As we discussed on Friday, Vanity Fair is going HARD on Gwyneth Paltrow. The backstory is asinine – months ago, it seemed like Vanity Fair was going to do a fairly average profile on Gwyneth’s “lifestyle brand” and how she developed GOOP and all of that. Gwyneth threw a hissy fit, emailing all of her friends and asking them not to speak to the super-budget VF. Gwyneth’s publicist shaded VF pretty hard too, and it seemed like Gwyneth was trying to start a war. With Vanity Fair! So Graydon Carter revealed in an interview a week ago that the Gwyneth story was going forward and that she had played her hand poorly, because now they were really going to go after her. Then Page Six got a “leak” that VF was now focused on some decidedly peasant activities in Gwyneth’s past, like an alleged affair she had back in 2008 with billionaire Jeffrey Soffer.
So that’s where we were on Friday. Page Six got a great scoop (probably from someone at VF) and all of the major outlets were running with it. And once again, Gwyneth is playing it the wrong way. She sent her spokesman to go out there – on the record! – to deny any affair:
Gwyneth Paltrow today denied any ‘romantic relationship’ with supermodel Elle Macpherson’s billionaire husband Jeff Soffer – after it was claimed their friendship may be probed in an explosive new Vanity Fair article.
The magazine was said to be delving into rumours over her friendship with the property developer, according to Page Six, following a 2008 party in Miami during which they were seen looking close.
However, a spokesman for the Oscar winner told told MailOnline: ‘It’s completely false. Jeff is a longtime friend of Gwyneth’s and there was no romantic relationship with him at all. He flew many of his friends to Miami that weekend – not just Gwyneth.’
Despite this, MailOnline can also reveal Gwyneth’s friendship with a formerly married literary agent, the subject of previously reported rumours, may also be explored by the magazine.
A distinction without a difference? Good lord, Goop. Get it together. It’s like she’s never interacted with the peasant media before! If Page Six says there’s a rumor that you cheated on your husband five years ago, do you really send your rep out to the media to explicitly clarify what your relationship was with said billionaire? If you’re going to send your rep out there, just do a blanket denial, don’t try to explain. Say, “Gwyneth never had an affair and if VF alleges an affair, we will sue.” But maybe Gwyneth isn’t in a position to give a straight-up blanket denial? That’s what I think. Oh, ladies, this is going to good.
By the way, Vanity Fair has already started trolling Gwyneth. They introduced a slideshow of all of the times Gwyneth has posed in their magazine – go here to see.
Photos courtesy of Vanity Fair.
A lot of people are saying this is Goop generated. She and VF are hand in hand and this is just to generate more publicity for her. I tend to agree.
Spot on, Daily.
Goop would NEVER cross VF; she’s not that delusional. Or better, in her delusional world VF is a power player she would not spit on.
They both need publicity and a little spicing up: all publications are having a hard time, and Lord knows if Gwinny doesn’t need to appear much less vanilla.
There’s a good possibility for that….
YES! I called this a few days ago and I stand by my claim.
AS IF GC is gonna jeopardise future interviews with A listers by doing a massive unauthorised ‘tell all’ on Paltrow.
She is IN LIKE FLYNN on this expose. WIN WIN WIN. Paltrow gets publicity and street cred, they pique the advertisers’ interest, increased circulation blah blah blah
These fools scratch each other’s backs. It’s all a part of the giant machine.
I mean, there has to be SOME recompense for living your life being scrutinised by the Great Unwashed? 😉
I’m not so sure. The public is still pretty Puritan with women when it comes to this stuff and it rarely turns out well ( see: Meg Ryan, Kristen Stewart). It especially doesn’t sell to the Minivan who might buy her “no anything fun” cookbooks. Look, the old guard is not what it once was. Tom Cruise may be crazy cult guy but he still sells far more than Goop and they went after him.
As a matter of fact I’m sure stars need VF more than the other way around. That’s the reason why Jay Z ignored Goopy’s cry for boycott and went ahead with the cover story. Stars come and go. Look at Meg Ryan or Wynona, or so many others for that matter. VF is still here, having survived them all. Worst case scenario they can always put Marilyn Monroe or Grace Kelly on the cover.
Jay z accepting the cover (or getting the cover) is by far the juiciest part of the story. Do u think he B sat down with Goop and let her know Jay was doing the cover?
Well I see the logic with your thinking, but she is SO arrogant she thinks she is BIGGER than anyone/anything and has made tons of enemies out there, many far more talented, liked and better looking than her…she really thinks she is above it all. Do think VF will tone down on her though cause there is a lot on her. You have a great point though, she is cunning and conniving and a PR prostitute so actually…hmmmm?
@Snowpea I agree with your theory. Both are eager for sales-boosting PR, and GP is too boring to have a real, sweaty scandal starring someone interesting. GP shmokking some rich hotel guy? Er, who cares?
It’ll be a plug for her clothes, GOOP and “GP is back in LA waiting for your calls, Hollywood” wrapped in soft limp lettuce leaves of “rumors swirl about her and Soffer, but all parties insist nothing happened” to make her seem like something more than a walking colonic tube.
Rubbish.
I don´t know, alleging that she is a homewrecker isn´t good PR.
I wish she were half as important as she seems to think she is.
Goop and Vanity Fair are both on it to get some buzz. No way VF angers somebody with long and deep connections in Hollywood as Goop. They depend on all those actors to come their Oscar party next year.
oh puh-lease!
Sorry, but Goop is so irrelavant in Hollywood that she’s a very safe target for some juicy dish.
Unfortunately I suspect that any affair she may have had was as excruciatingly dry as her other endeavours.
Her uncle is Steven Spielberg, hardly irrelevant!
@JJ: He’s not her uncle, he’s her godfather, and Hollywood isn’t what it was. A bit of a tangent, but in the interview Spielberg and Lucas gave recently, they both said the only way they can still make films for wide release is because they own their own studios – Lincoln came extremely close to being made for HBO, a la Behind the Candelabra. This is a project that involved among the best directors, screenwriters and actors of our time, and the studios didn’t want a bar of it.
Two years ago, I would probably have agreed with the conspiracy theory that Goop and VF are colluding, but not now, after the take-down of Cruise and then Pitt being forced to collaborate in order to manage the bad press about his relationship with Marc Forster and the genuinely disastrous WWZ production, where they had to rewrite and reshoot the entire ending a few months before release.
Celebrities used to have an enormous amount of power, privacy (if they wanted it), and the ability to manipulate their image, but the age of the $20 million movie star has passed for now, and with the advent of blogs like this, the media have enormous power, even if they are struggling to work out how to monetize it.
Far better for VF to go behind the carefully cultivated Goop image and reveal some proper skeletons than collude with her on something ‘safe’ for her. It will be a test of just how strong her friendships are. You can bet there will be enquiries to Madonna by the researchers, and what reason would she have to hold back?
Spielberg is not irrelevant, but Goop totally is.
She’s an acting has-been. She’s a token chick in Iron Man, otherwise, no projects and no HW prospects.
Spielberg was involved in at least 15 movie productions in the last 2 years. Paltrow is doing at least 1 or 2 movies a year. Some of those are leading roles.
I think she always liked to do more independent work or smaller movies, which she did a lot in her early career. Unfortunately most studios don’t do those movies anymore. But I think she has 2 movies in the pipeline at the moment and she is constantly in the news. I also wouldn’t be surprised if she shows up in Avengers 2 and 3.
Tom Cruise is a pawn for scientology. If his movies stop making money he will disappear very quickly.
I doubt VF has anything major on her. She has been with the same publicist forever. Her publicists brother is a partner at CAA (RDJ, Oprah, Anniston, Pitt) Paltrow’s connections run long and deep.
I think it’s definitely a possibility. She is getting a LOT of publicity out of this (and so is VF), and even with this type of rumor, she gets 2 rounds of headlines and gets to do a high and mighty denial.
I’d agree, except that her losing her “war” makes her look foolish and impotent. If she’s cynical enough to fake this for attention, she’s not dumb enough to spot how it would make her look.
All her other media moves (as annoying as they can be) reinforce her status as above everyone else. This does the opposite, and I don’t think she’d do that deliberately.
There’s a part of me that agrees with you. And if she hadn’t just released this very clumsy denial, I would completely agree. However, there are other sites that are implying she is not only a cheater but a notorious one at that. This could be the opening of a floodgate of stories. That is definitely not the kind of publicity she would want. Check out Just Say Jenn’s blind. Most people are guessing Madonna and Gwyneth. It it’s true, then she could really be facing a backlash. Like others said, her target audience is pretty intolerant of adultery. Especially if it’s aggressively sought which may be the case.
Just out of curiosity, do the above posters believe Taylor Swift was in on her less-than-flattering VF story? Granted, she was interviewed, but I’m not sure how being framed as a stalker is something she would have wanted out of it. Unless any publicity really is good publicity.
I don’t think it’s collusion, I think it’s Gwyneth trying to capitalize on some bad publicity
Meh.
I did not have sexual relations with that man.. (I really hope this isn’t Goop generated as others have said)
That’s not what the rep said, though, was it?
“I did not have a romantic relationship with that man. We did, however, f**k like rabbits whenever my husband was off touring…”
ha! awesome, thanks Tapioca!
VF – sneaky little hobbitses
holy crap, that made me laugh. bravo.
I think it would hurt her more if Chris’s alleged affair with Kate Bosworth were revealed.
If there’s evidence he cheated on her, I would agree. Maybe this is being used to distract from the real story?
I’m on the fence with this one. I tend to agree it would more hurtful that Chris was having affairs. Why would VF want to do a story on her in the first place. She’s boring, not a big HW actress now. I can see an expose on Reese W. being more exciting and I find her just as Boring.
Does anyone know why she didn’t want to Interview with them in the first place?
Because Hollywood publicists are the pinnacle of truth.
Okay, I know people don’t like Goop, but I think VF looks really bad in all of this. They did a scathing sensational exposé on Michael Jackson, but in that instance, there had been charges filed against him. So I could see investigating and getting interviews with accusers. Paltrow is just a run of the mill actress. Why be so vengeful? If she isn’t cooperating, then just kill the article. This way, she gets less attention, which is what most actresses fear; being irrelevant.
Maybe it is coordinated by Goop and VF to try to give her some sex appeal? I mean, she’s a decent actress, pretty, but she doesn’t transmit sensuality or an abundance of sex appeal. Is that the game? Toss out how hot to trot she is, but never button down any evidence? Throw innuendo, and Goop denies it, but it’s a backhanded way of telling people how desirable she is?
Right now, she is so vanilla, maybe they are trying to add sprinkles to flavor her up.
it is vengeful. i wrote this a little bit further down. as a celeb you obviously need to jump as soon as the Vanity Fair says “jump!”. otherwise they will tear you down. thats disgusting.
If they are trying to exact revenge for noncooperation, then they really suck. Maybe they are fighting their own irrelevancy? I know very few people who read the magazine anymore.
I will never understand why blackmail tactics are considered acceptable.
And Kiddo is right, Vanity Fair needs celebs like GP more than she needs them.
@ Kiddo, that’s kind of what I think too. Good or bad, interest in this woman has waned & any publicity is “good” publicity. I have never much cared for her but I don’t think she’s anymore insufferable than other celebs. She just needs to get a clue, stop bragging about her perfect life & for the love of all that is holy, plz just STFU!
I used to love Vanity Fair. It still has good articles but they are few & very far between. Graydon Carter needs to step down (while we’re at it, Anna Wintour should leave Vogue as well). Just my opinion.
I don’t visit her site. The only info I get, is here. So I’m not as annoyed with her as others are. She isn’t all over the place in quite the same way as the Kardashians and at least she has talent. I guess she is full of herself, but most actresses are.
Never been to her website either. Celebitchy takes care of any information I will ever want to read about Gooop.
She was pretty hot in Thanks for Sharing.
Didn’t see it.
Which means that it happened. The question is, do we care?? Mmmmmmm no.
If they write about this they better have a water proof evidence or is Vanity Fair now Star Magazine? warming up old rumours?
i dont like the Carter guy, he basically black mails celebs. “We will do a profile on you and if you dont cooperate we will really go after you.”
just think about it you have to employ someone to deny claims by other people that have nothing to do with your life.
all that come from that is destroyed families and broken relationships.
if you report on an affair and such better have proof. the damage is incredible to the people around the celeb.
Does anyone really care what Goop has or hasnt done? I really dont see her being on anyone’s radar other than the people she pays to write fluff pieces about her and nominate(or pay)for awards for her.
Its kind of weird how she came back in the spotloight with all the Glee episodes but it wasnt like the general public was just dying to see more goop even tho she seemed to be everywhere the past cpl yrs. I dont think its b/c the public wants her but more like she wants to be back in the spotlight so she’s having her publicists work over time inserting herself everywhere.
I really wouldnt be surprised if this isnt a publicity stunt. maybe something to make people have an interest in her since the beauty awards and such wasnt doing it.
I goose bumps from reading your comment. I was thinking the exact thing. I don’t get why anyone thing GP is a big powerplayer in HW. Just because of her father. She is not getting big roles and she is not being talked about outside the shade people throw regarding Goop.
And I was also thinking about all the Glee appearances. She was so going to start that musical career. Yet notice how Jay and Bee never invited her to sing with them. I think Chris and the others just sat back and watched her crash and burn. Then she seemed to get over it and start the Domestic Bliss angle.
The only reason anyone is talking about the VF piece is because she made such a big deal of it. Made it seem like she had something to hide or protect. There are other celebs way more A list than her and if they don’t like what is printed in a mag they ignore it. If they tell their friend to not talk, they don’t talk but nobody knows.
Chris Martin comes from a deeply religious family (especially his mother). If she is willing to go along with extramarital affair allegations to get PR (albeit negative) then it is very telling to the state of her marriage and the level of (dis)respect she has for his family.
Birds of feather flock together, and GP’s famous friends have shady pasts. Tracey Anderson is a allegedly a fraud who stole money from investors in her home state of Indiana and Maria Batalio agreed to pay $5.25M to settle a lawsuit that accused him of stealing waiter tips (the low of the low). No doubt GP has learned a thing or two from these two shysters.
The best PR GP could receive right now is for her husband to agree to be photographed with her on the red carpet or at another public venue.
“The best PR GP could receive right now is for her husband to agree to be photographed with her on the red carpet or at another public venue”
lol so true!
Yeah–you can tell that she really thought she was the sh-t because she was banging Brad.
I just can’t believe that she was the *it* girl. Ever. There really isn’t anything interesting about her–besides that she was engaged to Brad, the daughter of…, godchild of Steven Spielberg….I tried to watch her in Emma and she annoyed the sh-t out of me in the first five minutes.
I saw Shakespeare in Love and couldn’t believe she beat Cate Blanchett for the Oscar, in what essentially was a romcom film with higher quality costumes.
Drew Barrymore is also the god-daughter of Steven Spielberg. Unlike GP, Drew does not have to use connections to get work or remind the public of their connection in every interview for the past 20 years.
And the worst thing about that is the only reason I even know that Drew Barrymore has my future husband as her godfather is because I read on her IMDB page (as one of the fun facts about her) that when she posed for Vanity Fair (I think??) nude, it said that “her godfather, Steven Spielberg, sent her the magazine cover with clothing photoshopped on her, with a note that said ‘put on some clothes'”.
That’s it. I’ve never heard the words “Steven Spielberg” come out of her mouth. Ever.
Another dishy (well semi-dishy) Gwyeneth Paltrow story from early in her career: http://nancyjosales.com/stories/GwynethPaltrow2.pdf
I love how many times she mentioned Brad in the interview. Name dropper even back then.
“No romantic relationship”. That’s a clever phrasing.
I think those were exactly the words of Portman denying anything happened with Sean Penn the year they were both in Cannes jury.
And my reaction is the same: girl, nobody ever thought there was any kind of romance.We actually assume that the body parts involved were a little south of the heart.
I wonder why Jay-Z didn’t listen to Goop and did the cover? That is a slap in the face to Goop, no?
Bad move on Goopy’s part trying to shush her friends and blackball VF and quieten them. Why so paranoid, makes me wonder what she is hiding and it only made us MORE interested than we would otherwise be. Hope they reveal more than affairs and dig way deep and reveal all her shehinigans..there must be some because she is so afraid of this article, so what is she truly afraid of ??????
She’s pissed off the wrong people one too many times. Anna Wintour is behind this because of goop dissing the met ball.
Anybody else get the feeling that many in Hollywood are likely LOVING all negative rumbling about GP?!!! She’s been insufferable to the public for so long, but likely also behind the scenes and with her peers, so been a best-kept secret I think. I think even many of her “friends” and colleagues and Hollywood in general, are enjoying her shaking in her boots. Think it’s not just the public who are grabbing popcorn and enjoying the show LOL!!!
At least one gossip site has reported that her falling out with Madonna was to due to her relentless and successful conquest of Guy Ritchie.
Oh please! More likely that M was a little too provocative with Mr. Martin, don’t you think?
News from 2008? She’s been so overexposed that they had to dig hard to find something, anything, to say about her.
This is basically where I am on this story. I have been trying to feel something besides boredom, and I just can’t. It happened five years ago, and if it’s been over and done with for quite some time, why should anyone care now?
Seriously. If this is all they got, they’ve got nothing.
I think there a lot of people who are rubbing their hands over this because she has been so snotty and insufferable about ramming her perfection down everyone’s throats. We reap what we sow, honey.
I always remember the story of her seeing the script for Shakespeare In Love when she was at Winona Ryder’s home, then basically stealing it from under her nose.
Gwyneth has brought VF’s malice on herself. She’s a snotty, elitist manipulator who thinks she’s above the unwashed masses and doesn’t have to play by anyone else’s rules, but the bigger (they think) they are the harder they fall.
If this is true, I’m glad. I can’t see Wynona, with her quirky personality, playing Viola. Also, in drag, Wynona would have looked like a 7 year old. I think she was all wrong for that part.
just because they didn’t take slow walks in the warm spring rain and he didn’t send her roomfuls of flowers does not mean they did not bump nasties.
she’s the needy control freak narcissist with an organic stick up her butt that i love to hate.
broken record: her stylist works for vanity fair.
Ok but if we find out that Goop has had affairs or lied about stuff or has done drugs, etc… Is it going to change my perception of her? No. I already think she lies about everything and I already have no respect for her. She’s a celebrity. It’s all smoke and mirrors to begin with. I don’t invest much in what she says or does.
That middle pic, of the blonde in the car? Who is that?! I would believe that’s Michelle Williams before Goop.
It’s a good picture but it doesn’t look like Gwyneth.
Holy Crap! Goopster got a nose job.
Nah, her nose got slim from her microbiotic diet.
There’s also the persistent rumour that a fling with Viggo Mortensen (well, who WOULDN’T?) while filming “A Perfect Murder” was what ended her engagement to Ben Affleck.
Oh god, I have both those VFs. I have every VF since the one in the 80’s where Joan Collins was on the cover. Or HAD. When I moved last time, I was just too exhausted to pack the last nine linear feet of old VFs. I still tear up over those lost issues.