NEW YORK, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- If you believed the reports, Vanity Fair's March issue was supposed to contain an "epic takedown" of Gwyneth Paltrow, whose unattainable health regime and pretentious lifestyle magazine have made her a polarizing figure in recent years.
But Vanity Fair editor has downplayed the apparent feud in his March Editor's Letter, and characterized Vanessa Grigoriadis' submitted piece as a "a reasoned, reported essay on the hate/love-fest that encircles Gwyneth Paltrow."
"I thought it perfectly explained the whole phenomenon," Carter explained. "But it was such a far cry from the almost mythical story that people were by now expecting -- the 'epic takedown,' filled with 'bombshell' revelations -- that it was bound to be a disappointment. What to do? I decided to sit on it for a time."
Those "revelations" reportedly included cheating allegations and other unflattering information. The New York Times added fuel to the fire in September, when it published a supposed email from Paltrow to her close celebrity friends.
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“Vanity Fair is threatening to put me on the cover of their magazine,” she reportedly wrote. “If you are asked for quotes or comments, please decline. Also, I recommend you all never do this magazine again.”
Carter said that Paltrow called him shortly after the email came to light, and the two seemed to have made amends.
We talked for about 20 minutes about the story and her reaction, or over-reaction, to it. At one point, she asked my advice as to what to do to get the “haters” on her side. I suggested putting on 15 pounds. I joked that it works for me. She replied I had put on much more than that. Which I thought was fair and funny. Two months after the phone call, Web sites lit up with news of a truce. We received more mail, much of it now criticizing us for caving. There had also been conflicting reports that Gwyneth had coerced George Clooney into not being on our cover -- clearly not true.
It's unclear when Carter will publish Grigoriadis story, though he said last year that he would run it because Paltrow had "sort of forced my hand."
"The fact is the Gwyneth Paltrow story, the one we ordered up, as delightfully written as it was, is not the one the anti-Gwynethites expect," Carter added in his Editor's Letter, which you can read in full when Vanity Fair's March issue, the one with George Clooney on the cover, hits stands.
[Vanity Fair]
