Gwyneth Paltrow Is Co-Hosting a Fundraiser for Pete Buttigieg with Bradley Whitford

[mobeau69]

Pete Buttigieg is getting some major star support for his 2020 campaign. Gwyneth Paltrow is reportedly throwing a fundraiser for the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who hopes to become the youngest U.S. president at just 38 years old on inauguration day.

According to Variety, Paltrow and Bradley Whitford, star of West Wing, will co-host the event in Los Angeles on May 9, with tickets starting at $250 per person.

https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a27259569/gwyneth-paltrow-pete-buttigieg-fundraising-event/

Ka-ching!

[elleng]

1. WOW!

[nycbos]

2. Josh Lyman saw the real thing again.

[elleng]

5. Thanks, was gonna say!!!

[dsc]

3. Paltrow is a nut but Whitford isn't

Buttigieg is clearly going to do well in raising money. Gays are quite used to raising money and giving money toward political causes. If he is still viable when places with large cities (and thus large numbers of openly gay voters) he is going to be able to pick up delegates and better than expected finishes.

[Blue_true]

7. Why do you call Paltrow a nut?

She is expressive and have different views on a couple of things. But the woman was a top draw A-list actress and she started up and sustained one or two successful companies. She is anything but a nut.

[dsc]

9. She sells woo

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/7/19/15988180/gwyneth-paltrow-goop-jade-egg-debunkers

She is doing a mini version of Trump University with this crap.

[Blue_true]

11. She is selling to a specific subsection of a larger population.

I have known people that believe that enemas improve their health and spirits. Since I never tried it, who knows. On the Jade Egg for vaginas, many medical experts say that the healthiest, freshest vaginas have a slightly acidic environment. Who is to say that sticking a jade egg in there does not cause a woman that runs an alkaline vagina to develope one that has a slightly acidic environment and hence healthier and better smelling according to some experts?

There was a thread that decried supplements posted on DU last week. The replies covered a range, there were those that said any supplement was a waste of money. There were others that said people should consult their doctors, but that some supplements work to prevent or reverse problems. Others were fully on the supplement wagon, recounting how supplements helped them. I know my own doctor prescribed Vitamin D supplements for me during the winter months. I also know that when I have digestive problems due to business stress, I don't run to the hospital, I simply start drinking milk kifir for a couple of days and the problem disappears for months.

So I guess it all depends on what a person's actual experience is. If Paltrow use the stuff she is selling for her own health and wellbeing, who is to say that she doesn't get benefits from using the products?

[dsc]

12. There is science and there is woo

and she is selling woo. No Jade in your vagina doesn't cure disease. Any more than Trump University was anything but a fraud.

[Blue_true]

14. And over the span of history, a lot of woo became medicine.

The American Indians didn't have medical degrees, but over time they developed effective medicinals for the issues that they faced, some of which became medicine that we take today.

I am not trying to defend her. I would assume that she has tried the stuff she sells and believes in it. Her company is worth a quarter of a billion dollars, so given that it sells consumer items, I would guess that she gets a lot of repeat customers. Maybe those repeat customers are complete dopes, or maybe they experience something when they use the products, even if the effect is just in their heads, they feel better.

[Bradshaw3]

30. "Even if the effect is in their heads they feel better" woo

That has been used by con artists for years to justify their con. And please don't compare what she is doing to Native American cures. They were based on centuries of experience using plants that proved their efficacy, with many of those plants having been shown to have ingredients that can be used by modern medicine. We now can test products for their efficacy and if Paltrow really believed this stuff works she would pay for research substantiating those claims. Paltrow is basing her woo on making money off of suckers. Same as dump did with his "university."

[Blue_true]

41. The Jade egg thing is supposedly based upon centuries of Chinese practice.

I am not defending her, I think that some of her shit is weird, as is stuff done in China like grinding up Rhino horn to keep up a horn. Unless I tried her stuff, I can't say that it doesn't make people feel better, even if it's all just between their ears.

[Bradshaw3]

42. Fueling people's delusions of "feeling better" has been a grifter stock in trade

In 2019 we actually have scientific methods to test these things. Just because someone believes something does not mean that belief is valid. The anti-vax crusade for one example.

[Blue_true]

44. I don't disagree with you on the central point.

Religion makes people feel better and actually occasionally does positive things in people's life, so does taking a bath (makes the skin feel yummy for several minutes), or having a refreshing drink. I don't disagree that Paltrow is most likely misleading gullible people, but if those people are happy with the outcome, who am I to lecture them.

[tymorial]

26. Oh she's a nut all right.

Two words:

Vaginal Egg.

[SCantiGOP]

28. Here's another vote for her as a whacko

If I were a politician I would stay away from her.

[tymorial]

29. I am sure her money is fine but a substantial portion comes from quackery

She was forced to pay 145k in damages for unsubstantiated health claims back in September

[Horizens]

32. Nut Case

I've long thought Paltrow a nut case. She also considers herself an intellectual which is laughable.

[Funtatlaguy]

4. I loved the West Wing. Martin Sheen rocked it.

[Codeine]

6. Paltrow is a complete fucking moron. nt

[Blue_true]

8. How is that? You are the second poster to post something like that.

I think that she is different on a couple of things, but the woman is very smart and has been tops in pretty much every endeavor that she took on. She came from wealth but didn't use that to get ahead, she made her own way.

[Codeine]

10. Oh puh-leeze.

First of all the wealthy don’t make their own way, the way has been made for them. Buts that’s neither here nor there; Paltrow promotes the most ridiculous, absurd, idiotic pseudoscience imaginable to ignorant-ass yoga moms looking for a new trend now that the anti-vaxxer movement is losing its social cache. I’m not going to pretend that a person who claims bras cause cancer and that shoving a hunk of jade into your vagina has positive health benefits is anything but a moron.

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Gwyneth_Paltrow

[Blue_true]

13. Maybe you should read up on her relationship with her rich dad.

She rejected the wealth that she grew up in and left home on her own when she was around 18. She has only recently repaired her relationship with her dad, after she became a parent.

One of the unfortunate things is that some people see value in what you or I would call pseudoscience. I don't know whether the jade egg does what she claims, but I have read that vaginas need a certain acid range to be healthiest. Who is to say that somehow leaching from the jade egg in a vagina doesn't change the ph level there and make a woman feel healthier down there and inside her head?

[Humanist_Activist]

15. Science, science is what says that a jade egg in a vagina doesn't do anything...

besides being a possible infection vector.

She sells bullshit, and frankly should have her website shut down because of it, if not fined/jailed for fraud herself.

https://www.health.com/sexual-health/jade-egg-goop

[Blue_true]

16. How can you tell the women that buy the jade eggs that what they experience is not real.

Even if it is all in their heads, they have apparently concluded that the egg work for them. Paltrow has a company that is selling $75-$125 million in product annually, that is not inconsequential. I don't believe that enemas work, but there are people that swear by them and do them regularly.

[Humanist_Activist]

17. A lot of people think that their kids "caught" autism after getting a vax shot...

not everyone's experiences are the same and they are not all equally valid, hence why we need science to help sort fact from bullshit.

Just because a scam is profitable doesn't make it any less of a scam.

[Blue_true]

18. I believe in science, I am an engineer after all.

But I seldom try to contradict what people say are happening with their bodies. I would prefer that their starting points are their doctors, but is people say that putting a jade egg in their vagina or a solution up their rectum, who am I to call them out? They experienced what happened, I did not.

One of the issues with the antivaxxers, and someone on DU did an excellent post on it, is that the signs of autism show up a little after kids are supposed to get their first Vax shots. So a casual association is made when rigorous scientific inquiry says there is none. But can you look a parent in the face that has an autistic kid and the parent believes that Vax shots caused that autism and call that person foolish? I think that even as a science respecting person, if I had a kid that was autistic, I would wonder about whether the choices that I made were responsible.

[Humanist_Activist]

19. So basically you have no problem with people being scammed, not even respecting them enough...

to warn them of said scams?

None of this shit is free, after all, and people spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on scam treatments, many times delaying or avoiding effective treatments in the process. Hell, this has literally killed people.

[Blue_true]

20. You are twisting my words.

I said that if a person claims that particular non medicinal item brings about a particular result for him or her, I have no grounds for calling that person a liar unless I have direct experience with them as a liar. Now if a third person was going to try the item and asked my opinion, I would say that I don't believe the claimed outcome, but that I have no direct evidence to refute it. The third person would then need to make a decision, respect my reservations or believe the person that makes the claim, it's as simple as that. Hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people are choosing to believe Paltrow and the people making claims along with her.

You made a somewhat outlandish claim that what Paltrow is pushing has killed people like such an outcome is unique to her company. The claim that you made can be made about pretty much anything, a lot of products from cars to medicines are made with an expected mortality level from people using the products, but no one advocate shutting them down, unless the mortality rate is out of line to what a reasonable investigator would expect to see. I would think that if Paltrow's products were harming people at an alarming rate, either due to the stuff being toxic or people delaying effective treatments, I am sure that for the years that he was in office, President Obama's CDC or FDA would have been on her case. I have little confidence in action under Trump.

[TexasBushwhacker]

21. Her dad died in 2002 n/t

[Blue_true]

23. Aren't her oldest kids are around 18 or 19?

I pointed out that she made up with him after she became a mom, I don't know when she first became one, but I do remember reading about their reconciliation and the circumstances that brought it about.

[TexasBushwhacker]

25. Nope. Her oldest was born in 2004

I never heard of any animosity between her and her parents. I think you may have her mixed up with someone else. Drew Barrymore perhaps?

[Blue_true]

38. I thought that it was her, was pretty sure.

I think the issue was her wanting to chose acting instead of college. Small issue, but it seemed big for her and her dad.

[gateley]

46. Bwah! Drew just can't get a break!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

24. Yeah, she made it on her own.

Purely coincidence that her film debut was with Director Stephen Spielberg who just happened to be her Godfather. And her TV debut was directed by her father.

Pure coincidence!


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwyneth_Paltrow

Her godfather is director Steven Spielberg.[25][26][27]

Her acting debut was in High (1989), a TV film her father directed, and after spending several summers watching her mother perform at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts, Paltrow made her professional stage debut there in 1990.[34] Her film debut followed with the musical romance film Shout (1991), starring John Travolta, and she was cast by Steven Spielberg in the commercially successful adventure feature Hook (1991) as the young Wendy Darling.[34] Paltrow's next roles were in the made-for-television movies Cruel Doubt (1992) and Deadly Relations (1993). Her first plum feature film role was in the noir drama Flesh and Bone (1993) as the much-younger girlfriend of James Caan. Janet Maslin of The New York Times described Paltrow as a scene-stealer "who is Blythe Danner's daughter and has her mother's way of making a camera fall in love with her."[35] In 1995, she starred in the thriller Se7en, as the wife of a young detective (Brad Pitt), who is partnered with the retiring William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and soon tasked with tracking down a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as tropes in his murders. The seventh-highest-grossing film of the year,[36] Seven also earned her a Satellite Award nomination. She appeared in Moonlight and Valentino, as a grieving chain-smoker, and in Jefferson in Paris, portraying Martha Jefferson Randolph.[37][38]

[Blue_true]

39. Maybe I misread something like TexasBushWhacker implied. nt

[cwydro]

50. Her mother is wealthy too.

And well placed in Hollywood.

She’s never known a day of doubt in her privileged life.

And anyone stupid enough to put a jade egg up their hooha...

[Hassin Bin Sober]

52. Yeah, Blythe Danner is her mom

The rich are not like us (besides having more money)

[tishaLA]

37. How did she only recently repair her relationship with her father

...when he died in 2002?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

40. Seance? Why not? She is in to all the other woo.

[Kentonio]

48. She was in a movie directed by her father at 17.

And was acting in the same theatre her mother had for years by age 18. She was in Hook and a movie with Travolta the following year. The idea that she didn't have privilege from wealth or her celebrity parents is pretty laughable to be honest.

[tymorial]

27. Her woo peddling is ridiculous and harmful

I have no tolerance for pseudoscience.

[leftofcool]

33. Which has nothing to do with this fundraiser.

[tymorial]

34. I like Buttigieg but she engages in intellectual dishonesty and exploitative marketing

It's a fact and I'm sorry if that makes people uncomfortable but not my problem.

[gateley]

47. Maybe she believes a lot of that stuff -- I'm kind of woo woo, too. nt

[leftofcool]

22. Which has nothing to do with her hosting a fund raiser for Pete

[lunasun]

31. Ha I can not say what Im thinking but read below

busted
https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/05/gwyneth-paltrows-goop-to-pay-for-making-unsubstantiated-eggs-about-vaginal-jade-eggs/


Among the false claims made by Goop were that the Jade and Rose Quartz egg-shaped stones were capable of balancing hormones, regulating menstrual cycles and increasing bladder control. None of those claims were substantiated.

The company is known for selling bizarre products with hefty price tags, including a $2,400 spirit-animal ring and 18k gold dumbbells priced at $125,000.

The good news is, if you were among the buyers of the falsely advertised Jade Egg, Goop is now willing to refund the full purchase.

Actress-turned-entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow has raised $82 million in venture capital funding for Goop to date from NEA, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Felix Capital and others.

[tymorial]

35. You should be able to say it because I guarantee we're on the same page

[TreasonousBastard]

49. Gold dumbbells? I'm sure they'll feel quite at home with the buyers.

[gateley]

36. Cool! I love Pete! Hope they raise buckets of bucks!!!

[Bradshaw3]

43. How about payday lenders or others who exploit for profit?

As long as they give money it's ok however they earn it right?

[gateley]

45. Did you mean to post this to me? If so, I'm not understanding why. Thanks. nt

[honest.abe]

51. I loved the character Bradley Whitford played in West Wing.

I miss that show but I cant watch the reruns anymore. It just reminds me of how awful the situation is now.

[Nailzberg]

53. Oh well, I was really starting to like Pete. But I can't roll with Woo.