Gwyneth Paltrow Slams New York Times Over 'Ghostwriter' Claims

The New York Times is to any ambitious author what the cover of Spin is to pale, mopey-looking indie rockers.

It's just that Gwyneth Paltrow feels the renowned publication should've gotten some facts straight.

The "Shakespeare in Love" Oscar-winner and "The Avengers" and "Iron Man" star reportedly took offense that The Times claimed her cookbook "My Father's Daughter" was ghostwritten, according to E! Online.

Times writer Julia Moskin wrote in her March 13 first-hand-experience piece "I Was A Cookbook Ghostwriter" that chef and food writer Julia Turshen co-wrote "My Father's Daughter" with Paltrow, and was working on a second with her. The piece even used Paltrow's book cover as the story's accompanying illustration. After it hit shelves in April 2011, Paltrow's collection of "delicious, easy recipes celebrating family & togetherness" quickly cracked The Times' own Top 10 Bestsellers list.

Paltrow, in September 2008, also launched the lifestyle website GOOP. The site is dedicated to Paltrow's own personal words of wisdom about dining, cooking, decorating, exercise, health and all the good things that make life worth living.

Paltrow appreciated the plug, but took umbridge at the suggestion she had help. "Love @nytimes dining section but this weeks facts need checking," Paltrow said via her Facebook page - spelling and grammar unaltered. "No ghost writer on my cookbook, I wrote every word myself."

It's pretty simple, really: if it's truth Paltrow tells and narry another hand touched her manuscript, then Turshen does indeed owe an apology that will probably be accepted for failed fact-checking, getting taken in by somebody feeding her a line, or maybe both; but if Paltrow is just self-conscious about seeking a professional's help putting together a book, maybe she should let go a little bit.

Ghostwriting isn't necessarily for people seeking fame or the glamour of their names in big, bold print staring back from a Barnes & Noble display. It's for wordsmiths who are good at streamlining information and sometimes keen copy editors. If not for ghostwriters, some people with many interesting thoughts but precious little effective articulation would never be understood. In other instances, they can just help people who - as Paltrow shows she is - are in fact quite intelligent, but are just intimidated by the writing process.

They're still Paltrow's ideas, until anyone provides proof otherwise. Whether she is in fact accomplished enough to organize them so well herself or needed a hand, that the core of the book's thoughts came from her is the most important thing.