Robert Downey Jr. Blasts Media for Using "A Word Used by Dingbats" to Vilify Gwyneth Paltrow

Robert Downey Jr. used an awards-stage moment to do what he does best: speak plainly and back his friends. At the 20th annual Sherry Lansing Leadership Award event in Los Angeles, he took a minute to celebrate Gwyneth Paltrow and swat away the way the press loves to slap the word polarizing on her.

"Polarizing is a word used by dingbats to falsely describe powerful women who demonstrate decades of irrefutable relevance and reinvention"

That line, delivered with classic Downey flair, wasn’t random. Paltrow’s gotten tagged with that label for years, and not without reasons the media finds irresistible. Here’s the context for why the word keeps following her around, and why RDJ clearly thinks it’s lazy.

Why Paltrow gets called 'polarizing' in the first place

The biggest lightning rod is Goop, Paltrow’s wellness brand. She has promoted products and practices that critics say aren’t backed by solid science, especially around women’s health. Outlets like The Independent have called out the lack of credible evidence and the potential for harm when advice like that spreads. That, plus her steady rise in the self-care/wellness space, makes her a permanent target in the great Wellness Wars.

There’s also the vibe factor. A chunk of the public finds Paltrow hard to relate to, and some view her as dismissive of the risks her non-science-backed recommendations might pose to vulnerable people.

Then there are the workplace headlines. Vogue UK reported claims that Goop was a chaotic, unpleasant place to work even as the brand preached calm and care. Paltrow denied those characterizations, but the stories added more fuel to the polarizing fire.

And, yes, a couple non-Goop flashpoints: the Utah ski collision case, where retired optometrist Terry Sanderson sued her for $300,000, and an old comment that raising a kid while acting is tougher than doing it with a standard office job, which did not land well (that one made the rounds through E! News).

RDJ and Paltrow: why their MCU pairing worked so well

Downey and Paltrow knew each other before Marvel rolled cameras on Iron Man, which is a big reason their Tony/Pepper dynamic clicked from the jump. They improvised, they listened, and they made the banter feel lived-in rather than scripted. When the story turned emotional, the same chemistry carried the heavy stuff too.

They also had a clean read on who these characters were. Paltrow played Pepper as the person who keeps Tony Stark anchored to his humanity instead of disappearing into the tech and ego. Whenever Tony started to spiral, Pepper (and Rhodey) pulled him back from the edge. That shared understanding, plus a real off-camera friendship, is why their scenes still feel sharp years later.

Iron Man at a glance

• Iron Man (2008) — Director: Jon Favreau; Studio: Marvel Studios; IMDb: 7.9/10; Rotten Tomatoes: 94% critics | 91% audience; Box office: $585 million
• Iron Man 2 (2010) — Director: Jon Favreau; Studio: Marvel Studios; IMDb: 6.9/10; Rotten Tomatoes: 72% critics | 71% audience; Box office: $623 million
• Iron Man 3 (2013) — Director: Shane Black; Studio: Marvel Studios; IMDb: 7.1/10; Rotten Tomatoes: 79% critics | 78% audience; Box office: $1.21 billion

If you want to revisit the Tony/Pepper era, all three Iron Man films are streaming on Disney+ in the US.