If you want to get people riled up, defend Gwyneth Paltrow. Suggest that “conscious uncoupling” changed the way we talk about divorce, or that Goop has gotten people to think seriously about wellness—even if it means questioning what Goop’s offering (like jade eggs). Or that maybe she couldn’t remember which Marvel movies she’d been in because there are 37 of them and counting—and her character pops up for minor scenes all over the place.
She’s a polarizing figure, no matter what she does, which became all too apparent the day I posed a simple question in PureWow’s email newsletter: “Are you an Ina or a Gwyneth?”
After years of food reporting, I’d found people fall into one of two camps: They either make the same meal every day, appreciating the ease and efficiency it offers, or they get a creative boost from mixing things up. Ina Garten, famous cookbook author and Food Network star, has said she’s eaten the same thing pretty much every day for the last decade: oatmeal with butter and maple syrup. Paltrow, on the other hand, has spent the past few years whipping up everything from Korean-inspired steak and eggs to paleo lobster benedict on Instagram, as part of her “boyfriend breakfasts” series—aka her and husband Brad Falchuk’s weekend tradition. There’s no right or wrong way, but people had opinions, particularly about Paltrow’s approach.
“Who has time for that?”
“A private chef must be making all those meals when she isn’t filming for Instagram.”
