Celebrity Gossip History Lesson: Gwyneth Paltrow & Winona Ryder
Hi all!
Celebrity Gossip History Lesson is going to be a new series that I do in conjunction with my book WHERE ARE YOU, ECHO BLUE? I did an enormous amount of research on the book, especially about Hollywood stars, their agents and their inner workings. Echo is loosely based on Tatum O’Neal, Drew Barrymore, Lindsay Lohan, etc. Echo’s dad, Jamie Blue is based on Ryan O’Neal and even Echo’s agent, the caftan-wearing Hazel Kahn is based on the legendary Hollywood agent Sue Mengers.
I thought it would be interesting to break it down for you. In the meantime, I hope you pre-ordered ECHO BLUE from the bad place or your local indie bookstore (click on Bookshop.org to support indie bookstores). If you don’t want to buy it, please ask your local library to carry it.
ONE LAST THING! Did I mention that Publisher’s Weekly gave ECHO BLUE an incredible review?
“Equal parts intelligent and thrilling, this will have readers glued to their seats.” —Publisher’s Weekly
Swooning.
Celebrity Gossip History Lesson: Winona Ryder and Gwyneth Paltrow
It’s Friday and let’s do a little gossip history lesson. A large part of ECHO BLUE is about the relationship between Echo and her best friend Belinda Summers who starred with her in her first movie, “Slugger Eight” when she was 10-years-old. Belinda and Echo were the Gwyneth and Winona of their time. They did everything together: red carpets, pap walks, co-starring in Disney blockbusters together.
Above is a photo of 90s Winona which heavily inspired me for the Belinda Summers’ character. (Yes,I photoshopped her carrying my book lol.)
If you read my other two books, you’ll know that writing about best friends is pretty on brand for me. I’ve especially been fascinated by dynamics between best friends in the spotlight and Winona Ryder’s relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow was a huge inspiration for ECHO BLUE.
For those of you who don’t remember: Winona and Gwyneth dated Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. They were on red carpets together. Constantly whispering in front of paps. And once even wore matching cowboy hats because it was the 90s and that’s what we did back then.
No one really knows what happened between Winona and Gwyneth, but the celebrity rumor mill always goes back to this story: According to legend, Gwyneth stole the Shakespeare in Love script from Winona’s coffee table while Winona was in the shower.
In 2009, it came as a surprise to anyone who follows gossip religiously when Gwyneth wrote about a “frenemy” in Goop.
Can you imagine Her Goopness writing this now? “One day I heard that something unfortunate and humiliating had happened to this person. And my reaction was deep relief and…happiness.” How utterly... negative.
Yes, of course, I will do a Goop Translation. Don’t you worry.
What does this all have to do with WHERE ARE YOU, ECHO BLUE? you ask? While journalist Goldie Klein obsessively searches for Echo, she has to investigate what happened between Echo Blue and Belinda Summers. Why haven’t they been seen together in months? Was there some kind of betrayal? I love writing about best friends and the complicated relationships between girls and women. In the book, Echo is the one who is falling apart while Belinda has a stable home life. Echo does something to betray her best friend.
All we know now about Gwyneth is that she is an Oscar-winning actor who is the founder of a multi-million dollar wellness brand. Winona Ryder will always have cult level status in my book, but doesn’t seem like the person to betray anyone. Unless one of them is like 90 and decides to write a tell all (one can only hope), we’ll never know.
Goop Translation: Goop Vs. Winona Ryder
Goop: “One day I heard something unfortunate and humiliating had happened to [a friend who hurt me]. And my reaction was deep relief and—happiness.”
Goop Translation: Remember when Winona Ryder got arrested for shoplifting in Saks in 2001? She looked like a fucking bag lady. I watched that brutal TMZ video over and over. Her struggling with her bags in the store. The security guards chasing after her. I went to my wine cellar and told my personal sommelier who lives in my basement to open a bottle of my best champagne.
My assistant said, “We should do a sage smudge stick ritual to clear the bad energy.”
I told her to shove the smudge stick up her ass.
“Tonight,” I said, staring at myself in the mirror because the second best thing to watching Winona Ryder’s downfall is looking at my own reflection, “I’m celebrating.”
Karma is a bitch, darling.
Thanks for reading!
Love,
Hayley