I feel like there are thousands of you virtually shouting NOOOOO into my face right now. I get it. There are a lot of reasons to be critical of Gwyneth Paltrow. She’s promoted some dangerous ideas and products on goop that undermine science and can have a negative impact on women’s health. This has been the conversation about Gwyneth for the better part of a decade and, to be fair, that’s where she says her focus has been – that she is chief gooper first and actor part-time. 

Right now, though, the actor job has been why she’s been in the spotlight. G is promoting The Politician on Netflix. Here she is arriving at Jimmy Kimmel yesterday which is great, that we have new photos of her so I can talk about Wesley Morris’s essay: 

“I love Gwyneth Paltrow. There, I said it.”

I love Wesley Morris. There, I said it. I love his writing. I love his podcast (Still Processing, with Jenna Wortham, who I also love). And I love his piece about his love of Gwyneth. I mean, I don’t know that I agree with all of his points, but I love the writing. He’s writing about her acting, and it reads almost like an extended, beautiful obituary – of her acting! Like he’s delivering it at a eulogy for her acting. It makes me miss her acting. If you’ve been visiting this site over the years, you know I’m a defender of Shakespeare In Love – both its win for Best Picture and her win for Best Actress, yes, over Saving Private Ryan and Cate Blanchett. And while I don’t want to presume that that was Wesley’s intention, beyond simply sharing that he’s a fan of G’s work, her acting work, I wonder if that’s what he was doing: reminding us that before G starting gooping, she was one of the finest – as he writes, “the best young American actor in Hollywood” for a time. I agree!

But is it OK to agree? More specifically, is it OK to suggest that this is something we can agree with? Does missing and memorialising (lol) her acting distract from the scrutiny of what she does with goop that is justified and, as some would argue, almost justify the sh-t she’s doing with goop? Or can we do both? Can we both miss her acting and sh-t on goop? 

Wait.

Is missing her acting a way of sh-tting on goop? 

Wesley Morris is a genius!