Gwyneth Paltrow on criticism: ‘If you want to f–k with me, bring your A-game’

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Gwyneth Paltrow participated in Fast Company’s Meeting of the Most Creative Minds event last week, and The Hollywood Reporter was there to cover it. The actual headline is “At Work with Gwyneth Paltrow: 6 Lessons in Business and Why She Gave Up Acting for Goop.” Let’s start there: are we still going to claim that Gwyneth “gave up” acting for Goop? I’m not so sure. I think Gwyneth started Goop, primarily, because she was bored and stuck at home with her kids while Chris Martin toured and did Coldplay stuff. Why was she bored? Because people weren’t offering her the kinds of roles she wanted. Now, I do think that Gwyneth has turned down projects, so in that sense, she did “give up acting.” But if she was getting good scripts consistently, of course she would still be working in Hollywood. As for her “lessons”… my God, she’s annoying. That was my takeaway from this.

1) As a CEO or a leader, your highest role is to create and model a culture that helps your team perform
Paltrow does that by listening, noting that she has an all-hands meeting for all 80 of her employees every Tuesday morning. “We encourage good communication, or ‘speaking straight,’ as we like to call it,” she says. “When someone comes into my office and says they are going to speak straight, it’s my cue to bring my best self forward.”

2) Weigh speed of growth with creating real value
Goop has earned trust “because we started out creating content without an eye to profitability,” Paltrow says. “I’m a student, a traveler and mother, [what was on the site] were my questions, and it took a long time before we monetized that.”

3) If you want to f–k with me, bring your a-game
“I’m interested in criticism based on fact, not on projections,” says Paltrow, in other words, “If you want to f–k with me, bring your a-game.” (She’s so enamored of the phrase, a friend had it put on matchbooks and cocktail napkins for her as a gift.)

4) It’s okay if your vision narrows
“We’re always playing with the idea of wellness, and what choice makes you feel good,” Paltrow says, noting that the site has zeroed in on the clean beauty category, and recently launched vitamins. “If it’s on Goop, it’s nontoxic. So we may not write about that thing or take that advertiser, but it makes people feel good.” The site also has its own private label clothing, which she says has high-quality, Made-In-Italy integrity, but without the retail markups.

5) Never compromise your values
“I think about what has gone wrong at other companies a lot,” says Paltrow. “On the media side of Goop, we like to know what people are freaking out about, and if we hear that people are putting bees in their vagina, we’ll write about it,” she says, noting that “she made that up and not to try it at home…On the product side, we are more judicious…If we are selling it, it’s because we love it, if we’ve made it, it’s the best.” In terms of maintaining integrity, “if you opened Goop and saw a fast food ad, it would diminish our trust,” she says.

6) Learn what you can and can’t do
“As much as I thought ‘I can do everything, I can run my company and then go to Louisiana and do a movie,’ I can’t, especially with having kids there’s just no way,” Paltrow says. “I’ve been doing little things here and there because…I do think that does help our brand and how we’re trying to grow. But I also don’t want it to. I want Goop to not rely on me so much, so we’re thinking about when we scale do we need to leverage me for this product line or do we not. If we have a paid asset without me that outperforms one with my face, I do jumping jacks. I grew up in an acting family…but right now, I just like this better.”

[From THR]

“I’m interested in criticism based on fact, not on projections.” Says the woman who publishes diet advice from ghost-whisperers. Oh, sorry, was that a projection???? Seriously, this is a woman who goes on eight-day “goat-milk-only” cleanses because she feels tired (imagine how the poor goat feels). She “invents” new things like walking around barefoot. She’s currently hawking Goop-branded vitamins because she knows from experience that rich women will literally buy anything. If you convinced Gwyneth that snake oil is a miracle cure for poverty, she would sell Goop-branded snake oil and claim that she invented it. Those are valid criticisms, not projections. DID I BRING MY A-GAME, GWYNNY??

The Met Gala 2017

Photos courtesy of WENN.

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35 Responses to “Gwyneth Paltrow on criticism: ‘If you want to f–k with me, bring your A-game’”

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  1. Incredulous says:

    Anyone who researches nutrition and diet for 10 minutes knows more about it than you, Gwyneth, you are a shill and an idiotic one at that.

    • PumpkinLatte says:

      Came here to say that. You don’t need to bring even your D-game to outline why GOOP’s quotes make people ROTFL. And putting it all down to “projection” is just not taking responsibility for not putting a bit of thought into your words before you speak or outing yourself for living in a bubble. But these says she says outrageous things to get clicks for her business.

  2. detritus says:

    “Come at me with your A game”
    “I’m interested in criticism based in fact”

    ORLY

    Hi Goop,
    Everything you’ve published about health and science leads me to believe my A-game is the only over 80% you’ve ever seen. Your advice is dated and dangerous, and peddled to you by modern snake oil salesmen and culture appropriating hucksters. Your lovely personality, a combination of ignorant, egotistical and uneducated, means you are absolutely incapable of discerning the BS chaff from the scientific wheat. Meaning your absolute stupidity and refusal to educate yourself, while milking your platform and the trust of others for the dime you couldn’t make acting, is actually dangerous. The only thing more disgusting to me than your blatant money grubbing, is your hypocritical idiocy paraded as fact. You are the slightly nicer face of entitlement and Kruger-Dunning.

  3. minx says:

    Oh, brother. She didn’t “give up” acting, the roles she wanted dried up. And she’s hardly scaring anybody with her tough talk. What an insufferable princess.

  4. Tata says:

    This board certified OBGYN certainly brings her A-game:

    https://drjengunter.wordpress.com/2017/03/15/gwyneth-paltrows-goat-milk-therapy-for-parasites-is-stupid-and-dangerous/

    (She is the doctor who has been debunking paltrow all along)

    Ladies please don’t buy her supplements! Those are also crap. You can technically fill them with rice flour or baking soda in the US and no one would know the difference – there is no oversight of supplements here. Germany, yes. Everywhere else, no. You are buying expensive filler with a dirty mushroom from her. (Or unicorn poop)

  5. Keri says:

    Good lord, if you have friends who put your quotes on matchbooks and cocktail napkins— it’s no wonder she thinks her shit does not stink .

  6. Desi says:

    Just when you think she couldn’t possibly be more condescendingly, insufferably smug, so just goes right ahead and doubles down on it. It’s damn near awe-inspiring.

  7. PunkyMomma says:

    This from a woman who has a marble egg up her vagina. 👀

  8. Zondie says:

    Is Gwenyth going to claim she invented the Weekly Employee Meeting now? Hundreds of bored employees cry out in frustration.

  9. HK9 says:

    Oh, I’m so scurred-me f-ing with you Gweneth. Watcha gonna do.

  10. Cynical Ann says:

    Oh shut up. She’s had every f-ing advantage in her life. Instead of just being grateful for what she has she’s so annoying.

  11. Madly says:

    She is not as tough as she thinks she is which is why this is funny

    • Desi says:

      I have a feeling she would cut you. But first, you’d have to sit through a seminar to learn how to Stanley Steemer your vadge so you can have the most authentic, straight speaking, egg-worthy cooch in town. So essentially, you’d die of boredom (or possibly laughter) before you ever even felt it.

  12. Becky says:

    I’m remembering the story about her not using anti-perspirants.

    This is the info on the Goop site:
    http://goop.com/the-guide-to-non-toxic-deodorant-plus-our-7-favorites/

    This is the advice on the American Cancer Society site:
    https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/antiperspirants-and-breast-cancer-risk.html

    I remember the study linking breast cancer risk to ap’s was full of holes.

  13. Anon33 says:

    THIS BITCH. *eyes roll so hard they pop out of head*

    Only reply this bullshit requires.

  14. Green Is Good says:

    Tough talk from a spoiled princess whose never had to bust her ass a day in her life to score the opportunities she’s had.

  15. Pumpkin Pie says:

    Hey Goop, ***you*** don’t have an A game, heck, you don’t even have a Z game, OK?

  16. homeslice says:

    I loathe her.

  17. Berlin says:

    I just cannot believe how arrogant (or MORE arrogant) she is getting. She really lives her hype whereas before, after her dad passed and she had the kids there was a tiny itsy bitsy period where she actually got some insight and was saying what a dick she used to be and how she was a mess in her twenties and her Dad called her an a** re: how she was behaving etc. etc.
    But ever since Goop has ‘monetized’ that all slid right off the table. I love how she defends her authenticity now because her initial Goop brag book didn’t sell anything at first. That has nothing to do with now when she sells everything. What gets me is how subjective she is for a so-called ‘expert’. She has zero ability to truly see/understand another women’s ( that is a woman not like her) POV. Now that I think of it, she has no personal POV. All she is, is a grab bag of hundreds of other people’s quotes and opinions that she edits into her own point of view. This is why she is always contradicting her own advice and saying clueless things, and if she is questioned on them she immediately defends herself by screaming “Haters! Jealous! Sad fat women projecting their unhappiness on me !”
    Can we get on of those petitions started to kick her off the internet? I will sign first but someone else has to write it!!!

    • PumpkinLatte says:

      I think she’s worked out people hating her actually works for her ecommerce business. Gives her clicks.

  18. Juluho says:

    What’s funny is that the OBGYN that has written a few articles debunking Gwen’s health advice does bring her A game, with facts. Scientific facts.
    So does Scibabe, WITH facts.
    Clearly this woman’s weath and status has insulated her into a delusion that scientists and doctors don’t use facts, but crystal healers do?

  19. Shannon says:

    omg. She is so ridiculous. I am *not* buying your shiz, and I will never stick an egg up my vag. There! There’s my a-game 🙂

  20. whyioughta says:

    an egg???
    up my hoochie coochie????
    oh, hyelllll nah.

    oh, and Gwynnie?
    come at me, bro

  21. StormsMama says:

    Lol at literally everyone and every comment is hating her
    Yet everyone commented. Every one took the time to care enough to snark their very best
    Wow
    she really has hit a nerve
    And she is poking that nerve as she laughs all the way to the bank

  22. Jbohac says:

    https://drjengunter.wordpress.com/2017/05/22/dear-gwyneth-paltrow-were-not-fcking-with-you/

    Great article about what an idiotic site she has and dangerous claims that are made written by experts!

  23. Idky says:

    That pic of her in the pink dress – her right eye looks wonky – Cindy Crawford style. Too much Botox!

  24. Wilder says:

    Oh god. GOOP wouldn’t even be the remotest of “things” if Gwyneth was a regular wealthy woman with too much time on her hands. She has A LOT of influential friends, including, of course, the Spielbergs. These are the people her site is for, these are the people who will stick up for her no matter how shifty her product is.

  25. kate says:

    Man if only my A game came with 20 nutritionists, 40 physics, 35 new age gurus who focus primarily on aesthetics, 64 certified gynecological quacks, 60 brand ambassadors and a marketing scheme built upon hipster relevancy and privilege I might have a chance!!
    I guess none of us will ever be good enough for goop…

    also – in defense of walking around barefoot- it’s a thing that predates Goop that is called “earthing” please don’t let her commandeer this too!!!