When Gwyneth Paltrow recently announced she would be putting her delightful Montecito guesthouse up on Airbnb, critics howled that she was once more proving how woefully out of touch she is with the world.
Listing the home as part of a paid partnership with the rental site, Paltrow is offering a free one-night stay in September for up to two guests who could even be treated to a shared dinner with the star and her husband.
‘While we may begin as strangers, I hope we’ll find connections and commonalities over a delicious meal,’ Paltrow gushed on Instagram.
And although she insisted the venture was part of Airbnb’s aim to ‘make the world a little less lonely’ – and that the stay is advertised as being open to everyone – cynics carped that the likelihood of Paltrow welcoming any old member of Joe Public into her Goop-filled sanctuary seems low.
It’s also worth noting that the Shakespeare In Love actress does have some strict house rules: no pets, no parties – and ‘please, no smoking, drugs or illegal activities’.
Notwithstanding that Montecito sits in a state that has legalized weed, a drugs ban seems all the more surprising – and not a trifle hypocritical – given that Paltrow has quietly become California’s queen of cannabis after investing in a marijuana company that is sweeping the competition before it.
When Gwyneth Paltrow recently announced she would be putting her delightful Montecito guesthouse up on Airbnb, critics howled that she was once more proving how woefully out of touch she is with the world.
Listing the home as part of a paid partnership with the rental site, Paltrow is offering a free one-night stay in September for up to two guests who could even be treated to a shared dinner with the star and her husband, Brad Falchuk (pictured).
It’s also worth noting that the actress has some strict house rules: no pets, no parties – and ‘please, no smoking, drugs or illegal activities’. Yet that drugs ban seems surprising – and not a trifle hypocritical – given that Paltrow has quietly become California’s queen of cannabis after investing in a marijuana company that is sweeping the competition before it.
Indeed, fifteen years after launching ‘wellness’ and lifestyle company Goop, and building it into a $250 million phenomenon with products such as a candle called ‘This Smells Like My Vagina’, the odor wafting from Paltrow Towers nowadays is far more recognizable: weed.
Paltrow is an investor in ‘Cann’, a California-based company that makes low calorie, cannabis-infused fizzy drinks. Despite only being founded four years ago, the firm is already dominating the world’s biggest legalized marijuana market, raking in estimated monthly sales of more than $750,000, according to market analyst firm Headset.
The drinks are marketed as ‘cannabis-infused social tonics’ and retail for a hefty $24 per can. Flavors include blood orange cardamom, pineapple jalapeno and grapefruit rosemary.
The small 8oz cans or larger 12oz ‘Hi Boys’ each contain between 2mg and 5mg of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. And although those are fairly low amounts – an entire joint may contain upward of 40mg – Cann recommends ‘sipping’ one drink and ‘building from there’ depending on your ‘cannabis tolerance and experience’.
Predictably there’s precious little talk of any potential downsides – like weed’s proven links with schizophrenia and psychosis – on the company’s bright-and-breezy website which describes its blood orange flavor, for instance, as ‘designed for fun, it’s a tasty delight that will leave you feeling great’.
Amid concern over rocketing consumption of cannabis by drivers in the US, Cann also sells cannabis-infused ‘Roadie’ liquid sachets that can be mixed into other drinks and are ‘perfect for discreet on-the-go consumption’.
The company’s success is all the more striking given that California’s seven-year-old legalization of ‘recreational’ marijuana has been a disaster.
Despite bold promises that legalization would see illegal dealing and other crime disappear overnight – while public coffers would benefit from steep sales taxes – the legal market is collapsing.
With statewide illicit sales last year totaling $8.1 billion and dwarfing legal sales of $5.4 billion, many companies have gone to the wall – unable to compete with illegal pot businesses unconstrained by high taxation and strict regulations.
Hollywood’s golden girl, however, appears to have bucked the trend – with Cann’s estimated $750,000 in sales dwarfing the average $27,000 made by the state’s non-celebrity cannabis brands, according to Headset.
And while other A-listers – from Mike Tyson to Justin Bieber – are pouring into the market to get a bite of the pot pie, none are coming close to Cann.
Paltrow is an investor in ‘Cann’, a California-based company that makes low-calorie, cannabis-infused fizzy drinks. The firm is booming, raking in estimated monthly sales of more than $750,000, according to market analyst firm Headset.
The drinks are marketed as ‘cannabis-infused social tonics’ and retail for a hefty $24 per can. Flavors include blood orange cardamom, pineapple jalapeno and grapefruit rosemary. The small 8oz cans or larger 12oz ‘Hi Boys’ each contain between 2mg and 5mg of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.
According to reports, Paltrow enjoys nearly double the sales of her nearest celeb competitor, Seth Rogen’s Houseplant brand.
In recent years, the 50-year-old star has distanced herself from acting and focused increasingly on her career as an entrepreneur.
And while the Goop catalog – which includes vaginal jade eggs and Father’s Day anal vibrators – is notorious for wishy-washy medical claims and touchy-feely New Age treatments, Paltrow has undoubtedly proven herself as a hard-nosed businesswoman with an eye fixed firmly on profit.
So much so that she initially told Cann’s co-founders Luke Anderson and Jake Bullock – who first approached her in February 2020 – that the company was ‘barely working’ and declined to invest.
And that was even after realizing that she had personal links to Anderson: 14 years his senior and as a teenager, she had regularly changed his diapers while babysitting for his parents on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where they both grew up.
‘Oh, my God, you’re that kid I used to babysit!’ Paltrow recalled, according to Anderson who said he was ‘heartbroken’ after she refused to give him money despite their close connection.
A few months later, however, Anderson got a second chance to win her over during a Facetime chat.
As the pandemic forced restaurants and bars to close, Anderson could demonstrate Cann’s booming business, as bored Americans turned to at-home sources of recreation.
This time, Paltrow said yes, sinking an initial undisclosed amount into Cann during a round of ‘seed’ investing that raised $5 million in total.
Anderson describes Paltrow as the ‘crown jewel’ among Cann’s array of celebrity investors, who also include Rebel Wilson and Kate Hudson.
Paltrow has undoubtedly proven herself as a hard-nosed businesswoman. So much so that she initially told Cann’s co-founders Luke Anderson (pictured left) and Jake Bullock that the company was ‘barely working’ and declined to invest. And that was despite the fact she had personal links to Anderson: she had regularly babysat for his parents when he was 2-years-old.
After all, experts now say one of the best ways to grow a weed business is through endorsements from celebrities who are not well-known pot heads but more mainstream stars – like Paltrow – with wider appeal.
Strangely, however, an early vote of confidence in the brand by the star – who was proudly quoted on Cann’s website saying, ‘It’s a different kind of buzz: mellow, drinkable, and especially nice for sipping in the sun’ – has since disappeared online, along with any acknowledgment of her involvement with the company.
Instead, over on Goop’s website, Cann drinks are now shamelessly listed as one of Gwyneth’s ‘new-to-me discoveries’, with no mention made of her financial interest.
One can only speculate about the reasons behind the sudden change. But perhaps it’s because – despite sustained efforts of the cannabis industry to promote the substance as harmless – renewed health and safety concerns about the drug hardly sit well with the actress’s obvious ambition to be a ‘wellness’ guru.
Conveniently, the Cann website skates over the dangers of cannabis consumption, blithely calling THC ‘the goooood stuff’ and instead emphasizing its advantages over alcohol, saying: ‘Cann won’t leave you feeling hungover – we’re all about the buzz baby, not the booze or next-day regrets.’
The US government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, however, says there is now not only ‘considerable’ evidence linking cannabis to ‘earlier onset of psychosis in people with genetic risk factors for psychotic disorders including schizophrenia’, there is also evidence linking cannabis use to other mental illnesses, including an increased risk of ‘self-harm’ and ‘suicidal thoughts and behaviors’.
Meanwhile, Washington’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that marijuana use before age 18 could lead to irreversible brain damage.
Perhaps none of that matters much to a woman who has amassed an estimated $200 million personal fortune, with investments in more than 15 companies ranging from Evernow, a smart-phone app for menopausal women, to Moonpay, a cryptocurrency trading platform.
Though of course, most of her wealth comes from her multi-million dollar ‘wellness’ empire.
And a common criticism levelled at Goop can arguably be applied to Cann: that Paltrow is plugging expensive products despite warnings by experts about the consequences.
A common criticism levelled at Goop can arguably be applied to Cann: that Paltrow is plugging expensive products despite warnings by experts about the consequences. But perhaps that doesn’t much matter to a woman who has amassed an estimated $200 million fortune.
Paltrow has been condemned for years by a chorus of experts over the flakey, quack ‘medicines’ hawked by Goop – such as detoxes and gluten bans, steaming your private parts with mugwort and drinking ‘activated’ charcoal chai.
A few years ago, Dr Jen Gunter, gynecologist and Goop debunker, told me that Goop was little more than ‘a megaphone for pseudo-science’.
Certainly, over at Cann, Paltrow’s celebrity has helped to disseminate its owners desired public perception.
‘[As] the first cannabis brand to get a mainstream celebrity that does not have a public image that’s associated with cannabis, […] we were able to paint a picture that this is something for everybody. It’s not just something for people who want to get really high,’ Cann co-founder Luke Anderson admitted.
With marijuana legalization on the march across the US, canny Gwyneth Paltrow looks to once again have jumped on a very lucrative bandwagon.
But, as Cann’s sales only go from strength to strength, the question remains as to how long a woman who once proudly said she’d ‘rather die’ than let her kids eat Cup-a-Soup can marry the promotion of cannabis with her healthy living credentials.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk