Arianna Huffington meets Madame de Menopause

A-Huff’s career has been remarkable for the contrast between hard-headed social advancement (‘the most upwardly mobile Greek since Icarus’) and addle-pated spiritual questing. In this she resembles an older, colder Gwyneth Paltrow, who coincidentally came out with her ‘consciously uncoupling’ corker as I was ploughing my way through Thrive — such a G.P. cookbook title! Like Paltrow, who recently vowed that after years of lying she was ‘starting to get honest: the path to honesty has been one of the most beautiful, painful and interesting lessons of my life’, A-Huff attempts to portray trauma as a lifestyle accessory and growth enhancer.

It can’t be a bundle of laughs finding out that your butch Republican hubby is actually a gay libertarian, but she took it on her admirably tight chin and didn’t just survive, but yes, thrived, shucking off her drab politician’s wife’s weeds and pulling on the sharp suits of the mega-career woman, creating the Huffington Post, which she sold to AOL within just six years for $315 million.