Paltrow skit keeps kiss-cam pair in spotlight

In the video, Paltrow says she has been hired on a “very temporary basis” to represent 300 employees at the firm and to answer questions in the wake of the viral scandal. Text appears on screen – “OMG What the actual f…” – before Paltrow, deadpan, responds, saying: “Yes, Astronomer is the best place to run Apache Airflow, unifying the experience of running data ML and AI pipelines at scale.” Further questions on the wellbeing of the company’s social media team are cut short by answers about “data workflow automation”.

The quirky attempt to rescue Astronomer’s public image comes after both former CEO Andy Byron and his co-worker Kristin Cabot resigned after appearing on a stadium jumbotron. Martin’s immediate response to their reaction was: “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”

“This belongs in the crisis management hall of fame,” said one X user in a retweet of the video. “This is marketing jiu jitsu,” said another.

In a LinkedIn post last week, Pete DeJoy, interim CEO of Astronomer, said the event had created a “level of media attention that few companies – let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world – ever encounter”.