In the firing line

Over the past few months, I've been receiving Gwyneth Paltrow's blog, Goop. It's a bit like watching an accident happen in slow motion - oddly fascinating, even though you know that it's all going to end in tears.

Her latest entry has attracted a lot of attention. She's written about frenemies, which of course has the tabloid media in a frenzy. Is she talking about Jen or JLo or Winona or Mads? This is a particularly amusing slant on the story, as it assumes that famous people only know other famous people. Um, isn't it just possible that she could be talking about someone who is just a regular human being, or aren't normal folk allowed to mooch around with stars?

I think that this is what is at the heart of what's both weird and fascinating about Goop. When someone as famous as Gwyneth Paltrow expresses something like this - "[someone] really did what they could to hurt me. I was deeply upset, I was angry, I was all of those things you feel when you find out that someone you thought you liked was venomous and dangerous" - those of us in the cheap seats will of course ponder on who she could mean; come on Gwynnie, was it Jen or JLo or Winona or Mads? When (almost) any other blogger writes about friendship gone bad, the rest of us would just say "OK then, what do you have to say on the subject?" and not try to guess who we're actually referring to.

But on the other hand, her blog is a strange combination of someone portraying herself as living a very normal life, naturally preoccupied with getting her children to eat peas and doing the school run. But this is also someone for whom 'normal' means:
- sharing her intimate knowledge of several cities (Paris and NYC) where the restaurants know her by name and what her favourite dish is
- wearing Chanel mini dresses that you can pass down to your daughter, and
- her day job this spring is filming a movie.
Bit different from tackling crowded transport, the joys of finding a bargain, and working out how to make a kilo of mince stretch into three interesting family meals.

And I mean, really, do we imagine that Gwynnie really gets around dressed like she is here?

And while I definitely don't agree with the morning television presenter I heard today that suggested that she should stop blogging because she should be concentrating on Apple and Moses instead (assuming that she does write her own entries of course, and what the hell is wrong with mothers blogging you tool!), I do wonder what she's actually getting out of Goop?

Other than getting people talking about her of course...