Gwyneth Paltrow is too much of an uneducated peasant to work at Yahoo

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I don’t follow most tech news, but even I know that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has had a rough go of it. She’s a rarity in the tech world: a female CEO, fighting an uphill battle for relevancy from the very start of her Yahoo tenure in 2012. Beyond that, I really don’t know much or care that much, honestly. I tried to skim these New York Times and Vanity Fair articles about her (a new book is about to be released about her tenure at Yahoo) and my eyes crossed from all of the tech insider BS. But the NYT piece is making gossip news because Marissa Mayer is an elitist. The best kind of elitist! Mayer’s brand of elitism is for education, and she will not hire someone to work for Yahoo if they don’t have a college degree. Even if that person is… Gwyneth Paltrow!!

Gwyneth Paltrow might have an Academy Award, a best-selling cookbook and a thriving lifestyle website that has Martha Stewart shaking in her boots, but she doesn’t have a college degree. And that was a determining factor in why Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer shot down an idea to add the A-lister to the company payroll as an editor for the website’s food division, an executive close to Mayer told writer Nicholas Carlson in his new book, Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!, a sample of which was published in the New York Times magazine

According to the book, Mayer — a 39-year-old Stanford grad who’s a stickler for degrees — “balked” at obtaining Paltrow’s services, despite her everlasting fame, popularity and influence in the spectrum, as she “disapproved of the fact that Paltrow did not graduate college.”

For what it’s worth, 42-year-old Paltrow, a 1990 high school graduate of New York’s Spence School, initially attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, a feat two biographies of the influential starlet attributed to her family’s long relationship with UCSB alum Michael Douglas. After a year of higher education, Paltrow dropped out to begin her acting career, notching roles in two films (1991’s Shout and Hook) in her first year as a full-time actress.

Mayer has taken a notably different path to success applying to, and getting accepted to, 10 universities upon her high school graduation in 1993. The micromanaging tech head has raised eyebrows within her own company by favoring those who attended the most distinguished universities. In addition, Mayer is known to personally vet every single employee her massive corporation hires.

[From Radar]

The job Mayer refused to give Gwyneth was “contributing editor” for Yahoo Food. Which… come on. I’m not even a Goop fan and I think that’s a stupid call for Mayer. It’s not like Mayer was deciding which person to hire to write a dissertation on the history of wine or whatever. Granted, Gwyneth is no food expert. But it’s YAHOO FOOD. No one is expecting Michelin-star-quality recipes. Still, it’s funny that after all Gwyneth has accomplished (??) and the warm-fuzzy coverage her “business” has gotten as of late, some people will never accept her because she’s an uneducated peasant. Yay, educational elitism!

Also… Mayer personally vets every single person? Don’t get me wrong, if I was ever hired for some kind of big managerial position, my leadership style would be “micromanaging” as well, but when you’re running a company as big as Yahoo, you have to learn how to delegate.

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Photos courtesy of WENN.

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84 Responses to “Gwyneth Paltrow is too much of an uneducated peasant to work at Yahoo”

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  1. mimif says:

    Her hair looks amazing (cough) in that header pic. It looks like she has…camo lowlights, or something.

    • Kiddo says:

      Oh good, I set up an appointment for you with her stylist and colorist as a Christmas gift. I also giftwrapped a dog named Bubba. I hope he makes it there alive.

      • mimif says:

        You’re so thoughtful, KidoO. I have to warn you tho, I do not have a secondary education (hm I don’t even think I have a primary education), so the fruitcake I made you might be a bit nutty.

      • Tuberu says:

        I have present envy now. All I got mimif was a package of dried potato flakes. Crap, it’s not even name brand.

      • mimif says:

        I bought you the Costco size box of dehydrated seasoned hashbrowns, which, not gonna lie, when reconstituted make badass potato pancakes. Which I then shape in the image of Channing Tatum with a dollop of sour cream on top. True story.

      • Kiddo says:

        If it’s the generic db brand, it’ll be a hit. Do not despair, sweet potato.

      • mimif says:

        Darn it, I just got db’d on the Kate Hudson post and it was soooo good too!
        Sigh. My cereal is missing something today.

      • Tuberu says:

        Charming Potato shaped potato pancakes????
        Will you marry me mimif?
        I’m pretty sure I can get the ceremony onto the cover of People. Don’t ask me how I will accomplish it but it involves looking behind George Clooney’s curtains.

      • mimif says:

        Shhh. Brandi Glanville said he had bacterial vaginosis.

  2. bettyrose says:

    The tech industry has its own celebs, but I’d love to see the results of GOOP’s copy editing test.

  3. Mia V. says:

    I think she looks on the important positions, not on every worker, it would make her life impossible. And if she sets the standard for her employees high, it wouldn’t be fair to hire someone who believes to know it all but doesn’t actually has a base.

    • Bridget says:

      Ultimately her job is to get people to click on Yahoo and its content, and rigidly adhering to an arbitrary set of standards even when it may not be appropriate to the field isn’t the best business decision. The measurement of Mayer’s success is whether or not people are clicking on Yahoo and using its products, not fairness.

  4. Tuberu says:

    How stupid. Goop is actually self taught. I mean she read books by candlelight to learn everything she could. She had to get up at like 3 am so she could walk to town and…
    No wait that was Abraham Lincoln. Never mind.

  5. Kiddo says:

    Snob on snob snobbery. And yes, if you have ever read Yahoo comments, you KNOW the readership expects nothing but intellectual articles.

    For what it’s worth, some chefs and food critics actually have backgrounds in science.

    • mimif says:

      Uh, yeah they do, that’s why they’re called chefs. I’m impressed that you read Yahoo comments, doesn’t it shrivel the soul just a touch?

    • Sunny says:

      Hahaha, “expects intellectual comments”. @kiddo that comment is amazing!

    • FLORC says:

      Yahoo Is my new fark. The articles are very simple And there might be a great deal of skill involved in taking information and “dumbing” it down for the average online reader. It’s still discount journalism.

      And she’s being snobby to Goop because it’s Goop. Lots of people failed out or never went to college, but made a name for themselves with success. And a degree doesn’t mean they’re going to give quality. The name brings in the viewers.

      She’s still elitist and it’s still bad.

      • Mary Mary says:

        Florc: Disagree here: Mayer is correct in maintaining her high standards for those she chooses to hire.

        I don’t believe Mayer is being snobby to Goop because of Goop. Goop has a less than stellar repurtation and is less of a media heavy weight in comparison to many other more more meaningful contributing political social websites. However those are Mayer’s criteria and why should she disregard her high standards to hire. an over privileged light weight actress college drop out?

        Elitism isn’t all bad when it comes to hiring standards just read how nepotism helped many Hollywood elite get their first job opportunities in Hollywood including Paltrow.

        Elitism just bit Paltrow back 🙂 lol

        Agree to disagree.

  6. lunchcoma says:

    I’m no Goop fan, but that was silly on Mayer’s part. A college degree might be a screening device for some positions, but Paltrow is already blogging about food. Someone who wants to get an idea of what she’d do for Yahoo would just have to check out her site or pick up her recipe book to get a good idea.

    It’s also really bad PR for Yahoo that this came out. It’s not as if Yahoo is a niche site targeting intellectuals or something. Their audience is, basically, everyone. A lot of people in that everyone category aren’t college graduates, either, and I can’t imagine this looks good.

    • MinnFinn says:

      Yahoo isn’t a niche site but Paltrow’s appeal is to a small niche of people. I bet Mayer would pass on Paltrow even if she did have a bachelors degree.

      • perplexed says:

        That’s what I was thinking too. I figured Gwyneth being Gwyneth was enough not to get the job. I suspect she wouldn’t be good as a food editor, not because she doesn’t have a degree, but because she’s not really that good at writing and she manages to offend people every time she does write (or say) something.

      • Bridget says:

        I don’t know that I would say Paltrow only appeals to a small niche of people. Look at us, already filling this article with comments – and if you look back at other Paltrow articles here on Celebitchy they’re filled with people who love to hate her. The woman may be unappealing, but she drives traffic.

      • lunchcoma says:

        Now that would be a reasonable decision. If Paltrow’s take on things doesn’t fit in with the general direction of their site, that’s a very good reason not to hire her. No need to bring in college degrees into it, though.

      • FLORC says:

        Lunch/Minn
        Exactly. The degree has nothing to do with it.

    • Esmom says:

      I think Yahoo could use all the help it can get, college-educated or not.

      I think a college education is important and valuable and I wish more people had access to a high quality higher education…but in this particular case I do think actual experience is just as valuable.

      • FLORC says:

        Esmon
        I’ve heard having a degree is more about proof you can learn than what you have learned. It’s a base of basic understanding for math, literature, writing skills, and sciences. Everything else you learn on the job.

        Degrees are kind of overrated. Depending on your profession.

    • Maria says:

      I would think they’d want professional cooks/chefs for such jobs and educated nutritionists, not a star with a modest education.

      • Flower says:

        I think only a handful of Michelin chefs or best selling cookbook authors would have a degree, the majority started peeling and chopping vegetables in the kitchen in their teens and worked their way up.

        A university degree in most disciplines simply means you can read and remember. I have 4 degrees in two different areas Science and Education and I can tell you many of the people with a page full of degrees are amongst the dullest, uninspiring and unoriginal people around. Not to mention the fact that university degrees are not equal from country to country, those in the know will tell you that medical degrees form a certain Western Euro Country are pretty much just scrap paper while engineering degrees form several North American Universities (Canada and US) are poison in the industry.

        If Melissa’s sole criteria for employment rests on an employee having a degree she is missing out on a vast pool of talent. Perhaps why Yahoo is regarded as such a laggard in the industry.

        I will site my cousin as an example. In his 60s now he started as a TV repairman after attending technical college. Got his diploma (not a degree) and started working for Sony, did another course in medical machinery repair, and over the course of the years worked his way up into bigger and grander electrical jobs. Including electrical systems on submarines. He is now a project manager at NASA. Lots of technical diplomas but not a college degree amongst them. Simply a man with raw talent and great enthusiasm and problem solving skills in the field of electronics. Experience and skill will always far outweigh a piece of paper.

  7. Mia4S says:

    Isn’t GOOP horrendously in debt? And no one uses Yahoo. Maybe they could have helped each other out.

    Not going to lie, I laughed.

  8. minx says:

    I’ve always said that GP wasn’t well educated. Her father was a TV producer (his most notable show was The White Shadow, for god’s sake). So this notion that she is so much classier and smarter than the hoi polloi is silly.

    • Red Snapper says:

      I think his most notable show was the critically acclaimed, award winning St Elsewhere. I watched it. I am one hundred years old. Well, no, but I feel like it sometimes.

    • FLORC says:

      minx
      Gwyneth went to lots of nice schools, but didn’t follow through. She later said things to the sum of it’s was beneath her and she learned all she needed to from them.

  9. Sara says:

    i dont really buy that. celebs are never hired based on their skill or education but based on being famous, to bring awareness or customers. so it does not make a lot of sense and i dont think she wouldnt get it.

    that Mayer favors some universities is unfortunately common in the United States. her outlook though will damage her company in the long run, in that field there are a lot of young, mostly men, programmers who dont have a degree, some even dropped out of highschool. the CIA and NSA for example hire people without those formal educations. the most famous one probably being Edward Snowden.

    • littlestar says:

      The fact that she only prefers certain universities is astounding to me. She’s missing out on a lot of smart and savvy potential employees from “less distinguished” universities, many who just might be better employees than someone who attended an ivy league college.

      • Esmom says:

        Absolutely. And that mindset makes me nervous about my kids as they get closer to college age. They won’t be going to Ivies and likely not even those a tier below — as much as they’d like to I’m not sure they’ll have the grades or the test scores — and I wonder how hard it will be for them to get decent jobs if that’s the mentality of many employers. Hopefully it is not!

      • Jadzia says:

        Adding a layer of disgustingness to the whole thing (she sounds like a real jerk) is that for the most part, it’s people who are already very privileged in life who attend Ivy League and equivalent schools.

        I went to a very snooty school for my undergraduate degree, one that would undoubtedly impress Marissa. But I was working class. I made it through despite having to drop out (and be homeless for a bit) when I ran out of money, work multiple jobs (which nobody else had to do) to get tuition money, and always be banned from the library because my tuition was perpetually late; ultimately, I only made it to the finish line because my grandmother died and left my father JUST enough to pay for my final semester, and he was a prince and gave me every penny.

        But the worst thing about it was the snobbery. I was so miserable, felt so out of place and alien, that I ran far and fast to the first state school I could find when it came time to go to law school.

        Working for somebody like Marissa Meyer is my worst GD nightmare.

    • Pippa says:

      Yeah if America’s education system was at all fair maybe I’d applaud this but given the disparity in tuition fees between Ivy’s and others – or even how ridiculous college fees are in general – if you exclude people from certain schools (or no school) you’re excluding by class and economic background just as much as you are by intelligence.

      But then given that yahoo donated money to Darren Wilson it’s not exactly surprising that they’re ignorant elitist asshats.

    • ramona says:

      Just wanted to say that some of us who went to Ivies aren’t that bad. I’ll be paying back my student loans until I’m in my 60’s (I did undergrad and a Masters) but the people were lovely, the classes were excellent and I had a marvellous time. That being said, I’m definitely not claiming my uni experience was any more valuable than the experience one might have at any other uni.

      Don’t see why Gwyn would need a BA to work at Yahoo, though… but if it’s a standard rule for the company, I’m delighted they didn’t bend it for a celebrity. I hate when rules are bent for people who just happen to be famous!

    • Trashaddict says:

      Jadzia – I would definitely hire you over the Goopster.

  10. INeedANap says:

    I think Meyer was smart not to hire Goopy, for whatever reason she chose. Yahoo is popular in middle America, unlike Goop, and I doubt her pretentious, tone-deaf tastes would mesh well with Yahoo’s broad appeal.

    • Algernon says:

      Um, have you seen her cookbook sales numbers? Goop is *very* popular in middle America. Those are the people who aspire to her lifestyle.

      • INeedANap says:

        I knew her books sold well, but I figured they were bought by upper middle-class city types. Color me wrong. Dang Goopy, your hustle has no bounds.

    • It is what it is says:

      @ineedanap that is exactly what I thought. Yahoo has a different clientele than the NYT, for example. And if the CEO wants to be picky about her own SENIOR MANAGEMENT, who get really well paid, she should. Goop is not a good value for the money for a few elitist recipes. Well done Yahoo.

  11. Talie says:

    I remember reading that Douglas wrote her a letter to get her into the college. Did she work for anything?

    • Algernon says:

      I had a high school teacher who wrote me an *amazing* recommendation letter. A few years later, I took a class at school taught by the provost of admissions who told me it was that letter that got me in. My grades and test scores were on the good side of average, but they were average nonetheless, and I was an otherwise indifferent student, didn’t participate in much. But I had one, incredible rec letter that convinced the admissions’ officers to give me a chance. I don’t know the circumstances of how Goop got into college, but as someone for whom a letter made a huge difference, I’m slightly offended on her behalf.

      • perplexed says:

        Did Michael Douglas actually write a letter or put in some kind of good word? I can see why the Michael Douglas thing would be mocked, simply because he’s not an actual educator. His influence would be a different kind of influence — I don’t know what category that influence gets boxed into, but I would categorize it as being quite different from the category a teacher belongs to. I really don’t think people scoff at letters from high school teachers or college profs or anyone actually in education. A recommendation letter from a high school teacher makes more sense than from a Hollywood actor who wouldn’t be able to comment on her academic abilities, other than to say “she’s my best friend’s daughter; that’s how I know her”.

      • Bridget says:

        Algernon, there’s no comparison between your letter of recommendation and hers. She didn’t work for Douglas, he didn’t teach her in school or work with her on a regular basis (the guy barely even saw his own kid who is the same age as GOOP). Basically, her dad called one of UCSB’s most famous alumni and asked him to put in a good word.

  12. BooBooLaRue says:

    Why make someone who doesn’t eat a food editor – website notwithstanding. . .

  13. Ms. Turtle says:

    The story in the NYT never mentions if GP even wanted that job. She sells t-shirts on GOOP for $1200. Why would GP want to be on Yahoo, a sinking ship, anyway? But yeah, it was a dumb move on Mayer’s part. People hate-watch GP as much as anything. That would have turned to clicks.

  14. poppy says:

    another mediocre job she couldn’t land.
    gwynsufferable has been appropriately schooled.
    even her rock star husband has a degree. she could have finished one while she was “taking a break” from acting and raising her brood. never even set foot in a dirty peasant-full class room. in her position, EASILY.
    in one of the biographies mentioned, she barely graduated from Spence and no college would accept her until Michael Douglas made a call.
    she’s always been well connected. she’s not smart, she can’t write, can’t act, and has questionable taste but thanks to the hard work of her mommy and daddy has always had it made. blow dry bars, gyms, and various vanity projects are totally in her wheel house.

    “duets” was on recently and what a mess. it was 100% simpering hair extensions on her part and her dad was not a strong director.

  15. Jules says:

    I’m still trying to wrap my head around the whole “everlasting fame, popularity and influence in the spectrum”…well, even though Yahoo passed on hiring Goopy, it would appear that she scored a gig as a staff writer for Radar.com…writing articles about herself.

  16. Malificent says:

    Oddly enough, tech is probably the only industry in the United States where you can get hired for a white-collar job without a bachelor’s degree.

    • lrm says:

      Though the ‘which school did you attend’ pedigree is sometimes still a ‘thing’, the US is also one of the few places where you don’t need to be ‘degree specific’ to change jobs or careers [unless it’s teaching, law, medicine-something that requires specific training.] I’ve known people surprised, b/c in many other countries, you choose your track early on and may not veer from it-what you study is what you’ll land as a job. I like the flexibility that a standard liberal arts or even business degree affords to grads in the US. [yes, insert joke about ‘what jobs’ lol]

  17. Cricket says:

    So is it safe to say Mayer is holding out to land the educated, established, well connected, always draws a crowd Her Royal Hotness Pippa? Surely her degree from Edinburgh is acceptable!

  18. tealily says:

    Eh, I don’t really have a problem with expecting a minimum qualification for a position. That’s why all these regular folks are going into debt for their college degrees, right? That said, food is an area where not everyone has a degree and you can still come into through either learning on the job OR going to culinary school. Writing on the other hand, I don’t think a relevant degree is too much to ask.

  19. arabella says:

    I’ve never been prouder of my master’s degree only bc it makes me less of a peasant than goop 🙂

  20. Gail says:

    I’m a little offended. I was 17 when I finished high school, with no choice but to go directly into the workforce. I have taken numerous night school courses, am an avid reader, an entrepreneur, a business owner, and keep abreast of world events, politics, etc. Life experiences can trump the best education…it’s all in how knowledge is applied, not in how it is gained. That I didn’t sit in classrooms for 4 years 20 years ago should never mean I am less worthy. Hire the best person for the job….period. Every other ‘excuse’ for not hiring the best person for the job is simply poor business. In my never-to-be-humble opinion!

    • jwoolman says:

      Yes, that’s why honorary degrees are given to people who have equivalent life experience. But Paltrow doesn’t really have that life experience- just enough money to hire people to do the work for her. If she were proven to be an excellent writer and editor on her own then perhaps an exception might have been made. She has clear interests in the area, but no evidence that she could do that particular job. A college degree wouldn’t prove it either, but any decent school is likely to require extensive reading and writing. Actually, Yahoo’s preference for certain schools might just be related to the problem of figuring out what the degree means in terms of what the person needed to do. So she sticks to schools where she knows the standards are high. There are ways around this if you graduated from Podunk U., you just have to find other ways to prove your abilities.

    • G.C. says:

      Hi Gail …. my name is also Gail but I used G.C. because I saw “Gail” was already taken. I can understand your feelings. I was a bit offended also. My husband, too, had to go to work early due to circumstances beyond his control. He knows what real work is and has the intellect to solve real problems at work (computers and machinery). The employer always calls my husband first when they need a problem solved. I was luckier than you and my dear husband. I had the chance to at least go to junior college as that was what was affordable. I also went and took several college level courses later on. I am with you, in that, there are several avenues in which to learn and/or receive education. This needs to be taken into account. Look at the entire package when interviewing. A degree or lack of a degree does not automatically mean that the person and the job will match or not match. Employers are missing out if they are solely focused on a college degree. Of course, a degree can be a plus, but sometimes the best person for the job is not the one with the degree.

  21. G. says:

    You know, I’m super snarky because I just got my wisdom teeth out, but I would probably feel the same way, to a certain extent. If I worked my butt off to get myself multiple degrees and some pretentious chick like Goop wanted to get up in my domain, yeah, I’d let her know what’s up. Or him. Doesn’t matter. College is not a piece of cake and most people don’t have the connections to do what Goop does with little talent or intellect.

  22. perplexed says:

    I don’t think it’s good to be snobby about degrees, but Gwyneth always seemed kind of snooty about her high school Spence education vs. Brad Pitt’s University of Missouri education. So it is kind of funny to see someone consider Gwyneth uneducated, because I don’t know if Gwyneth has actually ever perceived herself that way. Again, in general, I don’t think it’s good to be elitist about degrees, especially because of how income inequality can make some difference in what kind of school you can attend, but Gwyneth seemed to never have any self-awareness that she is in fact less educated than Brad Pitt just because she went to Spence. Therefore, someone pointing out the disconnect between how Gwyneth perceives herself and the actual reality is kind of amusing to me. Although I would say this kind of snobbiness about degrees towards anyone else would be wrong. But since we’re talking about Gwyneth “I went to Spence, the best private school of all time” Paltrow….

  23. Gen says:

    I am no GP fan, but I suspect she can spell better, and use better grammar, than the majority of contributors on Yahoo.

    • perplexed says:

      Her newsletter has some mistakes in it, but I don’t know who writes it — whether she does or she has someone else do it for her.

      But, yeah, Yahoo has a lot of oddly written articles and now I’m wondering if Ivy League people are writing them, and if so, why do the articles stink so bad?

      • jwoolman says:

        A good college can graduate a mediocre student… And a mediocre college can graduate a splendid one. It really depends on the student; better schools just have more resources and tougher demands, but the student has to take advantage of it to really learn. Some people are very good self-learners, although a formal education is so helpful because you get exposed to the whole field to some degree without the usual gaps in self-learning and actually get critical feedback on your understanding. Some fields are especially hard to pick up just by reading, although it’s much easier with the internet. Sometimes harder to distinguish between good and bad, though.

        Mistakes in articles are a reflection on both the writer and the editor, although I’ve often been humbled by my baffling autocorrect on the iPhone (and I don’t always catch its strange changes). I no longer judge anybody by how they write online!!!

      • perplexed says:

        I make a lot of mistakes in my writing, but I figure the people at Yahoo have editors helping them out.

        I do think one is more likely to graduate with a higher average from Harvard than elsewhere at the undergrad level, though, because of their grade inflation problem. And I think Ivy League MBA degrees (or any kind of MBA) are really only useful to people already working in industry rather than someone coming fresh out of school at 22. In that sense, I do find the insistence that someone graduate from an Ivy o to get a job at Yahoo a little …well, pointless.

        Marissa Meyer has impressive qualifications, and I didn’t know she was the CEO of Yahoo until this Gwyneth “problem”. But I’ve always thought the Yahoo site is pretty ugly aesthetically, and I’m wondering why they haven’t solved that problem. Even if you take out the writing issue, the site is so crammed I never feel like clicking on anything.

  24. weAREamused says:

    Trumped by another elitist! I’m no fan of Mayer but I think it’s absolutely hilarious Goopy got shaded because she doesn’t have something that despite all her money and snobbery and elitism she can never own: a real post-secondary education.
    She’s officially been called “too dumb to work here”, and even if you’re not some ivory-towered academic elitist, no matter who you are, that’s still gotta sting …

  25. Diane says:

    Anybody who gives Goop the shaft is okay in my book. Goopy was probably shocked right out of her shoes that they didn’t roll out the red carpet for her. Smile of the day.

  26. melain says:

    Yahoo! Gotta set the bar somewhere.

  27. Amy says:

    Forget Gwyneth, they should hire Pippa Middleton! (Who did graduate from college) Imagine the gems she would provide for Yahoo Answers.

  28. G. C. says:

     Gwyneth Paltrow impresses me as snotty, but, then again, I find Marissa Mayer to be really ridiculous. Was this perhaps a lame way to brush off Gwyneth Paltrow because Marissa Mayer does not like her? Apparently, Marissa had the support she needed to complete her college studies. And, yes, I am sure she busted her butt studying. However, some of us do not have that network of support and have to go to work early in order to survive. My husband had to go to work at fourteen as his father passed away and there was very little money for the necessities …… meaning food, clothing, shelter, and such ….. not talking about satellite tv, internet, and smart phones. He managed to work full-time and finish high school. Nobody gave him any handouts. He did it all on his own. He never had a chance to go to college because he was too busy making a living. My husband is an extremely intelligent individual, so I really, really resent people like Marissa. But, then again, I have known some very smart people with college degrees and some dumba*s idiots with college degrees. Just because one has a degree does not mean that the “lights are on.”

  29. Sparkly says:

    Have you READ yahoo articles and blog posts? No way are their writers all college graduates. NO WAY. The utterly crap writing is a running joke on yahoo. I think it was just an excuse to both shoot her down and throw some shade.

    PS: The word Radar was looking for was “giggling”. Or perhaps “guffawing”, but Martha Stewart is certainly not “shaking” in her boots.

  30. LAK says:

    Marisa Mayer is my kind of woman. GOOP, not so much.

  31. Becks says:

    Yeah, they don’t let just any yahoo work at ……Oh wait. Nevermind.

  32. Patty says:

    Team Gwyneth, even though it pains me to say that. It’s okay having a degree requirement but most people have a enough sense to recognize qualified people who may not have their degree.

    MM is a hack. She is trying to get rid of everyone at Yahoo that lacks a degree. I know two people who have been “separated” from the company for that very reason. Despite them having years of experience and being good at their jobs.