Gwyneth Paltrow wins ‘ski crash of the century’ trial


Gwyneth Paltrow and Terry Sanderson, in Park City, Utah, on March 30, 2023.

Comedians called it a trial “the whitest” that the United States has experienced. He pitted blonde and wealthy actress Gwyneth Paltrow, 50, against 76-year-old optician Terry Sanderson over a 2016 ski collision in Park City, one of the country’s most affluent resorts. Scenery: Utah, its powder snow, and its 3.4 million inhabitants, 66% Mormons, who wondered why the affair amused their compatriots so much.

The trial, which lasted more than a week in Park City court, ended Thursday, March 30, with the star’s complete victory. The jury found pensioner Terry Sanderson fully responsible for the crash despite it resulting in head trauma and four broken ribs. His claim for compensation, in the amount of 300,000 dollars (just over 275,000 euros), was rejected. The actress, who is also the director of a wellness products company, had filed a competing complaint, for a symbolic dollar. Asked at the bar about the damage suffered, she replied that she had “lost half a day of skiing”.

On February 26, 2016, Gwyneth Paltrow took a ski lesson with an instructor (paid $4,900 a day, like the two children’s instructors) at Deer Valley Resort, a place where you can drink champagne in yurts for 2 100 m altitude but no snowboarding. The collision did not take place on a black run, or even a blue one, but on the quasi-flatness of the “Bandana Ski Run” beginners’ run.

Classic dilemma: who to believe?

Gwyneth Paltrow Claims Optician Hit Her From Behind; She immediately thought it was a sexual assault. The optician testified that the actress sent it “waltz” – impossible, retorted an expert, it would have had to descend the slope at 50 km / h. The two protagonists claimed to be downhill, on the slope, and therefore within their rights, under the skier’s code of good conduct.

None body camera not having recorded the accident, the jurors were delivered to the classic dilemma “he says/she says” : who to believe? Facing the heroine of the film Shakespeare in Love (1998), it soon became apparent that the optician with the gray goatee had little luck. The septuagenarian explained in vain that he had lost interest in life since then – he who loved wine tasting no longer takes any pleasure in it – the complaint did not earn him any compassion.

Even his attorney, Kristin Van Orman, didn’t seem to take her role seriously. In fact interrogation, she exchanged compliments with the actress and compared their respective heights, 1.77 meters for Paltrow. ” I am jealous, she claimed. With 10 centimeter heels, I barely reach 1.65 meters. » The star pretended to have noticed the ” very pretty “ opposing party’s shoes. The exchange made Me Van Orman the starlet of the day on YouTube.

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