Ryan Reynolds shared how he got Gwyneth Paltrow in on Astronomer’s hilarious PSA following the viral Coldplay kiss cam scandal.
Reynolds’ company Maximum Effort helped produce the tongue-in-cheek ad starring Paltrow, which went live days after Astronomer CEO Andy Byron was caught on Coldplay’s kiss cam in Boston, in the arms of coworker Kristin Cabot.
Paltrow’s ex-husband, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, joked that the pair could be having “an affair” when they swiftly ducked out of the camera’s view.
“Just 14 hours later, I’m paying for that, [and I didn’t] have their blessing yet, but I [knew] that nobody at that time… knew what Astronomer does,” Reynolds said during a panel at Wall Street Journal’s CMO Council Summit, according to People.
“So I was like, ‘What if Gwyneth explained it?’” Reynolds, 49, said.
“It turns out, Astronomer’s an amazing company,” he continued of the embattled company. “They really do some amazing stuff.”
“But it was a real opportunity for them to take the conversation away from where it was, which was quite toxic, I think, and really focus on something that mattered in a way that was fun and easy and emotional and lovely,” the “Free Guy” actor explained.
Byron and Cabot, who worked as the company’s HR chief, both ultimately resigned from their respective positions following the viral sighting.
Following the July 16 scandal, Paltrow emerged in the company’s PSA on July 25, hilariously avoiding the topic and explaining what the company actually does.
“I’ve been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300-plus employees at Astronomer,” the Oscar winner began in the clip.
The actress, sitting at a formal desk, explained that the company had received “a lot of questions in the last few days, and they wanted me to answer the most common ones.”
As the Goop founder, 53, continued, a screen appeared with text reading, “Q: OMG! What the actual f—”
The actress reappeared and responded, “Yes! Astronomer is the best place to run Apache Airflow!”
“Q: How is your social media team holding—” another question began, as the “Shakespeare in Love” actress reappeared.
“Yes!” she exclaimed. “There is still space available at our Beyond Analytics event this September!”
“And now, we’ll return to doing what we do best… delivering game-changing results for our customers,” she concluded, adding, “Thank you for your interest in Astronomer.”
Paltrow was married to Martin, who inadvertently became the center of the Astronomer scandal, from 2003 to 2014.
The former power couple share two grown children, daughter Apple, 21, and son Moses, 19.
