Dan Wootton: I never thought I’d feel sorry for Gwyneth Paltrow, but her court case is a process

Let’s be honest: it’s very easy to hate Gwyneth Paltrow.

A precocious actress turned health freak who amassed a $200 million fortune by conning her naive anti-aging pupils into paying ridiculous money for useless items like expensive vaginal eggs.

She tried to seize on the failure of her marriage to Coldplay’s Chris Martin to tell us that divorce was a backward concept and moving forward should be referred to as “conscious disengagement.”

A woman so rude to senior British journalist Dylan Jones when he was writing a high-profile cover article for a magazine that he quizzed a film crew about her, only for 70 percent to give a negative verdict, including calling her “such-and-such snot”.

A prima donna-clad designer is on an expensive ski trip with highly paid instructors for both her ridiculously named progeny Apple and Moses who swear at a member of the public after they have an accident before descending for a massage.

There is hardly any type of personality or behavior that will engender any sympathy in an American courtroom.

But here’s the rub: After following her circus show at a mock trial over the past week, I’m convinced Gwyneth has it all screwed up.

There’s good reason for her coming across as a fed-up singer, barely able to bear the vain questioning about her brief 2016 collision with retired ophthalmologist Terry Sanderson, who claims she caused him brain damage: Gweeney is telling the truth and is financially submissive. Witch hunting.

While I appreciate there won’t be much sympathy for the actress, believe it or not, she’s making an important point of principle: innocent people, even mega-privileged celebrities, shouldn’t have to fire hundreds of thousands of people. dollars in an out-of-court settlement just to avoid the negative publicity generated by the investigator who tried his luck.

All that said, thank God, in the midst of a relentlessly frustrated news agenda, Gwyneth decided to confront the accuser, while suing for just $1, in a Utah courtroom.

Because her confrontation with Sanderson attorney Kristen Van Orman — acting as a small-town attorney with big ambitions straight out of a John Grisham novel — made for the most entertaining celebrity cross-examination in televised legal history.

Perhaps the line that became infamous was when Gwyneth was asked about the “total” she had personally suffered from the accident, only to respond: “Well, we lost half a day of skiing.”

But that’s the whole point. It’s not trying to dust off a small ski slope into an international news event.

As for her, she thought nothing of offering up a few swear words and heading out early for a undoubtedly expensive massage to soothe her injuries.

Meanwhile, Sanderson, who at the time was 76, clearly wanted his moment in the international spotlight, saw an opportunity.

It is the definition of a trimmer.

Because three years later, he sued the Marvel star for a ridiculous $3.1 million — a court has now reduced it to $300,000 — and insisted that the crash at the Deer Valley resort caused him a permanent brain injury.

I was holding back to watch the evidence circulate before the trial ended, but then yesterday, Sanderson came out completely off the deep end.

During his closing testimony, he actually had the audacity to compare Gwyneth to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

In the case’s craziest statement yet, Sanderson claimed, “I think, ‘What’s going on here?’” Obviously, this is a problem for which a person must be responsible, and if he was never responsible, what would he do? They will do it again.

Then, referring to the so-called island of Epstein in the Caribbean where he is believed to have trafficked and sexually abused dozens of girls, the plaintiff added: “Now we have … molestation of young children on an island.”

At that point, Gwyneth finally seemed to have had enough, briefly losing her composure, while casting a surprised look at her attorney Stephen Owens, who called the testimony ‘ridiculous’, prompting the judge to tell the jury to ignore the words.

At this point, the Rubicon has been crossed and I 100 percent agree with the case by Paltrow’s legal team that Sanderson became “obsessed” with cashing in on a vulnerable celebrity by pushing a case made up of “BS.”

This incoherent BS has gotten thick and fast.

Notably, a complete dismantling of Sanderson’s claim that he became reclusive because of the accident, her attorneys have produced photos of him riding a camel in Morocco, traveling to Machu Picchu in Peru, and yes, continuing to ski.

In terms of health, he suffered a stroke long before the fateful meeting with Paltrow and was used to walking on walls before the accident.

Not to mention a neuropsychologist who said there were no signs Sanderson had suffered a concussion, but that he scored highly on ratings on the “narcissism” scale.

At least that is one area he has in common with his unlikely nemesis Gwyneth.

Because, as is always the case with celebrity experiences, there really are no winners.

Gwyneth seems self-obsessed, out of touch and pretty much awful as you can imagine.

Maybe from a PR standpoint she should have paid the guy $1 million to stop the headlines from last week.

But she deserves to win.

Because Sanderson, by contrast, uses a chance encounter with a celebrity to gain his fortune and fame around the world, when in reality all he deserves is pity.

Dan’s column was written before the jury returned the verdict in the case