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Why Is Jeff Bezos Avoiding Gwyneth Paltrow?

Jeff Bezos and Gwyneth Paltrow (not friends). Photo: Getty Images

Gwyneth Paltrow has many powerful friends. Guests at her September conscious coupling/wedding to Brad Falchuk included Jerry Seinfeld, Cameron Diaz, Robert Downey Jr., and Steven Spielberg. But there is one megawealthy businessman whose friendship continues to elude her: Jeff Bezos, it seems, wants nothing to do with Paltrow.

In an interview with WSJ. magazine back in December, Paltrow said that, while she can turn to people like Oprah and Disney CEO Bob Iger for advice, her repeated overtures to Bezos have gone unanswered. “I’ve emailed him,” she told the WSJ. “He won’t email back.” A spokesperson for Bezos reportedly declined to comment.

That wasn’t the first time Paltrow has made reference to wanting to speak with Bezos. In February of last year, she told The Wall Street Journal that the Amazon founder is her dream dinner guest. “I just have lots of questions for him. Does he want to be the boss of the whole world or is there a beautiful, poetic strategy for the consumer? I’m totally fascinated — he’s an enigma.”

But then, for a moment, there was a ray of hope. Paltrow told CNN’s Poppy Harlow during an interview at SXSW in Austin this week that following her interview with WSJ., Bezos reached out to her. The subject line of his email? “Jeff Bezos.” Per “Page Six,” Paltrow told Harlow:

So after that came out, I got an email and the subject was ‘Jeff Bezos.’ And the sender was Jeff Bezos! The body of the email said, ‘Hi there Gwyneth, the Wall Street Journal told me you wanna talk to me.’ 

He does not appear to have closed with his usual message of affection, “I love you alive girl.”

Paltrow says she wrote him back, and then he wrote her back, and then she volleyed a casual, “I would die for the opportunity to sit down and ask you a bunch of questions,” and then he never responded. Paltrow allowed that Bezos has “a lot going on,” and said she would be open to selling Goop to Amazon.

This post has been updated to reflect that Bezos emailed Paltrow after her WSJ. magazine interview.

Why Is Jeff Bezos Avoiding Gwyneth Paltrow?