Gwyneth Paltrow’s new biography is full of amazing vintage ’90s gossip

Someone has finally written a biography of Gwyneth Paltrow! Gwyneth must love/hate that. She loves it because she loves being famous enough for a biography, but she hates having her dirty laundry out there. I have no idea if Gwyneth in any way “authorized” Amy Odell’s Gwyneth: The Biography,but I find it interesting that Gwyneth didn’t shut it down, and that People Mag is running excerpts from the book as their exclusive cover story. Gwyneth’s getting the kind of treatment People Mag would give to Jackie Kennedy or Princess Diana. I didn’t go into these excerpts expecting to enjoy them as much as I did, but there’s some real vintage gossip in here and it’s really fun. Some highlights:

Her yearbook: In her senior yearbook, she borrowed her parting words from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure: “Be excellent to each other and party on, dudes.” In the “Nightmare” column, other students got things [written by yearbook editors] like “AP Spanish Lang.” Gwyneth’s was “Obesity.”

Meeting Brad Pitt: She dropped out of UC Santa Barbara early on, and in 1994 she met Brad Pitt at an audition for Legends of the Fall. She didn’t get the part, but he later suggested she play his wife in the film Se7en. However, she received another offer to appear with Keanu Reeves in Feeling Minnesota. Unsure which one to take, she consulted with a friend, who said, “Well, who do you want to date, Brad Pitt or Keanu Reeves?” Gwyneth chose Se7en and Pitt, and Cameron Diaz took the Feeling Minnesota part. The Pitt-Paltrow romance didn’t stay hidden for long. The two would walk around the set holding hands, and smoked cigarettes together outside their trailers, Gwyneth holding hers like a thirties movie star.

She thought Brad was low-class: During Emma’s filming, Gwyneth expressed doubts to one crew member that Pitt was right for her, and admitted that she had a crush on Hugh Grant. “Brad and I had very different upbringings,” she told an interviewer. “So when we go to restaurants and order caviar, I have to say to Brad, ‘This is beluga and this is osetra.’ ” After Emma came out, Gwyneth went over to [her friend, makeup artist Kevyn] Aucoin’s place and cried about Pitt multiple times. He wanted to be with her but seemed to feel threatened by her success and all the attention she received. [Aucoin’s] advice to Gwyneth was frank, “You really need to end this.”

She banged John Hannah!? Gwyneth and Pitt never publicly gave a concrete reason for their [1997] breakup, though two people recalled a rumor about it stemming from Gwyneth cheating on Pitt [with costar John Hannah] while she was filming Sliding Doors. She told Howard Stern in 2015: “I wasn’t ready, and he was too good for me.”

Dating Ben Affleck: Affleck was struggling with alcoholism and a gambling habit around the time he met Gwyneth, who was attracted to his intellect. Her friends had reservations about him, because he didn’t always reciprocate her affection. He at times seemed more interested in playing video games with the guys at his house than being with Gwyneth. She spoke openly about how much she enjoyed their sex life. She told Aucoin one day that she loved when Affleck [engaged in a certain sex act].

The Winona Ryder rumor: When she got the script for Shakespeare in Love, which started filming in 1998, she first turned it down without reading the entire thing. Winona Ryder’s name had also been bandied about for the role. “It was never sent to Winona as an offer, but Winona wanted to do the part and Gwyneth had recommended her for the part,” said [producer Harvey] Weinstein. After a story about Gwyneth allegedly stealing the script from Winona’s coffee table reached the media, Gwyneth told friends that Ryder had started the rumor, and insisted she’d received the script through her agent. Shakespeare in Love opened on December 11 to ravishing reviews.

Her famous pink Ralph Lauren dress: She was nominated for an Oscar in 1999 and Ralph Lauren was asked to design her gown. She requested a design inspired by Grace Kelly. Leading up to the awards, she hadn’t been eating much and kept losing weight, necessitating extra fittings, where Gwyneth asked the Ralph Lauren team in New York to bring the neckline lower and lower. Lauren became so frustrated that he didn’t want to send the dress back to Los Angeles. But his team convinced him, and found a skilled seamstress to fit the pieces of the dress onto Gwyneth there. The designers at Ralph Lauren noticed that something looked off when she wore it that night. The fabric was puckering, a little wrinkly, loose around her torso — as if she had instantly lost 10 pounds. They realized she hadn’t worn the inner detachable corset that came with the gown, which would have made it fit more snugly. Lauren was not happy about the fit.

Falling for Chris Martin: Both aspired to some kind of soulful, intellectual seriousness at a moment when their work was pulling them toward mass appeal and triviality. Yet her friends felt like something didn’t quite click. Martin was an introvert who could be socially awkward. But he was incredible onstage, and Gwyneth, who was ready to settle down, was seduced by his persona.

Ending her friendship with Madonna: A few years later, Gwyneth’s friendship with longtime pal Madonna crumbled. Their relationship reached a breaking point when Madonna showed up to an island where Gwyneth and Martin were vacationing. Madonna seemed to know that Gwyneth would be there, which Gwyneth seemed to find strange, a friend remembered. Madonna then insisted Gwyneth and Martin join her for a big group dinner at a long table where Madonna went off on her daughter, Lourdes. Gwyneth and Martin were disgusted by the behavior. “I can’t be around this woman anymore,” Martin told Gwyneth. “She’s awful.” Gwyneth agreed that Madonna was toxic and ended the friendship.

[From People]

I always forget the John Hannah rumor, damn it. But I always remember the Viggo rumor, and I’m disappointed that it wasn’t included in these excerpts. Gwyneth really was That Girl in the ‘90s. She had ‘em coming and going. That part about Brad being jealous of her success is interesting, but the stuff about Affleck… well… yeah. The moody addict who is good in bed. It’s also interesting to get a confirmation on Madonna and Gwyneth’s split – they really were close at one point, and the rumor back then was that they stopped being friends after something to do with Tracy Anderson. And the Winona rumor! So much vintage gossip, so little time. The Winona stuff makes me think that Gwyneth did authorize this biography a little bit.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images. Cover courtesy of People.