Gwyneth Paltrow Had No Clue She Was in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’

Netflix’s newest food show The Chef Show is a star-studded smorgasbord starring writer/director/producer/actor Jon Favreau, celebrity chef Roy Choi, and all their famous showbiz and culinary friends. Favreau and Choi bonded years ago when Choi helped tutor Favreau to play a chef in the aptly named Chef, and now the two are cooking across the country with celebs like Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Downey, Jr., and David Chang.

The show’s first episode opens with Favreau and Choi working with Paltrow on a goop-friendly version of a pepper pot. Get it? The super spicy stew inspired the nickname of Paltrow’s Marvel character Virginia “Pepper” Potts. The segment is mainly a bunch of rich and famous foodies showing off their skills in the kitchen, but one moment left me gasping for air. No, it had nothing to do with the heat of Scotch bonnets, but everything to do with Favreau and Paltrow’s long history with Marvel together.

While zesting a citrus fruit, Paltrow asks, “What is this TV show for?”

“We don’t really know. I started just filming. We were actually doing it when we were filming Spider-Man,” Favreau says, explaining that he started putzing around with the concept of The Chef Show on the Atlanta set of Spider-Man: Homecoming.

“Spider-Man?!?” Paltrow asked with perfect incredulity, as if it’s not only a film, but a concept she’s never heard of before.

Favreau says, “Well, yeah, when we were in Spider-Man together. Remember we were on Spider-Man?”

I’ll pause here and say I remember when Gwyneth Paltrow and Jon Favreau were in Spider-Man: Homecoming together. Even though Paltrow’s Pepper Potts only arrives towards the end of the film, she is granted fourth billing, putting her over both Zendaya and Marisa Tomei. Paltrow, however, has no memory of this.

“We’re weren’t in Spider-Man,” she says dismissively, returning to her citrus fruit.

“Yes, we were,” Favreau says.

Even Chef Roy Choi remembers. He helpfully offers, “Homecoming,” to jog the beautiful Paltrow’s memory.

Favreau tries again. “You were in Spider-Man.”

She shakes her head and says, “No,” like she’s talking to some dimwitted child, uncertain of anything, even the difference between light and dark.

“Yeah,” Favreau says.

The camera zooms in on Paltrow, because this is serious now. “I was in Avengers,” she says with confidence.

“No, you were in Spider-Man also.”

“What?” Paltrow is beginning to look like her grasp on reality is loosening quickly, while Choi is just smiling at all this in the background.

“Remember Spider-Man in the end and…and…Tom Holland’s there, and you’re going to walk out and do a press conference?”

“Oh! Yes!” Paltrow says. The light bulb has been switched on, and as in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” she has been led out from the darkness of her ignorance and into the sunlight of knowledge. And it’s all thanks to a reference to darling Tom Holland (who also guest stars on an episode of The Chef Show). “That was Spider-Man? Oh my God!”

Now to be fair to Paltrow, Marvel notoriously has a way of keeping its stars in the dark on which scene in which movie they’re filming. Brie Larson even admitted recently that she didn’t know she was in Avengers: Endgame until she got on set. She also had no clue that she was supposed to be talking to Avengers Captain America, Black Widow, Hulk, and Thor in the end-credits scene in Captain Marvel. Also, Paltrow was in one tiny little scene! It’s very plausible she shot this along with all her Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame stuff.

Nevertheless, it is kind of funny that Paltrow seemed to have no clue she co-starred in a Spider-Man movie, much less that Spider-Man: Homecoming was even a real movie to begin with.

The Chef Show is now streaming on Netflix.

Where to stream Spider-Man: Homecoming

Watch The Chef Show on Netflix