A few days ago I had a (minor) skiing collision and it felt nothing like a sexual assault.
As opening sentences go, I grant you that one’s very weird – but then, so is the court case of Gwyneth Paltrow.
If you’ve not been following the drama, the Hollywood star is accused of banging into a man called Terry Sanderson seven years ago while skiing, of fleeing the scene and leaving the optometrist unconscious and with lasting brain damage.
Paltrow says the opposite is true, that he banged into her and when it happened her first thought was that she was being sexually assaulted.
It’s bizarre reading at the best of times, but I happened to read it on the same day I’d had a collision in the Austrian Alps while on a family ski holiday.
We are mannerable, rational people
Thankfully no one was hurt. The man who collided with me came from higher up the slope (with the person lower down having the right of way), lost control and ploughed into me.
The scariest bit was hurtling with him towards a sharp drop but (a bruised leg aside) everything was thankfully fine.
The skiing conditions that afternoon were pretty tricky as the sun melted the snow and I think he simply lost control after his skis hit sludge.
He apologised and checked I was OK. Even though I was in a bit of shock, I thanked him for apologising and checked he was OK too.
Because we are mannerable, rational people.
We – you, me, the millions of people watching this courtroom drama unfold – weren’t there at the exclusive Deer Valley Resort in Utah. We don’t actually know what happened.
We can only imagine that rather than pay off the $300,000 minimum damages sought by Sanderson, now 76, (reduced from an original claim of more than $3million by a judge) Paltrow, 50, has decided to fight back because she thinks he’s at it – using her fame and fortune (an estimated $200million) as a meal ticket by lying.
Paltrow is countersuing for $1 and upon cross examination, when asked what she felt she had lost because of the accident, her reply went viral: “Well, I lost half a day’s skiing.”
This trial is fully an Adderall talking to a Xanax pic.twitter.com/R3DP1Wic41
— Steve Morris (@stevemorris__) March 24, 2023
Meanwhile, Sanderson claims he has brain damage, can’t concentrate or have lasting relationships.
He said: “I just remember everything was great and then I heard something I’ve never heard at a ski resort – a blood-curdling scream and then – boom – and it was like somebody was out of control, hit a tree and was going to die, and that’s what I heard until I was hit.”
Deluded testimony
Paltrow admits she shouted at Sanderson and skied away, leaving him on the slope.
While sad about stopping skiing for the day, she says she wasn’t hurt and consoled herself with a luxury massage.
Oh, and that she may have been watching her son skiing at the time of the accident – but denied that had anything to do with anything because she was more than capable of skiing and watching him at the same time.
Before this court case, we knew Paltrow as one of the most famous actors in the world who has carved out a successful second career as a lifestyle guru selling (albeit many bizarre, overpriced products) online via her Goop website.
At worst, she was considered annoying – all ‘my body is a temple, I eat only seeds and try my $1,000 face cream if you want to look like me’) but maybe she was the lovely, wholesome, gorgeous woman she branded herself as.
Now? If the testimony is as insincere as it sounds, there’s a dark side to this star.
Her testimony sounds deluded and narcissistic. It sits uncomfortably in almost every way.
Having trained in law and journalism (but more importantly viewing it as a human being with empathy) I find it excruciating in its entitlement.
Yet America has a record (not always but often) of favouring its celebrities in court. We can only hope it’s a fair fight – that the best in the business lawyers employed on the big bucks by Paltrow don’t dwarf the other side in expertise of grandee.
I come back to my opening line. It is unfathomable how anyone could think a ski collision in any way was like a sexual assault.
I’ve been thinking it over and over, recounting my own experience and it doesn’t make sense, along with much of Paltrow’s testimony.
The verdict is yet to be seen. But no matter the legal outcome, there’s one verdict that has already been proven.
From this, Paltrow’s reputation will never be the same again.
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