Gwyneth Paltrow: Most Beautiful Woman in the World?

Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, Angelina Jolie, Beyonce: All of these women have been named World's Most Beautiful Woman by People Magazine. It's a much-coveted honour. And now, 2013's World's Most Beautiful Woman has been announced: Gwyneth Paltrow.

This news didn't come as a surprise to me, having read tons of buzz about Gwyneth lately, and her new cookbook It's All Good — ohhh, the media loves a good controversy!

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Gwyneth's gotten a lot of flack for the new cookbook. Critics claim the "elimination diet" upon which it's based is too restrictive, and that it advocates a low-carb diet for kids. She's getting flack, for example, for lines like, "[my] left with that specific hunger that comes with avoiding carbs." Gwyneth is probably referring to "real hunger" versus "cravings," but it's not being received well. She's also getting flack for imposing her own food restrictions onto her kids. Moses, 7, and Apple, 8.5, are apparently on a gluten-free diet.

The most intelligent Gwyneth criticism I've read of late, however, is Katrina Onstad's recent Globe and Mail article, "Dear Gwyneth Paltrow: An Open letter, from average mom to average mom." It is brilliant and so witty — an enjoyable read no matter how you feel about Gwyneth!

According to Entertainment Tonight, since the People announcement, Gwyneth has been slammed as a poor choice for World's Most Beautiful Woman: "The Oscar winner has been lambasted for being 'elitist,' 'pompous' and a 'rail-thin Hamptons Barbie' who is 'afraid of food.'" Ouch!

"Just to look like Gwyneth Paltrow you need $70 lip balm, $425 colon cleanse, 2-hour Tracy Anderson workouts," Tara Palmeri (author of The New York Post's recent piece "Is this pompous film star really the world's most beautiful woman?") tells Entertainment Tonight. "I'm 100 percent for the empowerment of women, but I think that when Gwyneth Paltrow gives women unrealistic tips on how to live a great lifestyle it makes them feel worse about themselves instead of empowering them."

When Entertainment Tonight's Nancy O'Dell asked her how she felt about being the World's Most Beautiful Woman at the premiere of Iron Man 3, Gwyneth said, "Are you kidding me? For God's sake, after all I've been through?"

And on her World's Most Beautiful Woman tour, Gwyneth told Ellen Degeneres she was "totally flabbergasted" by the news. "My publicist of, like, 22 years . . . sent me an email, and honestly I was like, 'This is a joke,'" she said. "I reread it three times. I was like, 'Oh, he sent this to the wrong client. There’s no way.' . . . It was actually psychologically interesting, because for a minute I really thought that someone was playing a joke on me. I talked about it with my shrink."

Whether or not she believes it's real, Gwyneth's thrilled with the title. "I'm 40," she said. "I have two kids and that's kind of rad." True!

What do you think of Gwyneth being named World's Most Beautiful Woman?

Love!
xo Haley-O