Gwyneth Paltrow shuts down talk of 'beef' with Meghan Markle

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Gwyneth Paltrow is shutting down rumours she and Meghan Markle don’t get along.

Fans speculated there was a rift between the two after Paltrow, 52, told Vanity Fair she didn’t know Markle, despite the fact that they live in the same Montecito, Calif. neighbourhood.

“I don’t know Meghan and Harry,” she told the magazine. “I mean, I’ve met Meghan, who seems really lovely, but I don’t know her at all. Maybe I’ll try to get through their security detail and bring them a pie.”

Paltrow, who parlayed her acting career into the successful lifestyle brand Goop, also raised eyebrows when she claimed to be unfamiliar with Markle’s unpopular Netflix show, With Love, Meghan, or her wellness company, As Ever.

Despite telling VF she “was raised to see other women as friends, not foes” and assuring the magazine she does “have, always, a strong instinct to stand up for them,” some fans thought Paltrow threw shade at Markle in a recent cooking video that garnered over 2.2 million views on Instagram.

“My cleaner take on a classic breakfast: gluten-free buttermilk biscuits, not-so-perfectly cooked over-easy eggs, and crispy bacon #boyfriendbreakfast,” she captioned a post over the weekend.

“Now that’s what authentic looks like,” commented one user. “Take notes Meghan, if you want to be half as successful as Gwyneth.”

“Love this. No fake house, fake kitchen, fake hair extensions, fake friends just your beautiful true self. Such a breath of fresh air to see,” a second swiped, with a third adding, “Authenticity over forced & fake any day. Thank you, Gwyneth, for showing the wannabes how it’s done.”

But Paltrow doused talk of a feud during a “Ask me a question” segment shared to her Instagram story in which she answered a query from one fan who asked, “Are you comprehending the Meghan Markle beef that social media says you two have?”

“I genuinely do not understand this at all, whatsoever,” the Oscar winner replied before panning her phone across the table to reveal a shrugging Markle, who was sitting at her kitchen table digging into a piece of pie.

Reviews for Markle’s lifestyle show, in which she hosts friends for meals and shares lifestyle tips, have been brutal since its debut earlier this month.

The Independent called the docuseries “queasy and exhausting.” In its writeup, Vulture said that it reaches “new frontiers in unrelatability.” Variety wrote that the “show plays out like a forced march, one in which Meghan’s guests must, as the price of getting to share an afternoon in a made-for-TV kitchen with her, praise her first.”

Meanwhile, U.K. Times columnist Carol Midgley said the program was worse than even Markle’s harshest critics could have imagined. “If you thought With Love, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex’s new lifestyle show, would be a smug, syrupy endurance watch, and that you would rather fry your eyeballs than sit through it, I have news for you. It is so much worse than that,” she wrote.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series was panned, earning a paltry 40% score from critics and mustering just a 32% audience score.

But despite the frosty reception to its eight episodes, Netflix has renewed the show for a second season.

“I think Meghan is underestimated in terms of her influence on culture,” Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos told Variety in a recent profile. “People are fascinated with Meghan Markle. She and Harry are overly dismissed.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com