Gwyneth Paltrow is keen to avoid controversy after posing almost nude for Britain's GQ magazine - insisting the cover shot is harmless, and she was not completely naked.

The actress poses seductively in a bedsheet - similar to the Vanity Fair Miley Cyrus photo which landed the 15-year-old in trouble at the beginning of May.

But Paltrow states she isn't trying to court controversy with the new photo, insisting it's just an innocent shot.

The mother-of-two says: "I'm not going out without my knickers, and I'm not getting drunk and I'm not on my eighth husband (but) sometimes they (the media) have to drum up a lot of controversy over nothing."