I didn’t even know this was happening, but here we go: a splashy rollout for the new Netflix series The Politician, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter. The Politician sounds like equal parts Election (dir. Alexander Payne) and Arrested Development. It’s about a super-wealthy guy played by Ben Platt, and every season of the show is going to be about his character running for various offices (class president to, eventually, president of the United States). It’s supposed to be a comedy and it’s supposed to skewer the rich and politically connected. It’s being done by Ryan Murphy as part of his massive Netflix deal, and the show is produced/written by Gwyneth Paltrow’s husband Brad Falchuk. And of course Gwyneth stars as Platt’s character’s mother. Paltrow even deigned to speak to THR about the project, because of course she did – she’s doing a little hustling for her husband. Anyway, you can read the full THR cover story here – the show sounds A LOT like Arrested Development. Some highlights from the piece:
Ryan Murphy on what the show is about: The Politician is a class takedown in the vein of such satirical 1970s films as The Candidate and Shampoo — but with a modern, Trumpy twist. “It’s wealthy people behaving badly. All of this has been percolating in the culture, particularly under this president and this idea of Ivanka and Jared [as] the sort of satanic poster boy and girl for privilege and nepotism.”
Gwyneth Paltrow on the College Admissions scandal: She says the cheating scandal is emblematic of the problems with excess wealth, something her husband has strong views on. “Brad really doesn’t believe in accruing generational wealth like that … because he feels like it keeps this vast difference between segments of the population. He’s very progressive like that.”
Brad seems to be making jokes about his wife: He wrote the part of Georgina, a warm but ultra-privileged woman who utters lines like, “This negative energy is not good for your father’s healing,” that make you wonder if the couple is playing some kind of thinly veiled joke on viewers by intentionally subverting public perceptions of the Goop CEO. “He said, ‘You’re my muse for this character,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s very nice,’ ” recalls Paltrow, whose wellness company has its own series hitting Netflix in early 2020.
Gwyneth never intended to do the role: “I just was like, ‘I can’t do any projects right now. I have an immense amount of responsibility at my company,’ ” says the 46-year-old actress… But Falchuk, Murphy and Netflix execs were so determined that they were willing to build the production calendar around Paltrow’s Goop schedule. (She was never on set for more than a couple days a week, and when she was there, she had a flock of Goop staffers by her side.) “It was like, “If you can’t do something, just tell me and I’ll rewrite the scene,’ ” says Falchuk.
Ryan Murphy on Paltrow & Falchuk: Murphy is just relieved to see his longtime friends, for whom he threw “the world’s most opulent wedding party” last year, happy. “They’re very lovey-dovey, physical and they’ve found some incredibly rarefied space. They both went through a lot, and I was with them for a lot of years where it wasn’t so great.” The show was, for Paltrow, a chance to watch her behind-the-scenes husband step into more of a leadership role. “It’s so fun to be working with someone who you’re in love with,” she says. “I was like, ‘Agh! He’s so hot, he’s so talented, this is so fun.’ “
Wow, what a mess! “They both went through a lot, and I was with them for a lot of years where it wasn’t so great.” Gwyneth and Brad literally got divorced from other people so that they could be together. Gwyneth wouldn’t leave Chris Martin until SHE had a jumpoff. I believe that “they went through a lot” – and a lot of it was their own making, from the affair to the dual divorces to the precious conscious uncoupling and everything else. As for this: “Brad really doesn’t believe in accruing generational wealth like that … because he feels like it keeps this vast difference between segments of the population. He’s very progressive like that.” I feel like Gwyneth said this with an eyeroll, like she’s the kind of person who would joke “I married a communist!” when Brad is like “maybe you don’t need to sell all of this snake oil to gullible white women so that we can own a ninth home?”
Photos courtesy of WENN, THR.
My god she’s insufferable. Please someone, anyone, shut this woman up.
+1
She had a “flock of Goop staffers” with her on set because her time is just so very valuable! She needs to use every minute! Please.
I know right that was a vomitous line.
VIP-itis. Blerk.
A call from family friend, Michael Douglas, got her an undeserved admission to USC. Her career and fame is the fruit.of nepotism. Seriously, people are unaware of the harm they are part of in this world.
IIRC it wasn’t USC, it was University of California at Santa Barbara…which isn’t as prestigious as USC. USC has an acceptance rate of 17%, UCSB about 35% She went there for a year.
Both her career and Oscar are the result of nepotism – she’s a mediocre actress at best. Without Mummy and Daddy’s connections she would have never made it on her own.
Harvey Weinstein BOUGHT that Oscar for her.
I went to UCSB. Heard all sorts of interesting stories about Gwyneth. I also knew someone who worked in the office of the registrar and snuck a peak at her and Michaels transcripts 😉
MachineElf, ooh! Do you remember anything??
That was Cate Blanchett’s Oscar.
Rumor was she used to regularly get really high and drunk and her big thing was to sit on guys’ heads, fart, and say with a British accent “I poop on you!” That story actually kind of endeared me to her. Her and Michael Douglas both got absolutely terrible grades. They both should have been flushed out freshman year but “mysteriously” were not held accountable like the rest of us. UCSB courts Michael Douglas constantly for donations ( I worked for alumni donations) I don’t know why he puts up with it since he didn’t even graduate. Neither one did.
😂😂 Thanks!
That’s who it was! I posted below that it was Spielberg, but you’re right, it was Douglas.
She went to a fancy prep school in NYC, and still needed help getting into UC Santa Barbara. (Grinch smile).
She went Dalton in NYC.
She actually went to Spence in New York, she was a year behind me.
Any Gen X Canadians on here? She is giving me Cynthia Kereluk vibes in these photos.
Oh dear, this GenX Canadian is drawing a blank.
Same. Who?
Wow! Yes! Bang on.
OMG the workout lady!! YES!
She and Chris Martin didn’t seem to feel that way when they supported conservative parties living in London. Hopefully she’s opened her eyes.
I never got the true tea on the Martin-Paltrow split. Does anyone remember what it really was all about and what really went down? Did Gwyneth just get tired of living in London?
I don’t have any tea, but I had the sense that she got pregnant and they were happy to get married and give it a go. They just never seemed that hot for each other, more like brother and sister.
I also thought it was because he started being really indiscreet about his side pieces, particularly Kate Bosworth and Alexa Chung, among others.
I keep wishing that Gwyneth were more like Pepper Potts. I like her so much as Pepper, then she opens her mouth about Goop and I just can’t.
Yes Pepper is a great character. Too bad she’s not like that in real life.
Yeah, on one hand I detest Gwyneth for her endless crap on the other hand some of her old movie performances I really like. I thought she was good in the movie where she played Sylvia Plath in particular.
She was quite excellent in Sylvia, I agree. She’s entertaining in Emma, too.
Yes 🙂
I do not like the crap that comes out of her mouth but she is really good as Potts and very entertaining in Emma. Maybe because Emma (To me) seemed like an empty female. Not a far stretch for her.
Rest assured Gwynnie dials it up for the business. She knows it gets her clicks. I think she’s 20% like that in real life and the remaining 80% is for the clicks. She doesn’t care what 60% of people think because her business has a hardcore set of diehard fans who spend tens of thousands a year. Some of them get personal calls from her.
She is imo a very wealthy idiot. Money can buy pretty much anything. She is proof.
Lmaooo he doesn’t believe in accruing generational wealth! That’s why he he’s a multi millionaire writer/producer??? Loll is he donating all his money to charity in his will?? If not, then he needs to quit and go become a garbage man
I wondered about that too. I was like, “so, is their plan to spend the gazillions before they die?”
I know that George Lucas and Sting, among others, have told their children they won’t inherit their parents’ wealth.
It’s rich for nepotism case study Gwyneth to be pontificating about generational anything.
“He’s so hot” Um no.
Yeah, he’s very unappealing lookswise, IMO. Although I think the same about Chris Martin.
ick. the pictures of him on the beach in hamptons. ick. ick. I can see him singing his elevator music with that body. ick
Yeah I don’t find him hot at all.
Yeah, what’s with the hair? It’s all fuzzy. Just cut it off, dude.
All I see when I look at him is Jonathan Cheban, that klingon friend of Kim Kardashian.
THAT’S WHO IT IS!! Thank you, I’ve been trying to figure out who Brad reminds me of. Dead on.
I don’t see Jules’s comment for some reason? Who was it?
I think Falchuk looks like Matt Lattanzi.
I don’t really like Murphy’s flashy style, but he does pick catchy projects to produce. I’ll probably watch, but I wish Paltrow was not in it.
So 2 narcissists left their spouses for each other and their increased insufferableness is what we get. Its only a matter of time before one of their ego’s is damaged enough to walk away.
It will be interesting to see how Apple and Moses turn out when they grow up and go out into the world. I can only imagine what kind of mother she is and is he is using her as his ‘muse’ for this show it will be an interesting insight to that.
They both look so dorky in that photo lol. This sounds like a hot mess.
On a shallow note though, Falchuk is seriously hot. He has the body of a 20-something, there were shirtless beach photos of him the other day published side-by-side with a shirtless Chris Martin and the difference was astounding. Get it Gwynnie.
Oh, I didn’t realize she had an affair! Were people so focused on ‘conscious uncoupling’ they overlooked the affair because if so, that is kind of a genius power move.
The media focused more on his side of the affair as his wife was blindsided by it, can’t remember if it was the same for Martin but there had been rumours for a long time that their marriage was dead.
ahh okay, I’m surprised I totally missed that!
For years Lainey (and here too I believe) would talk about how dead their marriage was and how Chris acted like he couldn’t be seen with her but I guess she did refuse to leave until she met Brad. Time wise that’s what it looks like
“ahh okay, I’m surprised I totally missed that!”
@Pixie, do not feel bad and you are not alone as I missed all the real tea on the Martin-Paltrow breakup and Ritichie-Madonna breakup.
Thanks guys, I feel like I am a little more caught up on Goop! @BaytampaBay I also totallllly missed everything about the Madonna – Guy break up. I think part of me never understood them as a pairing to begin with.
Can I say I’m actually shocked she agreed to be cast as an adult man’s mother?
STEP-mother. So obviously obviously the much younger bride of the adult man’s father.
Ahhh, the all important STEP! This makes more sense to me.
I think even she realizes she’s not in demand as an actress. She’s nearing an age where you have to be really talented to keep getting good roles and she’s not.
Is not Gwyneth around the same age as Nicole Kidman?
GP is 6 years younger than Kidman. Kidman is talented so she keeps working.
I’m going to posit something controversial here: Nicole Kidman is, at best, just okay as an actor.
I think she probably gets more work than Gwyneth because she pursues more roles and people just like her more.
I think Kidman is beautiful and mesmerizing to watch, a great *star*, but I find some of her performances very distracting and can think of one film I actually turned off because of it. Yet I still really like her! Maybe I’m alone in this, but I don’t think she’s a great actor of our times.
Paltrow, on the other hand, has now become synonymous with Goop for me, and I know too much about her personal life to take her seriously in a role. I just… don’t like her.
tealily—I think she has been great in some roles, I’m thinking of To Die For way back when, The Hours…. She was very good in Big Little Lies. More recently I’ve been distracted by her looks, her Botox, etc when she is acting.
Tealily I really Agree with you. Nicole goes after role after role aggressively and if she doesn’t have anything buys her own books to develop into roles. Where as GP I think lost interest in really going after roles in any where near the same way, but it wasn’t because she’s not good. She’s done some great roles. I think she’s more of been there done that now what’s next -oh I think I’ll be a business woman!
Things are so bad in the United States and income inequality is so extremely damaging and the Republicans in federal, state and local government are so noxiously corrupt and hateful that I’m past the point of finding anything like this amusing or entertaining.
+1000000
Agree. That’s why I don’t like Succession either, I just hate everything about it.
Same here. I definitely am not in the mood for a TV series with that premise, and CERTAINLY not one starring Gwenyth Paltrow.
Blame it on Bill Clinton and all the centrists who’ve followed him. Clinton, remember, said, “They’d have nowhere to go,” (middle class and lower income earners) if the Dems moved closer to the middle.
Yeah, I know.
I am so over these two. They are representative of the privileged with a platform to speak and who think they are just like the rest of us. Except that they are not. They get what they want through connections. They don’t have money worries, don’t worry about healthcare, don’t worry about their children’s future because they are wealthy for generations to come. Etc. all her posturing is just empty nonsense.
She was on Graham Norton a few months ago talking about how after her Oscar she walked around with a huge head until her father told her she was acting like a real arsehole, and so she changed her attitude. I can’t imagine how bad she was back then, since by inference she thinks she’s just fine now.
It’s a little rich having Paltrow and Platt playing rich people benefitting from their wealth, given how both have benefited greatly from well-connected parents. (His father is a powerful entertainment lawyer.)
That said, I’m kinda glad she’s acting? Because she does that okay, and the vibe I’ve been getting from her is that despite declarations otherwise, she’s scared about aging.
Too bad her father isn’t still around. I think she looked to him to keep her grounded.
I think her mother, Blythe Danner, is the better actress of the two.
Danner is a better actress by far.
@minx, I am old enough to remember many of the network TV movie-of-the-week things and a couple of TV series (one being Tattinger’s) Blythe Danner did in the 1970s & 1980s. I always liked her worked and felt she was very underrated as an actress. I loved her work in the X-Files. Judas! Mary! Oprah! am I showing my age.
I loved Tattinger’s! It didn’t last long, unfortunately.
Blythe Danner is in one of my favorite Columbo episodes, Etude in Black. John Cassavetes co-starred and directed. It’s fantastic, and she’s great in it. And she was early-stages pregnant with Miss Thing at the time.
She’s also great as Nolte’s wife in The Prince of Tides. I’m farklempt.
I don’t understand her comment. Is she trying to get a dig at his kids? “Hey kids, state U only for you, bwahahaha!”
“Accrued generational wealth” isn’t just about the money. It’s equally about the power and connections, all which give huge advantages to the privileged.
Didn’t Gwenyth get into college thanks to a call from Spielberg? Or am I thinking of someone else? She certainly got her career jumpstarted by him, and her family.
Falchuk is going to make bank off of her and then get a divorce. So shady when a marriage is quickly followed with “my movie star wife just wanted to be in my little Netflix creative piece.” As for generational wealth, sure it’s an important conversation–but best done between you, your financial advisor and maybe a consultation with Warren Buffet. Leave us peasants out of it, please.
Its also ironic that she’s doing a Netflix show, as at one point she used to refer to Jennifer Aniston (a far better actress than Goop) as that ‘TV girl’ or something derogatory like that.
Goopy has no room to be smug. She owes everything to her parents’ connections as well as a nose job, lighter contact lenses and going pale blonde. When you look at her pre-nose job she was nothing special.
Well Mary Tyler Moore and Gillian Anderson were a TV girls so Jennifer Aniston is in good company.
Bless her heart. She is just the gossip gift that keeps on giving.
She really is! I’m always happy to see a Goop post on CB, they never disappoint.
I agree! If I’m having a tough day reading one of her pretentious comments just makes me laugh and laugh
Brad looks creepy and greasy and ughhh.
“He’s very progressive like that.” Uh huh.
I once heard Gwyn interviewed on Howard Stern, and I didn’t hate her. She was sort of funny and interesting. She has a delivery that, when you hear her words spoken, sound somehow less offensive than if you quoted them in print. This interview is just a shitshow, though.
Wow she has no idea how cringey and even embarrassing she comes across. A whole gang of Goop employees with her on set? Wow she really thinks of herself as doing something so noble for all of mankind. You’re not curing cancer with those jade eggs, Goop!
But he believes in marrying INTO it?? Lol 😂
His family is wealthy & well-connected in arenas outside showbiz.
It’s a little on the nose when she always sounded creepily fixated on her TV producer father, to eventually end up marrying a TV producer.
«I have an immense amount of responsibility at my company» – sure, cause articles about how essential oils can cure cancer aren’t going to write themselves. And even so, it’s not like she’s going to be the one to do it. Her job is a joke
Guys, I just realized she reminds me of Trump a lot: she also lacks class, talent, humility and self awareness. And she also managed to “succeed” (or accrue money and relative fame) due to nepotism and connections and being confident (without having a valid reason to be)
Agree!
Yup, and they both spread lies and disinformation.
“They went through a lot” — She successfully shut down that VF cover story, which was most probably about her having an affair with that Florida billionaire.
Go away Goop-y. Your Mom is the talented one in the family.
Btw, wasnt Goop-y engaged to Brad Pitt back in the day? Is that why she is looking down her plastic surgery nose job at Jen A?
TV actress got him down the alter and Goop-y didnt…jealous much?
But, we all know that Pitt is no prize these days.
people always discuss the affair between Angelina and Brad BUT, why does no one recall the rumours of her affair. i believe there was a blip about it somewhere when he was filming that movie where he portrayed Achilles. He left the set and went to go visit her to work on their marriage or something. i’m too lazy to look for it but it’s somewhere on the internet. Goop was in no way the innocent party in the destruction of their marriage.
Goopy is poopy 😔
I enjoy Gwyneth. I am not gonna comment all the rest of it but I have loved her in every movie she has been in. I think she is a wonderful actress.
They went through a lot is about her and Brad breaking up two families and the fallout with kids and ex’s. She met and started fuc*&&g Brad in 2010 after her first Glee guest role. They were on the down-low until 2015. By the time she ‘uncoupled’ she was already w/Brad for a while.
I cannot begrudge her how in love and happy she seems but does she always have to get everything? how many people meet the love of their life in their forties? Reall wish Murphy would spill a little more detailed tea. And what exactly is a rarefied space?
What do you call someone who does not want to pay taxes to support his fellow Americans, or take care of his own children and family?
A SOCIOPATH!