In our new Gossip with Celebitchy podcast – which comes out this weekend! – CB and I talked about the new Gwyneth Paltrow biography and all of the 1990s gossip around and about Gwyneth. The biography is being exclusively excerpted in this week’s People Mag cover story, and the Brad Pitt sections are already getting a lot of headlines. That was one of the big focuses in our comment section too, especially the part about how and why Gwyneth and Brad split up and broke off their engagement. After Emma came out, Gwyneth allegedly complained that Brad “wanted to be with her but seemed to feel threatened by her success and all the attention she received.” That was heavily debated! But I think it’s probably very true, especially given what we know now about Brad. You also have to remember the age difference at the time – he is nine years older than Gwyneth, which was a big deal when she was 22-24 and he was in his 30s and “ready to settle down.” Well, People knows what ‘90s girls want, so they added more to their excerpts, specifically the Pitt section:
“They were one of the most iconic couples of the nineties,” says author Amy Odell of Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Pitt. Both gorgeous, glamorous — and for a time, sporting the same shag haircut. Odell shares new details about their romance in her new book Gwyneth: The Biography, a revealing look at the fascinating life of the 52-year-old star, excerpted exclusively in this week’s PEOPLE.
The two first met in 1993 when Paltrow auditioned for the romantic western Legends of the Fall. She didn’t get the part (Julia Ormond did) but sparks flew and Pitt later suggested her for the role of his wife in the 1995 thriller, Se7en. At the time, Paltrow was also offered a role in Feeling Minnesota opposite Keanu Reeves. Unsure of which one to accept, writes Odell, “She consulted with a friend, who said, ‘Well, who do you want to date, Brad Pitt or Keanu Reeves?’ Gwyneth chose Se7en and Pitt, and Cameron Diaz took the Feeling Minnesota part.”
After two years of dating, they became engaged in Argentina in December 1996.
“Her dad [Bruce Paltrow] loved Brad,” says Odell. “Her friends loved Brad. They thought he was the nicest guy.”
Still, according to the author, Paltrow was having misgivings. “Gwyneth expressed doubts to a crew member [while making the 1996 film Emma] that Pitt was right for her, and admitted she had a crush on Hugh Grant.”
“He was brought up very religious, in Missouri,” says Odell. “It’s just a very different world from hers, growing up in Manhattan, going to Spence, I think she thought he wasn’t sophisticated enough for her. She thought she was smarter, better educated, more sophisticated.” The book also recounts an interview Paltrow once gave about the chasm between their worlds. “Brad and I have very different upbringings,” she told an interviewer. “So when we go to restaurants and order caviar, I have to say to Brad ‘This is beluga and this is osetra.’”
The caviar story still kills me. But it speaks to both sides – Gwyneth was and is a snob and an elitist, and she kind of thought Pitt was beneath her. As for Brad… I remember his behavior during the Gwyneth years, and he really loved her. But I think he was absolutely threatened by her success and he was probably pressuring her to work less and be less visible. I think he did the same with Angelina, which is why she would go years without taking acting jobs. Also: I remember that Gwyneth’s parents loved Brad, she always talked about that.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- BRAD PITT American Actor. With his girlfriend GWYNETH PALTROW. American Actress. (Seen at the film premiere of “Legends of the Fall”) COMPULSORY CREDIT: Starstock/Photoshot Photo UE 009409/F 25.04.1995,Image: 506977654, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries call Photoshot Global HQ – London + 44 (0)20 7421 6000 , also New York Office Tel : + 1 646-429-8731 and Hamburg Office Tel +49 (0)40 530 240 5959, Model Release: no, Credit line: Photoshot / Avalon
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- BRAD PITT American Actor. With his girlfriend GWYNETH PALTROW. American Actress. (Seen at the film premiere of “Legends of the Fall”) COMPULSORY CREDIT: Starstock/Photoshot Photo UE 009409/B 25.04.1995,Image: 506977674, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries call Photoshot Global HQ – London + 44 (0)20 7421 6000 , also New York Office Tel : + 1 646-429-8731 and Hamburg Office Tel +49 (0)40 530 240 5959, Model Release: no, Credit line: Photoshot / Avalon
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- BRAD PITT AND GWYNETH PALTROW. 1995. PICTURE /,Image: 539989177, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: +1 239 689 1883 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Colin Mason/Avalon
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- BRAD PITT AND GWYNETH PALTROW. 1997. PICTURE /,Image: 542377340, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: +1 239 689 1883 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Anthony Dixon / Avalon
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- BRAD PITT AND GWYNETH PALTROW. 1997. PICTURE /,Image: 547230887, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: +1 239 689 1883 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Rodolphe Baras / Avalon
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- BRAD PITT AND GWYNETH PALTROW. 1997. PICTURE / UNE,Image: 547349936, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: +1 239 689 1883 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Nick Elgar / Avalon
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- BRAD PITT AND GWYNETH PALTROW. MARCH 1997. PICTURE /,Image: 547351029, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: +1 239 689 1883 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Nick Elgar/Avalon
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- Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow photographed at film premiere in London in the mid 1990’s. © Michael Melia / Retna UK. Credit all Uses,Image: 553414234, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: +1 239 689 1883 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Michael Melia/Avalon
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- Featuring: Brad Pittt and girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow Where: New York , NY , USA When: 14 Oct 1995 Credit: STARTRAKSPHOTO.COM
She maybe be snobbish, but she never did anything like what Pitt did.
So, she was right and smart to stop the engagement.
There was absolute bitterness from Gwyneth about the way the Pitt thing ended which is why Gwynnie – the eternal snob😏😏😏 – was once shady about Aniston been a “that TV girl”.
Anyway, Bruce Paltrow was her biggest love and Gwyenth always gushed about how much her father loved Brad. The duality of those relationships still scar her.
I think that is a big reason why she bemoans their fate, as to what Pitt meant to her father.
I also don’t think it was by coincidence, she was pregnant and married to Chris Martin less than 6 months after her father’s death.
(Interestingly, Martin and Bruce Paltrow actually share a geeky aesthetic).
Pitt has always been a social climber. I think gwen felt that. She always seemed to be putting him in his place. I think he totally picked up on her snobbishness.
He didnt have to put up with her cheating and he left.
He seemed to have learned a lot from her and made real connections.
Brad is all about image. Underneath it all, he’s an insecure, dumb and abusive himbo.
Gwyneth got away.
Truer words. He’s faked his way to the top. All about image, he’s more like Aniston than anyone.
Reality is, and I’m sure Paltrow didn’t tell this part – though she paints Pitt as some kind of hero for confronting Harvey Weinstein (Pitt would go on to thirst after Harvey who to date, has reportedly attacked 3 of Pitt’s significant others – Patrow, Angelina & Julia Ormond)..yet Pitt STILL chased after him for that Oscar.
I believe THIS is what led Angelina to look at him like he was a weak simp, and because he saw that light go out, he knew she no longer adored him, because she knew he wasn’t shit — he just became mean and nasty and drunk (see airplane terror).
Back to Paltrow – she threw him under the bus, when she (cough) became ‘Mrs. Miramax,’ as Matt Damon called her. She wanted that hot, award winning career – and I believe Weinstein gave her an ultimatum, dump Pitt or say goodbye to this or that role. She had no problem 86ing Pitt. Pitt felt betrayed and wouldn’t say GP’s name for YEARS. She enraged him. He even got w/Aniston because of it, courtesy of the CAA mgrs- Aniston was ALL rebound from GP. Paltrow and Weinstein tried to ruin Pitt’s career. They’d call him dumb in the press, and plant articles like, ‘Ben Affleck, the Thinking Woman’s Brad Pitt.’ (GP was dating Ben post Pitt).
I think Pitt only finally got over Paltrow’s betrayal when she left the business because Harvey dismissed her, got married to Chris Martin and had a kid – living in England, and more importantly, when he fell for Angelina.
He was probably threatened by her success, yes, but if she was indeed schooling him on types of caviar, she was probably expressing her snobbishness elsewhere too, and he could feel she believes he’s beneath her and that would add to the tension and his low self esteem.
I’m not happy to defend Brad Pitt, but I do know how that feels like. While I’m not religious nor from the wilderness, I’m also not caviar eating upper class, and I have felt this pressure in business meetings with (relatively) rich and powerful people. And none of my colleagues is Hollywood royalty level.
The odd thing is that Bruce Paltrow was not a WASP.
He would have 100% being looked down on by the upper echelons of society in his era.
And I’m sure he experienced bigotry.
Which makes me wonder how Gwyneth’s own snobbishness is so baked in??
It’s almost like over compensation.
Overcompensation and her mom, Blythe. The way she’s spoken over the years – in general and about Gwyneth – it’s been clear for a good while that she’s where a lot of the snobbiness comes from.
As well, “Hollywood Royalty” nepo-baby-head is one of the most virulent entitlement viruses out there. There’s a reason a lot of those kids don’t end well—or survive.
I mean, I don’t think she is smarter than he is and she is probably only marginally better educated. Spence is a good school, but it’s a rich kids’ school (even more so when she went there, I imagine) and she could have graduated with the equivalent of a “Gentleman’s C” average, for all we know. Nothing I have seen her do or say indicates she is particularly smart or even intellectually accomplished. She doesn’t seem to have a lively mind.
But there was a big cultural difference between them, and I could see how it would be an issue for her in her early 20s and even more so down the road if they had married and had kids. She grew up in Manhattan, the child of a producer and successful actress. The Met was probably blocks from her home. She is also half Jewish and I imagine was raised with a bit of both faiths but not all that religious? Religion might have been a sticking point for them, especially when it came to children.
So, yes, she’s a snob. But that doesn’t mean she was wrong about them maybe being incompatible.
Like Meghan, she speaks Spanish as she spent her teens at a Spanish school. She has a cosmopolitan upbringing. She’s more educated than Brad but I doubt she was looking for an intellectual, cerebral type.
I didn’t know that about her time at a Spanish school and being bilingual. I tried to make sure my kids learned Spanish but as the public schools in Houston didn’t offer it until middle school, I got them lessons outside of the classroom and took them to Mexico to help them learn it. As it turns out what it really took for my son at least to learn it was to go to camp (as a camper and counselor) with kids from Mexico and Argentina who didn’t really speak English. Then he didn’t have a choice!
She spent time at Talavera de la Reina as a 15 yo. Went there as an exchange student and I think frequently returned there as a result growing up. So hers would be Castilian Spanish as opposed to Argentinian Spanish or Mexican Spanish etc.
https://viajes.nationalgeographic.com.es/a/gwyneth-paltrow-52-anos-y-su-fuerte-vinculo-este-pueblo-manchego-alli-aprendi-a-comprender-vida_22851
I agree that Gwyneth was probably an indifferent student at Spence. She’s talked about how she would sneak out at night to go party when she was a teenager, which is relatively easy to do in NYC.
Heh. Snobbery is a form of stupidity—limiting, inchoate, and ultimately sterile.
Excellent comment! @deering24
Religion wasn’t a sticking point – Pitt came out and said he was agnostic or even atheist. He’s often talked about the bible belt where he comes from, as being awful people, and his mom is a far rightwinger who hated Obama, even though she’s related to him. LOLOL
Brad wasn’t sophisticated enough and she moved on to………..Ben Affleck? OK
Rich girl likes to slum with working class boys?
I think she married her current husband, Brad Falchuk, because he reminded her of her father, a successful, Jewish producer.
@gabby 100% she likes to rewrite history. Also the bit about “do you want to date Brad or Keanu” is how she picks roles ? What the heck
I need to buy this biography
Is Ben working class? I thought he and Damon was kind of middle class kids.
@MaisiesMom … Ben and Matt were both from broken homes, being raised by single moms (though Matt’s father didn’t divorce his kids and remained a permanent figure in their lives until his death from cancer in 2017). That’s one of the things they had in common. Matt is 2 years older than Matt (they met when Matt was 10 and Ben was 8), but Ben was probably bigger for his age due to his height now. They clicked.
The two boys were also smart, probably aided by the fact that both of their mothers were teachers. Ben, Casey (Affleck), and Matt all attended the Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School in Cambridge, MA. This is evidently an extremely good public school.
Right. They were from broken homes and both of their mothers were teachers, but they were more financially struggling middle class, maybe intelligentsia, than working class. Those are excellent schools as you said. They were for wealthy kids, for the smart children of middle class but educated parents (like Ben’s and Matt’s), or for the gifted children of working class parents.
Gwyneth can be insufferable and is certainly a snob, but I will take that over being an alcoholic & emotional and physical abuser, who traumatized his ex-wife and children, any day of the week.
Well, Pitt is still fighting that complex – that’s why all his interviews are filled with convoluted sentences and words that are taken from thesaurus. I guess he thinks that’s what makes one smart.
Affleck is, by many accounts, intellectually amazingly smart guy.
Yes, when I commented that Paltrow and Weinstein tried to ruin Pitt’s career, calling him dumb behind the scenes and planting articles like, ‘Ben Affleck, the Thinking Woman’s Brad Pitt,’ I meant to add – Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon are indeed pretty smart. Pitt is cringeworthy in interviews, your description of what he does in interviews is spot on. LOL 50yrs of drugs and alcohol aren’t helping, plus a heaping side of insecurity and guilt.
Affleck strikes me as very smart. He does great impersonations of Keith Olbermann and of his bestie Matt Damon. He directed “Argot.” He’s got issues but I don’t doubt his intelligence.
Pitt can be very good in certain roles, like “A River Runs Through It” and “Inglorious Bastards.” But I remember him playing a Canadian in “Twelve Years A Slave” and just laughing. His accent was so off and the performance didn’t work. The Brits playing Southern Americans didn’t get it right either, aside from the lead actor who was very good.
While I’m not a big fan of Paltrow, girl dodged a bullet with Brad. Knowing what we do now about him, all of her snobby crap from back then coming out has me cackling. On a more superficial note, she really did look amazing with the short hair and it’s too bad she didn’t keep it. She has fantastic bone structure and the short cut was just really stunning on her.
Pitt matched best Juliette Lewis.
He didn’t look like he had to try with her.
I don’t know about that. She seems like she marches to the beat of her own drummer and Brad is much more conformist.
True, because she was 16 and he was 26, correct? Eeew. Wasn’t the gf before her, 14? That kid from Dallas? Ugh. Once again, ‘golden 61yr old boy,’ is never held accountable.
Gwyneth Paltrow just can’t stop talking about a guy syr dated 3 decades ago and cheated on him, seriously when will Gwyneth Paltrow stop promoting a wife and children beating domestic abuser Brad Pitt, we get it you’re on of many of his PR abuser apologist enablers, but seriously stop talking about him …talk about your husbands and your children, remember them
Lighten up, it’s just a book. Relationships are what people write about in a memoir or biography. It’s not like she’s blathering about him every day all the time. She’s not promoting his bad behaviour or being an apologist for him, she’s just describing what went on and went wrong in their relationship.
I’ve read that the love went both ways; Brad’s on the record saying “Bruce was gold.” Maybe him having such immense respect for him would’ve helped Gwyneth. One doesn’t hold such an affection for a man just to treat his daughter like shite. In any case, we’ll never know since they broke up. I’m not a daddy’s girl like Gwyneth so I wouldn’t know. But I have observed one thing: Daddy’s girls have a lot of confidence. You see it with Gwyneth, I’ve seen it close up with friends, and I love that for them.
Well it’s just like everything about Gwen she mistakes eating caviar as something everyone does and should want to know about or care about for some reason. This is why she created GOOP because she felt she knows what is high end, better and what does he do create a candle that smells like he vag and $350 dollar shot glasses. She has always suffered from high self esteem hasn’t she. Brad isn’t an idiot and he dumped her because “upper class” Gwen cheated on him.
All that said…what is the difference between beluga and osetra? 😂😂😂 Thanks!
So Gwennie wants us to believe that she is smarter than Brad Pitt, prettier than Winona Ryder, a better person than Madonna. Sure Jane. This is total revisionist. Both Winona and Brad have been in iconic films where they were the lead what has Gwen been in…..the third lead in the Talented Mr. Ripley (Jude and Matt were the leads), the lead in a small Jane Austin movie called Emma (that no one saw) and yes, she was the lead in Shakespeare in Love but only after Julia Roberts passed on the movie costing the studio $6million, and se7en with her ex and Morgan Freeman and a handful of other movies. She will not be remember for her movies so she will fade in time from the Hollywood memory. Brad, Winona and Madonna will be remembered forever.
Her father seemed more grounded I think its from his moms side. I remember when she was being rightly called out for the none sense she would spew her mom was quoted as telling her “they are all just jealous of you”. That is her mindset its not her its everyone else. Its Madonna, its Winona, its Brad, its Ben, its Chris. Her inability to say she was divorcing and that she had to create a new vocabulary because in her mind she is just better then everyone else. Saying to her self she “has the ass of a 20 year old stripper” its just Gwen being Gwen.
Goop is no Winona Ryder. I freaking love Ryder and her version of “Little Women” is the gold standard. Her as Jo, Christian Bale as Laurie, young Kirsten Dunst as Amy? Gabrielle Byrne as Professor Bhaer. The best.
Without Blythe Danner Ms. Paltrow would not be a movie actor. I don’t say star because, unlike Brad, she isn’t one.
This isn’t that big headline from the new bio. It’s that Ben Affleck was good in bed! 🙂 He was supposedly a lousy boyfriend but good in bed. Which … sounds about right. 🙂
This was the info that makes so many other gossip situations make sense
Yup. It checks.
I seem to recall a story about Pitt keeping Gwyneth’s expensive Pratesi sheets and not giving them back to her after their break-up.
I think she introduced him to a level of casual luxury living which was commonplace to her and foreign to him. He adopted that aesthetic and took it further, giving rise to his “architect”, “designer”, “art aficionado” persona. He thought it made him seem sophisticated and cerebral, something to which he aspired. Not only that, but he wanted to be seen as more than a hillbilly from the Ozarks.
My favourite Gwyneth movie is Duets. Her version of Betty Davis Eyes and her duet with Hughes Lewis ‘cruising’ are still gold standards for me.