Gwyneth Paltrow, wellness guru, entrepreneur and actress, has given the world many things: conscious uncoupling, rectal ozone therapy and, now, a week and a half into that limited series officially known as Sanderson v. Paltrow and unofficially as the Gwyneth Paltrow Ski Crash Trial that is taking place in Park City, Utah, and streaming on the Law & Crime network, a new style subgenre that ought henceforth to be known as courtcore.
It may be more precedent setting than you might think.
Though less viral and with lower stakes than last year’s feverishly followed celebrity lawsuit, the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial, the G.P. Ski Crash trial may be nominally about the 1 percent problem of who is at fault in a luxury skiing accident but is more broadly about celebrity — and the place it occupies in our mental and cultural landscape. The celebrity fashion stylist Brad Goreski has posted that he is “obsessed.” Katie Couric wrote, “Who isn’t?”
For those who have not been following: In 2016 Ms. Paltrow either banged into or was banged into by Terry Sanderson, a now 76-year-old retired optometrist, while skiing at the Deer Valley Resort. Mr. Sanderson has claimed that he sustained a traumatic brain injury and broken ribs as a result of the collision and underwent personality changes; in 2019 he sued Ms. Paltrow for $3.1 million, accusing her of a “hit and run,” but a judge ruled that he was not entitled to punitive damages and that figure was reduced to $300,000. Ms. Paltrow claims that Mr. Sanderson skied into her and is countersuing for $1 and legal fees.
Mr. Sanderson’s lawyers are trying to paint Ms. Paltrow as an entitled famous person who walked away from the scene of an accident. (They have delved into her relationship with Taylor Swift, her height and the cost — thousands per day — of private ski instructors for each of her children.)
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