The Coldplay concert video seen ‘round the world lost two tech company executives their jobs.
Now, because they were caught snuggling up to one another on the big screen, someone else just got hired by the same company.
That someone: Gwyneth Paltrow.
The very same Gwyneth Paltrow who “consciously uncoupled” from Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin in 2014 before they divorced in 2016.
Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot, the company’s head of human resources, famously scattered when they realized they were captured on the big screen at a Coldplay concert embracing — not their spouses, but each other.
“Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy,” Martin said from the stage, noting the couple’s panicked reaction to being shown on screen at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
After video of the July 16 incident dominated social media, the damage was done, and they both resigned from the company.
In the wake of the scandal, Astronomer, a New York-based data management company, decided to bring in Paltrow — who spent a decade married to Martin — to engage with the huge amount of attention thrown its way.
Here are the results.
“Hi, I’m Gwyneth Paltrow,” the Oscar-winning actor and Goop CEO says in a company video, which identifies her as a “temporary spokesperson” for the company.
“I’ve been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300-plus employees at Astronomer,” she says. “Astronomer has gotten a lot of questions over the last few days and they wanted me to answer the most common ones.”
None of her answers have anything to do with a concert “kiss cam,” Coldplay or the recently resigned executives.
Instead, she talks about data management, Apache Airflow and an upcoming company event.
“We’ve been thrilled so many people have a newfound interest in data workflow automation,” a cheerful Paltrow says.
The strategy of going with this particular celebrity hire seemed to have its intended effect — Astronomer’s move was enthusiastically applauded on social media.
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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter/X, @amykup.bsky.social on Bluesky and @kupamy on Instagram and Threads.
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