Astronomer has played up its viral kiss-cam scandal by hiring actor Gwyneth Paltrow as a “temporary spokesperson.”
Last week, the former CEO and head of HR of the data operations company, Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot, respectively, were seen canoodling on the jumbotron during a Coldplay concert in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
The two reacted negatively to the camera being on them, which led Coldplay frontman Chris Martin to joke that the two were probably “having an affair,” which apparently was the case.
In the days following the scandal, Byron resigned from his position after being placed on leave from the data operations technology company. Then on Thursday (July 24), Cabot did the same.
With the company having to clean up the scandal, Astronomer poked fun at the viral video by making a new one, tapping Martin’s ex-wife, Paltrow, as their “temporary spokesperson.” Martin and Paltrow were married from 2003 to 2016 and share two children, Apple, 21, and Moses, 19.
In the video (which can be seen above), the Shallow Hal star jokes that she was “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,” she says in the clip.
But the questions appeared to be about the kiss-cam, one reading: “OMG! What the actual f—,” which Paltrow hilariously deflects from.
“Yes, Astronomer is the best place to run Apache Airflow,” Paltrow answers. “We’ve been thrilled so many people have a newfound interest in data automation.”
In another audience question, the screen types out: “How is your social media team holding —” before Paltrow instead brings up the company’s upcoming DataOps conference.
After Byron’s departure from Astronomer, the company released a statement on their commitment to “conduct and accountability,” along with looking for a new chief executive. But the statement was days too late, as Byron and Cabot were widely trolled on social media.
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