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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Childish' Gwyneth Paltrow's ‘chaotic… toxic' workplace: Goop has lost 140 staff in two years, new bio claims
Gwyneth Paltrow ran a workplace that was allegedly 'chaotic and sometimes toxic,' resulting in mass resignations in recent years, a new book has claimed. The Oscar-winning actor's Goop healthcare and wellness brand has reportedly suffered from an inability to be sustainably profitable, with executives struggling to navigate Paltrow's 'impatience and perfectionism.' The claims come as part of a new biography by Amy Odell, who also penned the 2021 biography Anna, about the life of Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour. In Gwyneth, which was released Tuesday, Odell describes how those that worked at Goop 'seemed cagier than many of Wintour's former employees,' noting that 'many had signed NDAs.' 'The company she founded in 2008 hasn't experienced sustained profitability, has allegedly suffered from a chaotic and sometimes toxic office culture, and has lacked a clear business strategy as it ping-pongs from one of Gwyneth's ideas to the next,' Odell writes, in an excerpt from the book. 'As the main narrator of her own public story, Gwyneth has masterfully shaped our perception of her. She knows all her best angles.' The star of Shakespeare in Love , Sliding Doors and The Talented Mr Ripley – who took a break from Hollywood in 2027 to launch her brand – is also portrayed as somewhat ignorant of the machinations of a business and was described as 'erratic' and 'childish' in the way she dealt with employees, according to the book. Within the past two years, Odell states, Goop lost at least 140 employees, including its chief financial officer, chief technology officer, chief revenue officer, general counsel and chief content officer 'Many were terrified to talk about Gwyneth,' Odell writes. 'Some people I interviewed had seen her take action against people she felt had crossed her. 'Gwyneth has had a habit throughout her life of bringing people close to her, then cooling on them. Some simply move on, while others become dismayed and desperate to get back into her inner circle.' The Independent has reached out to Paltrow and Goop about the claims made in Gwyneth via the company. According to further excerpts of Gwyneth, seen by The Times, the actress was reportedly childish, or even outright rude, to other high-profile individuals she had in her life. After breaking up with Brad Pitt in 1997, she reportedly told an interviewer that she had to explain the difference between separate types of caviar, and described him as being 'dumber than a sack of shit.' The Times reports that, per the book, Paltrow also gossiped about another former fling, Ben Affleck, as well as distancing herself from long-time friend Madonna because her ex-husband Chris Martin had reportedly taken a dislike to her. Paltrow recently harked back to the time when she and Martin were together, prior to their 'conscious uncoupling' in 2014, after appearing in a commercial for software company Astronomer. It came after Astronomer CEO Andy Byron was caught being intimate with his head of HR Kristin Cabot at a Coldplay concert – and was called out by frontman Martin live at the show.
The Guardian
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Gwyneth: The Biography by Amy Odell review – Gwyn and bear it
Gwyneth: The Biography opens, where else, with the vaginal egg, an episode that has come to stand for Paltrow's general ability to sell dumb ideas to credulous rich women using widespread mockery as her marketing rocket fuel. (In case you need a reminder: this was the $66 jade egg Paltrow sold via her lifestyle brand Goop that promised various health benefits upon insertion.) Amy Odell's book, billed as delivering 'insight and behind-the-scenes details of Paltrow's relationships, family, friendships, iconic films', as well as her creation of Goop, takes no particular stand on this, nor on many of Paltrow's more divisive episodes, instead offering us what feels like an earnest jog back through the actor and wellness guru's years of fame. The author writes in the acknowledgments that she spoke to 220 people for the book, in which case we have to assume that a great many of them had little to say. To be fair to Odell, whose previous biography was of Anna Wintour, another difficult and controlling subject – although Wintour did give Odell some access – Paltrow's world is notoriously hard to break into if she's not on board with a project; the author quotes numerous hacks tasked with profiling Paltrow for magazines who found themselves iced out of her networks, and the same happens to her in the early stages of research. Odell's task only gets harder in the second half of the book, which tackles the Goop years. Since, she claims, many of its staff signed NDAs, those sections lack even the modest stream of gossip that enlivens the first half. Which, by the way, is perfectly enjoyable. I ripped through Odell's account of Paltrow's youth as the simultaneously indulged and benignly neglected daughter of two showbusiness big guns, the actor Blythe Danner and the producer and director Bruce Paltrow. Danner is prim and unemotional; Bruce Paltrow is more demonstrative but still emotionally evasive, and Odell reheats some well-documented episodes between father and daughter, such as the trip they made to Paris when Paltrow was around 10, during which Bruce told her: 'I wanted you to see Paris for the first time with a man who will always love you, no matter what.' (Paltrow, in interviews, has always offered up this story as a moving tribute to her dad's love for her.) Odell also tells us the (I think) new detail that, when Paltrow was older, 'her dad once gave her lace underwear as a gift'. It's a small addition but it stands out against what feels like the book's trove of reconstituted material. In 1984, when Paltrow was 12, the family moved from LA to New York. We learn that she felt out-classed at Spence, the Upper East Side private school where the money is older and the blood bluer than in the Danner-Paltrow household. We also learn that, in spite of this, Paltrow – whose biggest nightmare is listed in the senior school yearbook as 'obesity' – manages to form a clique around herself that may or may not have been involved in the drawing of a penis on the library wall. It's small potatoes but we'll take goes into great depth about the Williamstown theatre festival – presumably because the old theatre lags actually agreed to talk to her – a storied annual event in rural Massachusetts where Danner takes her daughter every summer, first to watch her mother on stage, and later, to act herself. I liked these passages, in which you get a real sense of a summer stock scene that has always attracted top actors and their nepo babies. At one point, a barely teenage Paltrow takes the assistant director's seat and the head of the festival fails to ask her to move. Paltrow is entitled, wan, sometimes foul-mouthed, intensely focused and in these scenes, really comes alive. By studying her mother on stage, she learns how to be an actor. And so on to the Hollywood years, where everything becomes less fresh and more familiar. We slog through the background to productions of Emma, Shallow Hal and Shakespeare in Love and then we get to Harvey Weinstein, who during the first flush of #MeToo, Paltrow accused of making a pass at her. Odell quotes from Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey's book, She Said, but there's not much more to be harvested on a story broken and pursued by such good reporters. What's left is a trawl through a lot of things we already know – although there is one very funny motif from those years, which involves Paltrow miming throwing up behind the backs of people she dislikes, one of whom is Minnie Driver. (Team Driver all the way, here, obviously.) Also an old friend of Paltrow's claims 'she invented ghosting', which sounds about right. Finally, Goop: this was a story I hadn't been paying much attention to lately, and so a genuine surprise of the book is to learn that the company founded by Paltrow in 2008 has been a much shakier business than advertised. We know that Goop paid to settle a lawsuit brought by the California Food, Drug and Medical Device Task Force over false claims about the health benefits of the vaginal eggs. And we also know it accepted judgments by the National Advertising Division about other false claims. But, as Odell puts it, Paltrow's 'middling run as the CEO of Goop' has ensured that the company 'hasn't experienced sustained profitability … and has lacked a clear business strategy as it ping-pongs from one of Gwyneth's ideas to the next'. Here's a reveal: that Paltrow is such a massive cheapskate she used Goop's food editors to cook for her. 'In the office,' writes Odell, 'it was common knowledge that the food editors would go to Gwyneth's house after work and make her dinner under the guise of 'recipe testing'. When she and Brad Falchuk were living apart, the food editor would bring dinner to his house, too, which wasn't a light lift in LA traffic.' She also asked vendors to donate their services to her and Falchuk's wedding in return for advertising. The difficulty with all this is that Paltrow is a charmless subject who never rises to the level of monstrous. She's an OK actor, a so-so businesswoman – Kim Kardashian, as Odell points out, has had much greater success with her company, Skims. The story, then, is less about how Paltrow became this figure in the culture than why on earth she was elevated in the first place. Odell doesn't have the time or the inclination to get into this, instead offering pat lines such as, 'love her or hate her, for over 30 years, we haven't been able to look away'. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion At the very end, Odell draws a line between Paltrow's peddling of pseudoscience on Goop and Robert F Kennedy Jr, 'a fellow raw milk drinker' and Trump's vaccine-sceptical health secretary, which feels like a sudden turn towards a more interesting and confident authorial voice. If only it had piloted the whole book. Gwyneth: The Biography by Amy Odell is published by Atlantic (£20). To support the Guardian, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
The Independent
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
‘Childish' Gwynnie's ‘chaotic… toxic' workplace: Goop has lost 140 staff in two years, new bio claims
Gwyneth Paltrow ran a workplace that was allegedly 'chaotic and sometimes toxic,' resulting in mass resignations in recent years, a new book has claimed. The Oscar-winning actor's Goop healthcare and wellness brand has reportedly suffered from an inability to be sustainably profitable, with executives struggling to navigate Paltrow's 'impatience and perfectionism.' The claims come as part of a new biography by Amy Odell, who also penned the 2021 biography Anna, about the life of Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour. In Gwyneth, which was released Tuesday, Odell describes how those that worked at Goop 'seemed cagier than many of Wintour's former employees,' noting that 'many had signed NDAs.' 'The company she founded in 2008 hasn't experienced sustained profitability, has allegedly suffered from a chaotic and sometimes toxic office culture, and has lacked a clear business strategy as it ping-pongs from one of Gwyneth's ideas to the next,' Odell writes, in an excerpt from the book. 'As the main narrator of her own public story, Gwyneth has masterfully shaped our perception of her. She knows all her best angles.' The star of Shakespeare in Love, Sliding Doors and The Talented Mr Ripley – who took a break from Hollywood in 2027 to launch her brand – is also portrayed as somewhat ignorant of the machinations of a business and was described as 'erratic' and 'childish' in the way she dealt with employees, according to the book. Within the past two years, Odell states, Goop lost at least 140 employees, including its chief financial officer, chief technology officer, chief revenue officer, general counsel and chief content officer 'Many were terrified to talk about Gwyneth,' Odell writes. 'Some people I interviewed had seen her take action against people she felt had crossed her. 'Gwyneth has had a habit throughout her life of bringing people close to her, then cooling on them. Some simply move on, while others become dismayed and desperate to get back into her inner circle.' The Independent has reached out to Paltrow and Goop about the claims made in Gwyneth via the company. According to further excerpts of Gwyneth, seen by The Times, the actress was reportedly childish, or even outright rude, to other high-profile individuals she had in her life. After breaking up with Brad Pitt in 1997, she reportedly told an interviewer that she had to explain the difference between separate types of caviar, and described him as being 'dumber than a sack of shit.' The Times reports that, per the book, Paltrow also gossiped about another former fling, Ben Affleck, as well as distancing herself from long-time friend Madonna because her ex-husband Chris Martin had reportedly taken a dislike to her. Paltrow recently harked back to the time when she and Martin were together, prior to their 'conscious uncoupling' in 2014, after appearing in a commercial for software company Astronomer. It came after Astronomer CEO Andy Byron was caught being intimate with his head of HR Kristin Cabot at a Coldplay concert – and was called out by frontman Martin live at the show.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Gwyneth: The Biography by Amy Odell review – Gwyn and bear it
Gwyneth: The Biography opens, where else, with the vaginal egg, an episode that has come to stand for Paltrow's general ability to sell dumb ideas to credulous rich women using widespread mockery as her marketing rocket fuel. (In case you need a reminder: this was the $66 jade egg Paltrow sold via her lifestyle brand Goop that promised various health benefits upon insertion.) Amy Odell's book, billed as delivering 'insight and behind-the-scenes details of Paltrow's relationships, family, friendships, iconic films', as well as her creation of Goop, takes no particular stand on this, nor on many of Paltrow's more divisive episodes, instead offering us what feels like an earnest jog back through the actor and wellness guru's years of fame. The author writes in the acknowledgments that she spoke to 220 people for the book, in which case we have to assume that a great many of them had little to say. To be fair to Odell, whose previous biography was of Anna Wintour, another difficult and controlling subject – although Wintour did give Odell some access – Paltrow's world is notoriously hard to break into if she's not on board with a project; the author quotes numerous hacks tasked with profiling Paltrow for magazines who found themselves iced out of her networks, and the same happens to her in the early stages of research. Odell's task only gets harder in the second half of the book, which tackles the Goop years. Since, she claims, many of its staff signed NDAs, those sections lack even the modest stream of gossip that enlivens the first half. Which, by the way, is perfectly enjoyable. I ripped through Odell's account of Paltrow's youth as the simultaneously indulged and benignly neglected daughter of two showbusiness big guns, the actor Blythe Danner and the producer and director Bruce Paltrow. Danner is prim and unemotional; Bruce Paltrow is more demonstrative but still emotionally evasive, and Odell reheats some well-documented episodes between father and daughter, such as the trip they made to Paris when Paltrow was around 10, during which Bruce told her: 'I wanted you to see Paris for the first time with a man who will always love you, no matter what.' (Paltrow, in interviews, has always offered up this story as a moving tribute to her dad's love for her.) Odell also tells us the (I think) new detail that, when Paltrow was older, 'her dad once gave her lace underwear as a gift'. It's a small addition but it stands out against what feels like the book's trove of reconstituted material. In 1984, when Paltrow was 12, the family moved from LA to New York. We learn that she felt out-classed at Spence, the Upper East Side private school where the money is older and the blood bluer than in the Danner-Paltrow household. We also learn that, in spite of this, Paltrow – whose biggest nightmare is listed in the senior school yearbook as 'obesity' – manages to form a clique around herself that may or may not have been involved in the drawing of a penis on the library wall. It's small potatoes but we'll take goes into great depth about the Williamstown theatre festival – presumably because the old theatre lags actually agreed to talk to her – a storied annual event in rural Massachusetts where Danner takes her daughter every summer, first to watch her mother on stage, and later, to act herself. I liked these passages, in which you get a real sense of a summer stock scene that has always attracted top actors and their nepo babies. At one point, a barely teenage Paltrow takes the assistant director's seat and the head of the festival fails to ask her to move. Paltrow is entitled, wan, sometimes foul-mouthed, intensely focused and in these scenes, really comes alive. By studying her mother on stage, she learns how to be an actor. And so on to the Hollywood years, where everything becomes less fresh and more familiar. We slog through the background to productions of Emma, Shallow Hal and Shakespeare in Love and then we get to Harvey Weinstein, who during the first flush of #MeToo, Paltrow accused of making a pass at her. Odell quotes from Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey's book, She Said, but there's not much more to be harvested on a story broken and pursued by such good reporters. What's left is a trawl through a lot of things we already know – although there is one very funny motif from those years, which involves Paltrow miming throwing up behind the backs of people she dislikes, one of whom is Minnie Driver. (Team Driver all the way, here, obviously.) Also an old friend of Paltrow's claims 'she invented ghosting', which sounds about right. Finally, Goop: this was a story I hadn't been paying much attention to lately, and so a genuine surprise of the book is to learn that the company founded by Paltrow in 2008 has been a much shakier business than advertised. We know that Goop paid to settle a lawsuit brought by the California Food, Drug and Medical Device Task Force over false claims about the health benefits of the vaginal eggs. And we also know it accepted judgments by the National Advertising Division about other false claims. But, as Odell puts it, Paltrow's 'middling run as the CEO of Goop' has ensured that the company 'hasn't experienced sustained profitability … and has lacked a clear business strategy as it ping-pongs from one of Gwyneth's ideas to the next'. Here's a reveal: that Paltrow is such a massive cheapskate she used Goop's food editors to cook for her. 'In the office,' writes Odell, 'it was common knowledge that the food editors would go to Gwyneth's house after work and make her dinner under the guise of 'recipe testing'. When she and Brad Falchuk were living apart, the food editor would bring dinner to his house, too, which wasn't a light lift in LA traffic.' She also asked vendors to donate their services to her and Falchuk's wedding in return for advertising. The difficulty with all this is that Paltrow is a charmless subject who never rises to the level of monstrous. She's an OK actor, a so-so businesswoman – Kim Kardashian, as Odell points out, has had much greater success with her company, Skims. The story, then, is less about how Paltrow became this figure in the culture than why on earth she was elevated in the first place. Odell doesn't have the time or the inclination to get into this, instead offering pat lines such as, 'love her or hate her, for over 30 years, we haven't been able to look away'. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion At the very end, Odell draws a line between Paltrow's peddling of pseudoscience on Goop and Robert F Kennedy Jr, 'a fellow raw milk drinker' and Trump's vaccine-sceptical health secretary, which feels like a sudden turn towards a more interesting and confident authorial voice. If only it had piloted the whole book. Gwyneth: The Biography by Amy Odell is published by Atlantic (£20). To support the Guardian, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
Business Upturn
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Upturn
Kinhive Launches AI Matchmaking to Connect Women-Led Startups With Skilled Collaborators
Boise, ID , July 24, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Kinhive, a new AI-powered platform, has officially launched to help female founders form stronger and more aligned startup teams. Developed by the women-led software agency Merakite, the platform was born out of years of firsthand experience helping early-stage startups build MVPs and overcome growth stalls due to solo founding. 'We've worked with dozens of women-led startups and saw the same pattern again and again: amazing founders with an incredible idea who just needed the right person next to them,' says Maggie Sfingi, co-founder of both Kinhive and Merakite. 'Too many gave up before they got the team they needed. That's the gap Kinhive fills.' Using a multi-step, qualitative and quantitative AI matchmaking system, Kinhive suggests members based on a combination of skills, life stage, interpersonal dynamics, and working style preferences to unlock better-fit collaborations faster than traditional recruiting or networking. Built for flexibility and momentum Founders can use Kinhive to assemble their team through contract work, equity partnerships, or part-time collaboration, depending on their needs and resources. Members can join projects that fit their interests, skills, and lifestyle, whether they're exploring new work or easing back into the startup space. Key features at launch include: AI-powered matchmaking for both founders and members Flexible collaboration filtering, including equity-only, part-time, and freelance work Built-in messaging and team tools to explore fit and finalize roles A growing library of customizable legal templates (NDAs, equity agreements, and more) A private members-only community for sharing wins, questions, and advice Free to join. Built to grow with you. Kinhive is free to use for both founders and team members. Optional paid plans offer expanded team slots, increased visibility in match results, and access to premium tools like video chat, document signing, and advanced filters. 'We didn't want to put a paywall in front of people trying to connect,' says co-founder and twin sister Caitie Sfingi. 'Kinhive gives women a place to find each other, try things, and build teams on their terms.' Kinhive is now available across the U.S. and select international markets. Interested users can sign up at About Kinhive is an AI-powered matchmaking platform that helps women-led startups build stronger teams. Founded by the team behind women-led software agency Merakite, Kinhive connects female founders with skilled collaborators—from co-founders to contractors—based on shared working styles, skills, personality, and more. The platform is designed to make startup building more accessible, flexible, and aligned for women at every stage of life and business. Social Links Instagram | LinkedIn Media Contact Full Name: Caitie Sfingi Title: Co-Founder Company Name: Kinhive Email: [email protected] Website: Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with GlobeNewswire. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same. Ahmedabad Plane Crash
