There actually has been a lot of Gwyneth Paltrow news over the past month, but I was sort of ignoring her for some reason. Sometimes I don’t even know why I do that, I’m just not “feeling” a certain celebrity for a time. Most of the news was boring too – Gwyneth is launching a Goop fashion line, she said a lot of words about Goop, etc. Anyway, Gwyneth has a new interview with Lena Dunham’s Lenny site/newsletter. This is (I think) Lena’s first big interview since the crazypants shambolic interview she did with Amy Schumer. For this Gwyneth piece, Lena dialed down her antics a bit and let Gwyneth be Gwyneth. The result is… okay? You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
She doubted herself in Goop’s early days: “I think I would have been absolutely stumped if you asked me “Why are you doing this?” in 2008. I wouldn’t have been able to tell you why, and there have been many times over the years that I’ve been doing that, that I’m like, “Why am I doing this? This is totally excruciating and unrewarding, and really painful, and everyone hates it and hates me.”
Goop regrets: “When I started, I was so earnest. Sometimes I’ll see an early incarnation of a page, and I’ll read something I wrote, and I’m just like, “Oh my God.” I had to learn as I went. You don’t appeal to as broad of a range of people when you’re that earnest. You have to be a little bit more savvy about how you communicate. It doesn’t mean that I’m not still me, but …”
Men aren’t told to ‘stay in their lane’: “Of course they’re not. They’re not asking Ryan Murphy that, and he has more irons in the fire than anyone. Everybody wants you in the caricature of you if you’re a woman. You’re supposed to be this and I’m supposed to be that. If you start to cast that off, it makes people very uncomfortable, especially if they’re projecting a lot onto you and they identify with you. It’s threatening to men to have women who are capable of doing so many things and doing them well. I don’t think it’s consciously threatening and I don’t think it’s all men, but it really challenges the status quo and how people relate to us. Because I was the first one of this generation to do this kind of thing, I got a lot of sh-t for it. I sort of welcomed it. Now I’m like, this is why I’m on earth. This is part of my journey, and I’m here to be this person, and that’s OK. I was genuinely surprised at the vitriol. I mean, honestly, I sent this nothing issue from my kitchen that had a recipe and two things in it, or maybe it was just a recipe. I don’t even remember. It had nothing in it, and the New York Times wrote maybe a four-page article. It’s unbelievable. The response was totally bananas.
The overreaction she gets to what she’s written about: “Originally it would take me by surprise so much when we would publish something and there was a huge reaction to it. I was so perplexed by it a lot of the time. Now, it’s pattern recognition. I can tell you, for the most part, what people are going to think about X, Y, and Z. It’s strange to also make that transition from “Oh no, oh no” to “I don’t f–king care.” I’m very unapologetic about it. I really believe in what I’m doing, and I really love what we’re doing, and I love the product we sell. I think it behooves people sometimes to make assumptions or whatever, but we’re really just trying to provide the best product and information.”
The thing about is, I never felt like Gwyneth should “stay in her lane.” In Goop’s early days, I understood what she was trying to do, which was branch out into lifestyle branding and push her aspirational lifestyle, like a posh Martha Stewart. People weren’t mad at Gwyneth for simply creating Goop. Some of us were mad about Gwyneth’s version of aspirational lifestyle, the fact that she would recommend spending $100,000 on a new seasonal wardrobe, or that she couldn’t decide which terrible fad diet was truly the best, or that for an entire year, she seemingly wrote about juice fasts once a month. As for men being threatened by the success of a woman… yes, that’s true in a general sense. But did that happen in this particular case? I’m really asking.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I would be surprise if more than 7 men world wide even know about it.
LOL
Lol,the only reason my husband knows of it is because I laugh about it. He calls her ostentatious.
She maybe means the men she knows and runs into/ deals with or are in her circle be in personal life or business .. men in general are threatened by a females success but they don’t go around thinking or saying that about women they don’t know..but those she knows or deals with? I for sure say yes they are.
I suspect the men she runs into in business circles probably think are steam-cleaning ideas for the nether regions are weird. Women find her ideas strange — why wouldn’t men? (other than maybe Dr. Oz).
In general, some men are threatened by successful women in business. But in this case, I think even those “some men” genuinely think her ideas are off the wall.
I would think the men in her circles are probably pretty successful themselves. If she’s interacting with producers, jet-setting aristocrats, lead singers for internationally known pop bands, etc., I doubt they’re threatened by her lifestyle blog.
And five of the seven men are gay.
Lmao
Ha! Ha! With Goop it’s not a man thing, everyone world wide is threatened by her success! She is Queen of the World and she did it all BY HERSELF with no one to help her and no privileged background!
She looks better without makeup.
She has a great smile and can look so ingratiating. Of course, she can also be so…grating. I like that she looks her age, and that’s just dandy.
I know, she has such youthful facial expressions! I mean she looks younger than her age to me not because her skin or hair or whatever but because she has the mimic of a 25 years old. Of course, this makes everything on Goop superfluous..
I guess but for someone who takes great pains to recommend the latest and greatest for hair, skin and body …she always looks so dry, brittle and unhealthy.
Her skin always looks so deep red and painful. Just seeing it makes me wanna go and slap on some sunscreen!!
To me, the very restrictive eating would have to be a turn off for most people, right? Who wants to deal with that? And, like, the obsessive cleaning. I think I read once that she wouldn’t even use the toilet paper that was in the bathroom of a public place, like people lick toilet paper and roll it back up or something (if it was sitting on the floor and it was a gas station, ok, but it was a rented house, which I’m sure was far nicer than any place I’ve ever had at the beach!) She seems like a control freak weirdo, so I can see why people, and men particularly, wouldn’t like her
Yep. It would irritate me to be friends with someone so high maintenance and self-absorbed. And, IDK, but just the fact of saying men are threatened by your awesomeness seems to speak for itself.
I feel threatened by her huge ego and yellow hair
She’s so obtuse that i wonder how she is so successful.
I’m sure having famous, well respected parents didn’t hurt, though I’m honestly not sure what she’s still famous for. If it wasn’t for this site, I would only know her as a former it girl who now has a tiny role in a comic book franchise.
I was ok with it until she said she was the first of her generation to do this–that’s like Al Gore and the Internet level boasting. And then the delusions of grandeur took over.
I actually think many of the topics she covers are intriguing, particularly in terms of parenting, but I’m always disappointed in the delivery. She can find “experts” but the information provided is always magazine-level simple/unsatisfying.
That was the point at which I lost it, too! I don’t read Goop so I can’t comment on the content, except what I’ve read about here. Although I don’t think I’d expect much depth from the articles, simply because the majority of typical readers actually don’t want more. Or at least that’s the excuse she can use!
Same here. She even sounded reasonable there for a tick and then she veered off into narcissist land. I don’t dislike her, but she is just like my mother a narcissist through and though. They interpret the world and any negative backlash as others being too simple to understand or jealousy. That’s it, if you don’t like her you are jealous or simple. It’s exhausting.
And all of her “experts” lean the same way on every subject. Goop doesn’t go in-depth on anything — just brushes the surface with testimony/advice from people who are already convinced that what they’re doing/talking about works. It makes for very superficial and boring content.
I may have missed it but with all this Jen A ..silliness of ‘reuniting’ with Brad and giving Mr T the ‘old heave ho’..that is the push..No one has mentioned that romance of the decade before that..GOOPY and Brad..Can you imagine that reuniting..At least they had cute hair back then!!!
Not sure if it has come up before, but I have often wondered about the long line of Brad’s exes who must just sigh with relief every time he’s involved in relationship drama. Not saying any of them are happy about his divorces, just glad he was only a youthful phase in their lives.
She’s insufferable. Period.
After all the depressing news lately (shootings and riots) I really needed a laugh this morning. Ohhhh Gwennie, you really are a legend in your own mind.
Lol! I agree!
For a second, she sounded almost self-aware. Then, the ego found its way back on the expressway. I think the tides started turning against her after the undeserved oscar win. There is no way her performance even compared to Cate Blanchett’s in Elizabeth. Gwyneth got the Oscar because she was Weinstein’s “golden girl” and he spent millions campaigning for her. I demand a recount!
She can go in whichever lane she likes so far as I’m concerned… just please not my lane.
Whichever lane is the longest and the one that leads her far away somewhere for a few years. Does Goop actually do well? She just seems so out of touch with regular people.
I’ve read a quote from her that they’re still running on VC money and she’s still concerned about the bottom line. I’ve said before, if GOOP is still here in 3-5 more years, good on her, but somehow I’m not convinced this company is pulling a substantial profit. Paris Hilton hit the $2billion mark licensing her image internationally on bags, perfumes, etc.. compared to that, Gwyneth has such limited appeal and to a demographic that is still very fickle, to say nothing of how competitive the lifestyle market is. I could unpack the business approach of GOOP for hours, but I’ll just say that it’ll be interesting if GOOP lasts.
She could be in the carpool lane as her giant ego will certainly fill the passenger seat.
I hope Chris Martin’s next girlfriend is a 22 year-old stripper.
How did he put up with this self-absorbed tw@t for 10 years?
Please, you STILL don’t appeal to a wide range of people because your head is so far up your own ass.
Stuck up, self absorbed and completely lacking in self awareness-you really should team up with Lena Dunham because it is the perfect platform for your white whine.
I don’t see why she thinks was a bold move or something courageous to do at all she just runs blog about recommending highly priced objects what’s so great about it. ANYONE can do it, anyone can give you a green smoothie recipe like what’s so difficult about it I don’t see anything special about it and certainly i don’t think she’s no different from any other celebrity and that’s the worst being identified as a celebrity and not an actor/actress…
Exactly. She hasn’t created anything and she sure as hell wasn’t the first one to start a lifestyle blog. If people are “uncomfortable” with her doing it , it has more to do with her elitest choices and dangerous diets, not her innovated, out of her lane thinking..
Amen Michelle!!!! Seriously though sometimes this woman acts like she single handedly cured cancer or ended all wars. Geez, it’s just a blog about overpriced clothes and green drinks.
I always wonder what she and Beyonce talk about. Beyonce can’t cook and isn’t very tidy (she admitted this) so I just wonder.
Also “Posh Martha Stewart” HA! My cats are sporting their Martha Stewart collars right now and the ginger one (Marmalade) has allowed me to know that the neighborhood cats would laugh her off of the wall if she were to wear a Goop collar (if those exist).
I miss the Martha/Gwynnie wars that were happening there for a while because it was a lot of fun to watch. As far as I’m concerned, Martha could wipe the stenciled floor with Goop.
She’s right that men aren’t told to stay in their lane the way women are. She’s wrong that THAT is the criticism people have for her regarding Goop.
Exactly.
Bahahahaha!!! Oh Gwyneth dear you are mighty full of yourself aren’t you?
Does Ryan Murphy do anything other than produce TV shows, though? If he suddenly tried to be a chef I think there would be several people going “wtf”.
Each time I read a quote from Ms Paltrow I think: this girl seems so dumb I’m surprised she’s not a $cientologist.
I know. She is really not well spoken, and it kills me be use she thinks she is so intelligent and knowledgeable.
This from a woman who used to be quite rude about everyone else and is now pretending it was all us. Or an over-reaction!!!!
Ever notice how much she talks like she’s a victim? Everyone’s always out for her, criticizing her, underestimating her. She’s one of the most fortunate people on earth, she needs to just deal.
THIS. And that right there is what irritates the shit out of people about her, but she never sees it. It’s maddening.
Just lol at the title, “Gwenyth Paltrow thinks men are threatened by success with Goop.”
Please stop asking this woman for her opinion. Tell her microphones put off carbs and all A/V equipment makes your body non-alkinline.
Perhaps it was a good sign that Celebitchy was ignoring Goop for a few days. She is a predictable bore, so fascinated with herself.
zomg -all the jelly haterz!
gwynsufferable was FIRST!
she said so herself.
🙄
‘Because I was the first one of this generation to do this kind of thing, I got a lot of sh-t for it’
say what??
Yeah, I highly doubt that. Her whole personality is off-putting.
She’s the epitome of the saying “Born on third base, acts like they hit a triple.”
I thought GOOP had always made a big loss, though? How is it threatening to anyone that an online store linked to an actress’ blog exists? I mean, there’s that other actress whose home products are really successful, so I can see why that might threaten some, but… GOOP?
Pretty sure her ex being Chris Martin and the ex before that being Brad Pitt when he was very hot is a lot more threatening, really.