Gwyneth Paltrow, Academy Award winner for her role in Shakespeare in Love, will probably be equally well known for her role in the wellness industry, as well as her acting. Eldest of two children of actress Blythe Danner and producer Bruce Paltrow, Gwyneth is a nepo baby who also had the acting talent to take advantage of the doors her parents opened for her. Blythe Danner, with a respectable filmography herself, has had her greatest successes on the stage, starring in everything from Shakespeare to Chekhov, winning a Tony award for the Broadway production of Butterflies are Free. I remember her most for her amazing role as wife and mother in The Great Santini.

Paltrow is also well known as founder and CEO of Goop, a company that was perhaps the first celebrity enterprise in the wellness industry. With involvement in beauty, food, fashion, and travel, Goop’s newsletter and website featured luxe “clean” experiences—products, services, and destinations that would promote health, and emulate Gwyneth’s lifestyle. She was the first celebrity to successfully leverage her acting fame into an influencer business, before social media existed. One may say she helped create and popularize the movement that lead to MAHA. While her recommendations were beyond the average person’s budget, she highlighted the effort of exploring, self-educating, and striving for higher levels of wellness for self and children. It must be said that most of her ideas were very “woo-woo”—she was accused of monetizing and promoting ideas that had no scientific evidence of efficacy—think jade vaginal “eggs”—and some products that strictly played off her celebrity status, including candles that reputedly smelled like her vagina and her orgasm. It is no wonder that she often became an object of ridicule, even contempt, in the wider culture.

Gwyneth received every advantage from her parents, from education at a renowned prep school, to frequent bicoastal first class travel, to family friendships with the most accomplished in Hollywood, including Godfather Steven Spielberg. Her parents, but especially her father, doted on her, giving her the best of everything, although wanting her to develop drive and earn her own success, cut her off financially at age eighteen. Odell describes Gwyneth’s personality as alternately warm and personal, and icy and indifferent, depending on her mood and her objective at the moment. Paltrow can flip that same switch on screen, using warm or ice as the moment requires. No doubt this entitled demeanor led to her successes in the roles in Emma, Great Expectations, and Shakespeare in Love. Odell documents many testimonies to Paltrow’s mean girl side, as well as her softness. She has loyalty toward others, until they no longer service her needs, when they experience being cut off with cool detachment. Odell provides the best information on her relationships with Harvey Weinstein, Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, and Chris Martin.

Media has amplified the general cultural attitude toward Paltrow. While many mocked the “conscious uncoupling” of her marriage with Chris Martin, Paltrow can sell out a handbag by wordlessly posing in a photo with it. While many feel loathing, even detestation for her persona, at the same time the public will want to know what she is doing, where she is going, what she is endorsing. Paltrow’s goals in acting are quite different from her mother’s—Blythe Danner became a good and accomplished actor, while Gwyneth’s goals were more driven by money, using acting acclaim and celebrity as leverage. Odell delivers another well-researched portrait of a complex person, one who has had surprising influence in the culture. For another Odell biography, I recommend her book, Anna: The Biography, the 2022 book about Anna Wintour (https://www.margueritereads.com/home/anna-the-biography-by-amy-odell?rq=odell) . Odell has planted her flag as biographer of complicated female celebrity figures of our present culture.