Blythe Danner—the venerable actress and mother of Gwyneth and Jake Paltrow—has mixed feelings about New York City—a place that is filled with reminders of the life she shared with her late husband, filmmaker Bruce Paltrow, who died in 2002 at the age of 58. “A poet wrote, ‘The edge softens, but it never leaves,’” the 64-year-old character actress recently told New York, in reference to her grief.

“I was in a show [Mr. Paltrow] produced that lasted two weeks,” she went on, “And we were walking home one night and went to a fortune-teller on a lark in the Fifth Avenue Hotel. And she told us we were going to get married. We weren't even dating,” she said, adding: “For a woman who's a widow and pretty much a loner, I can walk out and I'm surrounded by NYU kids. The energy jumps off the sidewalks, and I never feel sad or bored.”

Ms. Danner has a starring role in director Rich Allen’s forthcoming comedy Side by Each.

For Blythe Danner, New York Is Wistful, Energetic [NYMag via HuffPo]