Gwyneth Paltrow loves British accents except for the way they say ‘pasta’

At this point, I’m not even sure what Gwyneth Paltrow is promoting. Iron Man 3? It’s All Good? Goop? Dunno. But one thing’s for sure: Gwyneth is going to keep talking until we are all nauseated. So, Gwyneth has a new interview in The Guardian. The Guardian is a great newspaper, but they do look down their intellectual noses at Dame Gwyneth and her Goopiness, just as they look down on all celebrities. Their celebrity profiles are usually full of bitchy little asides, but for this Goop piece, they just let Gwyneth’s words do all the work. The whole thing is written in the first person, like Gwyneth gooped out a spectacularly narcissistic essay about herself. You can read the whole thing here, and here are some highlights:

Goop on her father’s peasant roots: “My father was working class and going out to eat was a big deal to him, always. He relished every bite and wanted me to weigh in with opinions. I remember his delight when, aged six, I ate my first oysters and I wish he was alive to feed my kids their first oysters. Because food is so associated with him, since he died I’ve had melancholic associations. It’s very hard for me to make buttermilk pancakes – they’re so specific to him and I get choked up every time. I get really sad he’s not with me when I discover a new restaurant or return somewhere he loved, like Chez L’Ami Louis in Paris.”

I think Goop hates her mother: “Cooking was something my mother felt she had to do rather than loved. She especially hated making breakfast. Yet her eggy pudding, toast, breakfast thing was delicious. It was egg and bread as a sort of soufflé. To be honest, I don’t know what it was.”

Goop loves blood sausage: “I was an exchange student in Spain at 15, staying for a year with a family. My Spanish mother was a delightful cook. She owned a brick factory, a gas station and a store and she’d go run the businesses and come home at lunch and make paella for everyone, then head back to work. I got obsessed with her morcilla, which I found out was pig’s blood sausage but not until way too late.”

Goop on Leonardo DiCaprio: “I hung out with Leonardo DiCaprio when I moved to New York. He was vegetarian and he’d talk about how dirty meat is and how bad factory farming is. I haven’t eaten red meat in 20 years and although Leo’s not totally responsible he definitely planted a seed. When I turned seriously macrobiotic, it coincided with my father having been diagnosed with cancer [in 1999]. I felt I could heal him by proxy.”

Wait, does Gwyneth call eggplants “aubergines”? “I didn’t really start cooking until I quit university to try to be an actress and was working as a hostess in a fish restaurant. At 19 I cooked my worst meal ever. I only had aubergines and a jar of tomato sauce, so I thought I’d make eggplant parmesan but didn’t have a cookbook. I made this hideous mess of bitter, burnt mush. But I served it. We were all starving, so we had no choice.”

She ate a lot during her second pregnancy: “I ate the most when pregnant with my son. I couldn’t stop. I was starving, the whole time. During a good portion of my pregnancies all I wanted was grilled cheese sandwiches, Baskin Robbins Jamoca Almond Fudge ice cream, yoghurt and lots of apples.”

Goop hates the way the English say “pasta”: “I’ve lived in England for 10 years and the accent is the most beautiful in the world, except for how you pronounce pasta as pass-ta instead of pah-sta. I’m sort of joking when I say this but I really don’t want my children speaking that way.”

Chris Martin loves her cooking: “My husband prefers my food to any other – it’s very sweet.”

Living on French fries and cigarettes during her gauche years: “After we moved to NY, I attended Spence school and was allowed out during lunch and free periods and would head with the girls to Jackson Hole, a greasy burger joint which did great tuna melts. We mainly ate french fries there, with coffee and cigarettes – that’s what I subsisted on.”

Eating while working: “Eating while filming a scene is the worst thing, because you have to keep eating the same thing all day long. You’ll notice that most films with food the actors aren’t actually eating, but I try consciously to eat to make it real, but most of the time I’ll spit it out to avoid feeling sick. I’m sure there must have been eating scenes, especially playing a 330lb character in Shallow Hal, but I don’t remember that film well to be honest.”

Goop talks about Oreos again: “All I do is try to eat and cook real food, the way our ancestors would. It’s funny how people react, as if it’s revolutionary that I don’t want my children to eat Oreos, or the English equivalent, every day. I believe in real food, things being delicious, and butter, in minimally processed delicious foods and raw milk cheese and properly raised chicken and line-caught fish. But I’m a realist and I have kids and I love Oreos too, so honestly I’m not rigid at all.”

[From The Guardian]

I had to look up the “Aubergines” thing. Apparently it’s somewhat common in England to refer to eggplants as aubergines. Do you think Gwyneth always refers to them as aubergines, or was that just something extra-special for The Guardian? You’ve gotta love Goop’s little British-isms, and she even manages to look down her nose at the way the English say “pasta”. In Goop’s mind, even the English are too gauche for her. She would never want her children to speak like that. Her children’s accents will be “moneyed”. Not English, not American., not Castilian. They will just have Moneyed Accents.

Photos courtesy of WENN & Fame/Flynet.

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167 Responses to “Gwyneth Paltrow loves British accents except for the way they say ‘pasta’”

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  1. LadyMTL says:

    Good lord, this woman…my bf is a Brit and I’ve honestly never given half a second’s thought to how he pronounces pasta. She must have way too much time on her hands if she’s got her knickers in a twist because of that.

    As for the “honestly I’m not rigid at all”, rofl at that. She’s got such a stick up her butt that she must poop out splinters.

    • ya says:

      Canadians generally pronounce it pass-ta too, I think (I’m Canadian). I never noticed it until a friend of mine, who is American living in Canada, commented on it and also said she was bothered by it!

      As far as her saying aubergines, I lived in the UK for a while, continued to speak with my North American accent, but used British words – otherwise sometimes people would question or joke about what I said and I’d get self conscious. So I’d say lift instead of elevator, flat instead of apartment, aubergines instead of eggplants, courgettes instead of zucchini(edit to change!) etc.

      • Pippa says:

        Yeah, can’t believe I’m saying this but the aubergine thing doesn’t really bother me as much as the rest of the general Goop-iness – I had no idea what an eggplant was until I came across it in an American recipe the other year and I’m pretty sure if you went into a shop here and asked for one you’d get mostly blank looks so I can see why you’d subconsciously slip into saying aubergine if you’d lived here for a while.

      • Kristine says:

        Yes, I’m a Canadian living in America and my SO and friends make fun of the way I say pasta.. along with many other words such as mario, vase, couch, etc. I don’t see it as a big deal though and won’t try changing it.

    • Liszl says:

      Goop has no internal monologue.

    • RocketMerry says:

      Every single English speaking person (American, British, Australian…) gloriously mispronounces Italian words. So what?!

      I never find it annoying, as long as said English speaking people don’t take issue with the way I mispronounce English words. Then it’s every b*tch for itself, and knives out.

      Point being, Goop needs to shut up.

      • txmom says:

        My favorite British pronunciation thang is the famous opera “Don Juan” (say “Don Jew-on”).

    • Glaughy says:

      Same here! My bf is from a small town in northeast England (sans Geordie accent) and I’ve never once noticed the way he pronounces pasta. He actually pronounces relatively it similar to me (Canadian) if I remember correctly. Maybe Londoners say it differently? :/

    • Lulu.T.O. says:

      The best words to hear pronounced with a Brit accent are ‘Jaguar’ and ‘aluminium’. IMO.

      • Kath says:

        I’ve never understood why ‘aluminium’ is pronounced ‘alooominum’ by Americans.

        Also, why do you say ‘math’ for ‘mathematics’ instead of ‘maths’?
        It’s plural! You would never say ‘I’m going to study some mathematic’.

        And don’t even get me started on ‘oregano’ or ‘parmesan’…

      • Laura says:

        I don’t want to get all Goopy on your arse, but Americans just pronounce ‘aluminium’ plain wrong. I just can’t abide by when an American feels it’s weird that ‘aluminium’ is pronounced ‘al-a-min-ee-um’ because that’s how it’s pronounced everywhere else in the world!

      • Leen says:

        Lordy do I hate the way everyone gets all ‘I PRONOUNCE IT THE RIGHT WAY’. It’s why I on purpose adopt an American accent when in england and an english accent in America. Just to wind everyone up.

        The whole tomae-to and to mah-to fiasco annoys me to no end.

      • Summer says:

        There are two spellings: aluminum/aluminium. One is accepted as standard in the United States and one is standard in Great Britain. The pronunciation is a matter of variation, not right or wrong.

  2. Happyhat says:

    If I ever meet her, I’m gonna yell pasta at her.

    “Goop!!! Do you want some passsssss-ta? They’ve got lots of viiiiitamins! If you don’t want them, I’ll put them in the rubbish bin, yeah? What about this attractive varrrrrrse?”

  3. T.Fanty says:

    My husband is from NYC (Queens, not the NYC Gwynnie is from) and also HATES the way I say pasta.

    And high-five to GOOP for name-dropping Jackson Hole. I LOVE that place! God, I’m such a peasant.

    • Birdix says:

      loved Jackson Hole at that age too! And in my 20s it was our go-to for a weekend hangover cure (west side, not ues, like goop though…)

      • cs says:

        I too loved Jackson Hole. I use to go to the one on 35th/3rd ave at least once a week (15 years ago).

    • Crumpets and Crotchshots says:

      Pass-ta always bugged me, as well as the way “herb’ is pronounced over there.

      I had a Scottish friend who always (playfully) corrected me on my pronunciation (“It’s ‘hair-b! Say it right!”) and I had to (playfully) pull out the OED on her:

      You drop the “h” because it is of French origin, like “hour” and “honor.”

      For reasons unknown, the British started pronouncing the “h” sometime in the mid-19th century.

      And only in Scotland does anyone say “Hair-b.” (“I love it girl, but it would sound pretentious for an Upstate NY girl like me to say it that way, no?”)

  4. mkyarwood says:

    I dunno, that kind of bugs me too. It’s how it’s said up here in Canadia, along with PROject (ugh). However, I think it kind of speaks to her total Hamptons New Money Murican thing. It’s only said the ‘posh’ way in the US, along with Mahhhhhhzda. Makes me think of The Millionaire on Gilligan’s Island.

    • Esmom says:

      I’m with you, it’s always sounded jarring to me, too. So many words spoken with a British accent include that “ah” sound, so when one word we as Americans actually do pronounce with the “ah” sound is pronounced differently by a Brit, it sounds really weird to me.

      • Amelia says:

        Haha, I’m just scrolling through examples in my head of how I’d probably (accidentally) irritate the hell out of you.
        Bath. Grass. Example. Last. Past.
        Hmm, I can see a drinking game in there somewhere . . .

      • mkyarwood says:

        I think the difference is, it doesn’t bother me enough to give an interview about it. And I’m always up for a words play drinking game!

      • bluhare says:

        I think there’s nothing wrong with either pronounciations. English tend to put the emphasis on the first syllable, Brits the second. Example, here you’d say BerNARD; in England, you’d say BERnerd.

        You say potato, I say potahto . . . .

        PS Dress ugly; color is DIVINE.

      • LAK says:

        @Bluhare – the first time an American pronounced the following words, i was so confused since the pronounciation was so far removed from any thing i recognised that i couldn’t use context of entire sentence to work out what they were talking about.

        ‘Route’,’Vitamins’,’Iraq’,’Iran’,’schedule’etc

        and then there are different words for different things: Flat = Apartment, Pavement = Sidewalk, trainers = Sneakers, pants = trousers etc

        i really felt like i was learning English anew.

      • bluhare says:

        LAK: I know; my accent has pretty much disappeared, but it comes out periodically in some word pronunciations, and when I’m writing posts about British things. I notice a mish mash of British/American spelling sometimes. But I can translate Britspeak!

  5. Lizzie says:

    She is hilarious.

  6. Eleonor says:

    Yes working class,eating oysters… this woman is so out of the world.

    For the record I am Italian and I don’t give a crap about how people around the world pronounce “pasta”. But probably I am too peasant,and I seriously doubt Goop eats pasta, that thing is full of carbs!

    • V4Real says:

      Yeah that working class eating oysters statement kind of bothered me too. I’m working class and I can afford oysters. I guess her family never heard of Red Lobster; not many millionaires eat there.

      When will her PA tell this woman to STFU; she is trying to come off as likeable but it’s rapidly backfiring on her stripper shaped ass.

    • Carol says:

      I don’t understand your point. Only rich people eat oysters?

      • V4Real says:

        Goop is saying that it was a big deal for her father to give them oysters because he came from a working class family. Basically she is saying that peasants (working class people) shouldn’t be able to afford Oysters. My retort was that I’m working class and I can afford oysters; hasn’t she heard of Red Lobster. Oh I guess rich people don’t eat there.

      • G says:

        Only those “working class” that “return to Chez L’Ami Louis in Paris” Daaaahling. Lol!!

      • Eleonor says:

        I don’t care who can afford oysters (I am a peasant I find oysters disgusting), is Goop the one who’s saying that her father was great because even if he was a working class man managed to give them oysters, that was bothering me.

        @ G: you didn’t write the R, Goop is not happy with you 😀 .

    • Glaughy says:

      Which would GOOP find more horrifying, the fact that i buy canned oysters or the fact that I feed them to my pet rats?

      I’m pretty sure she would not want to be my friend, LOL

  7. RIP Chrissie Amphlett says:

    I’d like to join in the fun with you guys but I just can’t get worked up about her. To me she’s just meh.

  8. Faye says:

    Ah, Goopy. Never change. You are a ray of sunshine and laughter in this cruel world. That isn’t sarcasm, by the way — I’ve reached the point where she’s so ridiculous that she just cracks me up.

    I wonder how this woman doesn’t give herself vertigo wtih the constant contradictions. She won’t give her kids Oreos, but she does. She believes in veganism, the next day she’s into fresh milk and butter. Honestly, it must be so exhausting to be her.

    As for the aubergine thing — my husband is British and I’ve read a lot of English newspapers and magazines. Whenever they interview an American celebrity, there are so many British words and expressions that I think the newspapers must “translate” for their audience. Not that Goopy is above using the word aubergine just for kicks :).

    • JenD says:

      I feel the same way about her – I think it’s amusing to read what she has to say. She’s so out of touch, it’s hilarious.

    • Eve says:

      This.

      She’s so clueless she ends up being involuntarily funny.

    • Esmom says:

      “She won’t give her kids Oreos, but she does. She believes in veganism, the next day she’s into fresh milk and butter.”

      I don’t know why I feel compelled to defend her but I totally get this. I would love to make and serve my kids/family healthy, wholesome meals all the time but sometimes you just give in and pick up processed stuff because you’re tired and it’s easier and the kids have been conditioned to love junk.

      As for the veganism, I can relate, too. I’m a vegetarian and have long thought that a vegan diet would be good for me. But the allure to dairy, especially cheese, is to much for me to resist on most days, lol. Not to mention it’s hard work to avoid all that stuff.

      I’ve said it before, I just don’t find her any more insufferable than most celebs.

    • A says:

      They’re called aubergines in sweden. 🙂

  9. Guesto says:

    Oh my. That’s us told. 🙁

    I won’t eat it again until I learn how to pronounce it properly as a mark of respect to Goops’ pained ears.

  10. kay says:

    in her defence I legit hate the way they say ‘pasta’. every time i hear jamie oliver i just cringe. although it’s not as bad as how some people say gnocchi.

  11. marie says:

    ha ha, so delusional.

  12. Happymom says:

    How working class could her father have been? He graduated from Tulane.

    • Esmom says:

      Scholarship? Financial aid? Jobs? Plenty of working class people go to college, in the hopes of pulling themselves up into a higher income bracket.

      • Happymom says:

        Yes, I get that. But from everything I’ve read about her dad-I don’t think he was “working class”. I think he was a middle class guy from a Jewish family in Brooklyn. To Goop-this classifies as “working class.”

  13. Ellen says:

    OK, so what did Blythe Danner do to her poor daughter, anyway? Because the older Goop gets, the more obvious it becomes that she has serious issues with her mom. Did she think she could only like one parent or the other? Was there a jealousy thing going on? It’s just weird for someone who makes SUCH a big deal about being a Great Mother (TM) to let her disdain for her own mom leak all over everything.

    (If she’d had an actively BAD mom, it would make sense. But what were Danner’s crimes? That she didn’t cook as well as her husband? “I cry making my dad’s buttermilk pancakes still today but I can’t even remember mom’s food.” Goop says nicer things about her Spanish host mother than she does about Danner. Passive aggressive, much? And WEIRD.)

    • Bijlee says:

      Remeber when she called her grandmother a c u next Tuesday, because “she tried vto poison my mother( Blythe) against me.”. Her grandmother knew what this horses butt was.

    • DSS says:

      In my mind I imagine that Blythe Danner calls her on her shit (as does her Grandmother which she has actually stated that she hates in prior interviews). I imagine that her mom is a everything that she is not, (lovely, charming and completely without pretension)

      • e.non says:

        danner is doing a commercial for some supplement these days. ‘break a leg’ … i can’t imagine goop likes that..

  14. Talie says:

    She does seem to have a weird vibe with her mother… always talking about how heavily her father influenced her, she rarely mentions her mom.

    • Zimmer says:

      She has massive food issues too! She is constantly talking about it. An art therapist who worked with anorexic girls once told me that they were obsessed with food in such a way that they literally loved to cook for others, often very fancy meals, and then deny themselves even a morsel. This describes Goop to a tee.

      • Ally8 says:

        ^ This! It’s a way of obsessing about food while not partaking, and sometimes a way of fattening up others while being gloriously abstinent and pure of calories oneself.

    • Bored suburbanhousewife says:

      There is a VERY weird vibe about the way she obsessively bad mouths her mom and obsessively talks about her father in an emotional way years and years after his death. She has some really majorly strange parental issues that probably influence her massively weird obsessiveness about food,and her bowels, and her inability to STFU. The smartest thing she could do would be to STOP TALKING. Stop posing, stop interviewing, become a woman of mystery for God’s sake. The maybe you would get at least a little more respect!

  15. Hubbahun says:

    Aubergines are aubergines. It’s not somewhat common, it’s what aubergines are called here. I wonder if Gwyn would like how we say “shut the fuck up you pretentious cow”?

    • Londerland says:

      Yep, aubergine is just the British name for what Americans call eggplant, same as rocket = arugula and coriander = cilantro. Not a posh affectation (for once).

      Oh, and the British equivalent of an Oreo is…an Oreo. We have them here too, Goop. We even pronounce them the same.

      Why does she insist on acting like England is some fairyland of refinement and taste?!

      • Hoya_chick says:

        Lol! Funny. It’s those weird cultural things I guess. In Jamaica, we call what Americans call an avocado, a pear. There is no such thing as an American pear in Jamaica. It used to be really confusing for me.

        That said she is still up her own ass. I love the posts about her, they crack me up.

      • bluhare says:

        Apparently, she doesn’t read the Daily Mail.

  16. Pixie says:

    Ahhh Goop come up North and we’ll really be able to bug you with how we pronounce pretty much everything, not just pasta!

    • Faye says:

      LOL, Pixie! I’ve had some really great visits up North, and a lot of people were very friendly. However — and I hope I don’t come off sounding ignorant — it took a long time before I was able to understand the accent well. I put that down to my failings, though, not on the Mancunians I met :).

      • Pixie says:

        Haha no offense taken! I’m from Yorkshire and literally nobody from down south can understand me! My flatmate in University was from London and it took her a few weeks to adjust to my accent!

      • bluhare says:

        Pixie: I’ll be in Yorkshire in June. I hope I remember enough from when I lived in England to decipher!

      • Leen says:

        Pixie, I lived in Yorkshire for three years and when I first moved there… oh lord it took me ages to get used to the way people speak there! But I got used to it and now I say somethings in a yorkshire accent like throw!

    • Guesto says:

      @Pixie – wouldn’t that make brilliant tv though? Goopy on Tyneside or in Yorkshire for a month on a mission to educate the masses, with the locals ripping the piss out of her and Goopy, while not understanding a word, assuming (of course) that they were lavishing praise on her! That I’d watch! 🙂

      • Amelia says:

        Oh my God, I’m imagining Goop watching Corrie with her hands firmly planted over her ears.
        “Take it away! TAKE IT AWAY!!! Oh, those poor peasanty dears, I must teach them how to speak!”
        Cue Goop’s book on Goopy elocution.

      • Pixie says:

        Currently at University in Newcastle- would LOVE for the Goop to come up here on a Saturday night and try educate the locals! Would be priceless just to see the look of sheer terror on her face!

      • Faye says:

        I would literally pay to see this. They could have Gwyneth whip up some organic bar snacks and stop by one of the local pubs to interact with/lecture the bar patrons. It would be genius!

      • c'est la vie says:

        I would pay to see that too. On pay per view. Too bad the goop hasn’t done a reality or better yet cooking show, btw.

    • pf says:

      Has Gwyneth ever left London? I would love to see her plopped somewhere up North. But her talk of the UK shows she is still very much an outsider…who cares about pronunciations? She should be acclimated by now, that it’s no big deal how people say the words pasta, progress, issue, etc. And I also agree she has a messed up relationship with her mother.

      • Faye says:

        Years ago, back when she was still friends with Madonna (and Madonna was still married), I remember reading an article where she talked about the lovely “country house party weekends” she attended with Madonna. So she has gotten out of London. Probably not much farther than the Cotswolds, though.

      • Ally8 says:

        Oh sure, Madonna’s reenactment of Gosford Park hardly qualifies a reality tour of rural England.

  17. ruby says:

    My mother is british and she says “aubergine”. It’s a completely normal thing here, nothing uppity or affected.

    As for “pasta”, well I don’t care, I think it’s perfectly fine the way we say it. In my opinion it’s better to stick with the accent you learned as a child than to fake a posh accent. At least that way you’re genuine. *side-eye at Kate Middleton*

    • Lulu.T.O. says:

      @Ruby, I don’t know if you’ve ever been immersed in another accent, but it’s impossible not to start picking it up unintentionally. Or as the people who you are foreign too see it, ‘ lose’ your native accent.

      • ruby says:

        Actually, I have 🙂 But that’s a whole different can of worms, because in that case it’s unconscious and in no way affected.

        What I was talking about in my comment was people that purposefully modify their accent to convey a different social background for example.

  18. DailyNightly says:

    I’d love to see her correct Gordon Ramsay on how he say’s pasta. No doubt she would end up in the rubbish bin.

  19. Miss M says:

    I find Goop’s interviews so entertaining, hahahaha. I cannot stop laughing. Love me some Goop.

  20. Dangerfox says:

    I’m not 100% on this but I think a lot of British mags will switch up what people say in interviews to make it sound better to the common British reader. I read a lot of Daily Mail and notice they will take interviews with American celebs and replace “mom” or “mother” with “mum.” And I really doubt some of those celebs will switch like that and say “mum.” Maybe that’s what they did with aubergine?

    Although I wouldn’t put it past the Goop to use the word. Just giving her the benefit of the doubt.

  21. embertine says:

    We also say courgette instead of zucchini, and it’s neither pretentious nor common, it’s just what we call them.

    If she hates Britishisms so very much, she is more than welcome to f*** off back to where she came from.

  22. Roberta says:

    Aubergine stems from a 19thC fashion for Brits to use French names for veg. I only found this out recently when I had to keep looking up what zucchini was (courgette in Brit English) so that is what we call it over here. Personally I think eggplant sounds a bit strange.

    • Ally8 says:

      I know, “eggplant” sounds daft to me, too. That said, both “eggplant” and “aubergine” are also used to refer to that unique deep purple color.

      I’m also a “courgette” not a “zucchini” person all the way. So French not Italian/Anglo, then!

  23. MisJes says:

    Just shut up Goop.

  24. LAK says:

    Just a thought. When GOOP first came to Britain during the Ben/Brad years, she hated it and kept making negative comments about us and our ways.

    Once she snagged an Englishman, she changed her tune.

    Now chinese whispers are everywhere that the marriage is on the rocks and the move to CA may be permanent, she’s back to trashing us again.

    • Devon says:

      It could also be that since she’s lived here for so long, the UK has grown on her.

      I’ve only lived in the UK for 8 months and while I HATED my life at first, there are lots of things I’d miss if I were to go back to the North America and at this point, I’d regret moving back.

    • Ally8 says:

      Madonna got super snooty and famously faux-British, too. Then scampered off to New York and slagging off British men when things didn’t work out with her gent.

  25. Jen says:

    Sit DOWN, you pretentious ass. And our ancestors ate meat, you jackwagon.

  26. Rose says:

    If you asked for an ‘eggplant’ here in a supermarket they wouldn’t know what you’re talking about, it’s aubergines all the way.

    • SydneySpy says:

      Hehehe… I live in Australia, and it’s so multicultural that Aussies call it “eggplant”, but Europeans call it “aubergine”. Same with courgettes/zucchini.(By the way, “zucchini” is the plural of “zucchino”, which is the diminutive form of “zucca” – pumpkin.). It’s no big deal here; both names are interchangeable. Mind you, if I buy either one at the supermarket (which I try not to do) the young chevkout person usually asks me what they are, anyway. I love the way my dear English friends pronounce their words.

  27. workdog says:

    “I’m sure there must have been eating scenes, especially playing a 330lb character in Shallow Hal, but I don’t remember that film well to be honest.”

    Because the gist of that movie was about seeing someone for who they are, not what they look like, which, apparently, according your thought process, came from eating too much. You don’t remember because you can’t relate and your mind just doesn’t go there. She really is out of touch and is oblivious to her remarks and the insidiousness of their potential impact. Thank gawd she’s no beacon of guidance for me….I can’t afford her “essentials” nor her pompous airs…and I think my life might just be happier than hers, peasanty as it is.

    Sheesh…and her mother is a lovely woman, as far I have seen.

    Gwyennie, dahling, please hush up. Thx!

    eta: Puh-leese on the starving artist working as a hostess! She really needs those colonics as she’s so full of shit it has to be released on the regular or gawd help us all with potential explosion. Actually her mouth is in a constant state of verbal diarrhea so there is that…

    Sorry for the rant and normally I could care less but geezo she’s annoying lately!

    • Manchurian Global says:

      I’m glad I wasn’t the first person to notice the “Shallow Hal” comment! I think it definitely has to do with the plot, as you mentioned, but more so that she a) had to wear a fat suit (oh, the horrors!), and b) she probably thought she was slumming it by being in a Farrelly Brothers film.

      Can’t. Stand. Her.

  28. grabbyhands says:

    I wonder if she’s aware that she managed to basically insult an entire country in one sentence.

  29. lucy2 says:

    Wow, she really is FOOD OBSESSED. And it looks like so much of it stems back to her father. No joking around, I think she needs some intensive therapy or something.

  30. GreenieWeenie says:

    oh, I don’t know. I think Americans get way too hung up on language and accents. Actually, I remember when I first moved to the states, I thought the American way of saying “pahsta” was SO faux snobby. I hated it. You can have kind of a visceral reaction to certain sounds and for whatever reason, that was mine.

    The word aubergine is quite common in British/Australian cookbooks and it’s French as well…since I speak French, I often overlap these words in English too. Gwyneth speaks some Spanish/French/Italian…I wouldn’t see this as the height of snobbiness. More like, just something rather common for a polyglot. And I think Americans find the notion of a polyglot intimidating/awe-inspiring when it’s really neither…it’s just kind of a necessary reality for a lot of people.

    While I completely get the eyerolliness of Goop and her cookbooks, I think Gwyneth is the recipient of plenty of American insecurities. I remember when everyone flipped over her faux-Brit accent…but I think when you’ve studied several languages, you learn to listen closely and you do pick up accents almost unconsciously. I’ve not found her half as pretentious or annoying as Madonna. Entitled and oblivious, sure, but not because she uses words like ‘aubergine.’

    • Millie says:

      I totally agree. I’m from New York but live in London and adapting one’s vocabulary is sometimes unconscious but more often necessary in order to be properly understood. My favorite example is how I now say trousers instead of pants because pants in the UK means underpants/panties, and if you forget to say trousers the looks you get are absolutely bizarre. So Gwynnie gets the benefit of the doubt on this one, but regardless, why on earth is having an expansive vocabulary the kind of thing we criticize?

      • Devon says:

        Definitely. Part of living in a new country is picking up and learning a new vocabulary. I’ve definitely had to change how I speak now that I live in Edinburgh. So much so that sometimes when I’m talking to my mum she’s got no clue what I’m on about. I think I epically confused her when I started talking about my husband boking and how minging it was!

  31. anneesezz says:

    “I didn’t really start cooking until I quit university to try to be an actress and was working as a hostess in a fish restaurant.” B*tch Please. First of all, no one in the states refers to college as “university.” Secondly, are we really supposed to believe she had to work as a hostess somewhere like some starving artist when she was “trying to be an actress.” Wasn’t it pretty much “Dad, can you tell Uncle Stevie Spielberg I want to be in movies.” Maybe her mom wanted her to pay her dues and that’s why she hates her so much.

    P.S. Let me know when she becomes an actress. She is awful.

    • BooBooLaRue says:

      Spot on!

    • qwerty says:

      Guardian is a British newspaper, so I think it’s only naturally for Gwyneth to use the local vernacular. After all, she has lived there over the last few years…

      On her use of Britishisms, I can’t be too critical of her.

      • anneesezz says:

        I’ll give you the part about “university” but not the part about working as a hostess. No one believes this woman ever had to work an honest job a day in her life. She didn’t work her way to the top. Her dad was a producer and that’s why she is where she is, period. I’ll say it again: She was born on third base and thinks she hit a triple.

    • poppy says:

      you are so right.
      i’ll go as far to say that she can’t stand her mom. mom has loose lips and has contradicted her daughter a few times in interviews, like the whole botox is ok but angelina balloon lips are not comment.
      as soon as blythe started working in nyc (i think she sold her santa monica condo as well) again, goop bought a house in LA and is planning on spending more time there.

      her mom FORCED her to go to college. mommy and daddy pulled favors to get her into college because her grades were horrible. she never made it on her own in any way.

      she did wait tables at the santa monica airport briefly (the restaurants are fancy there) but someone else got her a job there. probably to downplay the spielberg connection/nepotism card. people don’t like or respect people that get by on connections as opposed to talent. goop’s only hardship there was in serving people just like her.

      i think her mom, like the rest of the world that doesn’t receive a goop paycheck, sees how awful her daughter comes across and has tried to do some light damage control after telling her daughter straight and not getting anywhere. i think that infuriates goop. she probably sent her own mother cease and desist letters re the ice cream she got in trouble for giving apple and moses that one time…

      sorry about the novella. the dynamics between goop and her parents is strange and fascinating.

    • DIANE says:

      I looked it up. She did ‘one semester’ at UC Santa Barbara…a party school for rich kids. Right up the Pacific Coast Highway from L.A. She hasn’t lived one day on this earth without a multi-million dollar safety net.

  32. erika says:

    argghh….she hates the way they say ‘pasta’ cuz it sounds like ‘paaaa-sta’ like aaaaaple, aaaanswer…

    she must consult Queen E about this catastrophe!

    I recall the early days 99′ after she filmed Emma and she was donning a british accent in real life. that is the uber pretentious way! just cuz a british accent always makes someone sound more intelligent.

    • GreenieWeenie says:

      ooh, you just made my point for me. This is what a lot of Americans think. They feel insecure, so they freak out over her use of British words, etc.

      I live in a UK expat neighborhood and I just find British accents annoying as hell. My neighbors never stfu and there’s nothing intelligent-sounding about the way they’re saying it. So I don’t have this insecurity, which means I don’t find her pretentious!

      • Guesto says:

        @GreenieWeenie – “ooh, you just made my point for me. This is what a lot of Americans think. They feel insecure, so they freak out over her use of British words.”

        Ok, I’m not American, but do you really think that accounts for it? Really?! For me, it’s not what she says (in whatever language) that makes her so annoying, it’s the pretentious, self-reverential attitude behind it.

        “I live in a UK expat neighborhood and I just find British accents annoying as hell.”

        What? All of them?! Above kind of sounds like a bit of a tit-for-tat response to get even with the anti Goops. 😉

      • lucy2 says:

        Yeah, I think it’s less about Americans’ insecurities and more about Americans’ low tolerance for over privileged bullshit. At least in my case it is.

      • Greenieweenie says:

        I do about the accent part. I definitely think a lot of Americans attach all these connotations to British accents, like, so posh! So smart! So whatever! So when they see someone as putting it on, they assume the intent is to be pretentious.

        Yes, ALL my neighbors are UK expats and I swear, that accent grates on my nerves now. I have loads of negative connotations to attach to it, so if I heard someone putting it on I think I’d just be like…eh, why on earth….

      • Greenieweenie says:

        I will also say this, even tho her French isn’t very good, her accent is great. I’ve never heard an American with ability that low speak so well. And I think that attests to her ability to listen closely and mimic. So there’s that.

        As to the content of what she says, well, that speaks for itself.

    • Happyhat says:

      Five minutes of watching ‘The Only Way is Essex’ will demonstrate that British accents are not always that great-sounding!

  33. mar says:

    IM OVER HER!!!!

  34. erika says:

    damn! she blows the pretentious meter off the hook!

    “I shall not allow my brood to speaketh the ‘p’ word. Tis not a folly allowed in our humble abode. Oh! How terribly gauche of me, my humblest apologies but I prefer the term ‘aubergine’ tis the British term for eggplant as well as ‘creme fraiche’ is for sour cream (I do abhore the word ‘sour’ it sounds so nasal and blue collar like). What a guttural folly tis’ (note: humour w/ an ‘oUr’ tis the Shakespearn path I devotedly follow!)that both these terms are actually en Francais! Oh! Oh, oh, oh…tis a rambunctious irony!!!”

  35. Feebee says:

    What a load of bollocks. I know some Brits who pronounce it pah-sta, which is how as a Kiwi I pronounce it. I mean sure some some use a short a but….. but…. arrrrgh, she’s just so annoying. Can’t she worry about something real like getting Americans to pronounce the ‘h’ in herb so they don’t sound like French people struggling to say an english word. They don’t use the French pronunciation to say Notre Dame and isn’t that actually French??

    Does she piss off her friend Stella McCartney when she mispronounces (sorry, uses the American) adidas?

    I should do as some of you sensible people do and just zone this woman out….

  36. Jacqueline says:

    “I’m not rigid at all” *cough*bullshit*cough*
    She is SO not rigid that sometimes she just puts the kids to bed hungry.

  37. spitfire says:

    That is why she is the most hated celebrity, people. Just sayin😬

  38. poppy says:

    she hasn’t eaten beef in 20 years and won’t eat pork but she and her husband LOVE sweetbreads!!?!?!
    she has mentioned their love of sweetbreads a couple of times.
    sweetbreads are cow or pig glands. beef and pork.

    she is too stupid to realize how stupid she is?

    sort of like how she and her husband bitched about the paps but then let them know she would be seeing a doctor about her first pregnancy so they could get a piece of the $$$$$ of the so fake pictures of him kissing her belly? notice they didn’t sue the pap that wrote the book which revealed that “secret”.

    goop has beat me. i love to “hate” her but i am worn out. the phoniness, the sheer stupidity of her words and actions, the immense amount of coverage she is getting… it isn’t even may yet.

    • Bird says:

      I believe they had her brother’s girlfriend take those pictures and the money went to them. I guess they figured it was a way to give her brother and his girlfriend some money and also take control of the situation. I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same thing.

      • poppy says:

        unless taryn simon (the brother’s wife and photographer you refer to) changed her name to val malone she didn’t take those pictures.
        there was a great book about the paparazzi in the mid 00s and one of the more interesting stories was about goop, martin, and the set up of those pictures. they didn’t sue because it was only the truth.

        paltry is a fake and one of the worst fakes.

  39. shw says:

    I haven’t read this yet, but if I ever see the Goop. You have my word that I will follow her around saying ‘Pasta’ in a variety of regional UK accents until her head explodes 😉

  40. The Original G says:

    Pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,
    pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,
    pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,
    pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,
    pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,
    pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,
    pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,
    pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,pass-ta,
    pass-ta!

  41. Rita says:

    When I’m in New York City I use my heaviest and deepest redneck accent….that way they think I’m from Brooklyn.

    • LadyL says:

      Get real . Based on that statement, I’d conclude you are “from” neither.

      Brooklyn born and living in Manhattan. And thankfully not bougie Brooklyn.

  42. JL says:

    Since she doesn’t eat Pasta, why does she care.

    Actually I don’t care a rats ARSE what she likes….

  43. Thiajoka says:

    Did she just do a damn with faint praise thing by gushing on about the British accent as being wonderful except for the way they say ‘pasta’ but then ending with she doesn’t want her children talking with that accent? Is that what she meant or did I read it wrong? Isn’t their father British and aren’t they living in Great Britain? Yet she wants them to what? Talk how?

  44. s says:

    I have an american friend that has an accent with some british affectations and the only thing I mind is the way she says pass-ta. ugh. I am not with gwen on anything, but I’m with her on this, apparently.

    • Trek Girl says:

      Yeah, I’m not a fan of how they say “pasta” either.

      Don’t even get me started on how many of them say “fill-it” instead of “Filet”. I cannot stand it.

  45. Andrea says:

    A question, if brits call eggplant aubergines… would you call it aubergine pasta too, and not eggplant parm as goop did here?

    • Chutzpah says:

      We call it Aubergine Parm…and im sorry but eggplant is just a freakish word – there that’s my chanelling of Goop for the day!

      • Andrea says:

        Its interesting to me that she used both in the same sentence! As an aside it took me only until recently that cilantro was coriander!

        I also find it interesting how many americans on here are saying how they hate how canadians and bristish people pronuce certain words…lol.

  46. Love says:

    I like Gwyneth, I think she is honest maybe too honest for the masses and she says exactly how she feels. She has a nice family who loves and support her. I don’t get worked up over everything or anything she says, and I don’t find her pretentious, or smug. I know I am in the minority, but I don’t get the hate.

    I find it funny that people who can’t stand her hang on to Every Word she says. Why? Does what she say effect you or your life in any way? And if so, you need help. She is living her life to the fullest, and doing the things she want to do, we are just behind the computer commenting on her life. She’s Living her life.
    Go Figure

  47. anon says:

    I still don’t understand how beyonce is friends with this bitch. it is only because of their husbands!

    She always aligns herself with someone popular but it’s weird bc they don’t stay friends.

    When’s the last time you saw her with madonna? Or courtney love? Or may rudolph?

  48. videli says:

    I’ll shamefully be Team Goop on this one.I cringe when I hear pass-ta. Worse still, tacos pronounced as tack-os. But other way, make them good, and I’ll eat them.

  49. Georgina says:

    I’m American and have used aubergine my entire life. I’ll hate on Goop for a lot of things (her constant diet flip-flops, say), but this isn’t one of them.

  50. Emily says:

    I sometimes believe celebs more often say something this preposterous just to look funny or smart.
    But it would take a genius to understand what she really wanted to tell by this.
    And what in the World is “moneyed” accent?

    • DSS says:

      I always thought it was a “stiff jawed, taking through clenched teeth” ala Thurston Howell III or Jackie O

  51. Meg says:

    she acts like losing her father is so much more of a bigger deal to her than anyone else who loses a father. people’s fathers die everyday-sadly. why is you losing your father so much of a bigger deal than other people’s? because your’e better than everyone? this is why i hate her! people lose their parents everyday-sadly-they don’t still talk this way how many years later like it was so much more awful how he died than what others go with. they knew he was dying, they had a chance to say goodbye. people die in car accidents everyday and loved ones don’t get to say goodbye, but her dad dying is so much more of a bigger deal because its her! oh and she did this: i thought this would be so beneath her, only us peasants would do this right?
    http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/gwyneth-paltrow-cups-lee-macks-1841189

    • Lulu.T.O. says:

      She doesn’t seem to be able to move on, does she? Food and her father, who is now dead, are her favorite subjects. After GOOP (that is).

  52. Anna says:

    If I ate what Goop calls ‘real food’ the bathroom would become my home away from home. Being lactose intolerant I am put off by her insistance on dairy.

    What about that dress? It is hideous. ugh. The sleeves look like someone went at her with scissors on the runway.

  53. Sarah says:

    I hate the way americans pronounce herb. That is all.

  54. Manchurian Global says:

    Sometimes I wonder if she likes being “most hated”. She seems like she has gotten even MORE annoying since she won that title.

  55. Laurie says:

    I lived in England myself in 2005 and 2006, so this may be the ONE thing I can’t bust Gwyneth’s chops for. I adore British accents and quickly learned to differentiate between the different ones (and they are very different). “Pass-ta” always bugged me too, as did “tack-o” instead of “tah-co” (taco) and “Kee-bab” instead of “keh-bob” (kebab). Definitely familiar with aubergine instead of eggplant, as well as swedes instead of rutabega.

  56. Thiajoka says:

    I think Goop’s publicist needs to pull back on these sort of interviews–it’s fueling the general dislike of her. I’d say keep the interviews specifically about her project–but of course, with her self-help and cooking thing this leads her into this sort of ‘generalities’ territory and it comes across as pontificating about any and every thing that happens to cross her mind. She also tends to contradict herself too much, sometimes in the same interview. I suspect she’s a lot more insecure than most.

  57. LadyL says:

    She is such a wannabe where ever she lives. She barely spent time in New York. She’s a SoCal girl. She’d love everyone to think she’s a sophisticated urbane New Yorker. She’s not.

    Depending on the quote she’s a master of the Spanish language. When she was exposed for making some unflattering remarks about her home country all of a sudden her language skills were rusty.

    Give it up Gwynnie. That you proudly bragged about cutting out of high school and couldn’t cut it at a bottom barrel school in the UC system SHOWS. Shut up and read something. Your adopted home has given rise to some of the greatest authors in the world. Put down the spoon and give them a glance.

  58. loira says:

    So much for her love of languages.
    I love languages and I respect the wa others speak. She chose the UK in more ways than one, her husband, her home and the place to rear her children.

    I try not to dislike her,but she really wants me to. Shame that she is in Ironman I cannot avoid see all those RDJ movies. The lone product I would buy from the Goopster
    I bet he laughs a lot when in her company. FOR REAL.
    She is so unintentionally hilarious, but at the same time it is too much to think that she really believes all that. So annoying.

  59. Freckles says:

    Err… I’m a Brit who spent 4 years living in Italy and we pronounce pasta the way the Italians do. Pass-ta not parsta. Have the Italians got it wrong as well? Or perhaps pasta originated in America…

    • Lulu.T.O. says:

      We don’t say parsta, that’s fo sho!

      • Freckles says:

        Ok, I misspelt the American mispronunciation of pasta. This doesn’t change the fact that it’s an italian word pronounced pass-ta so surely the American pronunciation is wrong.

      • Freckles says:

        Ok, I misspelt the American mispronunciation of pasta. This doesn’t change the fact that the Brits use the Italian pronunciation of an Italian word. So are the Italians getting it wrong as well?

  60. ramona says:

    Yep – I’ve lived in London for 8 years now, and I, too, say aubergines, courgettes, and when I come home to the States I get dozens of other things pointed out to me.

    I, too, hate the PASS-ta thing.

    I hate agreeing with Gwyneth.

  61. mal says:

    This is funny because I hate the way Americans pronounce pasta as ‘pah-sta’. It is such an American thing to me.

    • SydneySpy says:

      In an attempt to clarify:

      Some Brits say “pass-ta”, (as in “ass”)
      Americans say “pahs-ta”
      and
      We Italians say “pus-ta”.

      Hope this helps…

  62. loira says:

    After seeing what perfectionist Beyonce is doing to give only perfect photos of her in the Mrs Carter tour, I canstand her friendhip with Goop they have both their heads up their own a***s.
    Totally removed from real life and narcisistic to the t!

  63. Mia says:

    Lol. I personally loved the pasta statement. It is horrible! And it’s great because the accent IS beautiful and then there is just this one horrible word.

  64. SydneySpy says:

    Oh, you Poms! I’m a terrible, terrible candidate for travelling. Cannot even get myself to into the centre of Sydney without a drama….but one place I have always wanted to visit is England. I have the most lovely, lovely friends from Leicester, Isle of Wight , Manchester and other areas. What a dream, as I have always adored everything British. I’ve always had a good ear for speech, so have no problem with any accents. I love the way people from everywhere speak. But….. As a hopeless, scatterbrained organiser and committed procrastinator, maybe I’ll never get there,.. I’m such a coward… Thanks for a most entertaining read on here, everyone, cuz I really needed cheering up today. xx

  65. Payal says:

    All I got from this article is that Leo dicaprio is a weirdo.

  66. Jane says:

    “Apparently it’s somewhat common in England to refer to eggplants as aubergines” – I think you’ll find no one calls them eggplants. Vile anyway, bleugh.