Posted on 04/15/2015 4:38:27 AM PDT by Kaslin
Gwynnie P is down with the struggle, comrades.
She may make $19 million a year, own mansions in London, New York, Brentwood, Malibu and the Hamptons, charge $550 for her Goop.com "travel backgammon set," and fly by private jet, but she feels your pain.
OK, it's not as painful as her last $5,200 Thermage session in Santa Monica, but still, she really, really does feel the agony of the ordinary.
Last week, the progressive princess celebrity joined the "SNAP challenge." It's basically the ice bucket challenge for bored Hollywood liberals and media-hungry Democratic politicians. For seven days (or at least for an hour or two after they publish their announcements to Twitter and Facebook), the bleeding hearts play "poor" by subsisting on a faux welfare budget.
Paltrow was invited to join the poverty voyeurism racket by her good friend Chef Mario Batali -- last seen eating his way through Spain with G-Pally for a 13-part PBS TV series. What, you don't have a chef bestie to motor around in a Mercedes with across Galicia and Cordoba as you savor almejas, salmorejo and flamenquines?
When these self-indulgent stars are not binging on European delicacies, they're purging themselves of liberal guilt with phony gimmicks like the SNAP sanctimony. The idea, Batali explains, is to "walk in the shoes of" millions who rely on government assistance to supplement their household budgets.
Fortunately for Paltrow, this doesn't mean she has to give up her $1,200 pair of Tom Ford black platform heels or anything else in her well-appointed shoe closet. All she had to do was snap a Vogue-ready photo of her $29 haul of austerity grocery items (likely purchased by one of her many private kitchen assistants at an organic food market in West L.A.).
Pobrecita. Everyone on the planet except for rail-thin Paltrow seems to have understood the hilarity of Hollywood's most famous detox dieter -- whose calorie intake rivals an earthworm's -- pretending to have the sads over her SNAP menu: seven limes, a tomato, one head of garlic, a bunch of scallions, bags of brown rice, black beans and peas, a package of corn tortillas, one avocado, a yam, an ear of corn, a dozen eggs, and bunches of kale, lettuce and cilantro.
Pepper Potts' public relations stunt inspired global derision from the hoi polloi of all political persuasions. Lefties excoriated the privileged starlet for making a mockery of genuine anti-hunger efforts. Righties debunked her dubious statistics low-balling SNAP benefits for a family of four. And moms and dads across America helpfully offered cost-cutting grocery lists of their own.
"A 20-pound bag of rice, a few bags of various kinds of dried beans, supplemented with some chicken breast ($1.99/pound on sale at my local supermarket), and she's all set," one savvy shopper wrote.
"I don't see how it's such a big hardship," another added. "$29 per person per week is 10 lbs of leg quarters ($7 at 70 cents per pound), 10 lbs of cabbage ($5 at 50 cents per pound), 10 lbs of bananas ($5 at 50 cents a pound), 1 loaf of bread for $1, 1 jar of peanut butter for $2, 1 jar of grape jelly for $2, one 5 lb bag of rice for $3, and $4 for various spices to prepare the food. Cookbooks can be borrowed for free from the library or bought for a couple of bucks at thrift stores."
But let me be clear (to borrow a well-worn phrase from Paltrow's favorite man crush, President Obama): Paltrow doesn't deserve contempt because she's clueless and wealthy. She deserves contempt because of her own deep-seated condescension and loathing of the lessers she purports to champion.
"I'd rather smoke crack than eat cheese from a tin," she infamously sneered. Presumably, she feels the same way about my childhood favorites: Cheez Whiz in a jar and Ritz Crackers 'n Cheese Dip in those little portable containers with the red plastic spreader.
"I'd rather die than let my kid eat Cup-a-Soup," she told Conan O'Brien. Yes, she's judging you and me and every other normal person who has ever purchased Ramen by the pound to save money.
When she's not flitting around the most affluent neighborhoods of America, she's overseas trashing her countrymen. Remember this: "I love the English way, which is not as capitalistic as it is in America. People don't talk about work and money; they talk about interesting things at dinner parties," she told the foreign press. And: "I don't tap into the bad side of American psychology, which is 'I'm not achieving enough, I'm not making enough, I'm not at the top of the pile."
Paltrow openly despises capitalism and those who unabashedly pursue it. Striving for upward economic mobility is gauche in the eyes of the left-wing 1 percent. It's so much more fashionable to show manufactured sympathy for the downtrodden than to encourage them to lift themselves up.
Only in the land of make-believe is it nobler to simulate being dependent and poor than to aspire to be successful and wealthy.
I remember when she trashed the U.S. constantly in the press and moved to England during the Bush years.... but then quietly flew back to have her baby at an American hospital.
Phony scumbucket.
And she’s getting publicity, and people are talking about her again.
KA-CHING, suckers!
When she gives away everything but a couple hundred thousand bucks I will be impressed with her compassion and concern. Let me know when that happens.
She cheats. She swallows...
Did she demo how to use your EBT card at a strip club or how to book vacation boat cruises with it?
Or maybe how you have to buy bottled water at $2 per bottle, spend all that time slaving over pouring the water onto the ground, just so you can return the empty for 5 cents cash each to buy cigarettes.
Or maybe how you can buy steak and lobster for your dog.
She took the challenge and showed it could be done with ease.
Maybe that’s why she’s rich: she solves problems, not wallows in them.
You have to say one thing for her. Gwyneth Paltrow is probably the only person who unites the far Left and the far Right in their hatred and disdain for her.
I remember when this skank went around with her fake British accent (I guess she bought a house there and did a movie or two). IIRC she was born in Connecticut to Blythe Danner.
I’ve always thought that to be a good actor, first the person had to be of average or below average intelligence. I know there are exceptions to this, but there are an awful lot out there whose IQs don’t even reach room temperature IMO.
Paltrow, Madonna, Brittney Spears.......all of them have used fake British accents.
Why not donate 95% of your income to people on SNAP. Or why not go to Whole Foods buy food like caviar, snails and lobster and donate it to the poor...
“I’ve always thought that to be a good actor, first the person had to be of average or below average intelligence”
I think that’s probably a detriment to actors in most cases. They are human puppets being played with by the director. Their job doesn’t really call for a lot of independent thinking.
Why so much vitriolic hatred? She showed $29/wk is enough for food, which anyone can earn. So what if she’s rich and usually enjoys the fruits of her labors.
http://www.dhs.state.pa.us/foradults/supplementalnutritionassistanceprogram/D_000639
Everyone is missing the fact that the $29/week is pure BS.
In PA, a “family of one” can get up to $194/month = $48.5/week.
Of course, it is “supplemental” so there is a sliding scale. But the very worst of the worst, with no other income would not be given $29/week.
Sounds to me like she is making the case for a Big Tax on Entertainment to help feed the poor. Maybe we should take her up on the offer and propose a $10 per ticket TAX on Any and All entertainment venues, to feed the poor. And Maybe an additional 25% TAX on Royalties earned as a result of Entertainment.
Where do you think that SNAP money comes from? She contributes more than her fair share.
Fishsticks Paltrow just can’t catch a break. Leave that poor little rich girl alone, lol.
The article writer obviously read the earlier FR thread, from which he got the quote
Michelle Malkin (or one of her researchers) obviously read the earlier FR thread, from which she got the quote
That is PRECISELY why she got all that vitriolic hatred.
She pointed out that $29/week (which is less than half the maximum SNAP allotment of $194/month for a single person) is perfectly adequate IF the recipient buys raw food and learns to cook.
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