Gwyneth Paltrow — this week’s Hollywood Reporter cover star — grew emotional as she thanked the industry for welcoming her back to acting while accepting the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award at THR‘s annual Women in Entertainment gala, presented by Lifetime, on Wednesday at The Beverly Hills Hotel.
“To be among all of you women, and the men who love us, at this beautiful Hollywood Reporter event … to all the 100 women who are named today — to be here among you is really a gift. I really feel it. I have a real felt sense of this community this morning — a community that seems to be OK with all of my iterations and has welcomed me back,” Paltrow said, choking up as the audience applauded.
The Oscar winner has been on a five-year hiatus from acting, but she returns this year in A24’s Marty Supreme, directed by Josh Safdie and co-starring Timothée Chalamet. The film has already received stellar reviews — including from THR’s chief film critic David Rooney — and will be released Dec. 25.
She also thanked her husband, Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk, calling him “the most feminist man I know” who “lets me be my full self every day.” Paltrow continued, “Thank you to the women here and not here… all the women in this business who have been by my side all these years. And congratulations to Jennifer [Lopez], who was such an amazing example of this powerful declaration of being who you are.”
The prestigious award recognizes trailblazers and philanthropists in entertainment and media. It was established in honor of Sherry Lansing, the former CEO of Paramount Pictures and the first woman to head a Hollywood studio.
Her former Iron Man co-star, Robert Downey Jr., presented her with the award. “I pulled her out of her first unannounced retirement from cinema,” he joked. “In 2007, she was birthing and building Goop between takes on Iron Man, having spent the previous decade and a half winning Oscars, Globes, choosing directors at critical points in their careers — both Andersons, Paul Thomas and Wes; Minghella; Soderbergh; Fincher — while also becoming a devoted mother and wife.”
Downey Jr. then playfully referenced Paltrow’s viral ski trial. “In an age where we so crave leadership, example, integrity, resolve, and too often folks come up short, we have here a woman that is willing to go to trial, confronting her retired optometrist accuser regarding an alleged injury on a Deer Valley ski resort slope — and comport herself so honorably that a musical theater production is born to commemorate her moral strength, intestinal fortitude, not to mention her impeccably tasteful, civil suit chic-yet-practical courtroom attire.”
When Paltrow took the stage, she told him, “Robert, I love you so much. You are the older brother I never had and wasn’t sure I wanted, but I’m so grateful to you for being the best partner on screen — for always being the most honest and brilliant reflection back, not just about me but about us, our families and the world.”
Rachel Sennott served as the host of Wednesday’s breakfast alongside additional speakers of Dakota Johnson, Sarah Paulson, Goldie Hawn, Regina Hall, Chase Infiniti, Jimmy Kimmel and Molly McNearney.
THR’s Women in Entertainment was presented by Lifetime, and the gala was sponsored by Delta Air Lines, Medicube, Reyka Vodka and Seven Bucks Productions, and in partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles, Entertainment Industry Foundation, Gersh, Chapman University and Loyola Marymount University.
See all the stars who attended the event here.
