In the mid-90s, Gwyneth Paltrow and a not-yet-married Carolyn Bessette were both blonde, beautiful, privileged and fashionable young women raised in or around NYC who would dominate national headlines — but they decidedly were not friends.
In Gwyneth: The Biography, author Amy Odell reports that the fellow It Girls had a professional connection via Calvin Klein, where the future Mrs. Kennedy served as a publicist and Paltrow was a celebrity client.
As revealed in an early book excerpt exclusive to Us Weekly, Se7en star Paltrow “irked” Bessette:
Gwyneth said she had arranged for an appointment at Calvin Klein, where she had become a regular presence at the office One of the publicists on the brand’s small team who helped Gwyneth was Carolyn Bessette (who would go on to become Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy). According to one person familiar with her thinking, Gwyneth irked her. When there were pictures of Gwyneth in the papers, Bessette, who viewed her as “little miss perfect,” would make cutting remarks about her.
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Bessette, of course, would marry John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1996, and, just like actress (and future GOOP founder) Paltrow, showed up in newspapers around the world; the beloved, talked-about couple died in a tragic 1999 plane crash. More than a quarter century later, the late Bessette-Kennedy and her husband continue to generate intense fascination and speculation about their mysterious high-profile lives together, and what might have been — so much so that it has inspired American Love Story, an in-production new limited TV series from Ryan Murphy. Early shots of actress Sarah Pidgeon in character as Bessette-Kennedy triggered an intense internet backlash, particularly around Pidgeon’s styling and hair color.
With or without Bessette’s begrudging help, Paltrow was enthusiastically championed and dressed by Calvin Klein since the earliest days of her fame; he threw parties in her honor and lent her his helicopter, while she sat in the front row of his fashion shows around the world. Paltrow wanted to wear the brand in her 1998 film Sliding Doors, although its expensive, high-end line was mostly “too fabulous” for her role as a British woman who works at a sandwich shop, Odell writes.
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Based on Odell’s extensive reporting and over 200 interviews, Gwyneth: The Biography also offers new revelations about what went wrong in Paltrow’s highest-profile relationships, both romantic and platonic: The demise of her three-year romance with Ben Affleck despite their “physical chemistry,” the “breaking point” in her talked-about friendship with Madonna, a feud with former pal Winona Ryder over the Shakespeare in Love role which won Paltrow her Oscar, and more.
How does Paltrow feel about the bombshell book? The mogul, 52, “isn’t too bothered,” an insider told Us exclusively, adding that she’s “been in the Hollywood game for a long time and so has a thick skin. This book isn’t a big deal for her.” Unlike Odell’s last A-list subject — none other than Anna Wintour, for 2022’s New York Times bestseller Anna: The Biography — Paltrow “did not participate” in the process, the insider said.
Gwyneth: The Biography will be released on July 29 and is available for pre-order now.
