Gwyneth Paltrow addresses online critics: 'It's a very dehumanizing thing'

LOS ANGELES, May 28 (UPI) -- Fame isn't always easy, Gwyneth Paltrow argued during an appearance at the inaugural Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., on Tuesday, especially when you're the target of nasty Internet commenters.

The 41-year-old actress and GOOP founder said that while the web is an important conduit for social interaction, it "allows us the opportunity to project outward our hatred, our jealousy."

"It's culturally acceptable to be an anonymous commenter. It's culturally acceptable to say, 'I'm just going to take all of my internal pain and externalize it anonymously,'" she said.

Paltrow, who regularly tops "Most Hated Celebrities" polls, said she's well-aware of the derision she inspires.

"It's taken me a long time to get to the point where I can see these things and not take it as a personal affront and a hurt. I see myself as a chalkboard or a whiteboard or a screen, and someone is just putting up their own projection on it," she said.

"At a certain point when you've been made fun of and excoriated and dragged through the mud ... for 20 years ... you realize it's not really about you," she added.

Paltrow, who can count Cameron Diaz, Stella McCartney and Beyonce as close friends, said one celeb pal received a comment from someone who wanted to ""rape and disembowel" her.

"You come across [online comments] about yourself and about your friends, and it's a very dehumanizing thing," she added. "It's almost like how, in war, you go through this bloody, dehumanizing thing, and then something is defined out of it. My hope is, as we get out of it, we'll reach the next level of conscience."