It pained me to read that Gwyneth Paltrow was named People magazine’s “Most Beautiful Woman in the World.”

Great for her. But horrible for girls.

Paltrow is very blond, very tall and very thin. She is a talented actress, looks fabulous in clothes and has terrific taste. It’s her job to look good and at that she excels.

But what is the message to girls? The Barbie ideal, with a slightly smaller cup size, lives on.
From what I gather reading Paltrow’s website GOOP and the effusively snarky comments that it generates, she devotes an inordinate amount of time to maintaining her physique, her hair and to monitoring what she eats. Which never includes meat or gluten, just FYI.

On GOOP, and in her new cookbook, “You Will Never Look Like Me” -- No! I’m kidding. It’s called “It’s All Good” -- she pushes the aspirational fiction that if you eat what she eats and buy what she buys, you can have what she has.

Well, what she has are culturally celebrated genetics, fame, money and a rock star husband. So, no, you can’t have what she has. Sorry.

I certainly don’t blame Paltrow for the pernicious effect her People designation will have. Hollywood is the world’s most unforgiving place for a woman, so for a mother of two on the cusp of middle age, good for her to get the ego boost.

The magazine, in its quest for buzz, is doing a disservice to girls.

This was confirmed .