A new book about Gwyneth Paltrow reveals the rumored savage nickname the Goop founder once had for fellow actress Winona Ryder.
Author Amy Odell interviewed over 220 people, some on the record and others anonymously, for Gwyneth: The Biography, which hit shelves Tuesday.
Paltrow’s publicist reportedly told Odell that the Iron Man star would only participate in the book’s formation if allowed to “fact-check.” Odell declined, and that was the end of communication with Paltrow’s team, per The Guardian.
In the book, Odell alleged Paltrow, 52, started calling Ryder “Vagina Ryder” after suspecting the Beetlejuice star was fabricating stories for attention, according to the Daily Mail.
The nickname reportedly came about in the late 1990s while Ryder was dating Matt Damon and Paltrow was seeing his friend Ben Affleck. Ryder claimed she was robbed twice after fights with Damon, per the book.
“Damon consoled her, but Gwyneth and Affleck believed Ryder fabricated the robberies as a ploy for attention (there’s no proof of this),” Odell wrote in the book, per the Daily Mail.
“Gwyneth was annoyed that Damon couldn’t see it. Though Damon was kind to her friends, Gwyneth didn’t seem to like him after that,” she continued. “Her friendship with Ryder would only deteriorate further, and Gwyneth gave her the nickname ‘Vagina Ryder.’”
The Independent has contacted representatives for Paltrow and Ryder for comment.
Elsewhere in the new book, Odell claimed Paltrow took the lead role in 1998’s Shakespeare in Love from Ryder after initially passing on the part, People reported.
“After a story about Gwyneth allegedly stealing the script from Winona’s coffee table reached the media, Gwyneth told friends that Ryder had started the rumor, and insisted she’d received the script through her agent,” Odell wrote.
Although neither Ryder nor Paltrow has publicly addressed their rumored feud, Paltrow alluded to a toxic friendship in a 2009 Goop blog post.
“Back in the day, I had a ‘frenemy’ who, as it turned out, was pretty hell-bent on taking me down,” Paltrow wrote. “This person really did what they could to hurt me.”
“I was deeply upset, I was angry, I was all of those things you feel when you find out that someone you thought you liked was venomous and dangerous,” she continued.
“I restrained myself from fighting back. … But one day I heard that something unfortunate and humiliating had happened to this person. And my reaction was deep relief and happiness,” Paltrow said at the time.
Tom Cruise and Ana de Armas seem to confirm romance rumors during Vermont getaway
Gwyneth Paltrow appears in bizarre Astronomer video after Coldplay kiss cam scandal
Kristen Bell’s husband raises eyebrows after he shared a naked photo of her
Your High Noon might look like a Celsius after labeling mishap forces recall
