We’re back to cooking on GOOP this week. Ordinarily this would bore me. But Erin K brilliantly pointed something out – thanks Erin!

GOOP is featuring Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa. They’re trying out recipes. Whatever. Of course the way Gwyneth tells it, it’s like they’ve been best friends forever. Because she is best friends forever with EVERYONE.

Beloved all over the planet (not only for her food), Ina Garten has become the inspiration in the kitchen for so many of us. Her ease, warmth, and grace make her shows as delectable to watch as her food is to eat. Ms Barefoot Contessa herself invited me over to cook and eat two recipes out of her new book How Easy is That?, released on Tuesday of this week (Who knew homemade ricotta could be on the table in 25 minutes?). Ina, her best friend, the wonderful Barbara Liberman (who served as photographer), and I sat down in the garden to enjoy the delicious brunch after what seemed like only 15 minutes of prep. It was one of my most perfect mornings ever.

Did you get that?

My G was PERSONALLY INVITED.

You know who was NOT PERSONALLY INVITED?

Oh, just Jennifer Garner.

Taupe said last year that:

“I tried to get on Ina’s show… but eventually she just said, ‘I’m sorry, I only use my real friends on the show.’ I felt like, ‘What are you saying? That we’re not friends? I know everything about you!’”

I know I don’t have to remind you but you do remember that Ben Affleck and G were together for a while right? And that for a while after she was his gold standard? So yeah, there’s that too.

Was this intentional?

Here’s the thing – I don’t think it was intentional, not because Gwyneth isn’t like that, but because Gwyneth wouldn’t bother to know about who rejected girls like Taupe, she’s oblivious to the very ordinary lives of others, she only knows of the lives of the people worth knowing. It was decided, oh a long time ago, that Taupe simply wasn’t worth knowing. And so how would G know that Ina wasn’t down with Taupe? That almost makes it worse.

Anyway, have you seen the clips from Gwyneth’s interview with CNN Asia? She was interviewed in Hong Kong when she was there recently shooting parts of Contagion. Surprisingly she allowed questions about her personal life. They weren’t super specific, but she doesn’t usually go there. She didn’t balk when Brad Pitt came up either, albeit in the context of publicity vs privacy:

"The funny thing about it is, when I look back now (on my relationship with Brad Pitt), it's nothing compared to what people go through now with the tabloids. I think it's ramped up to a whole other level. It was strange to be followed around and photographed. But in the ensuing 15 years or whatever it has got a hundred times worse. When I see high profile relationships now, I think, 'Oh my God' even though I'm technically in one. But we sort of don't do anything public, we try to keep it behind the scenes as possible. Because it just generates more interest, and more paparazzi and being followed, and it just undermines the quality of your life. It's just unnecessary to be a public couple, and to have your couple-dom or whatever be its own entity, it doesn't make sense to have that in the public world."

Gwyneth also addresses her spot on Glee. OF COURSE she’d never heard of the show until someone had to tell her about it. I really love how somehow, always, she will always manage to tell you that something is lesser. Ever, ever so subtly. Really, it’s a gift. Like one of my favourite cinematic lines of all time, as noted several times, from Maggie Smith in Gosford Park: Difficult colour, green. You need to be a special kind of bitch to pull that sh-t off. Gwyneth is.



Attached – Gwyneth in LA last week. And also fresh faced and cooking with Ina Garten. But no Jennifer Garner.

Click here for the new GOOP and here for more of G on CNN Asia.


Photos from Fapian/Zodiac/Splashnewsonline.com