Editorial: Sliding into a risible drift

Gwyneth Paltrow listens in court during her trial after a collision between her and a skier during a 2016 family ski vacation. Photo / Jeffrey D. Allred, The Deseret News via AP, Pool

EDITORIAL

With everything going on in the world and the weight it applies to our lives, we can at least be grateful for two skiers colliding on a beginner run at an upscale Utah ski resort in 2016.

Actor Gwyneth Paltrow’s live-streamed court case over her collision with 76-year-old retired optometrist Terry Sanderson in Park City has unfurled as the biggest celebrity legal wrangle since actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard faced off last year — spawning memes, debate about the burden of fame, and ski etiquette.

The trial has included expert witnesses such as a biomechanical engineer and collision expert.

After initially suing Paltrow for $3.1 million, ($4.9m), retired optometrist Terry Sanderson is now suing for at least $300,000 ($481,000) in damages. Paltrow has countersued for $1 and attorney fees. Ultimately, it’s been left to a jury to decide which of the two was “uphill” just prior to the collision, and therefore at fault.

On the serious side, Sanderson claims to have suffered broken ribs and sustained a permanent traumatic brain injury. In turn, when Paltrow took the stand and was questioned about the “losses” she may have suffered as a result of the accident, she infamously replied, “Well, we lost half a day of skiing.”

Paltrow, until that phrase, was most famous as an actor-turned-lifestyle influencer with a “scented” candle. When Stanley Kramer produced the movie It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World 60 years ago, he may have underestimated by quite a few “mads” just how bonkers it would become.