For someone who was just voted the most hated celebrity in Hollywood, Gwyneth Paltrow seems to be in pretty good shape, figuratively and otherwise.

At a press conference this week for her new movie Iron Man 3, the immaculately turned-out 40-year-old looks as indestructible as the titular superhero in his armoured suit, her face devoid of lines or anything else that might suggest worry and self-doubt.

It is also, occasionally, devoid of expression, but shoot a question or a compliment at her and the Oscar-winning actress comes to life, smiling serenely through her crisply worded answers.

A reporter who interviewed her 20 years ago for her breakout role in the gritty indie drama Flesh And Bone (1993) asks how she has managed to look unchanged since then.

"Thank you for saying that," beams Paltrow, whose taut figure belies the fact that she has two young children - Apple, eight, and Moses, six - with husband Chris Martin, the frontman of the band Coldplay.

"I honestly think it's pretty basic stuff, like exercise," says the famously health-conscious star, who is known for her exacting approach to both diet and exercise.

"And, I think, self-discovery. Knowing you're in a process and trying to interpret suffering as lessons as opposed to burdens.

"Like always looking at life as an opening and as an adventure. And love and sex!''

She smiles winsomely as she says this and the effect, combined with her pristine white halter top and sheet of blonde hair, is momentarily blinding.

To the casual observer, there will be nothing in these or any other comments that would explain why or how she has come to be so reviled.

In the poll conducted by Star magazine earlier this month, she beat 19 other celebrities to be named "most hated" in Hollywood, which is slightly mystifying, considering that this put her ahead of singer and known girlfriend- beater Chris Brown (No. 20), actress and certified train-wreck Lindsay Lohan (No. 16) and singer John Mayer, a noted lothario (No. 4).

So how did Paltrow beat them all to No. 1?

Since having children, she is not even a full-time actress anymore, having taken a step back from her successful career, which saw her appear in films such as Se7en (1995), Shakespeare In Love (which won her the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Actress in 1999) and Shallow Hal (2001).

Doing fewer films has not meant a lower public profile, however.

If anything, she is still as famous as when she was a young actress dating Hollywood leading men such as Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck.

The anti-Paltrow animus seemed to centre on the fact that she may have had an unfair leg-up because of those relationships, or her show-business connections through actress mother Blythe Danner, director/producer father Bruce Paltrow and godfather Steven Spielberg.  

Now, she is better known for having celebrity BFFs such as Beyonce, Jay-Z and Madonna, and for her lifestyle website - the much-derided and inexplicably named Goop, on which the actress touts her cookbooks and other products, and dispenses advice about everything from diet and exercise to fashion and child-rearing.

She is seemingly unaware of how impractical some of her tips are (with recipes that call for ludicrously esoteric and pricey ingredients, or recommendations for a new spring wardrobe that would cost $500,000), or that many see it as the tasteless flaunting of an extraordinarily privileged life.

More recently, she was slammed for revealing her children's low-carbohydrate diet and for featuring a string bikini for little girls on the site.

But she obviously still has fans.

Paltrow continues to be well regarded as an actress and is periodically cast alongside other A-listers in films such as Steven Soderbergh's Contagion (2011), the television series Glee (2010-2011) and the hit Iron Man films.

Her expanded role in Iron Man 3 is a direct result of fans of the films and comic books lobbying for her character, Pepper Potts, to do more, reveals its star Robert Downey Jr.

"Honestly, you can only get so much fan feedback saying 'I'd like to see Pepper in a suit!' before you do something," he says.

He also appears to be extremely fond of his leading lady, whom he credits with giving the franchise its emotional core because she helps to humanise its protagonist, Tony Stark.

Paltrow, for her part, says she relished the opportunity to kick some butt in the latest film, rather than being relegated to the status of arm candy, as many female characters are in such movies.

"Pepper really comes into her own," she says.

"It's a sort of a new feminist role, in a way. She's really stepping into her power, she's finding her voice, she's on equal footing in her relationship, she's asking that her needs be met as well, and then for fun, she gets all this physical stuff at the end."

Audiences will also see her put on the Iron Man suit for the first time.

The actress has only one moment of hesitation during the press conference and it comes when asked if she would consider playing "Iron Woman", if such a character were to be created for a spin-off.

"Uh... I'm a little old for this," she says, stammering.

"Don't you ever say that," Downey interjects, and for a split second, the actress' suit of armour cracks a little as she smiles gratefully.

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