies “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “The Sting,” may reunite for another film.

Redford, 68, says “there’s something rolling around that we’re talking about” – adding, in a dig at Newman, 80, “the real question is whether he can remember his lines or not.”

Media reports earlier this year suggested the two would pair up in an adaptation of Bill Bryson‘s travel book “A Walk in the Woods,” the story of the author’s hike through the American wilderness with a friend.

The birthday bunch

Actor Bill Daily (“I Dream of Jeannie,” “The Bob Newhart Show”) is 77. Actress Elizabeth Ashley is 66. Actor-turned-politician Ben Jones (“The Dukes of Hazzard”) is 64. Actress Peggy Lipton (“The Mod Squad”) is 58. Comedian Lewis Black (“The Daily Show”) is 57. Actor Michael Chiklis (“The Shield,” “The Commish”) is 42. Country singer Sherrie Austin is 34. Actress Cameron Diaz is 33. TV personality Lisa Ling is 32.