Law as a boy with his older sister Natasha. |
Fortunately, Law has a close-knit support system. "Once you meet his parents, you get more of an insight into him," says Shyer. "They're very normal, intelligent people." Schoolteachers Maggie and Peter Law raised Jude and his sister Natasha, now 33, in southeast London. Named after both the 1895 Thomas Hardy classic
Jude the Obscure and a certain Beatles hit, Jude was artistic from the beginning. He first appeared onstage in a production of St. George and the Dragon at 5 and left school at 17 for a part in the Brit soap
Families. After paying his dues on the British theater scene, Law made the leap to Broadway in 1995, starring in the dark farce
Indiscretions, which required him to emerge from a bath fully nude onstage. "You should have heard the little-old-lady matinees – they gasped!" recalls Kathleen Turner, Law's costar in the play. "The old ladies loved him."
Even the pacifier set starts drooling when his name comes up. "He's the most charming man you could ever hope to come across," says Paltrow, as her 6-month-old daughter babbles happily on her lap. "Apple is chiming in her approval! Jude has that effect on females of all ages."
• By MICHELLE TAUBER. K.C. BAKER and AMY LONGSDORF in New York City, TOM CUNNEFF in Los Angeles and COURTNEY RUBIN in London
