Christine Baranski Blasts Blue Origin Flight with Lauren Sánchez Bezos and Katy Perry as ‘Grotesque Displays of Wealth’

Jeff Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin, launched flight NS-31 on April 14, carrying six well-known women — but not everyone was impressed.

At the ATX TV Festival in Austin, Texas, on August 11, The Gilded Age star Christine Baranski criticized the trip during a panel discussion about how wealth is shown on TV and in real life.

The NS-31 rocket carried singer Katy Perry, journalist Gayle King, philanthropist Lauren Sánchez Bezos, former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe, research scientist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn. The flight lasted just 11 minutes, taking the crew to the edge of space before returning to Earth.

Baranski, 73, said she wants The Gilded Age to continue exploring themes like government corruption and the buying of influence. Then she turned her focus to the Blue Origin trip.

“And the grotesque displays of wealth? Sending women into a spaceship for what? So they can do their makeup? What the f—?” she said, slipping into the voice of her on-screen character, Agnes van Rhijn.

She wasn’t alone in her criticism. Actress Olivia Munn said on Today with Jenna and Friends in April that there are “so many other things that are so important in the world right now” and called the trip “gluttonous.”

Model Emily Ratajkowski called the mission “beyond parody” in a TikTok post, accusing Blue Origin of using resources while claiming to care about the planet. Actress Jessica Chastain even shared an op-ed criticizing the flight as “the utter defeat of American feminism.”

Others, including Olivia Wilde, Amy Schumer, comedian Meg Stalter, and even the fast-food chain Wendy’s, also mocked the launch.

Gayle King, however, defended the trip, saying critics “don’t really understand what is happening here.” She added, “I’m not going to let people steal my joy, and steal the joy of what we did or what we accomplished that day.”