Back in the 1990s and early ‘00s, Gwyneth Paltrow was a menace. She had men coming and going. I actually forgot that Gwyneth dated Donovan Leitch Jr! This was back in 1993-ish. They dated for a year or two, then Gwyneth moved on to Brad Pitt, and then Ben Affleck, and on and on. Gwyneth was probably in her very early 20s when she dated Donovan. Well, hilariously, Gwyneth and Donovan’s relationship comes up in Ione Skye’s memoir, Say Everything. Ione is Donovan’s sister (I thought they were half-siblings, but no, they have the same mother and father) and she used to hang out with her bro when he was dating Gwyneth.
Actress Ione Skye’s memoir Say Everything, out now, continues to reveal fun tidbits from her storied life — including the time she went to Mexico on vacation with Gwyneth Paltrow, who was dating Skye’s brother, Donovan Leitch, at the time. In the book, Skye, 54, writes that the decision for her and her then-husband Adam Horovitz to join her brother and Gwyneth, now 52, on vacation happened after an earthquake rattled L.A.
“Vacationing with Dono and his intimidating new girlfriend (yes, that Gwyneth) did not exactly sound relaxing, but anything was more relaxing than living in fear of the next earthquake,” Skye writes in Say Everything, adding that Paltrow was new to acting at the time and had only starred in one or two films, most recently Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.
She also notes that Paltrow spent the week reading scripts, and while they had fun together, she was surprised at how snappy Paltrow was toward her brother, who spent most of the vacation sick in bed. Skye writes, “At breakfast, Dono had distractedly tipped his water glass (he was one of the world’s most distracted people). A few drops had splashed Gwyneth, and she’d snapped, ‘Idiot.’ With a laugh, but still.”
Skye says the interaction didn’t sit well with her.
“Is Gwyneth always mean to you like that?” Skye recalls asking him. “Dono laughed … My brother was smitten. He was 27 and looking toward the future, to marriage and kids. Gwyneth was only 21 and wasn’t ready for anything too serious. Well, at least not yet. Six months later, she’d get a part in Seven and fly to Reno to meet Brad Pitt — and we all know how that turned out.”
Yeah, Gwyneth was a menace, as I said. Especially in this era, as she was gathering her blonde power. She treated a lot of guys like sh-t and they ate it up. Anyway, this story was a fun little piece of vintage gossip. I guess this means that Gwyneth is friendly with Adam Horovitz too? She was, like, hanging out with Beastie Boys before she even met Brad Pitt?
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
