At The Hollywood Reporter‘s Women in Entertainment 2025 Gala, Robert Downey Jr. had the crowd cracking up as he spoke about his friend and former Iron Man co-star Gwyneth Paltrow.
Downey Jr. was tasked with introducing Paltrow before she was honored with the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award at the December 3 event.
“She’s reviled… no, I’m sorry, someone just ambled by the teleprompter… Revered! Sorry, sh**… uh, no I’m wrong, reviled and revered, oh, you know what? Yeah, maybe it’s both,” Downey Jr. said to kick off his speech.
He then continued roasting Paltrow about a number of other things, including being confused by the Marvel Universe, despite being a part of seven movies within the franchise.
Downey Jr. then reminisced about when he first started working with Paltrow on the Iron Man movie trilogy before getting in some more funny jabs.
“She then, while juggling kids, career, and somewhat accurate but cruel misconceptions, introduced the planet to the possibility of ‘conscious uncoupling,’ you remember that?” Downey Jr. said, poking fun at Paltrow’s separation from her now-ex-husband Chris Martin as the crowd laughed. “Which Hollywood has done a great job not emulating. The exceptions prove the rule, you know who you are.”
He then went on to do a rapid-fire summary of the past 10 years of her career, including the success of Goop, her marriage to Brad Falchuk, and her return to acting this year in the soon-to-be-released movie Marty Supreme.
“It is so miraculous, if you think about it. It is so unprecedented, so sublimely… annoying!” he joked of her career successes.
He then brought the speech home by pretending to get choked up as he spoke about her popular lawsuit.
“I’m gonna get emotional… We have here a woman that is willing to go to trial, confronting her retired optometrist accuser, regarding an alleged injury on a Deer Valley ski resort slope, and comport herself so honorably that a musical theater production is born to commemorate her moral strength and intestinal fortitude, not to mention her impeccably tasteful civil-suit-chic yet practical courtroom attire!” Downey Jr. said before the camera panned to Paltrow herself, who was laughing so hard she was tearing up.
Paltrow then took the stage to accept the award, first thanking Downey Jr. for his speech.
“Robert, I love you so much. You are the older brother that I never had, and wasn’t sure I wanted, but I guess…” Paltrow said, trailing off with a shrug of acceptance. “I’m so grateful to you for being the best partner on screen, for being always the most honest and brilliant reflection back, not just about me but about us, our families, the world.”
