There are celebrities who don't pretend that their lives are normal. They revel in the craziness of their world - solid gold private jets, mink pyjamas, bejeweled toothbrushes, whatever. And then there are the celebrities who really want to reassure us that deep down, they're just like us. Oprah Winfrey is, unsurprisingly, one of the latter - her entire career has been based on her ability to bond with her audience and her fans. But there are times when, frankly, she loses the run of herself and forgets that the vast majority of her fans are not jet-setting billionaires with multiple homes. Like in the new issue of her (generally excellent) magazine, O.
On the cover of the June issue, Oprah urges her fans to "look at Oprah's new farm! How she's growing healthier, and you can too." Yes, Oprah has founded a farm - AN ACTUAL FARM, NOT A VEG PATCH - in the grounds of her Hawaiian ranch, just one of her many houses. Reading the accompanying piece, you'd think that Oprah was toiling in the fields herself with just the help of her adviser, Bob Greene. I presume in real life, she employs full-time labour to take care of and harvest the tomatoes and kale pictured in the lavish photo spread.
Now, I don't begrudge Oprah her wealth - she's a very intelligent woman who grew up in rural poverty and her success is down to serious hard work. And I think it's pretty cool that she's returning to her farming roots and growing her own food in a sustainable way. But it's impossible to really relate to the feature, because the gulf between someone who can START THEIR OWN FARM and the average person who probably only has room for a window box is just too big.
There are a few useful little tips for ordinary would-be gardeners in the piece, like the best way to grow herbs. But in general it's about as realistically aspirational as the time the magazine urged readers to identify with Oprah's disappointment that her carefully decorated mansion didn't quite suit her personality. I mean, who hasn't paid a famous interior decorator a fortune only to decide that the 18th century chairs weren't quite right? We've all been there.
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Of course, Oprah's not the only celeb who shares her lifestyle tips with the world. The most reviled celeb-turned-guru is probably Gwyneth Paltrow who has spent the last few years sharing her wisdom via her online newsletter Goop. I have always thought Goop would be very useful if I too were an incredibly rich person who could afford to have a wood-burning pizza oven in my back garden ("A luxury, I know, but it's one of the best investments I've ever made," she wrote) and who could spend the average yearly wage on a couple of posh towels, but alas I am not, so instead it's just irritating and sometimes unintentionally hilarious.
Unlike Oprah, Paltrow grew up in a ludicrously privileged world, which could be why she comes across as so clueless. Though at least she works hard at her luxurious lifestyle. Last week, an American journalist tried to follow Gwyneth's teachings, eating from her book It's All Good, and her (very amusing) report makes it look like eating and exercising like Gwynnie is basically a fulltime job in itself.
I know these celebs mean well. But when they try to get down with the hoi polloi (i.e. all of us), they just look clueless (at best) or patronising (at worst). But am I being too hard on them? Do you look to Gwynnie for cooking tips and Oprah for gardening advice? Or should they just stick to their glamorous day jobs and stop telling the rest of us how to live our lives?
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