After a Coldplay concert kiss-cam moment went viral for all the wrong reasons, data-automation startup Astronomer turned to an unexpected fix: Gwyneth Paltrow.
Earlier this month, the company’s now-former CEO Andy Byron and Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot — both married, but not to each other — were caught on the jumbotron at a Boston show. The internet did its thing. Memes flew. A Twitter sleuth thread went viral. Within days, both execs resigned.
But instead of issuing a boring corporate statement, Astronomer enlisted Paltrow — Oscar winner, Goop founder and ex-wife of Coldplay’s Chris Martin — for a surreal, self-aware video posted to X.
Thank you for your interest in Astronomer. pic.twitter.com/WtxEegbAMY
— Astronomer (@astronomerio) July 25, 2025
“I’ve been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300-plus employees at Astronomer,” she deadpans, before answering fake fan questions like “Why did they do that?” and “What even is Apache Airflow?”
Paltrow keeps a straight face while gently steering the narrative back to Astronomer’s actual product: data pipeline orchestration. The 90-second spot ends with her signature calm: “Thank you for your interest in Astronomer.”
The video has racked up over 24 million views and is being hailed as a bizarre but brilliant PR move. A Reddit thread called it “the most genius pivot in corporate crisis management,” while marketing X users praised the brand’s ability to turn scandal into spectacle.
In a summer filled with tech layoffs and tone-deaf apologies, Astronomer may have pulled off the impossible: making data sexy — via Coldplay drama and a very well-timed, well-chosen celebrity cameo.
