It appears Gwyneth Paltrow, Oscar-winning actress and macrobiotic mother, has a bone to pick with our "dirty", "cold", "depressing", "relaxed" (no, we don't understand that last one, either) city. She advised fellow Americans in this month's Marie Claire - the US version, of course - to watch out for "dirty streets" and the rain - how original of her. Goodness, what a wonderful way to make herself popular with her adopted home's inhabitants!
Also, the customer service is just rubbish in England. People are much more relaxed there, and things take forever to get done. They’ll tell you it’ll take two weeks for your Internet service to be fixed! It drives me nuts. And I miss being able to get anything at any time of day. You can’t do that there.
She must be living in a different London to us, then, as we've never had any problem finding things to see and do at any time of day or night. And this coming from a woman who advises visitors to "bring a little cashmere sweater or a pashmina" in case of a cold snap. A cashmere sweater or a pashmina?!? Perhaps she needs to get out of (It's Grim Up) North London for her own good, before she disappears up her own fundament, in a stunning display of her yogic prowess.
But Londoners aren't taking this lying down, oh no. A tourist board rep told the Daily Hell Mail that:
We dispute what Miss Paltrow has said. Thanks to the work of groups like Keep Britain Tidy, the streets [...] are cleaner than they have been in decades. And the best thing about our service is how polite we are - something the millions of Americans who visit Britain each year really appreciate.
Will Gwyneth abandon her adopted city and her £3.2million haunted house in Belsize Park? Do we really care? Answers on a postcard to the usual address!
