CANNES -- Gwyneth Paltrow is back in Hollywood, as well as in Cannes and on stage in New York, and now she is surprised she was not forgotten.

"I really did not know if there would be a place for me anymore," Paltrow said yesterday as her James Gray drama, Two Lovers, made its world premiere in Cannes competition.

Paltrow had taken a couple of years off in her film career.

Paltrow, responding to a Jodie Foster warning about how quickly Hollywood discards people, said, "Jodie Foster is right. Especially if you're a woman and not 25. Hollywood is pretty cutthroat and everybody's got a short memory and there's always somebody younger or hotter or prettier or whatever.

"I was very realistic about the fact that there might not be any more room for me. I definitely knew that I had lost my place when I left.

"But I was hopeful that, if I wanted to do good work, maybe the right thing would find me because I really felt that I had something to say again. And I was very lucky."

Paltrow ended up in Iron Man, a summer hit with Robert Downey Jr., and Two Lovers, an arthouse romance with Joaquin Phoenix, "two parts I really loved in two films that I really loved, even though they are very different."

The bonus is the chance to be back with Downey in the forthcoming Iron Man sequel after working with Phoenix, Paltrow said. "To get to work with men of that calibre is incredibly inspiring. So I just feel so lucky that people wanted me to come back and work. I feel very grateful."

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