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Gwyneth Paltrow has lived a number of lives — Oscar-winning Miramax darling, controversy-plagued wellness mogul, ski-accident sufferer — with every new flip regularly drawing intense public curiosity. Now, Amy Odell is digging deeper into the actress turned guru’s diversified life and profession in her new biography, Gwyneth, out now. Within the e-book’s introduction, Odell writes about how she selected Paltrow as the topic to comply with up her 2022 biography on Anna Wintour, saying, “When attempting to think about one other girl whose life and profession had the identical mixture of public fascination and personal complexity, I stored coming again to Gwyneth Paltrow.”
That complexity makes Paltrow a doubtlessly troublesome topic to nail down, given her aptitude for controlling public opinion and her penchant for providing up usually contradictory takes — like when she famously stated, “It’s what makes life attention-grabbing, discovering the stability between cigarettes and tofu.” Nonetheless, Odell showcases these contradictions moderately than attempt to make sense of them, weaving a radical portrait of her e-book’s inherently enigmatic topic — even with out Paltrow’s involvement. She explains that regardless of Goop’s publicist initially signaling curiosity in Paltrow collaborating or providing up sources, she finally ghosted and appeared to dissuade others from speaking. Even so, Odell writes that she “interviewed greater than 220 individuals from [Paltrow’s] childhood, her internal social circle, and the leisure world — together with administrators, costars, crew members — and present and former workers from Goop.” The end result chronicles the star’s nepotism-tinged childhood, breakthrough as an actress, and pivot to dominating the wellness area.
Right here, all essentially the most notable, Goopiest takeaways.
Madonna serves as an odd through-line all through Paltrow’s life, first by way of a observe she acquired from the pop star as a teen. Paltrow’s father, Bruce, a producer on St. Elsewhere, was so determined to get his daughter to give up smoking that he requested one of many present’s administrators, Leo Penn, to get a observe from his son Sean’s new spouse, Madonna, discouraging the behavior. “Pricey Gwyneth, Simply to jot down my common day … I get up, I don’t smoke … And I’m going house a contented wholesome me. Love, Me, Madonna. P.S.: Good women reside longer,” the observe learn. Paltrow, naturally, introduced the observe to high school — and framed it in her bed room — however continued to smoke.
Madonna stepped up as soon as extra to supply help early in Paltrow’s stardom, after nude paparazzi pictures of her and her then-boyfriend, Brad Pitt, had been printed within the tabloids. “She’s experiencing the upsides and the downsides of being well-known for the primary time,” Madonna stated. “That’s quite a bit for somebody to take … So I’m blissful to assist her.” She suggested Paltrow, “It’s your karma, the place you might be proper now,” after she discovered herself in a funk after her Oscar win at 26. No matter meaning.
The pair’s friendship ultimately got here to an finish after Madonna confirmed as much as an island the place Paltrow and Chris Martin had been vacationing. “Madonna appeared to know that Gwyneth could be there, which Gwyneth appeared to seek out unusual, a good friend remembered. Madonna then insisted Gwyneth and Martin be part of her for a giant group dinner at an extended desk the place Madonna went off on her daughter, Lourdes. Gwyneth and Martin had been disgusted by the conduct. ‘I can’t be round this girl anymore,’ Martin informed Gwyneth. ‘She’s terrible.’ Gwyneth agreed that Madonna was poisonous and ended the friendship,” Odell writes.
“Sooner or later, Spence’s moderately humorless librarian approached [Gwyneth’s adviser James] Dawson outraged {that a} pupil had drawn, on the partition of a research cubicle, an erect penis. She despatched all 4 women — Gwyneth amongst them — who had been within the library on the time to Dawson,” Odell writes. “‘Gwyneth, you drew the erect penis within the library,’ he stated. ‘I’m probably not certain what you’re speaking about,’ she stated. He offered an image the library had given him of the masterpiece. ‘Oh, that penis,’ Gwyneth stated. ‘I wasn’t certain what we had been speaking about.’”
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In accordance with the e-book, she candidly shared particulars of her intercourse life with Ben Affleck to her make-up artist Kevyn Aucoin. “She spoke overtly about how a lot she loved their intercourse life — it was the ribald facet of her that her buddies knew nicely however that the general public didn’t see. She informed Kevyn Aucoin in his London lodge room sooner or later after lunch that she liked when Affleck ‘tea-bagged’ her.”
“One of many publicists on [Calvin Klein]’s small workforce who helped Gwyneth was Carolyn Bessette (who would go on to develop into Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy),” Odell writes about Paltrow visiting Calvin Klein for her Sliding Doorways wardrobe. “In accordance with one individual acquainted with her pondering, Gwyneth irked her. When there have been footage of Gwyneth within the papers, Bessette, who seen her as ‘little miss good,’ would make reducing remarks about her.” It’s unlikely any of these reducing remarks will make it into the restricted sequence about Bessette and Kennedy that Paltrow’s husband, Brad Falchuk, is now producing.
You may’t focus on eccentric movie star child names with out Apple popping up, however seems Paltrow wasn’t the primary to provide you with the identify. “After Shallow Hal wrapped in June 2001, Gwyneth frolicked in Martha’s Winery with Peter Farrelly and his household, together with a daughter named Apple. Gwyneth by no means talked about this as inspiration when she selected the identical identify for her daughter almost three years later, and Farrelly didn’t appear to take offense. His spouse, Melinda Kocsis, simply stated, ‘Perhaps it’ll make it simpler for my Apple when she will get older.’”
When a clumsy Paltrow began attending Spence in seventh grade, Odell writes that “boys from different colleges began calling her ‘E.T.,’ as a result of they stated her eyes had been far aside.” It’s a put-down that ought to have been simply deflated by the truth that Steven Spielberg is her godfather. Naturally, he gave Paltrow her first film position, taking part in Younger Wendy in Hook, and would go on to not solely attend however movie her marriage ceremony to Falchuk.
He turned to one of many movie’s grips, saying the excellent news was he’d get to make out with Gwyneth Paltrow, and the dangerous information was he’d must shave the perimeters of his head right into a mohawk. In accordance with Odell, “The younger man didn’t pause: ‘I’ll do it.’”
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After Paltrow and Pitt broke up, she stayed along with her good friend Winona Ryder, ultimately setting her up with Matt Damon. However their friendship quickly took a flip. “She informed buddies that after Ryder and Damon had gotten in a struggle, Ryder left and returned to say that she had been robbed round Gramercy Park; she went out once more and stated she had been robbed once more. Damon consoled her, however Gwyneth and Affleck believed Ryder had fabricated the robberies as a ploy for consideration (there’s no proof of this),” Odell writes. “Her friendship with Ryder would solely deteriorate additional, and Gwyneth gave her the nickname, one good friend stated, ‘Vagina Ryder.’”
Legend has lengthy had it that Ryder was additionally up for Shakespeare in Love and that Paltrow had stolen the script off Ryder’s espresso desk. “Gwyneth informed buddies that Ryder had began the rumor, and insisted she’d acquired the script via her agent,” Odell writes, and her sources from Miramax affirm that Ryder was within the position however was by no means significantly thought-about.
“As Gwyneth’s circumstances improved, so did her canine’,” Odell writes about her two Labrador retrievers, Anca and Holden, who joined Paltrow in Paris for a movie shoot. “After their keep in Paris, Anca began responding solely to French. ‘Say ‘come’ or ‘sit’ in English and he or she ignores you,’ Gwyneth stated. ‘It’s so pretentious.’”
Very like Tyra Banks as soon as did on her speak present, Paltrow took it upon herself to do a social experiment and walked via life in her Shallow Hal costume. In accordance with Odell, “It got here in six items — one which zipped over her torso, one which slipped over her legs like shorts, two calf items, and two gloves — plus a face that was primarily glued to hers, and was meant to make her appear to be she weighed 350 kilos. She deliberate to stroll round downtown Charlotte, with out an entourage or full digicam crew, to expertise what her highschool yearbook had referred to as her ‘worst concern’ — weight problems.”
After dipping her toe into music along with her position as Holly Holliday on Glee and later within the movie Nation Robust, Paltrow flirted with the thought of creating an album. “Beyoncé and Jay-Z gave her extra music recommendation than [Chris] Martin when she was contemplating doing her personal album: ‘Beyoncé and Jay — they assume that I ought to simply go do it on my own. That I ought to go … in a studio and see what occurs. And if it’s good, do it. And if it’s not, don’t. In order that’s in all probability what I’ll do.’ An album by no means materialized, nor did a singing profession,” Odell writes. Fortunately, her Glee cowl of “Overlook You” remains to be out there on streaming.
New Goop hires would discover themselves chastised by colleagues for mispronouncing their well-known boss’s identify. Odell writes, “Gwyneth made clear to new workers that her identify was pronounced ‘Gwyn’ like ‘pin’ as an alternative of ‘Gwen’ like ‘pen.’”
A lot of Paltrow’s expertise with Harvey Weinstein has already been nicely documented, most notably his sexual harassment of her in a lodge suite, which her then-boyfriend, Pitt, later confronted him about: “Pitt knew how terrified Gwyneth had been after her encounter with Weinstein on the Peninsula. He additionally knew she had signed on to do two films for him … He informed Weinstein one thing to the impact of ‘Should you ever make her really feel uncomfortable once more, I’ll kill you.’”
In 2017, Paltrow took a name from Jodi Kantor, an investigative reporter on the New York Occasions, who was engaged on a narrative about Weinstein’s abuse. A yr prior, Paltrow refused to speak to New York Journal a couple of comparable story after Weinstein dissuaded her, telling her, “I simply actually need to shield the individuals who did say sure.” In accordance with Kantor and Megan Twohey’s e-book, She Stated, Paltrow was reluctant to talk on the report, fearing {that a} sensational story would simply add to the controversies plaguing Goop on the time, however “she determined to faucet her Hollywood community to see if she might discover different ladies who would come ahead, in order that her account might be half of a bigger story.”
When Paltrow and Pitt stayed at London’s Berkeley Lodge in the course of the filming of Emma, there was one situation to the lodging: The pair needed to vacate their swanky suite for one night time, however they weren’t informed why. “That night time, [producer Steven] Haft escorted them to a spot close to the facet entrance of the lodge. ‘Simply watch,’ he stated. Inside minutes, three Rolls-Royces pulled up, and out of 1 stepped Queen Elizabeth and the queen mom, who made their approach inside to the balcony suite, the place, Haft had been informed, they deliberate to dine. After Their Royal Highnesses cleared out, the manufacturing crew moved Gwyneth and Pitt again in,” Odell writes.
As Goop’s attain grew, so did the adverse consideration and parodies. “Goop’s workers tuned in generally to a podcast referred to as Poog, the place comedians Kate Berlant and Jacqueline Novak mentioned overwrought wellness traits,” Odell reveals.
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When Goop teamed up with Condé Nast in 2017 to launch a print journal, the trouble proved to be a “catastrophe,” significantly owing to the 2 entities’ vastly totally different fact-checking requirements. “Wintour informed her workforce that Goop in print wanted to be fact-checked on the identical normal as all different Condé Nast titles,” Odell writes. “Condé workers would attempt to chase down the writers of the previous Goop tales and ask for his or her sources and analysis supplies, usually about some scientifically doubtful course of like lymphatic drainage therapeutic massage or pet psychics. This was a typical journal fact-checking course of, but it surely appeared new to Goop. Condé’s editors felt like they had been making good-faith efforts to substantiate the tales solely to seek out them falling aside below scrutiny.” On high of that, there was confusion over who was in command of the journal, Paltrow or Wintour, and Condé struggled to promote advertisements provided that Goop needed to make use of the journal to advertise its personal merchandise. The partnership fell aside after the second subject.
“Sanderson stated in a 2025 interview for this e-book that ‘there was no reaching out, no contact, no efforts by attorneys to resolve’ the case out of courtroom. ‘I feel it was simply her time to face as much as one thing.’”
It wouldn’t be a biography of Gwyneth Paltrow with out masking her then-friend Derek Blasberg reportedly shitting the mattress at her house. “Whereas staying at her Montecito house, Blasberg suffered what was alleged to have been Ozempic-induced (a element that was later referred to as into query by the Each day Mail) diarrhea within the mattress of the guesthouse, then fled with out telling her, leaving her housekeeper to wash it up. Gwyneth was appalled,” Odell writes, saying that Paltrow was so offended that he hadn’t personally apologized that she made certain the story (very similar to Blasberg on that fateful night time) leaked.