The remarkable world of Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle empire, has been dominating headlines and water cooler talk ever since its creation in 2008. Back then,
it was a newsletter compiled in the actor’s London kitchen. Now, it is a £200m company offering products, seminars and even cruises. But for those of us who can’t afford the £1,000 ticket for the In Goop Health weekend, or the £3,800 11-night caper in the Mediterranean, Goop seems something of a joke. How can we mere mortals come to understand something so out of reach? Evidently, with the help of Netflix.
This week, the streaming service launches The Goop Lab With Gwyneth Paltrow, a six- episode documentary about the company’s work. In it, we meet the Goop staff as
they are sent off as guinea pigs by High Priestess Gwyneth to try out new therapies, treatments and diets. They cackle and weep concurrently as they sip magic mushroom tea. They revisit the pain of losing a loved one at a class led by an alleged medium. And, in what Gwyneth herself refers to as a bit of an HR nightmare, they sit in a circle and disrobe at a self-pleasure session.
Naturally, Gwyneth doesn’t strip, but discovers she has been erroneously using the word ‘vagina’ when she means vulva all along. And she doesn’t hold back, discussing at length how she has been affected by the issues on the agenda, like insecurity, ageing and drug use. In the first episode, focusing on hallucinogenics and psychedelics, she confesses that she once took MDMA with husband Brad Falchuk.
She then goes on to admit that fame has its drawbacks. She struggled, for example, to find a trustworthy medium who wouldn’t just mine her details from profile interviews. ‘You can find out pretty much anything about me,’ she shrugs.
She is aided through her journey by Elise Loehnen, Goop’s chief content officer. When Grazia spoke to Elise last year, she was excited to use the series to show people the real Goop. ‘People have an opinion of us,’ she said. ‘They think they know who we are and what we’re about. They think we are wacky and out there. And then, they’re like, “Oh, wait! I’m totally into this this.” This is typically the new path for converts to Goop: they come thinking they’re gonna deride it, then they realise that it actually completely resonates with their lives.’ And she’s right. Amid the absurdity explored in this new show, there are moving moments.
We find Gwyneth in a place of inner calm.
Being over 40, she says, has helped her – she is now 46. ‘Whenever someone asks me how old I am, I never think that the answer’s gonna contain a 4,’ she explains as she battles to reduce her biological age in one episode. ‘Thirties are good. Forties are way better. I think the idea that you’re letting go of being identified as a woman of child-bearing age. Something happens when you turn 40, you just sort of don’t really give a fuck.’
Gwyneth even discusses her family life – including Brad, who she married in 2018, and ex Chris Martin’s reaction to a vampire facial. ‘My baby daddy was like, “You look five years younger.”’ Meanwhile, daughter Apple films her mum begging for food while on a particularly gruelling fast. And Gwyneth reveals that Moses, her 13-year- old son, is on his own wellness journey: he swears by two-minute ice baths.
Could the whole family get in on the Goop action and expand the empire ever further? Well, we all know that the Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree...
‘The Goop Lab With Gwyneth Paltrow’ is available to stream on Netflix from 24 Jan
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