Gwyneth Paltrow is finally speaking out on “Gwyneth: The Biography,” the much-discussed book from author Amy Odell that published in July. Paltrow did not participate in the biography, but Odell drew from more than 200 interviews with people who know or have worked with the Oscar winner. The biography covered everything from Paltrow’s childhood to her love life and acting career, while addressing infamous allegations such as Paltrow allegedly stealing the “Shakespeare in Love” script from Winona Ryder.
“She totally missed everything, the truth of who I am, what my impact is,” Paltrow told British Vogue about Odell’s biography, noting that she did not personally read it but her husband, Brad Falchuk, did. “He was like, ‘It’s just bad. It’s really badly written.’ I was like, ‘Ok.’ The stuff that I saw in People magazine, and [other outlets that picked it up], it was all rubbish, the things that I supposedly said.”
“I think it’s very sexist. I was like, ‘Ok, hang on a sec. Why do the men get Walter Isaacson and I get this hack?’ You know?” Paltrow also quipped.
Isaacson is an American journalist who has written the esteemed biographies of various figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and more. Although Paltrow did not read “Gwyneth: The Biography,” word did get back to her that the book included anonymous sources who criticized Paltrow’s company Goop and claimed her leadership inspired “chaos” internally.
“That bothers me. ‘Oh, Goop has a toxic culture.’ That drives me insane because we have never had that,” Paltrow said. “Granted we’ve had a couple of toxic people and, because of my fear of confrontation, maybe I didn’t deal with it quickly enough. That does cascade down and I totally take responsibility for that. But we are such a good culture. We are. It’s something that I am so proud of and worked so hard on.
“Of course, I’m going to say: ‘It’s not a toxic culture.’ Of course!” she added. “We are all human beings who go to work, sometimes with unresolved stuff and that comes out. People can have bad work experiences anywhere. But I can guarantee if I dropped you into the Goop office in Santa Monica, you’d be like: ‘What the fuck are these people talking about?’ You would see really engaged, really brilliant, highly collaborative teams who are excited. So I don’t like that kind of stuff – it impacts the team.”
“Gwyneth: The Biography” made headlines over the summer with its many stories about the actor, including one that alleged Paltrow blocked Russell Crowe from being cast as her romantic interest in the film “A Perfect Murder” because they had previously had a fling. One source told Odell that Paltrow, who is returning to film acting later this year opposite Timothee Chalamet in “Marty Supreme,” only agreed to star in the A24 movie in order to boost visibility and sales at Goop.
Head over to British Vogue to read Paltrow’s interview in its entirety.
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