“Well, I Lost Half A Day of Skiing”
The Katie Black Show
Gwyneth Paltrow, an Oscar winner, in recent years has made headlines for her unconventional health advice via her company, Goop, a wellness and lifestyle brand. Or her interesting daily diet, which went viral at the beginning of March, telling the podcast “The Art of Well Being” she doesn’t eat solid food until dinner, only then consisting solely of vegetables.
But these last couple of weeks, Gwyneth Paltrow has been at the pop culture forefront of the news because of a trial involving herself and fellow skier, Terry Sanderson. They met after colliding with each other on the snowy Utah slopes. There’s no doubt there was a collision. Jurors had to decide who collided with whom.
Terry Sanderson, a retired optometrist, sued Paltrow over the 2016 incident claiming Paltrow was reckless in her skis, causing him four broken ribs along with a permanent head injury. Gwyneth Paltrow then countersued Sanderson for damages of one entire dollar, plus her cost for attorney fees.
Anytime a court case is televised, especially one involving a known celebrity, it becomes theatre, a mid-day soap opera. One of many eyebrow-raising highlights included the prosecution asking Paltrow about a possible friendship with the artist, Taylor Swift.
Taylor Swift was sued for a 2013 incident by then-Colorado DJ, David Mueller. The former DJ filed for defamation, expressing that Taylor Swift wrongfully had him terminated from his job at local Denver radio station KYGO. Swift countersued Mueller for battery and sexual assault, for one whole dollar. The jury sided with Swift and Mueller had to pay the pop star one dollar.
Paltrow explained her connection to Swift, “I would not say we’re good friends. We are friendly. I’ve taken my kids to one of her concerts before, but we don’t talk very often.”
An odd fashion highlight took place on the first day of the trial when Paltrow showed up in cubic, wide, bifocal-looking eyeglasses that reminded the American public of another time zone. Specifically, the Jeffery Dahmer timezone, the infamous serial killer. The internet instantly put a side-by-side of Paltrow in court next to one of Dahmer’s mugshots from the early 1990s.
Late in the day on Thursday, March 30th, a questions and answers verdict came in after only deliberating for a little over two hours. The jury sided with Gwyneth Paltrow. Terry Sanderson will have to pay the actress one dollar.
The case was live-streamed from day one, as many know, online watchers can comment in real-time on what they’re observing. User name, Eternal Render, commented as the trial filmed, “In Canada, if you hit someone skiing you just say sorry buddy, and everyone has a beer.”
The following day Gwyneth posted to her social media a statement reading, “I felt that acquiescing to a false claim compromised my integrity. I am pleased with the outcome and I appreciate all of the hard work of Judge Holmberg and the jury. And thank them for their thoughtfulness in handling this case.”
Maybe the only real reality television nowadays, with no edits and calculated casting, now lies in the world of the celebrity trial
