A quick Guinness for Gwyneth

After mastering the scruffy urban-chic look, Gwyneth Paltrow shows she has acquired another London taste - for the swift half in the pub.

Last night she ignored a host of designer bars while on a break from rehearsing for her West End debut at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden.

She slipped into The Crown and Seven Dials, a traditional pub, for a glass of Guinness with actor Richard Coyle, who co-stars in the play Proof. Miss Paltrow, 29, said: "Everything is great at the moment, the rehearsals are going really well. I'm just taking a quick break and a quiet drink."

One onlooker said: "She seemed to fit in with the rest of the crowd and didn't stand out at all as a Hollywood actress." Miss Paltrow may have appeared relaxed, but tomorrow she faces a host of British critics when she makes her first appearance in Proof.