Gwyneth Paltrow’s trial this month over a skiing accident at a Utah ski resort was low on theatrical courtroom drama. But the costuming and art direction that the actress and wellness entrepreneur brought to the proceedings that unfolded in the courtroom? Why, that was some high art.
Much has been made about her wardrobe and accessories — carefully chosen, as is everything about a Capital-A-list celebrity who has spent much of her life in front of the cameras — which conveyed a sort of stealthy-wealthy insouciance. But let’s not forget another way in which we consumers (and celebrities in particular) communicate with one another: our bottled water.During at least two days of the trial, which ended Thursday with a judgment in Paltrow’s favor, the actress toted a half-liter green glass bottle from which she took fortifying swigs. At first squint, you might have thought it was Perrier, the OG of status-symbol bottled water. Or Pellegrino, perhaps — an Italian brand that also would look at home on the white-linen tablecloths of power-lunchers doing multi-zero deals.
But it was, as some sharp-eyed viewers determined, a brand called the Mountain Valley, which has low-key claimed a spot among the aforementioned classics of the genre, as well as trendier brands, as a bottled water of choice for the rich and famous.
Mountain Valley also made a cameo in the hands of another one-percenter pop-culture figure this week: In the premiere of the HBO drama “Succession,” Siobhan “Shiv” Roy, one of the three scheming scions of a vast media fortune, is also shown drinking a bottle as she plots her next move.
The brand, an Arkansas-based company that’s been around since 1871, is accessible and rarefied — a balance that both Paltrow and the fictional Shiv Roy have had to navigate. As my colleague Ashley Fetters Maloy wrote in her excellent dissection of Paltrow’s sartorial choices, “She has simultaneously telegraphed two messages that very well could have been at odds: ‘Look, I’m just a mom who tried to take her teenagers on a nice ski vacation,’ and ‘Yes I am wealthy and famous, and I shan’t be wasting my time on this.’”
Mountain Valley is relatively affordable (you can pick up a liter for $3.19 at Safeway) but still telegraphs status. “I spent all my life intimidated by any H2O product that is packaged in a green glass bottle,” said a TikTok user named makeupartistatlaw who, inspired by Paltrow’s beverage, reviewed the brand. “I always assumed it was out of my league.”
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