It’s come to my attention that somewhere Gwyneth Paltrow was on TV last night, so I thought I’d repost this thing I wrote about her. I have not significantly changed my thinking on it; rather, it’s a bit more narrow or focused, if you will.

It seems like there’s genuine, tabloid-style hunger to relate to stars as someone just like us. It’s not even that their lifestyle is more attainable because they wear sweatpants to Starbucks; it just makes you feel better because one part of your life is very similar to the life of someone incredibly rich and famous.

The ways in which we’re all similar are when we’re at our worst. The similarities between Paltrow and her haters are when they’re both at their best (or when her haters are at their best and Paltrow’s at her, well, normal).

I think there is a class of celebrity that’s just gallingly annoying—not necessarily for their privilege or out-of-touch-ness (which Paltrow and Jay-Z, say) have in spades—but for their, yes, ease of living a life that specifically seems awesome. Like, do I wish I had tons of money? YES! Would I spend it on eating ridiculously awesome healthy food? YES! Would I spend it on dressing really, like, awesomely? YES!! I don’t see how my aims and Paltrow/Jay-Z’s aims are very different. In fact, I’d probably do the whole philanthropy thing much worse until Warren Buffet sat me down at the monthly Rich Persons Meeting and told me the best ways to give versus the tax/PR benefits accrued.

My point is that I really dislike all these blithe people as much as the next person with a Tumblr. And I am one of those blithe people. Er, and I don’t want to tell anyone whom to loathe or like. But I myself am compelled to look at why Paltrow and Jay-Z—the thing I wrote about Jay-Z’s website that’s just like Paltrow’s GOOP is here, which is why I keep mentioning him—seem to get the best of it and the worst of it all at once. And more specifically, if there’s a reason why their being super successful and fabulous at their apex may be the reason why they got to be super successful and fabulous in the first place. And if the pathology that lends itself to doing great things may necessarily lead you to becoming a rank caricature of yourself once you get to be successful, which may be a cautionary tale or at least an interesting feature of something or other.