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NZ Herald
6 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Sorry, you'll never be Gwyneth Paltrow. Whoever she really is
Odell's take on Paltrow's early, less-documented years is thin, reliant on tenuous sources. There's a buffet of mean-girl quotes about a woman who has been beautiful, tall, thin, rich and famous for most of her 52 years, inducing envy from those excised from her inner sanctum. In Upper East Side theatrical productions, where Paltrow attended the exclusive all-girls Spence School, 'everybody from the lowliest spear-carrier to the few boys to the upperclassmen were all simultaneously terrified of her and in awe of her and wanted to be with her,' a high school friend said. Paltrow's early films, like Sliding Doors and Hook, were either charming indies or bigger productions that made small use of her. For better and worse, Harvey Weinstein changed all that. After Shakespeare in Love, the Miramax honcho used Paltrow's success as bait to prey on other women. Paltrow was one of the first stars to speak out about Weinstein's harassment. The trauma of working for him, she is quoted saying here, is one of the reasons she quit acting so young. 'I had a really rough boss for most of my movie career at Miramax,' Paltrow said on a podcast during the pandemic. 'So you're like, I don't know if this is really my calling.' (She has two upcoming movies, including one with Timothée Chalamet.) The book is strongest on Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop era, when she played a central role in the wellness market. Photo / Getty Images The book is strongest on the Goop era: the company's volatile financial history, and Paltrow's central role in the factually fungible, potentially dangerous wellness market. (It's also explored well in Amy Larocca's How to Be Well: Navigating Our Self-Care Epidemic, One Dubious Cure at a Time.) Paltrow has long been her best product, and selling herself has increasingly overshadowed her considerable acting chops. 'Gwyneth has spent her career manipulating her own coverage, and she applied the same savvy to Goop, beating her competitors at their own game,' Odell writes. When she suggested launching a travel app called 'G. Spotting,' Paltrow was prepared for the reaction and net result: 'Everybody will make fun of me for being an idiot and we'll have the ten thousand downloads we need right there.' As for dish, there's plenty: Paltrow dumped former pal Madonna after the singer 'went off on her daughter, Lourdes' at a large gathering, behaviour that disgusted Paltrow and Martin, her then husband. The pop star also seemed a bit stalky, showing up without prior notice on the island where they were vacationing. Paltrow told friends that Pitt – her former fiance – 'has terrible taste in women'. Paltrow told friends that Brad Pitt - her former fiancée, seen here in 1997 - 'has terrible taste in women.' Photo / Getty Images She has long been insulated from anything resembling a normal life. Perhaps that's why she created a consumer one of her own. For the Paris promotion of Emma, Paltrow, all of 24, requested a private plane for an entourage of 10 and the penthouse suite at the Ritz and attendant rooms, and demanded that no other guests stay on that floor. Later, she took to travelling on location with two yoga instructors. By her own admission, Paltrow 'basically stopped making money from acting in 2002'. She lives extravagantly, often fuelled by the generosity of sponsors. She is the ambassador and the product. Paltrow's well-publicised second nuptials to television producer Brad Falchuk, in 2018, featured a bouquet of donated goods and services, documented in a 'sourcebook' and promoted in an article on the Goop website: 'The Wedding Party: GP x Brad Tie the Knot.' She asked the bathroom firm Waterworks to help outfit a US$10 million ($17m) home with Martin, Odell reports, and Restoration Hardware to furnish her offices and be featured in a six-year rebuild of her latest Montecito home with Falchuk; the design accents are available on the Goop website. While Paltrow projects intelligence as an actor and has appeared in some cinematic gems (Shakespeare, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Royal Tenenbaums), she's made some wretched choices as well, appearing in a string of critical and box-office duds (Shallow Hal, View from the Top). For all her style and seeming grace, Paltrow has also made some inane utterances, many of them catalogued here. On the benefits of wearing a fat suit in Shallow Hal: 'I got a real sense of what it would be like to be overweight, and every pretty girl should be forced to do that.' At one Goop leadership meeting, when everyone was asked to share something that wasn't true of the rest, Paltrow responded, 'I won an Oscar.' PARK CITY, UTAH - MARCH 27: Actor Gwyneth Paltrow sits in court during her civil trial over a collision with another skier on March 27, 2023, in Park City, Utah. Retired optometrist Terry Sanderson is suing Paltrow for $300,000, claiming she recklessly crashed into him during a run at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah in 2016. Paltrow has countersued, claiming Sanderson was uphill of her and crashed into her back. (Photo by Rick Bowmer-Pool/Getty Images) Paltrow's inability to read the room and her remove from lesser mortals was broadcast to the world in her 2023 Park City, Utah, ski-accident trial, where she uttered the Bartlett's-worthy 'Well, I lost a half day of skiing.' (The trial inspired not one but two musicals.) At Goop, Odell reports, Paltrow repeatedly failed to put in the hard work, or get others to do it for her, including research into dubious wellness claims of products on the website. The quartz and jade eggs (US$55 and US$66) to be inserted in 'your yoni' for 'better sex,' based on absolutely nothing, sold out in three hours with thousands on the waitlist. Despite constant criticism from experts, items promoted with unsubstantiated promises long remained on the website. Paltrow's gift is selling, but she's not adept at managing, Odell writes. She won't delegate, creating an unhealthy work environment marked by frequent churn. Paltrow has a tendency to avoid conflict while rarely hearing anyone tell her no. Her greatest cultural impact, Odell writes, is 'showing the world just how much consumers will spend and how much effort they would undertake for the luxury of being well, no matter what science tells us'. In Goop world, 'there wasn't a lot of tolerance for imperfection,' Odell writes. Which is understandable, as perfection, that impossible, impractical, expensive ideal, is Paltrow's brand. Gwyneth: The Biography By Amy Odell is available on August 5.
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
'No coincidences': Michelle Montague's journey to history-making UFC contract
She will make her debut in the octagon when the promotion returns Downunder in September, against Brazilian Luana Carolina in Perth. It's a destination Montague has walked a long, winding road to reach, and one that she admits she has questioned along the way. 'It's not really something that I let out, but man, I've had so many of those freaking chats with my parents, you know what I mean?' Montague tells the Herald. 'The chats I've had with my parents in the last few years through it all, and it's not because I doubt myself. 'It's like, I know I could be happy and great at certain things, and this is my favourite thing to be doing, so if I can't be growing in that or progressing or, you know, I'm here on a visa that allows me to only make money fighting so I can't be sitting with my thumb up my a** for eight months of the year. 'There's definitely been some reassuring chats with my parents where they're like, 'Shell, you're in the best place possible for you at the best time possible and even if you don't make it, or you fall short, whatever it is, you'll never look back and think, man, I wish I never tried doing that. 'You're always going to look back and be so happy and grateful that you decided to try that.' So, those times with my mom and dad, like, definitely knowing me the best out of anyone in the world, they hit part of my soul that I'm like, yeah, you're right.' As she speaks, it's fitting that Montague is conducting her interviews at Deerfield Beach. Michelle Montague will make her UFC debut in Perth in September. Photo / Getty Images Twelve years ago, Montague would visit the same beach while working as a lifeguard at Disney World in Orlando, making the hour-long trip south to play rugby with the locals. She got started in MMA soon after returning to New Zealand, joining Core MMA in Hamilton under the tutelage of Carlo Meister, who remains a consistent presence in her corner, and has also spent time training with Auckland's City Kickboxing gym. But it was relationships she made during that time spent in Florida that she leaned on when she was unable to get a border exemption to return back into New Zealand after travelling to Russia to compete in an amateur MMA tournament in mid-2021. She has since ingrained herself in the fabric of the famed American Top Team gym in Coconut Creek, alongside some of the sport's top talents – including current UFC bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison, whom Montague has a strong relationship with outside of the gym as well. It's a move Montague might not have made permanently had she been able to return home. 'There's no coincidences. It's all written there. I just get to be so humbled and so blessed in the fact that those things did happen,' she says. 'That's why when those things happen, you can't be like, 'oh man I'm so gutted that either I couldn't get back in, or I have to be a stranger at this new gym with all these very high-level international fighters' and all that. 'Like, those are all really, really good things. 'You just have to get through the fear of being this ... little Kiwi bug-eyed in the new world kind of thing, you know? 'Because that's how you grow and it's exactly what's been able to happen through those events that have happened.' Carlo Meister, Kayla Hracho, Michelle Montague and Kayla Harrison celebrate after one of Montague's wins. Photo / Getty Images Following a long amateur career, during which she claimed a lightweight world championship in 2019, Montague signed with the Professional Fighters League (PFL) and made her pro debut in early 2022 in the same weight class. She dropped to featherweight later in the year to take a bout with the iKon FC promotion. That has since been her permanent weight class on her way to a 6-0 professional record with all wins by submission. She says the PFL was accommodating and she didn't have any issues being released by the promotion as she looked to lock down a UFC contract. She will join the UFC in the bantamweight division, taking another step down in weight class. It's a similar pathway to that of Harrison, who won two lightweight titles with the PFL and successfully fought at featherweight before joining the UFC as a bantamweight. It's a weight Montague has yet to cut down to. However, the ease she made featherweight gave her confidence with her prospects in the division. She has also linked up with The Fight Dietitian Jordan Sullivan to ensure she is ticking every box ahead of her UFC debut. '[Bantamweight] is the perfect weight for me. Especially with the girls I'm around training, like Kayla and [UFC fighter] Yana [Santos]. 'They're the exact same size as me, give or take, and they make it every time.' Her UFC debut in Perth will see a series of firsts for Montague: her first fight with the promotion, her first professional fight Downunder, and the first time her parents, Grant and Karen, will be able to see her go to work. 'They haven't seen a pro fight yet, so for them to be at my UFC debut is insane,' she says. 'I've got friends and family friends that are messaging me saying that they don't want to miss it, they're going to be there. That to me is like, so beautifully overwhelming to know. 'Like, man, I don't know how to explain it, but it does feel good and it does feel like being able to spot them in the crowd or whatever it is, or see them in fight week... every fight's the biggest fight you ever have, obviously, but this one definitely is quite large for me. 'So I don't take it for granted, being able to have my bloodline there supporting me and knowing that they're going to be s****ing bricks during it as well or, honestly, they'll be more nervous than me, which makes that a little bit easier.' As for being the first Kiwi woman to sign with the promotion, the achievement was certainly not lost on Montague. Reflecting on her journey so far and those who have helped her get to where she is, Montague credited the likes of Genah Fabian, Nyrene Crowley and other Kiwi women who have fought at home and abroad to give others something to strive for. Now, she hopes that can be a role she takes forward for the next generation. 'I really hope too, with this platform, the amount of girls that will be able to be like, 'wow, we really should stick at this.' 'A - the girls around us get better by having us there, and B, there's a pathway to follow... I just hope that other girls in New Zealand can jump on board too.' UFC Perth fight card as of July 30 Light heavyweight main event: Carlos Ulberg (NZ) v Dominick Reyes Light heavyweight: Navajo Stirling (NZ) v Rodolfo Bellato Bantamweight: Michelle Montague (NZ) v Luana Carolina Bantamweight: Colby Thicknesse v Josias Musasa Featherweight: Dooho Choi v Daniel Santos Strawweight: Loma Lookboonmee v Alexia Thainara UFC Fight Night Perth, September 28, RAC Arena. Tickets will go on sale in the coming weeks and fans can go to to register for pre-sale access. Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
Peaky Blinders creator to pen new James Bond movie
Steven Knight will write the highly anticipated next James Bond movie. Photo / Getty Images Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Already a subscriber? Sign in here Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen. Steven Knight will write the highly anticipated next James Bond movie. Photo / Getty Images Steven Knight, the creator of gritty TV crime series Peaky Blinders, will write the highly anticipated next James Bond movie, studio Amazon MGM announced today. Knight will work alongside previously announced director Denis Villeneuve (Dune) to bring the world's most famous fictional spy back to the big screen after a prolonged absence. Amazon MGM Studios acquired creative control of the 007 movies in February and has moved quickly to get one of Hollywood's most valuable franchises back into production. There has been no new Bond film since 2021's No Time To Die. Knight is best known as the mind behind violent British gangster series Peaky Blinders, which was set in industrial England at the turn of the 20th century and became a global hit.
