Paltrow story in Vanity Fair might have been spiked too soon

Did Graydon Carter spike his magazine’s Gwyneth Paltrow profile too soon?

Just after the Vanity Fair editor wrote in the March issue about his decision to “leave it to another publication to roll out the ‘epic bombshells’ surrounding [Paltrow],” she announced on her own Web site that her marriage to Chris Martin was over.

In hindsight, sources speculate, Paltrow did have good reason to try derailing a story at the same time her marriage was on the rocks. Paltrow had e-mailed her Hollywood pals, “If you are asked for quotes or comments, please decline.”

In her announcement of the breakup, she revealed that she and Martin had been “working hard for well over a year” to keep the marriage together. But sources close to VF echoed Carter that the reason the piece didn’t run was because it wasn’t the bombshell insiders had begun to expect.

Carter said in his editor’s letter that the unpublished piece had “generated more mail and attention than many of the biggest stories we’ve ever published,” but that, “We’ll save our gunpowder for bigger stories.”

Paltrow’s split was a big enough story to crash her Web site when she announced the news.