Astronomer surprised me! We ended last week with the confirmation that HR chief Kristin Cabot had officially resigned, days after CEO Andy Byron resigned, both coming after the coworkers were caught on the jumbotron at a Coldplay concert. (It’s like Mad Libs.) With the resignations, plus interim CEO Pete DeJoy waxing on how “surreal” the attention has been on their little billion-dollar tech company, I was all set for the story to die down for a bit. But then Astronomer stunned us by gooping it all up! The startup did a bit of clever PR over the weekend and dropped a video in which Gwyneth Paltrow — ex-wife of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin — announces herself as the “new temporary spokesperson” and talks up what it is that Astronomer does, all while cheekily referencing (but not discussing!) the whole cheating viral moment of it all. Well played, tech unicorns, well played.
Out of a sky full of stars, Astronomer wants Gwyneth Paltrow on its team.
One week after her ex Chris Martin joked about Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot—then the respective CEO and human resource head of Astronomer—”having an affair” when they hid from the camera at a July 15 Coldplay concert, the Oscar winner weighed in with a humorous take on the matter.
“I’ve been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300-plus employees at Astronomer,” Paltrow quipped in a video released by the DataOps company July 25. “Astronomer has gotten a lot of questions over the last few days and they wanted me to answer the most common ones.”
But instead of breaking down the cheating speculation surrounding Byron and Cabot, the so-called “temporary spokesperson” started answering questions about data operations.
“We’ve been thrilled so many people have a newfound interest in data workflow automation,” Paltrow gushed, before plugging Astronomer’s DataOps conference as an answer for “other questions we’ve received” in the wake of the scandal.
She hilariously cut off Q&A submissions reading, “OMG what the actual f—” and “How is your social media team holding—” to expertly shift the focus back to the brand.
“We will now be returning to what we do best: Delivering game-changing results to our customers,” the Iron Man actress added. “Thank you for your interest in Astronomer.”
Needless to say, the internet quickly caught onto Astronomer’s cheekiness in having Paltrow star in its latest ad.
“Amazing crisis management,” one X user wrote, while another commented, “This is quite possibly the best recovery play I’ve seen a company pull off in a while. Way to lean into it lmao.”
A third X user praised, “This is PR masterclass. You take the most viral moment of July 2025 and, instead of disaster control, make light of the situation and create the ultimate brand awareness.”
Again, for a company that’s presented itself as very shy and startled by the sudden spotlight, this was a very bold move for them! And I’m also impressed that they tapped Gwyneth, filmed a clip with her, and rolled out the video within 10 days of the inciting incident. This also conveniently lands just as Gwyneth: The Biography is coming out (Tuesday!), and author Amy Odell has already whipped up an Instagram post suggesting that Astronomer likely paid Gwyneth somewhere in the millions for this one-minute gig (based on her new inner knowledge of all things Goop). The video is fun, and I think Gwyneth would be a lot less divisive if she leaned more into this persona and backed away from pretending to be a doctor. Also, E! News didn’t quite capture the set up in their coverage; there are title cards with questions about the viral kiss cam moment, and then they cut to Gwyneth who talks up the company, as if that’s what was just asked. Like I said, it’s clever. The only angle not being squeezed for all it’s worth, here, is Gwyneth’s connection to Coldplay. And how she actually can relate to the cheat— aaaaand my transmission cut off.
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Photos via YouTube, Backgrid and Astronomer