How Gwynnie turned being irritating into a licence to print money: She flogs £1,500 capes, recipes for £46 fish fingers and kale chips delivered by courier. Now she's got her own TV series

By Paul Scott

PUBLISHED: 18:27 EST, 13 December 2013 | UPDATED: 18:58 EST, 13 December 2013

Money making: Gwyneth Paltrow, pictured at a signing for her book 'It's All Good' in Los Angeles, has scores business ventures

Money making: Gwyneth Paltrow, pictured at a signing for her book 'It's All Good' in Los Angeles, has scores business ventures

Gwyneth Paltrow says that all she wants for Christmas is ‘togetherness’ and maybe a small bottle of exquisite perfume if she’s lucky.

Not that she’s against a little seasonal consumerism, you understand. Those seeking a small Yuletide gift for the lady in their life only have to visit the Oscar-winning beauty’s oddly titled website Goop to find just what they’re looking for.

Sadly, anyone wishing to buy her bestselling cashmere cape — Gwynnie has one herself, natch — has already missed the boat.

She’s done such a good job of extolling the luxurious virtues of the floaty, grey knitwear (she claims it’s just the thing for a long-haul flight) made exclusively for Goop by designer Michael Kors, that it’s already sold out, despite its eye-watering £1,582 price tag.

Not to worry, there’s a dove grey leather biker jacket, made for her collection by designer Helmut Lang, and a snip at £728.

Miss Paltrow insists she created the London-based website to ‘nourish the inner aspect’ and dispense wise words, but it’s clearly nourishing her bank account, too.

Welcome to Gwynnie Inc, where mystical New Age crackpotism meets rampant capitalism. It’s a heady mixture that is fast turning the blonde Hollywood star into a significant international business player.

Gwyneth’s ever-expanding, money-making realm now extends from fashion to upmarket health clubs, hair salons, travel advice apps, health food deliveries and cookbooks.

And next week, in her latest venture, Miss Paltrow will launch her own ‘inspirational’ television channel. She and her Hollywood fitness guru friend Tracy Anderson will appear in the first episode of their online TV series called The Restart Project, which features teary-eyed interviews with women who have changed their lives ‘from the inside out’ by adopting healthy diets and fitness.

It comes only a week after mother-of-two Gwyneth, who is married to British rock star Chris Martin, announced her latest lucrative commercial tie-up with fashion mogul Michael Kors. The pair’s joint clothing range is available on her website now.

Typically, it was announced in unashamedly schmaltzy fashion. The actress and the American clothes designer posted a video on Goop that shows them decorating a Christmas tree and sipping cocktails.
But behind the tinsel-festooned bonhomie lies pure corporate savvy. And Kors, who is on the verge of becoming fashion’s next billionaire, knows that whatever 41-year-old Gwynnie touches turns to gold.

Take Goop, for instance, which is a small cog in her growing multi-million-pound empire. The firm has seen turnover rise 14-fold in the past year alone.

Latest accounts obtained by the Mail this week show that in the year to last December, the company, which is based in offices close to Oxford Street, grossed £1.1 million, paying Miss Paltrow and a fellow director £350,000.

It’s the tip of the iceberg. Rising income and a host of exclusive clothing ranges with the likes of her designer friends Stella McCartney and Matthew Williamson have sparked rumours on Wall Street and in the City that a host of venture capitalists are circling in the hope of investing in Gwyneth’s company.

No wonder. Paltrow, whose joint wealth with Coldplay frontman Martin is believed to be near £100 million, has turned herself into a glossy-haired cash machine.

As well as lucrative modelling contracts, including a deal to make her the £3 million face of Max Factor’s Modern Icon range and a £1.2 million contract to promote Boss perfume, she’s also cashed in on big-money sponsorships with designer handbag firm Coach and Tod’s shoes.

Big announcement: Gwyneth Paltrow and fashion designer Michael Kors, pictured, announced the pair's joint clothing range on the actress's website Goop earlier this week

Big announcement: Gwyneth Paltrow and fashion designer Michael Kors, pictured, announced the pair's joint clothing range on the actress's website Goop earlier this week

Meanwhile, she’s teamed up with fitness coach to the stars Miss Anderson to open a series of gyms in Manhattan, Los Angeles and The Hamptons. They’ve also launched a private training programme in London where Miss Anderson will get you fit, Gwyneth-style.

At the same time, the actress is launching a direct-to-your-door, food delivery service, offering her own recipe low-fat kale chips, and her not-so delicious-sounding chia pudding (it’s basically poppy-like seeds mixed with water and refrigerated).

Surprisingly, many people seem to want to eat like Gwynnie. Her cookbooks, including her latest, It’s All Good, are No 1 international bestsellers and, in May, £1,200 tickets for a cookery demonstration by the actress in New York sold out in minutes.

If that wasn’t enough to keep Gwyneth in cashmere jumpers, she’s opening a hairdressing salon in LA with her favourite celebrity stylist David Babaii, where fans can get their own trademark Gwynnie blow-dry.

‘What Gwyneth has done very intelligently is create a brand of herself,’ says American-based international brand consultant Nick Nanton. ‘Some people don’t like her, but by being a love-hate figure she’s managed to keep the people who like her — her core followers — even closer. Being a divisive figure is actually good for her.’

Certainly, Paltrow’s oh-so-perfect public persona has garnered more than her share of detractors. She has reportedly triumphed in a battle with Vanity Fair over reports the glossy magazine was planning a damning ‘epic take-down’ profile of her. 

Black wool melton peacoat, £1220.93
Suntan flared trouser, £581.40
Banker peplum sweater, £581.40

Fashion forward: Some of the pair's collection. (L-R) Black wool Melton peacoat, £1220.93, Suntan flared trouser, £581.40, Banker peplum sweater, £581.40

Curb link pendant, £76.50
Gold tone oversize runway watch, £168.30
Suntan cashmere elbow sleeve sweater, £290.70

Accessorise all areas: (L-R) Curb link pendant, £76.50, gold-tone oversize runway watch, £168.30, Suntan cashmere elbow sleeve sweater, £290.70

Gwynnie responded by emailing her friends to tell them not to co-operate with the article and went on the counter-offensive in this month’s edition of the British magazine Red.

In a not-so-subtle swipe at her critics, she sniffed: ‘It’s like the older I get, I realise it doesn’t matter what people who don’t know you think...It’s like, if your partner comes to you — or your best friend — and says: “Listen, I want to talk about something you did that hurt me, or I think you could improve,” sit down and listen to what they have to say. But some friend of so-and-so — it’s like, who gives a s**t?’

But Vanity Fair is not the only publication to turn on Gwyneth. U.S. magazine Star voted the Iron Man actress this year’s Most Hated Celebrity and showbiz website Vulture posted a tongue-in-cheek six-step guide on how not to hate her.

Admittedly, Gwynnie sometimes doesn’t do herself any favours. She drew howls of derision when she defended her high-maintenance lifestyle by saying: ‘I am who I am. I can’t pretend to be somebody who makes $25,000 a year.’

New ventures: Next week Gwyneth and trainer Tracy Anderson, pictured, will launch an 'inspirational television channel'

New ventures: Next week Gwyneth and trainer Tracy Anderson, pictured, will launch an 'inspirational television channel'

Then there are her outspoken theories on the dangers of convenience food — she refuses to let her daughter, Apple, nine, and seven-year-old son Moses eat gluten or dairy products. ‘I’d rather smoke crack than eat cheese from a tin,’ she told an interviewer.

Certainly it seems that the real world and Miss Paltrow took diverging paths some time ago. For example, on Goop she recommends that for Christmas, one should buy friends a £100 Fornasetti scented candle and take a £65 set of Hermes poker cards as a ‘hostess gift’.

Then there were her ‘spring wardrobe essentials’ earlier this year — which came in at £293,878 and included a silk skirt from Temperley London, costing £992, and Chloe trousers at £1,200.

Meanwhile, she suggests to her readers that they should holiday in her favourite French chateau, yours for £15,300 a week.

Nor do her cookery tips come cheap. One food writer has calculated that following her strict macrobiotic diet, which involves buying gluten-free flour, duck eggs and manuka honey, costs £200 a day. The homemade fish fingers she serves her children come in at £46.27 alone. That recipe calls for four organic sole fillets, gluten-free breadcrumbs, vegan mayonnaise, Old Bay seasoning, Dijon mustard and sea salt.

No wonder, that one critic suggested Goop was proof that Gwynnie has a ‘Marie Antoinette detachment from reality’.

Nonetheless, it seems Gwynnie’s legions of female fans can’t get enough. Goop, which she founded in 2008, has more than 150,000 subscribers to its weekly newsletter and a million-plus visitors to the website.

As well as selling capsule collections and giving out cookery tips, it also includes Gwynnie’s homespun homilies.

On telling the truth, for example, she trills: ‘The path to honesty has been one of the most beautiful, painful and interesting lessons of my life.’ And on breaking bad habits, she witters: ‘In researching for this issue, I saw that oftentimes, detrimental behaviours can be modified by focusing on changing patterns, and forming new neural pathways’.

Which does make you wonder if she’d be better off renaming the site Gobbledigoop.

Even so, there’s not a lot of time left for making films and Gwyneth, who won the best actress Oscar in 1998 for Shakespeare In Love, now limits herself to one movie a year, for which she can command £15 million.

It means she can afford to pick and choose. Her next part will be in 33 Dias, a Spanish-language biopic about Pablo Picasso.

Home is a white-painted £6 million house in an exclusive LA suburb. Until earlier this year, she and her family had lived in a 33-room mansion in London’s trendy Belsize Park.

However, she insists she and her husband of ten years, who also own a £3.4 million summerhouse in The Hamptons, plan to return to these shores permanently in 2015.

In the meantime, business is booming. As Robert Thompson, director of popular culture at Syracuse University in New York, told me: ‘Some people think that while they’ll never be so perfect and beautiful as Gwyneth, maybe if they use some of the products she uses it will make them a little more like her.’
Which explains why, love her or loathe her, the tills are ringing this Christmas at Gwynnie Inc.

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oscar winner?? she stole the part from her then best friend wynona, and her studio bought her the award, as the contenders that year were 10000000000 times better than her.

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What do people see or find interesting in this attention seeking, shallow woman?

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oh and news-flash; you'll probably find that a lot of the visitors to your website are on 25K a year!! And work their butts off for it too.

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Who knows, maybe we'd all be like that if we had millions in the bank. But advocating such an unattainable lifestyle to the masses is in bad taste I think, and only serves to remind us what a different world she lives in. When I watch Shakespeare in Love these days, I can't believe it's the same person!

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Omg even her clothes are boring!

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This woman is so irritating, I cannot believe there are so many mugs around that buy her crap, but then again it is America so yes I can.

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This article reeks of envy and sour grapes. Sure, Ms Paltrow's attitude, preferences and lifestyle may be irritating and off putting to some. But criticism is ill justified imo. Fact - successful actress, mother and husband in apparently stable unit. Health, wealth and family, isnt that what we all want for ourselves? I wouldnt personally eat her food or buy her clothing but I can respect her for her accomplishments.

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"... However, she insists she and her husband of ten years .... plan to return to these shores permanently in 2015 ..." Oh noes!

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Oh, Paul, your just sooooo witty! All that arch sneering & puerile sniggering; it's all so CLEVER. Full of cheer & goodwill to all mankind. Except for the stinking rich & eye-wateringly smug la Paltrow, obviously. She clearly needs taking down a peg or three. And dear old Paul Scott & his happy band of Mail hacks are just the sainted folk to do it. Yay. Season's greetings, one and all!!!

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Oh the jealousy... Even the writer can't keep her contempt under wraps. What is it with the hate of successful people? Share the love people - whether you're rich or poor. Envy gets you nowhere!!

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