Astronomer has temporarily hired Gwyneth Paltrow following a scandal that saw its CEO and Chief People Officer resign after being spotted in a viral kiss cam moment at a Coldplay concert.
The bizarre saga began on July 16 at a Coldplay concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
During the band's kiss cam segment, two Astronomer employees - later identified as CEO Andy Byron and Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot - were broadcast on the big screen, sparking rumors of an affair.
The pair were seen embracing before appearing flustered and hiding their faces from the camera. The band's frontman, Chris Martin, quipped to the crowd: "Either they're having an affair, or they're just very shy."
The clip, posted by concertgoer Grace Springer, exploded online. “A part of me feels bad… but, play stupid games, win stupid prizes,” she told the US Sun. “I just thought I caught an interesting reaction to the kiss cam and decided to post it.”
Amid the fallout, Astronomer launched an internal investigation and announced Byron had been placed on leave. He resigned the following day. “Our leaders are expected to set the standard… and recently, that standard was not met,” the company said.
Cabot also stepped down shortly after. “I can confirm that Kristin Cabot is no longer with Astronomer, she has resigned,” a company spokesperson told ABC News. According to the BBC, both departures were confirmed by the firm.
Byron, estimated to be worth $A76 million, is married to Megan Kerrigan Byron, who has since removed his last name from her Facebook and deactivated her social media. Neither Byron nor Cabot has commented publicly on the alleged affair.
In an unexpected twist, Astronomer responded to the PR crisis with a satirical video featuring Paltrow, who was previously married to Coldplay's frontman.
“Hi, I’m Gwyneth Paltrow,” she says in the clip. “I’ve been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300-plus employees at Astronomer. Astronomer has gotten a lot of questions over the last few days, and they wanted me to answer the most common ones.”
A prompt appears on screen: “OMG What the actual f-”
“Yes,” she replies dryly, “Astronomer is the best place to run Apache 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 workflow automation,” she adds.
In response to the campaign - and the move of making Martin's ex-wife Paltrow the spokesperson - social media users have been praising the company.
"Some of the best crisis management I’ve ever seen. Standing ovation for PR and Marketing," one YouTuber user wrote.
A second added: "This crisis will be a case study in MBA programs for years to come."
"Either they have a great sense of humor, or they just hired a very good PR company," a third commented.
Astronomer, a $1.3 billion startup serving clients like Uber and LinkedIn, found itself thrust into the spotlight in a way few tech firms ever are.
Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy, now interim CEO, acknowledged the storm in a LinkedIn post: “The events of the past few days have received a level of media attention that few companies - let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world - ever encounter.”
He continued: “The spotlight has been unusual and surreal for our team and, while I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name.”
Despite the controversy, DeJoy emphasized the company’s resilience: “We’re here because Astronomer is built by people who live to solve hard problems, stay late to fix what’s broken, and care deeply about doing things the right way.”
The company has not made additional public comments beyond confirming the resignations.