Gwyneth Paltrow and her good friend Matt Damon, with his wife Luciana, were in Venice this weekend promoting Contagion. G was slouchy and tired looking in orange Prada at the photo call, though I love the shoes that were paired with the outfit, and she chose Prada again for the gala, a blush bow gown that’s almost like the 15 years later sequel to her infamous Oscar pink Ralph Lauren, remember?

Love her (me) or hate her (you), here’s what you can’t argue about Gwyneth Paltrow: she makes expensive things look expensive. It’s the air of elite and the smell of betterthanyou that she’s carried around since birth and that bites your ass, I know, but at the same time, my G never shows up on a carpet like she doesn’t belong and desperately hopes no one will find out. Compare and contrast this, say, with someone like Victoria Beckham. See the difference?

Anyway, you know what bothers me about this dress and others like it and it’s probably just me? The darts on the chest. They never work for me. In some of these shots they don’t seem to be working for her.

Am also including several close-ups of G’s face because no one seems to believe her when she says she’s not had any freezing procedures but lately I really, really do. Look. It moves. Maybe even more than Madonna’s.

Speaking of...

You could say that they missed each other by a day, or you could say that Gwyneth was in Venice a night before her official Contagion duties began, and could very well have had the opportunity to hook up with Madonna who was there too but that never happened...

Instead, as you know, G has replaced M with Beyonce. And Beyonce and Jay-Z were in Venice too to celebrate B’s 30th birthday. And G hit them up on the yacht with some kind of jewel gift. Click here to see the photos. That’s a little blue box with a card.

And you know it wasn’t cheap. In fact, it probably set G back a LOT. Because it was for Beysus. Please. Can you imagine??? And because it came from GOOP, it was probably ultra exclusive too. We’ll find out soon enough though. Since these two love talking about each other, we’ll find out in the next interview.

As for Contagion, it’s receiving solid reviews, much more respectable than W.E. which was savagely attacked by many critics in Venice even though the fawning fans gave it a standing ovation. The TIFF audience is much more discerning. I can’t wait to see how it’ll play there.


Photos from Wenn.com and ALBERTO PIZZOLI/ Ian Gavan/Pascal Le Segretain/Gettyimages.com