I haven’t thought about Gwyneth Paltrow in a minute, really since this year’s awards season. Gwyneth tried to campaign for some nominations for Marty Supreme, but it didn’t go her way, and the film didn’t win ANY Oscars. Which is fine with me because I loathed that movie. Anyway, Gwyneth still comes out ahead overall. She was in a “cool” movie, she still got invited to the Oscars (as a presenter) and she’s still a multimillionaire running a moderately successful business, Goop. As it turns out, while Gwyneth is a wealthy elitist, she also thinks the current crop of billionaire bros are f–king tragic and awful. Pot, kettle? Or “wow, when you’ve lost Gwyneth, you’ve really lost the plot?”
Gwyneth Paltrow is getting called out for what critics are calling out-of-touch comments while discussing inequality of wealth. During a recent episode of her podcast, “The Goop Podcast,” the 53-year-old actress spoke with guest Kara Swisher about the tech giants in Silicon Valley and how they have shaped the world, asking how society got to a place where wealth is all that is important.
“How did we get here as a culture? Obviously, there’s so much revenue and profit driving this whole thing. That’s at the heart of it,” Paltrow said. “But how do you think we got to this place in culture where nothing matters and now all that matters is kind of these super rich white dudes who are breaking rules, setting rules, seemingly not caring so much about the downstream impact on everything, from health to culture.”
Swisher added she once interviewed the CEO of Meta and walked away with the understanding that his mentality was “I am not responsible for everything downstream,” adding that society has “an idolatry of innovators and of wealth” with the belief that “if you’re wealthy, you must be smarter.”
While many were happy this conversation was being had, many took issue with the fact that Paltrow was the one facilitating the conversation.
“Super rich white dudes? Coming from Paltrow that is kinda funny,” one fan wrote in the comments section of an Instagram post promoting the podcast.
I’ve come around to the idea that there are no ethical billionaires. It’s true when you really think about it, although one could argue that billionaire women like MacKenzie Scott and Melinda Gates are at least trying to be woke and ethical. I think Gwyneth, while rich and elitist, is pointing out that the richest men in the world are all self-absorbed losers who don’t care about society or culture at large. Which… is a fair criticism in general, and I’m fine with Gwyneth saying it too. She might not be the best social critic of this era, but at least she’s correctly identifying the problem and saying something. She’s not trying to normalize or defend douchebags like Elon Musk or Sam Altman.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.
