Ryan Reynolds apparently played a big role in nabbing Gwyneth Paltrow to star in that post-Coldplay-scandal ad for Astronomer.
Reynolds’ company, Maximum Effort, helped produce the promotional spot, which debuted just days after Astronomer’s married CEO Andy Byron was caught with a coworker on the Kiss Cam at a Coldplay concert in July.
“Just 14 hours later, I’m paying for that,” Reynolds said of Paltrow’s PSA at the Wall Street Journal’s CMO Council Summit on Tuesday, November 18.
Of the tongue-in-cheek ad starring Coldplay frontman Chris Martin’s ex-wife, Reynolds added: “[I didn’t] have their blessing yet, but I [knew] that nobody at that time … knew what Astronomer does. So I was like, ‘What if Gwyneth explained it?’”
In the video, posted on Astronomer’s official X page with the caption, “Thank you for your interest in Astronomer,” Paltrow, 53, appeared as the company’s “Temporary Spokesperson.” She was on hand to explain what the company does, while poking fun at the viral moment between Byron, 51, and Astronomer’s Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot.
“I’ve been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300-plus employees at Astronomer,” Paltrow said, before explaining the company had received “a lot of questions” in recent days.
“OMG! What the actual f?,” popped up on screen, and Paltrow dodged the inquiry, instead explaining “airflow, running data ML and AI pipelines at scale.”
When, “How is your social media team holding [up] …” appeared as another question, the actress once again pivoted to the company’s “game-changing results.”
“It turns out, Astronomer’s an amazing company,” Reynolds insisted on Tuesday. “They really do some amazing stuff.”
“But it was a real opportunity for them to take the conversation away from where it was, which was quite toxic, I think, and really focus on something that mattered in a way that was fun and easy and emotional and lovely,” Reynolds added.
During Coldplay’s gig at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, on July 16, the band used a Kiss Cam to showcase couples in the audience on the jumbotron — but Byron did not seem thrilled when he was caught with his arms around coworker Cabot, 53, and not his wife, Megan Kerrigan Byron, who was not present.
“Whoa, look at these two. All right, come on. You’re OK,” Martin, 48, said. “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy. I’m not quite sure what to do.”
He added, “Holy s***. I hope we didn’t do something bad.”
Both Byron and Cabot stepped down from their roles at Astronomer following the scandal, and Cabot, who was separated from husband Andrew at the time, subsequently filed for divorce.
Byron has not publicly commented on what happened but was seen with his wife several times as of late. Both wore their wedding rings in photos obtained by the Daily Mail.
For their part, Paltrow and Martin were married from 2003 to 2014 and share two children, Apple, 21, and Moses, 19. They changed the celebrity-split game when they announced their separation in a post on Goop’s website titled “Conscious Uncoupling.”
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