Latest news with #Odell
The Age
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Cutting through the Goop: What Gwyneth Paltrow's bio reveals
Amy Odell has collected enough Gwyneth Paltrow relics to open a private museum – or a shrine, depending on how you feel about jade eggs. 'I have all my Gwyneth stuff all around me in my office. Like, I have this …' the biographer says, brandishing a magazine spread with a wry smile, the kind that says: Yes, this actually happened. In the pages of Talk from the early 2000s, Paltrow's unmistakably serene face is photoshopped onto the body of a larger woman clad in black lingerie, posed just so. The stunt was part of the publicity blitz for Shallow Hal, that slapstick comedy which saw Paltrow declare 'every pretty girl' should be forced to try on a fat suit – all in the name of teaching Jack Black a lesson about inner beauty. Looking back, it's one of those moments that makes you pause and wonder: What was she thinking? But then, so many moments in Paltrow's career invite the same double-take. In Odell's new, already-headline-grabbing biography Gwyneth, each one slots into the larger puzzle of Brand Paltrow: the teary Oscar for Shakespeare in Love; the Hollywood boyfriends and headline splits; the jade yoni egg that launched a thousand think pieces (and a lawsuit); the ski trial 'I Wish You Well' sign-off that launched a thousand memes; and her latest role as 'temporary spokesperson' for tech company Astronomer after the Coldplay kiss-cam saga. Paltrow's quotes alone read like high satire: I would rather smoke crack than eat cheese from a can. Or: I can't pretend to be someone who makes $25,000 a year. The daughter of Hollywood royalty – Bruce Paltrow, the TV powerhouse and Blythe Danner, the Broadway darling – Paltrow had Spielberg in her corner as godparent and Madonna writing her notes urging her not to smoke. Odell traces the arc: from privileged upbringing to the big hits (The Talented Mr Ripley, Sliding Doors) and bigger flops (Duets, View From The Top); Paltrow's courageous involvement in denouncing the man pivotal in building her early career, Harvey Weinstein; motherhood and two marriages (one 'uncoupling'); and how she turned the mess of modern fame into an empire that taught every star how to monetise their name – one candle (not fit to print here) at a time. 'I was interested in Gwyneth because, love her or hate her, she has been in the public eye for 30 years, which in itself is extraordinary,' Odell says. 'And she is fascinating to a lot of people. She's also super polarising to a lot of people. And she's someone who, it seems like countless articles have been written about her, but I came to see that those barely scratched the surface of who she really is. She's a complicated person.' Around Odell is an archive of Paltrow-abilia that has helped her prise apart the contradictions of the modern celebrity goddess: vintage profiles, issues of Goop's short-lived print magazine, even Paltrow's high school yearbook, where she signs off to her privileged classmates with breezy words taken from the 1989 movie Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure: 'Be excellent to each other and party on, dudes.' It's become part of the decor, Odell jokes, something Paltrow would probably abhor, given her luxury, minimalist aesthetic. Overlooking Odell's latest project from the bookshelves is the last one, Anna, her 2022 biography of Anna Wintour, the famously inscrutable Vogue editor. Wintour provided access to friends, colleagues and family willingly. Paltrow was trickier prey. Odell went back and forth with her team, hoping for co-operation from those close to Paltrow. While they originally agreed, Odell found herself stonewalled when she reached out to Paltrow's circle. Communication flickered on and off. It wasn't until the book was nearly finished that the final 'no' – including to a one-on-one with Paltrow – arrived. 'I don't think it's ever easy to do a book like this,' Odell says. 'But I'm persistent. If someone says no, I'm not afraid to call them back in a year and say, 'Hey, I'm finishing up…' And often, they'll talk.' The biography is full of delicious morsels for the internet to dine on: Paltrow has a parking spot at Goop HQ nicknamed the G-Spot. She enjoyed 'teabagging' during her short-lived relationship with Ben Affleck, and described ex-Brad Pitt as 'dumber than a sack of shit'. Jay-Z gave her music advice when she was considering making an album (fingers crossed!). She once encouraged Goop staff to clean up after themselves, posting in the Slack channel that 'someone tinkled' on an office toilet seat. Paltrow comes across as smart and sassy, completely out of touch yet shrewdly canny and naturally talented – a whirlwind of contradictions wrapped in a luxe cashmere sweater. 'She can be cold, she can be icy, she can be aloof. People compared her to Anna Wintour,' Odell says. 'But that said, she can also be incredibly charismatic and warm. If she wants to make you feel like you're her best friend, she's very good at it.' Odell's favourite gem after excavating Paltrow's public and private trail for three years, including conducting 220 interviews? Paltrow's late father, Bruce, liked the finer things and insisted on flying first class. Her mother, Blythe, was more frugal and often booked economy. This, Odell discovered, infuriated young Gwyneth, who once whinged: 'You mean we're not flying first class? We're flying no class?' But for all the tabloid-ready trivia, Odell is more interested in the big picture: what Paltrow means for the $6 trillion Big Wellness industry she helped create. Before it became par for the course – think Hailey Bieber's Rhode, Scarlett Johansson's Outset, or Jessica Alba's Honest Company – Paltrow realised that she could use her image to promote her brand instead of someone else's. She seems scrupulous about her own health, but just as ruthless about turning that obsession into profit. Goop launched in September 2008, first as a weekly email newsletter before expanding to include publishing, production, skincare, health, fashion, events and travel businesses, all carefully curating an idea of modern womanhood and wellness. 'She was the original influencer. She was monetising her influence. She was one of the first people, I think, in the public eye to do that,' Odell says. 'She's just really good at sort of playing on public perception of her. She tells personal stories to promote and sell the products.' It's easy to mock the pseudoscience and extravagance (Odell skipped the $700 signature cardigan, but tested the moisturiser and scalp scrub), but there's a much darker side too: the link between Goop's brand of 'wellness' and the growing distrust of Western medicine and scientific evidence. This is a company that once claimed women should steam their vaginas, promoted 'Body Vibes' stickers said to heal anxiety because they were 'made with the same conductive carbon material NASA uses' and claimed wearing a bra might cause breast cancer despite zero scientific basis. 'I think she did two things for the wellness industry that were really important,' Odell says. 'One, she gave it a rhetoric and a language. And we see similar rhetoric of Robert F. Kennedy Jr in the US talking about things like toxins, getting toxins out of our food, our bodies, our living spaces and our beauty products through clean eating, clean living, clean beauty. The other thing she did for wellness, that I think was really impactful, is she gave it a beautiful aesthetic.' Odell admits she's got the usual nerves on the eve of publication. She has no idea if Paltrow will flip through the pages over a cup of detox tea, but she doesn't see herself as going toe-to-toe with an institution. 'I think there are a lot of stories in the book that she'll be pleased with. There might be some that she's less pleased with,' she says. 'I think it takes some guts to write a biography in general. But no, I don't feel like I'm going up against somebody. That's not the idea. The idea is to start a conversation about a really interesting, impactful person.' Loading Odell's never met Paltrow, but if she did in the future have a chance to sit down with Paltrow, she'd start with the obvious: 'Why drink raw milk?' She's curious if Paltrow ever worries about the harm of putting out questionable health claims, of doubting doctors and scientists. 'And I would also like to know, what is her ambition? This is assuming she would tell me honest answers. I asked so many people what drives her, what motivates her, and that was a hard question for them to answer,' she says. For now, Paltrow isn't answering – but the empire rolls on. She's filming again (most recently kissing Timothée Chalamet on the movie set of Marty Supreme, in her first leading role since 2019). Goop's future is somewhat hazier: it's privately owned, but there were multiple rounds of lay-offs last year, and talk of a sale comes and goes. Next up for Odell? A break. 'I put a lot into the book, and I'm looking forward to being with my family. You know, I'm going to clean up my office and put all this shit into a box,' she says. And let's be honest, the Gwyneth Paltrow museum seems like it won't run out of curiosities anytime soon.
Sydney Morning Herald
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Cutting through the Goop: What Gwyneth Paltrow's bio reveals
Amy Odell has collected enough Gwyneth Paltrow relics to open a private museum – or a shrine, depending on how you feel about jade eggs. 'I have all my Gwyneth stuff all around me in my office. Like, I have this …' the biographer says, brandishing a magazine spread with a wry smile, the kind that says: Yes, this actually happened. In the pages of Talk from the early 2000s, Paltrow's unmistakably serene face is photoshopped onto the body of a larger woman clad in black lingerie, posed just so. The stunt was part of the publicity blitz for Shallow Hal, that slapstick comedy which saw Paltrow declare 'every pretty girl' should be forced to try on a fat suit – all in the name of teaching Jack Black a lesson about inner beauty. Looking back, it's one of those moments that makes you pause and wonder: What was she thinking? But then, so many moments in Paltrow's career invite the same double-take. In Odell's new, already-headline-grabbing biography Gwyneth, each one slots into the larger puzzle of Brand Paltrow: the teary Oscar for Shakespeare in Love; the Hollywood boyfriends and headline splits; the jade yoni egg that launched a thousand think pieces (and a lawsuit); the ski trial 'I Wish You Well' sign-off that launched a thousand memes; and her latest role as 'temporary spokesperson' for tech company Astronomer after the Coldplay kiss-cam saga. Paltrow's quotes alone read like high satire: I would rather smoke crack than eat cheese from a can. Or: I can't pretend to be someone who makes $25,000 a year. The daughter of Hollywood royalty – Bruce Paltrow, the TV powerhouse and Blythe Danner, the Broadway darling – Paltrow had Spielberg in her corner as godparent and Madonna writing her notes urging her not to smoke. Odell traces the arc: from privileged upbringing to the big hits (The Talented Mr Ripley, Sliding Doors) and bigger flops (Duets, View From The Top); Paltrow's courageous involvement in denouncing the man pivotal in building her early career, Harvey Weinstein; motherhood and two marriages (one 'uncoupling'); and how she turned the mess of modern fame into an empire that taught every star how to monetise their name – one candle (not fit to print here) at a time. 'I was interested in Gwyneth because, love her or hate her, she has been in the public eye for 30 years, which in itself is extraordinary,' Odell says. 'And she is fascinating to a lot of people. She's also super polarising to a lot of people. And she's someone who, it seems like countless articles have been written about her, but I came to see that those barely scratched the surface of who she really is. She's a complicated person.' Around Odell is an archive of Paltrow-abilia that has helped her prise apart the contradictions of the modern celebrity goddess: vintage profiles, issues of Goop's short-lived print magazine, even Paltrow's high school yearbook, where she signs off to her privileged classmates with breezy words taken from the 1989 movie Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure: 'Be excellent to each other and party on, dudes.' It's become part of the decor, Odell jokes, something Paltrow would probably abhor, given her luxury, minimalist aesthetic. Overlooking Odell's latest project from the bookshelves is the last one, Anna, her 2022 biography of Anna Wintour, the famously inscrutable Vogue editor. Wintour provided access to friends, colleagues and family willingly. Paltrow was trickier prey. Odell went back and forth with her team, hoping for co-operation from those close to Paltrow. While they originally agreed, Odell found herself stonewalled when she reached out to Paltrow's circle. Communication flickered on and off. It wasn't until the book was nearly finished that the final 'no' – including to a one-on-one with Paltrow – arrived. 'I don't think it's ever easy to do a book like this,' Odell says. 'But I'm persistent. If someone says no, I'm not afraid to call them back in a year and say, 'Hey, I'm finishing up…' And often, they'll talk.' The biography is full of delicious morsels for the internet to dine on: Paltrow has a parking spot at Goop HQ nicknamed the G-Spot. She enjoyed 'teabagging' during her short-lived relationship with Ben Affleck, and described ex-Brad Pitt as 'dumber than a sack of shit'. Jay-Z gave her music advice when she was considering making an album (fingers crossed!). She once encouraged Goop staff to clean up after themselves, posting in the Slack channel that 'someone tinkled' on an office toilet seat. Paltrow comes across as smart and sassy, completely out of touch yet shrewdly canny and naturally talented – a whirlwind of contradictions wrapped in a luxe cashmere sweater. 'She can be cold, she can be icy, she can be aloof. People compared her to Anna Wintour,' Odell says. 'But that said, she can also be incredibly charismatic and warm. If she wants to make you feel like you're her best friend, she's very good at it.' Odell's favourite gem after excavating Paltrow's public and private trail for three years, including conducting 220 interviews? Paltrow's late father, Bruce, liked the finer things and insisted on flying first class. Her mother, Blythe, was more frugal and often booked economy. This, Odell discovered, infuriated young Gwyneth, who once whinged: 'You mean we're not flying first class? We're flying no class?' But for all the tabloid-ready trivia, Odell is more interested in the big picture: what Paltrow means for the $6 trillion Big Wellness industry she helped create. Before it became par for the course – think Hailey Bieber's Rhode, Scarlett Johansson's Outset, or Jessica Alba's Honest Company – Paltrow realised that she could use her image to promote her brand instead of someone else's. She seems scrupulous about her own health, but just as ruthless about turning that obsession into profit. Goop launched in September 2008, first as a weekly email newsletter before expanding to include publishing, production, skincare, health, fashion, events and travel businesses, all carefully curating an idea of modern womanhood and wellness. 'She was the original influencer. She was monetising her influence. She was one of the first people, I think, in the public eye to do that,' Odell says. 'She's just really good at sort of playing on public perception of her. She tells personal stories to promote and sell the products.' It's easy to mock the pseudoscience and extravagance (Odell skipped the $700 signature cardigan, but tested the moisturiser and scalp scrub), but there's a much darker side too: the link between Goop's brand of 'wellness' and the growing distrust of Western medicine and scientific evidence. This is a company that once claimed women should steam their vaginas, promoted 'Body Vibes' stickers said to heal anxiety because they were 'made with the same conductive carbon material NASA uses' and claimed wearing a bra might cause breast cancer despite zero scientific basis. 'I think she did two things for the wellness industry that were really important,' Odell says. 'One, she gave it a rhetoric and a language. And we see similar rhetoric of Robert F. Kennedy Jr in the US talking about things like toxins, getting toxins out of our food, our bodies, our living spaces and our beauty products through clean eating, clean living, clean beauty. The other thing she did for wellness, that I think was really impactful, is she gave it a beautiful aesthetic.' Odell admits she's got the usual nerves on the eve of publication. She has no idea if Paltrow will flip through the pages over a cup of detox tea, but she doesn't see herself as going toe-to-toe with an institution. 'I think there are a lot of stories in the book that she'll be pleased with. There might be some that she's less pleased with,' she says. 'I think it takes some guts to write a biography in general. But no, I don't feel like I'm going up against somebody. That's not the idea. The idea is to start a conversation about a really interesting, impactful person.' Loading Odell's never met Paltrow, but if she did in the future have a chance to sit down with Paltrow, she'd start with the obvious: 'Why drink raw milk?' She's curious if Paltrow ever worries about the harm of putting out questionable health claims, of doubting doctors and scientists. 'And I would also like to know, what is her ambition? This is assuming she would tell me honest answers. I asked so many people what drives her, what motivates her, and that was a hard question for them to answer,' she says. For now, Paltrow isn't answering – but the empire rolls on. She's filming again (most recently kissing Timothée Chalamet on the movie set of Marty Supreme, in her first leading role since 2019). Goop's future is somewhat hazier: it's privately owned, but there were multiple rounds of lay-offs last year, and talk of a sale comes and goes. Next up for Odell? A break. 'I put a lot into the book, and I'm looking forward to being with my family. You know, I'm going to clean up my office and put all this shit into a box,' she says. And let's be honest, the Gwyneth Paltrow museum seems like it won't run out of curiosities anytime soon.
Yahoo
a day 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
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.
The Independent
2 days 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.
