Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Store Event Ends With Two Men On Fire
Maybe not ANY advertising is good advertising.
There was a time when most media discussion about Gwyneth Paltrow revolved around things like what movies she was in or which celebrities she was dating. Brad Pitt. Ben Affleck. Chris Martin. As understandably frustrating as it can be, particularly for actresses, to have their media image reduced to their dating lives, we have a feeling that the Shakespeare in Love star may be feeling nostalgic for those days. For at least the second time in a year, rather than focusing on who she’s paired with, the story is about Paltrow’s Goop business and an explosion.
At the end of last week, People reported that two men needed to be brought to the hospital after an explosion at the Gwyneth Paltrow owned Goop store in Sag Harbor Village, New York. At the end of June, the store hosted an event at which a s’mores station was set up. The method used to melt the marshmallows? Well, of course, they were filling stone candle holders with rubbing alcohol and then setting the rubbing alcohol on fire. You know. Just like they taught you on Sesame Street.
People says too much rubbing alcohol was used, and that this caused the explosion once the flames inside the candle holders were extinguished. The Sag Harbor Village Chief of Police told People that the good news was that there was a working fire extinguisher nearby in the Gwyneth Paltrow owned store. Still, both men injured by the explosion needed to be brought to the hospital, with one of them suffering severe enough injuries to necessitate an airlift to Stonybrook University Hospital.
It’s possible Gwyneth Paltrow’s employee — the store’s manager, who had seen the rubbing alcohol s’mores-making method on social media — may have avoided the explosion if they’d spoken to someone as experienced and worldly as, say, a 17-year-old and a 13-year-old. In 2017, two boys — then 12 and 8 — were hospitalized after trying to make s’mores with rubbing alcohol and candles.
As we mentioned earlier, somehow this is not the first time Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop has had to contend with news that included an explosion. Last July came the story that a London woman had to hurl one of Goop’s “This Candle Smells Like My Vagina” candles out of her front door after it exploded, causing what she called an “inferno.” While we may have all accepted that the actress’ time in the MCU as Pepper Potts is done, it might behoove Paltrow to invest in some Tony Stark-like engineers to stop her stuff from exploding. As we are not ambassadors of her brand it may seems presumptuous of us to speak for her, but we think if you sell things not designed to explode that, nevertheless, explode — or alternatively hire people who make things explode (when they’re not supposed to) while making s’mores — that’s bad. Diverting fewer resources toward making things smell like your body and more resources toward quality control and vetting potential hires may be called for.
For the time being it seems like Gwyneth Paltrow’s acting career is at the very least on hold. The Iron Man star hasn’t shown up on screen since the 2020 Netflix series The Politician. We’re sure there are plenty of opportunities for her out there but maybe she’s just tired of making movies. Firestarter already came and went this year without Paltrow showing interest, they apparently had no problem finding the voice talent for Fireheart, but if Marvel starts casting for Fantastic Four soon they’re going to need a Human Torch so hey. Maybe a Sixteen Candles remake? You never know.
