I had something of a girl crush on Gwyneth when she was new on the scene in '96. She'd been really good in stuff like Flesh and Bone, Seven, and Hard Eight, she had terrific style, she had a kind of unapologetic intelligence and presence that I thought of as "that women's college thing" (girls' school thing, whatever, same difference), and in spite of the animosity that was already building toward her it was pretty clear that she was actually a nice person. She clinched it for me by doing justice to my fave Jane Austen novel in Emma, which remains the movie I've seen the most times during its theatrical run (though that was also down to Jeremy Northam and the rest of the excellent cast).

A few years after her Oscar win, though, I began to feel disappointed with what you might call the Weinsteinification of her career: movie choices that were adventurous within a mainstream context, but not otherwise, and that never quite lived up to their potential. Harvey Weinstein made her, got her the Oscar (in retrospect, "bought" does not seem too strong a word), and eventually broke her by tethering her to that Miramax aesthetic, but it's pretty clear by now that that aesthetic represents her own tastes as well. With all the resources she already had at her disposal, she really didn't need Hollywood, and she could have done almost anything with her career, taken all sorts of chances. She could have been Samantha Morton or Emily Watson, an actor's actor - she really is that talented, believe it or not. Still, I didn't hate her for this failure, and continued to defend her to my Gwynnie-bashing friends well after most people considered this stance untenable.

You know what finally put me in the anti-Gwyneth camp? "Apple." That curse of a name she gave her firstborn was an unprecedented and definitive lapse in judgment, proof positive that she had ceased to be a regular citizen and now lived in the celebrity bubble where people are protected from the consequences of their own pretentious, ludicrous choices. What was she thinking? "Apple" is a child's name (actually, it's not a name for a human being of any age, but let that pass), but that girl will be a grown woman one day; she'll try to find work, she'll have sex. Through all of this, she'll be known as "Apple." ("Moses," while it still suggests the ego and attempted specialness of so many celebrity baby names, is close enough to normalcy that I'll give it a pass.)

GOOP and the many grating statements Gwyneth has made in connection with it are just more emissions from that protected celebrity bubble she lives in nowadays; I'm no longer surprised to hear this sort of b.s. coming from her direction. Still, she's human, and it sounds as if all may not be well in her world lately. Lainey, whose gossip blog is getting deserved love upthread, has a theory that GOOP is Gwyneth's response to crisis: rumored marital problems, career decline (Iron Man aside), the fact that even her genetically superior body is starting to show signs of fallibility. She's invested a lot in GOOP emotionally, perhaps; hence her brittle, defensive reactions to all the criticism.

Gwyneth, I can't get with you any more; you set my bullshit detector off too much. Still, I have no truly haterish hate for you. If you can manage it, just try to check yourself before you wreck yourself.

/novel. Ah, it's so late, no one's going to read this anyway!

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b) I think she's a smug twat. Sorry. I did like her in Proof though.

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Screw her, forever and ever.

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it's annoying to read about people who go blindly through life with no adversity, no constant struggle, no hurdle to jump that isn't 5 millieters high, and then read those same people wax philosophic about their circumstances as if that is normal for everyone.

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The means may not be pretty but she did it.

Intact family life.

Career that can support her and her family many times over.

Ability to start new projects without worrying where the money is coming from.

Self preservation skills to face onslaught of rage.

She has achieved the success that she set out to do. Even if she never makes another movie, she will have money from Iron Man that will keep her rolling in GOOP for a lifetime.

This is what first world success story looks like.

I say she's mastered the game to achieve her goals and maybe everyone needs to do the same for themselves instead of worrying about her being a spoiled oblivious patronizing princess.

It works for her -- is that so wrong?

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It's finely a calculated Two Minutes' Hate, in which we're shown the things that we revile the most (rich, clueless people who shit on us and our coupon-clipping, Ikea-shopping ways) and then we're given the opportunity to shout about how terrible it all is.

Or, y'know, she could really and honestly be that tone-deaf.

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