A Woman’s Right to GOOP

Gwyneth Paltrow is under attack, and I just don’t get why.

Last fall, Paltrow launched GOOP, a lifestyle Web site and weekly newsletter (I just got this week’s Paris-themed issue this morning!) in which she basically tells her readers what to get, where to go, what to make, etc.

You know, because she’s Gwyneth Paltrow and all. And because why not, right – after all, the media ask her those questions all the time.

GOOP was greeted less than warmly, natch-ish, especially by the media. Just last week, The New Ynrk Times published an article questioning its relevance, while other Web sites have ridiculed Paltrow for a number of things.

The actress says she decided to launch the Web site, which carries the tagline, “Nourish The Inner Aspect,” because she has “really useful information that I was privileged enough to get, because I have this amazing, super, fortunate life.”

OK – so she sounds a little…conceited. But the truth is she does, and we spend a lot of time feeding that notion (by watching her or any star’s movies), and envying that fact.

She has an amazing, super, fortunate life – she has the talented husband who writes songs for her, the two precious children and family, the amazing closet, and the Oscar to prove it, so suck it good and suck it hard – and she should GOOP about it if she wants to. I made the choice to sign up for the newsletter, and I for one cannot wait to try her molten chocolate cakes recipe.

If she can do it, so can I! That’s all she’s saying.

Photo: USMagazine.com.

Constance Trentham Was Right

“The time to make up your mind about people is never,” or so Maggie Smith said in Gosford Park.

But sometimes, people do – in spite of what I or even a couple of cute schipperkes would have to say or bark about it. (That’s wishful thinking when it comes to the dogs, since I cannot know for sure they would bark for me.)

And to those people I say, especially having received the electronic mail equivalent to a drive-by shooting yesterday, you can go your own way.

And I mean it in the best way possible. Honestly, I do.

Photo: USA Films (Gosford Park).