Man Suing Gwyneth Paltrow Doesn't Want Private Text Sent After Accident Used in Trial: Report
A man who is suing actress Gwyneth Paltrow over a 2016 ski accident has requested that a private text he sent the day of the crash not be admitted as evidence.
Terry Sanderson "demanded Paltrow not be allowed to show a text he sent his daughter immediately after the accident," RadarOnline reported, citing court documents filed days before the trial started.
Sanderson wrote, "I am famous …at what cost?" after learning the person he had collided with was a movie star.
In the court filing, Sanderson said the remark was irrelevant and argued that Paltrow's defense team would use it to portray him as "some kind of gold digger hoping to cash in on a case against a celebrity," according to the report.
Sanderson also requested that the jury not be informed that he initially demanded $3.1 million in the case, the report said. He is now seeking $300,000.
Sanderson, a retired optometrist, has claimed that Paltrow crashed into him at a Utah ski resort in 2016, causing "permanent traumatic brain injury," according to Fox News.
Paltrow, star of hit films such as "Emma" and the "Avengers" and "Iron Man" series, has claimed that Sanderson actually skied into her that day. She has countersued for $1 in damages plus attorney's fees.
The trial began Tuesday and is expected to last about eight days, The Washington Post reported.
The Post quoted Lawrence Buhler, Sanderson's attorney, as saying in court Tuesday that Paltrow smashed into his client on the beginner slope on Feb. 26, 2016. She then skied away, leaving him “facedown in the snow, unconscious,” Buhler said.
Paltrow's attorney, Stephen Owens, told the jury a completely different story.
“She’s skiing, enjoying herself,” he said. “Suddenly she sees two skis appear between her skis. And a man comes up right behind her.”
The impact was so hard and sudden that Owens said Paltrow wondered if she was being assaulted, the Post reported.
Paltrow's attorney said Sanderson asked her, “Who ran into who?” and apologized to Paltrow when she said he hit her.
Owens said his client only skied away after Sanderson assured her group and a ski patrol member that he was OK.
"At first, Owens said, no one recognized Paltrow, who was wearing a helmet and goggles," the Post reported.
"But later that day, after her identity became clear, Sanderson wrote to his daughters, 'I’m famous.'"
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
