Growing Up Gretzky: Paulina's 2005 Cover Story

For Paulina, The Dream is multipronged. “I want to be a triple threat. I want to get into everything: singing, acting, modeling. I love it all,” she says excitedly. She takes lessons in singing, piano, jazz and Pilates and is spending the summer getting ahead in her schoolwork. She has shot scenes for Alpha Dog, an upcoming Nick Cassavetes movie starring Justin Timberlake and Bruce Willis; in 2003, she sang Sarah McLachlan’s “I Will Remember You” in front of 57,000 people at Edmonton’s Heritage Classic Weekend; and she sang the Canadian national anthem before the semifinal game between the Czech Republic and Canada during the World Cup of Hockey 2004 in Toronto.

The first round of shots are in the can and it’s lunchtime. Her parents are running a little late (they’re here for a family portrait and for moral support). “That’s my parents; they’re always late,” she says as she nibbles on a skewer of organic grilled tofu. Minutes later, Wayne and Janet saunter in with four-year-old son Tristan in tow; he’s clinging to his dad’s pant leg like a scared monkey. Paulina greets her parents, suddenly a bit shy and inhibited—the way all teens are when their folks crash their party. She relaxes into a little-kid slouch and starts to eat a chocolate-chip cookie. Her dad musses her hair affectionately and she brushes his hand away to smooth it out.