A journalist approached Gwyneth Paltrow at an airport check-in counter in Italy and demanded answers about her connections to Saudi Arabia.
The Goop founder had no answer for the reporter as he waited in line at the Delta departure counter at Rome’s airport on Tuesday.
Jonathan Guyer, foreign policy journalist shared a photo of the interaction which shows the 51-year-old actress sporting a fresh tan and an almost all-white outfit with a sweater wrapped around her shoulders and a crossbody bag.
The journalist said he questioned Paltrow about her recent engagements in Saudi Arabia, including a conference linked to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but her only response was to look away.
“I asked him why he took the stage earlier this year at a Saudi investment conference, a big-money party that ultimately benefits Jamal Khashoggi’s killers,” Guyer said.
Paltrow was speaking at the Red Sea International Film Festival, which critics slammed as an example of the regime’s “arts whitewashing” and “sports whitewashing” campaign.
Paltrow has been criticised for ignoring Saudi Arabia’s “appalling human rights record” while attending prestigious events in the country.
He attended the Future Investment Initiative in Miami, sponsored by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund in February, he reported. The New York Times.
In December, the Oscar-winning actress attended the closing ceremony of the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia.
She dazzled onlookers in a voluminous yellow dress as she posed alongside Red Sea Film Foundation CEO Mohammed Al Turki.
Human rights activists have said the Red Sea Film Festival is another example of the regime’s “arts whitewashing” and “sports whitewashing” campaign, whereby glamorous international events are held in a country to distract attention from its immoral behaviour.
The Oscar-winning actress posed alongside Red Sea Film Foundation CEO Mohammed Al Turki at the festival’s closing ceremony.
Within the oil-rich kingdom, homosexuality remains a crime punishable by death and women still do not have equal rights and are considered the property of their fathers or husbands.
Critics of the regime are regularly jailed, and in 2018 dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi government agents at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
Paltrow’s attendance was especially surprising since, outside of her role as Pepper Potts in the Marvel films, she hasn’t had a leading role in a film since 2015’s Mortdecai.
But A-list celebrities such as Paltrow, Johnny Depp and Will Smith are rumoured to have been offered around a million dollars to walk the red carpet in Jeddah.
News website Puck claimed: ‘A million dollars was the going rate circulating among talent agencies for big stars to walk the red carpet… Will Smith may have even received more than that.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to representatives for Paltrow and Guyer for comment.