In our EXCLUSIVE interview with the Westchester-based author, we get the tea on all things Gwyneth and Goop. Having already skyrocketed to the New York Times Bestseller List, we imagine it’s already in your chic raffia beach tote. If not, click here, to pop it in your cart just in time for weekend reading. 

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1. Your reporting on Gwyneth walks a line between fascination and critique. How did you navigate writing about someone who is both hyper-self-aware and often seen as out of touch?

I try to let the facts speak for themselves -- the old adage about "showing" versus "telling." We're used to consuming content about Gwyneth online, where there's often not much room for nuanced discourse. However, Gwyneth is a multi-faceted person -- you can't force her into a mold. I think where she's made comments that have triggered people -- like how "every pretty girl" should be forced to put on a fat suit to see what it feels like to live in a different body -- she's trying to get on the level of average people, but is unable to do so since she's never had an average life. As Hollywood royalty, she's been on movie sets since she was an infant. Her godfather is Steven Spielberg.

2. Gwyneth has been mythologized as both aspirational and absurd, how much of that do you think is intentional, and how much is the culture projecting onto her? Is she trolling us, or are we trolling her?

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Some of it is intentional -- the "This Smells Like My Vagina" candle, for instance. She thought that was a hilarious troll. Goop tried to plant controversial products and treatments in order to cause a stir online -- sometimes they were successful (as with the candle) and other times they weren't (as with an energy clearing kit they only sold 100 of). But other times (like with the yoni egg) Goop was caught totally off guard by what went viral. When Goop stories or products went viral, the site would receive a traffic spike, and those visitors might buy something -- a wellness product or a sweater or moisturizer.

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3. What did you uncover about Goop’s staying power in a wellness space that’s saturated and often cynical? What makes her brand stick? Is it really about wellness  or something else entirely?

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Goop created the archetype for a modern wellness company rooted in aspiration and minimalist luxury. Gwyneth also helped shape the modern wellness industry in two big ways: one, she gave it a gorgeous, aspirational aesthetic; and two, she gave it a language, by talking about purging "toxins" from our lives through so-called "clean" living/eating/beauty. I think her legacy will be showing the world how much money and how much effort people will undergo to feel well, no matter what science tells us.

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4. There’s a kind of performance to Gwyneth’s transparency, the “vulnerability as luxury” effect. Did you see cracks in that façade during your research? Is the curated messiness just another kind of control?

I interviewed more than 220 sources over the course of three years -- personal friends, people who worked with her at Goop, many people from crews of various films she's worked on. And as I document in the book, she occasionally made it known when press about her bothered her. But much of the time she was able to brush it off. 

5. Looking at Gwyneth’s evolution from indie darling to Silicon Valley CEO, what does her story tell us about the way power, especially female power, is being reshaped in Hollywood and beyond?
 

Gwyneth's story is a study in both the power and corrosive effects of fame. She can create a craze for potentially harmful wellness treatments -- like coffee enemas or drinking raw milk -- by endorsing them. People really listen to celebrities like her just because they're famous. As for why celebrities like her buy into this stuff, my theory is that when you're a star at her level, people stop telling you "no" or questioning you. I think this helps explain why she has been so vulnerable to charlatan wellness gurus she's embraced over the years who have no medical training but claim to be health experts. People seldom question her.
 

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