Review: ‘Gwyneth' is a portrait of a pioneering and polarizing ‘It girl' and wellness mogul
In both phases, she struggles with likeability in the press and from the public, often coming across in interviews as elitist and out of touch with 'normal' Americans. But that hasn't stopped her from succeeding on both fronts.
Blond, glamorous and patrician, Paltrow is the ultimate nepo baby, the daughter of actor Blythe Danner and TV producer Bruce Paltrow, acting from an early age at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts.
In the first half of the book, Odell charts Paltrow's rise from chain-smoking party girl at elite New York private school Spence to Hollywood 'It girl.' She starred in 1990s classics like ' Emma,' 'Sliding Doors' and 'Shakespeare in Love,' for which she won an Oscar at 26. She was on the cover of Vogue and constantly in the tabloids with movie star boyfriends like Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck.
But she eventually soured on Hollywood and turned to her burgeoning interest in lifestyle and wellness. She started Goop as a newsletter in 2008.
Goop promoted some dubious wellness theories and was hit with the same press bashing as she had gotten as an actor.
'Gwyneth has, to her extraordinary credit, found a way to be even more annoying,' the Guardian wrote when Goop launched in 2008.
But Odell — who didn't have access to Paltrow or any close family or friends, but based the book on more than 200 interviews with people who know or worked with Paltrow — shows Paltrow has a masterful control of her image, working negative press to her advantage.
At Goop, a $66 jade egg meant to be inserted vaginally and a $75 candle called 'This Smells Like My Vagina' were ridiculed in the press — and sold out in short order.
When Goop launched a travel app, an advertiser sponsored it with the promise that it would reach 10,000 downloads. 'Call it G. Spotting,' Gwyneth told an executive, according to Odell. 'Everybody will make fun of me for being an idiot and we'll have the 10,000 downloads we need right there.' It worked.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
3 hours ago
- Axios
"The Pitt" will tackle Trump's "big, beautiful, bill," Medicaid cuts in season 2
"The Pitt" is following up the success of its debut season with a second that addresses President Trump 's recently passed " big, beautiful bill," whose cuts to Medicaid could affect millions of people. Why it matters: Other shows have tackled the Trump era, and "The Pitt," which raked in about 10 million viewers per episode, will continue that trend by grappling with legislation that could hurt many Americans, hospitals and local economies. Driving the news: The show's executive producers, John Wells and R. Scott Gemmill, told Variety that they calibrated the legislation's impact, which won't be felt until 2026, by interviewing hundreds of medical professionals. What they're saying: Wells said that the legislation is "going to have on-the-ground, immediate consequences in emergency rooms." "That's a bipartisan agreement," Wells told Variety. "You've got very Republican senators from Missouri like Josh Hawley agreeing that this is going to be a problem." Flashback: Following the law's passage, Sen. Hawley introduced legislation that would repeal some of the Medicaid cuts, which he voted for. His bill has not progressed since its introduction. Gemmill said that emergency rooms — the show takes place in one — will feel the brunt of the law's changes. "When people have less finances from the government to help them with their healthcare, they're going to end up in the only place where they can get free healthcare," he said. "The ER is just going to get busier and busier… the system is destined for a tipping point." Catch up quick: The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act green lit almost $1.1 trillion in slashes to Medicaid and other health policy changes, likely forcing states to make corresponding reductions to their programs or to pick up a greater share of obligations. 12 million people are projected to lose healthcare coverage under the bill. The law also restricts the use of state " provider taxes" to generate additional money for their Medicaid programs. Hospitals have"just gotten absolutely smoked," Henrietta Treyz of Veda Partners told Axios last month. In the law's current state, things look especially dire for rural hospitals. 69% of surveyed hospital executives predict rural hospitals will close because of the Medicaid funding cuts, according to market intelligence firm Eliciting Insights. Rural hospitals have high percentages of Medicaid and Medicare patients, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Noah Wyle, the star of "The Pitt," has lobbied for legislation to improve the lives of healthcare professionals, tackling staffing shortages and burnout.
Los Angeles Times
3 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
If Trump's presidency were a late-night talk show, he'd be collecting unemployment with Colbert
At a recent news conference, President Trump touched on questions about tariffs, Gaza and vaccines before zeroing in on one of his favorite subjects: TV and radio ratings. A journalist, referring to an unconfirmed report that Howard Stern's SiriusXM radio show was being canceled, handed Trump a sugar-coated softball: 'Is the Hate Trump business model going out of business because it's not popular with the American people?' The president was primed and ready to take a swipe at late-night television, namely Paramount's recent cancellation of 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' and other types of hosted programs he perceives as The Enemy. Anything to distract from his broken promises around IVF funding, a tepid jobs report and his failure in producing the Epstein files. 'Colbert has no talent,' said the president. 'I mean, I could take anybody here. I could go outside in the beautiful streets and pick a couple of people that do just as well or better. They'd get higher ratings than he did. He's got no talent. Fallon has no talent. Kimmel has no talent. They're next. They're going to be going. I hear they're going to be going. I don't know, but I would imagine because they'd get — you know, Colbert has better ratings than Kimmel or Fallon.' Ratings are important to Trump. It's data he's fond of weaponizing. Just ask his 'Celebrity Apprentice' successor Arnold Schwarzenegger. But what about the president's ratings? According to a Gallup poll, six months into Trump's second term, his job approval rating has dipped to 37%, the lowest of this term and just slightly higher than his all-time worst rating of 34% at the end of his first term. In comparison to other two-term presidents at the same point in their presidency, he's well below the 59% average, second-quarter rating set by all post-World War II presidents elected from 1952 to 2020. Bill Clinton (44%) came the closest as the only other president to have a sub-majority approval rating during his second quarter. So Trump and Clinton do have something in common other than their association with the late sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein. Which brings us to polling numbers about Trump's handling of those files. A recent YouGov poll shows 46% of Americans think Trump was involved in crimes allegedly committed by Epstein. A whooping 82% of Americans — including 91% of Democrats and 76% of Republicans — believe that the government should release all documents it has on the Epstein case. And only 4% of those polled are in favor of Trump pardoning Epstein's co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell. There are no major polls yet on how folks feel about Maxwell being quietly moved from a Florida prison to a minimum-security federal prison camp in Texas where the majority of inmates are serving time for nonviolent offenses and white-collar crimes. Maxwell's role in a violent crime — the recruiting and trafficking of minors for sex — led to her 20-year sentence. Trump's public obsession with ratings date back to his time hosting the television reality competition 'The Apprentice.' It was a genuine hit in that first season, rounding out the year 2004 as the seventh-most-watched TV show of the year. But its ratings declined steadily each year after that, according to the Chicago Tribune, from 11th place overall in its second season, to 15th, then 38th. By its sixth season, it finished as the 75th-most-watched show. If Trump's presidency were a reality TV show, he'd be headed into his sixth season. Enough about TV shows. Let's look at a quantifiable way to apply television ratings to the presidency: inaugurations. According to Nielsen, Trump's first swearing-in ceremony drew 30.6 million total viewers — 19% less than Barack Obama's in 2009, when 37.8 million tuned in. Trump's 2025 swearing-in ceremony had 6 million fewer U.S. viewers than his first-term inauguration. Even worse, that's 9 million fewer viewers than Biden attracted for his big day in 2021. Here's where the art of distraction comes in handy. Focus on other people's faults to cover your own. Enter the Clintons, again. At Wednesday's news conference, Trump said that shock jock Stern's ratings 'went down when he endorsed Hillary Clinton [in 2016].' What's Trump's excuse?
3 hours ago
Former 'Superman' actor Dean Cain, 59, announces he will join ICE
Dean Cain, known for his role as Superman in the 1990s television series "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," revealed this week that he is joining U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In an interview Wednesday with Fox News, the 59-year-old actor shared that his decision came after he posted an ICE recruitment video on social media, which quickly gained traction. "I'm actually a sworn deputy sheriff and a reserve police office -- I wasn't part of ICE, but once I put that out there, and you put a little blurb on your show, it went crazy," Cain told Fox News host Jesse Watters. "So, now I've spoken with some officials over at ICE, and I will be sworn in as an ICE agent ASAP." Cain said he felt it was his duty to serve, calling the decision "the right thing" to do. "This country was built on patriots stepping up, whether it was popular or not, and doing the right thing," he continued. "I truly believe this is the right thing." Cain then described the nation's immigration system as "broken," saying that he supports President Donald Trump's actions on the issue, which have so far included ordering mass deportations and raids across the country, targeting immigrants for expulsion and imprisonment in the U.S. and abroad. Some legal permanent residents and U.S. citizens have also been affected, with federal authorities threatening to revoke the legal status of green card holders over old convictions and even traffic violations. "This is what people voted for," Cain added Wednesday. "It's what I voted for, and he's going to see it through, and I'll do my part and help make sure it happens." A representative for Cain did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment. In a statement to ABC News on Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed Cain's ICE commitment, announcing that ICE had waived age limits for new applicants. "Superman is encouraging Americans to become real-life superheroes by answering their country's call to join the brave men and women of ICE to help protect our communities to arrest the worst of the worst," the statement read in part. ICE applicants, previously required to be between 21 and 37 or 40, can now join as young as 18, with no upper age limit, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on "Fox & Friends," adding that applicants will be trained and equipped to serve. As part of its hiring initiative, ICE is also offering a signing bonus for new recruits, along with benefits like student loan forgiveness and abundant overtime for deportation officers, according to a news release.
