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Downey Jr. and Paltrow have co-starred as lovers in seven MCU films
Inga Parkelin New YorkFriday 05 December 2025 04:21 GMTComments
CloseGwyneth Paltrow forgot her MCU co-star Tom Holland
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Robert Downey Jr. has lovingly teased his former Iron Man co-star Gwyneth Paltrow for her persistent confusion over the “basic tenets of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.”
Paltrow, 53, who starred as Downey Jr.’s on-screen lover Pepper Potts in seven MCU films, was honored Wednesday at The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment breakfast gala with the 20th annual Sherry Lansing Leadership Award.
The Oscar-winning Oppenheimer actor, 60, was on hand to present the Goop founder with the award. Before jumping into a heartfelt speech, Downey Jr. playfully roasted Paltrow for being “impossibly intelligent, yet forever confused by the basic tenets of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its inhabitants,” per The Hollywood Reporter.
On multiple occasions, The Talented Mr. Ripley actor has gone viral for forgetting which Marvel movies she’s appeared in as well as not recognizing several of her Marvel colleagues, including Tom Holland and Sebastian Stan.
“‘Who’s that?’” Downey Jr. recalled Paltrow once asked, to which he jokingly responded, “‘That’s Spider-Man. He said his name was Peter. His character’s name is Peter. He’s Tom Holland. You’ve done four movies with him.’”
open image in galleryRobert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow have co-starred as love interests in several MCU films, including 'Ironman' (Getty Images)
open image in galleryGwyneth Paltrow attends The Hollywood Reporter's annual 2025 Women in Entertainment Gala (Getty Images)Looking back at Paltrow’s impressive career, Downey Jr. lauded her work ethic, recalling how she built “Goop between takes on the set of Iron Man.”
He further praised her critically acclaimed turn in Josh Safdie’s new sports comedy drama, Marty Supreme, opposite Timothée Chalamet, suggesting that it was her second time sidelining an “unannounced acting retirement.”
Acknowledging Paltrow’s “polarizing public persona,” he argued that “polarizing” is “a word used by dingbats to falsely describe powerful women who demonstrate decades of irrefutable relevance and reinvention.”
“That’s why we are here,” Downey Jr. continued. “In an age where we so crave leadership, example, integrity, resolve, and too often folks come up short, we have here a woman that is willing to go to trial, confronting her retired optometrist accuser regarding an alleged injury on a Deer Valley ski resort slope — and comport herself so honorably that a musical theater production is born to commemorate her moral strength, intestinal fortitude, not to mention her impeccably tasteful, civil suit chic-yet-practical courtroom attire.”
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open image in galleryGwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts and Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark in ‘Iron Man 2’ (IMDb)He concluded: “It’s time to recognize ... Gwyneth fuggin’ Paltrow.”
After taking the stage to accept the award, which recognizes trailblazers and philanthropists in entertainment and media, Paltrow gave an emotional speech.
“To be among all of you women, and the men who love us, at this beautiful Hollywood Reporter event … to all the 100 women who are named today — to be here among you is really a gift,” she said, choking back tears.
“I really feel it. I have a real felt sense of this community this morning — a community that seems to be ok with all of my iterations and has welcomed me back.”
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