Ex-Astronomer HR chief Kristin Cabot recently spoke to The Times about the Coldplay kiss cam scandal that derailed her personal and professional life over the summer. Cabot resigned from her job after being thrust into the global spotlight when she appeared on Coldplay’s kiss cam embracing Astronomer CEO Andy Byron. The two appeared to panic when they realized they were being filmed in the middle of the concert.
The awkward moment turned into one of the most viral moments of 2025 and resulted in the resignations of Byron and Cabot. Astronomer even poked fun at the incident by hiring Gwyneth Paltrow as its “temporary spokesperson” for an online video touting the company in the wake of the kiss cam scandal. Paltrow’s appearance was extra notable since she is the ex-wife of Coldplay’s lead singer Chris Martin. According to The Times, Cabot got rid of all her Paltrow-backed Goop products in protest of the Oscar winner’s decision to poke fun at her scandal.
“I was such a fan of her company [Goop] which seemed to be about uplifting women,” Cabot told the publication. “And then she did this. I thought, ‘How dare she after the beating she got for all the conscious uncoupling stuff.’ What a hypocrite.”
Paltrow’s cheeky Astronomer ad started with the “Marty Supreme” actor addressing the camera by saying: “Thank you for your interest in Astronomer. Hi, I’m Gwyneth Paltrow. I’ve been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300-plus employees at Astronomer.”
The actor then poked fun at the scandal by avoiding it all together, pretending what people really want to know about Astronomer is the specifics of its organization.
“Astronomer has gotten a lot of questions over the last few days, and they wanted me to answer the most common ones,” Paltrow said. “Yes, Astronomer is the best place to run Apace Airflow. Unifying the experience of running data, ML and AI pipelines at scale. We’ve been thrilled so many people have a newfound interest in data automation. As for the other questions we’ve received — yes! There’s still room available at our Beyond Analytics event in September. We will now be returning to what we do best, delivering game-changing results for our customers. Thank you for your interest in Astronomer.”
Paltrow’s Astronomer video predictably went viral amid the kiss cam scandal, earning more than 30 million views on X.
