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Sunday, Jul 12, 2009
Her upbringing and aristocratic air have -- unfairly -- made her a loaded target for many. But the most unjust criticism is of her very best films.
Sep 22, 2004 | How did someone who has done as little to court controversy as Gwyneth Paltrow become such a divisive figure? Easy -- she's rich, white, beautiful and successful.
No star of the last 10 years has been such a magnet for the neuroses and prejudices of those who watch her than Paltrow. Camille Paglia, writing here, referred to her as "vacuous, sallow, moony, rubbernecked" and, noting that she is the daughter of actress Blythe Danner and late producer/director Bruce Paltrow, called her "a preening, pampered princess who's been foisted on the public by a bicoastal media cabal." Tara Ariano and Sarah D. Bunting worked a similar, familiar theme on MSNBC, writing: "Even before she won her Oscar, Gwyneth Paltrow was Hollywood royalty -- the child of a lovely patrician actress and a producer of interesting, critically praised TV shows. But she hasn't just lazed about, drawing on her trust fund of fame: she's made a name for herself by dating her co-stars; dressing so well that she's considered a fashion icon; talking about her trendy hobbies, from yoga to her macrobiotic diet to 'cupping'; and now for marrying a rock star, giving birth to their child, and naming her after produce. Oh, and she hasn't made a good movie since 'Shakespeare in Love.'"
People seem to hate Paltrow because she's got that slightly aloof patrician beauty, because her career benefited from the connections she had growing up the daughter of Blythe Danner and Bruce Paltrow, because family friend Steven Spielberg helped her get into the movies, because her dad bought her the Harry Winston necklace she wore to the Oscars, because she burst into tears accepting the award, because she married rock star Chris Martin of Coldplay, because she named their daughter Apple. And this history isn't even checkered by a broken home or a stint in rehab to console Paltrow haters, darn it.
It's understandable that Paltrow pushes the buttons of people who didn't have the advantages she did, who think of how hard they've had to work for what they've gotten and resent how easily success has come to her. Those are very real, very strong, very persistent feelings. They're also part of the slop we have to put aside if we want to call ourselves grown-ups. Nobody should like the fact that life isn't fair -- but being shocked by it past, say, your sophomore year in college seems naive.
It's childish to rail against the fact that people's connections help them (the exception being the current occupant of the White House). There wasn't one person I heard making fun of Paltrow for bursting into tears accepting her Oscar who didn't sound offensively inhuman. Here was a young woman overwhelmed at the tail end of an emotional roller coaster (her father and grandfather had been seriously ill). You just know that had she remained composed those same people would have accused her of being an unemotional ice princess who acted like the Oscar was her due. And when people talked about her father having bought her the Harry Winston necklace she wore to the ceremony, as if wanting it or owning it were a moral failing, it sounded like nothing so much as a childish temper tantrum.
What may be most interesting about the Paltrow haters is this: Ask any one of them why they hate her and it's almost a sure bet that the quality of her acting will barely figure into it.
