Is Rachael Ray on Team Gwyneth Paltrow or Team Martha Stewart?
That's the question a viewer wanted answered after she phoned in to Bravo's Watch What Happens Live Wednesday. Rather than publicly bash her peers, Ray wisely took a diplomatic approach. "I'm on team food. I think everybody who likes to eat has a different take on it and everybody's opinion should be respected," she said. "I love Gwyneth Paltrow. I think that she is very devoted to everything she puts her mind to, and I think she is really a brilliant cookbook author. She writes in many different disciplines."
What about Stewart (or M. Diddy, as she was known in prison)?
"I have to have nothing but respect for Martha Stewart. She is a forerunner," Ray, a three-time Daytime Emmy Award winner, explained. She continued, "I wouldn't have a job without the people who came before me. [Emeril Lagasse] started Food Network. Martha Stewart created an avenue for women who work in lifestyle television—period. You have to have respect for all people's opinions...in my opinion."
Talk about a class act!
Paltrow and Stewart have been at odds for years, and lately, they've been making public (and passive aggressive) digs at each another. Most recently, in Martha Stewart Living's November issue, 73-year-old Stewart mocked Paltrow's "conscious uncoupling" with Chris Martin. A food pairings spread, titled "Conscious Coupling," showed Thanksgiving pies with the "perfect marriage of crust and filling." Paltrow, 42, retaliated with a recipe for "Jailbird Cake" on Goop, referencing Stewart's 2004 prison stint.
"The folks at Goop know how to have some fun, too," a source close to Paltrow told People magazine. "If Martha served up the appetizer, the Jailbird Cake is just desserts."
Perhaps Paltrow and Stewart could learn to be more like Ray.
In the Fall 2014 issue of PORTER magazine, Stewart criticized Paltrow's foray into lifestyle branding. "She just needs to be quiet—she's a movie star," she said. "If she were confident in her acting, she wouldn't be trying to be Martha Stewart." The Academy Award winner responded to Stewart during Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit in October, joking, "No one has ever said anything bad about me before, so I'm shocked and devastated. I'll try to recover." But was Paltrow wasn't bothered by Stewart's remarks? "If I'm really honest, I'm so psyched that she sees us as competition," she said. "I really am."
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