There's not much that the woman, the myth, the legend Gwyneth Paltrow can't do. She acts! She sings! She cooks! She tells us how to live Goop-approved lives!
However, there is one thing she has never done and, in fact, may never do, and that's get a job at Yahoo.
In a recent New York Times Magazine article about Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, there is a short but clearly attention-grabbing line buried in the middle of the feature. Mayer reportedly didn't want Paltrow to become a contributing editor for Yahoo Food because she didn't have a college degree. Here's what reporter Nicholas Carlson wrote in the story titled "What Happened When Marissa Mayer Tried to Be Steve Jobs":
"Even though the actress Gwyneth Paltrow had created a best-selling cookbook and popular lifestyle blog, Mayer, who habitually asked deputies where they attended college, balked at hiring her as a contributing editor for Yahoo Food. According to one executive, Mayer disapproved of the fact that Paltrow did not graduate college."
It's unclear if appointing Paltrow to this position was just a suggestion from someone at Yahoo or if she had recommended herself, although since Paltrow launched Goop before Mayer became CEO of Yahoo, and she already had a platform in which to impart her lifestyle wisdom on the world, it seems unlikely that Paltrow would seek out a contributing editor position at Yahoo Food. But who knows, really.
Of course, as someone who earned not only a bachelor's but also a master's degree from Stanford University, Mayer would think that having a college degree is really important. It would actually be weird if she didn't.
To be fair, Paltrow actually gave higher education the old college try, attending the University of California, Santa Barbara for a year before dropping out to pursue acting full-time with her father's, big-time TV producer Bruce Paltrow, blessing. A college education is important. There's no doubt about that. But clearly, dropping out worked for Paltrow, so you can't really blame her for the choice she made.
This actually isn't the first time we've heard about how hardcore Mayer is when it comes to Yahoo's employees' academic credentials. Reuters reported in March 2013 that Yahoo looked for applicants with high marks from prestigious academic institutions when recruiting, even going so far as to have applicants for administrative assistant positions "take a modified version of the law school admissions test."
But now that this has been brought up, we've just go to know what Paltrow has to say about it. She may brush it off, like Martha Stewart's shade about Goop. Or, also like Stewart, Mayer may inspire a new vengeful recipe from Paltrow. A Yahoo-flavored devil's food cake, anyone?
