What I know about Salma Hayek’s husband is very little, but what I have pieced together is this: his name is François-Henri Pinault, he is the CEO of French luxury-goods conglomerate Kering, and he is extremely, extremely rich. Like, his family literally owns Christie’s (the auction house), and the company he runs has a controlling stake in Gucci. The Pinaults have enough money to give Notre Dame Cathedral roughly $113 million to cover repairs from the 2019 fire. François-Henri does not appear to be a bad man in any significant way (unless we count extreme wealth as bad), so I’d personally like it if freakin’ Dax Shepard left Salma Hayek alone about whether or not she married this lil’ grenouille for his money.
Hayek appeared on Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast on Monday, when Dax mentioned that her husband is a “fucking nice, fun, generous, nice warm guy” but that he admittedly knew very little about him except that he’s Scrooge McDuck-loaded and that maybe that was the reason Salma Hayek married him. Hmm! I reject People’s framing of this item, which states that Salma “slammed” Dax for this offhand comment, because what she did say is more nuanced than that.
Here’s Ms. Hayek:
“You know the thing is that in pictures you cannot begin to guess the magic in him. He’s made me become a much better person, and grow in such a good, healthy way.”
“And, you know, when I married him, everybody said, ‘Oh, it’s arranged marriage, she married him for the money.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, whatever, bitch. Think what you want.’ Fifteen years together, and we are strong in love. And I don’t even get offended, I’m like, ‘Yeah, whatever,’ “ she said.
It seems that Salma has had this conversation with people many times before, as one does when they marry a man whose family is worth billions, and I think that she’s fed up with having to deal with these questions. She continued:
We’re touching on a very interesting conversation. There is a discrimination also to rich men. Immediately you think because somebody’s rich, [they] might not be a good person, might be somebody materialistic, might be somebody that doesn’t have values, might be somebody that is even stupid or that doesn’t deserve it [or] that in order to have a lot of money, you did it the wrong way, there is all this preconceptions and I heard them, by the way.
“Discrimination” is a little head-scratchy here, but I get what she’s saying: That rich people can be regular people but with more money, and some regular people who have no money are evil and some people who have lots of money are actually good. Being rich doesn’t automatically make you Satan—actually being evil does. [People]
Love lingers in the air, like covid or a broccoli fart, which means that famous people are still sharing their love on Instagram and the like, because I guess the pandemic means that Valentine’s Day has a longer half-life than we realized.
Here’s my least/maybe-most favorite couple, Kourtney Kardashian and The Guy from Blink-182, holding hands, on Instagram, so you know that means it is OFFICIAL THAT THEY ARE IN LOVE AND DATING.
I love that manicure. Otherwise, I guess I tolerate this? Anyone or thing is better than Scott Disick, no offense. Travis Barker has an appealing Southern California skater dirtbag vibe that works with Kourt’s cosseted rich-bitch princess shit, and you know, I am sure everyone’s tired of hearing about the Kardashians, but I’d rather talk about Kourtney than her tan sisters any day. [Instagram]
- Ms. Goop had covid “early on,” but says that her “doctor,” Will Cole, tested her for “inflammation” in January, saw that she was… inflamed, I guess, and said that her road to recovery was going to be long. Folks, she’s fine. [People]
- Aunt Becky will soon be free to move around the world. [Page Six]
- Absolutely screaming that Kathy Wakile’s son, Joseph, called Melissa Gorga and Joe Giudice “farm animals.” [Page Six]