Connect with us

Published

on

Gwyneth Paltrow “slammed very hard” into a fellow skier, hitting him directly in the back, as he fell face down, lying “spread-eagled” in the snow, a US court has heard.

The Hollywood actress, 50, has been accused of “dangerous” and “reckless” behaviour before “bolting” down the slope without saying a word, as she faces claims she seriously injured Terry Sanderson in a “hit-and-run” crash in 2016.

The movie star, who is also a lifestyle influencer, allegedly skied “out of control” during a family holiday and hit the retired optometrist at Deer Valley Resort in Utah. He is suing her for $300,000 (£245,000).

She rejects the claim, with her lawyer calling Mr Sanderson’s version of events “utter BS”.

Gwyneth Paltrow in court. Pic: AP
Image:
Gwyneth Paltrow in court. Pic: AP
Terry Sanderson in court. Pic: AP
Image:
Accuser Terry Sanderson. Pic: AP

The lawsuit claimed Paltrow crashed into him, “knocking him down hard, knocking him out, and causing a brain injury, four broken ribs and other serious injuries”.

“Paltrow got up, turned and skied away, leaving Sanderson stunned, lying in the snow,” it added.

However, the actress’s legal team has told jurors that Mr Sanderson, 76, was the one who crashed into her – a collision in which she sustained what they called a “full body blow”.

On the opening day, the first witness to appear was Craig Ramon, a fellow skier and “acquaintance” of Mr Sanderson who said he was the only other person present at the time of the collision. He had been about 11m (35ft) away.

Mr Ramon said: “We were skiing down the run and then I heard this yell, this scream, and then I looked over and… then I see this skier [Paltrow] just slam into the back of Terry.

“She slammed him very hard. She hits him directly in the back, his skis go out and he falls face down, so he’s kind of spread-eagled and Gwyneth is on top of him… and bounces off and slides about five or 10ft.”

Craig Ramon
Image:
Craig Ramon was the first witness to give evidence

Paltrow, an Oscar-winning actress known for her roles in Shakespeare In Love and Marvel’s Iron Man movies, has alleged Mr Sanderson is actually the culprit in the collision, and has been overstating his injuries as well as trying to exploit her celebrity and wealth.

The US star sat in court wearing a high-necked cream jumper and brown trousers as the case began in the Utah ski town of Park City.

Mr Ramon said he had asked both Mr Sanderson and Paltrow if they were alright.

“Terry wasn’t moving, his face was in the snow… his helmet was stuck in the snow. [Paltrow] just looked at me and I asked her again. She got up pretty quick… [but] she never said a word,” he said.

Ski instructor ‘yelled’ at Mr Sanderson

Mr Ramon said a ski instructor, later identified as Eric Christiansen, had arrived after and started “yelling” at Mr Sanderson.

He said Paltrow had then “bolted” down the hill.

Mr Ramon added Paltrow had not offered her name or contact information, and did not ask if Mr Sanderson was hurt or required help.

Gwyneth Paltrow in court. Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP
Gwyneth Paltrow. Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP

Lawrence Buhler, representing Mr Sanderson, told jurors that Paltrow’s behaviour on the mountain in 2016 had been “reckless” and he accused her of a “conscious disregard for other people on the mountain”.

Mr Buhler claimed she “knew that looking up the mountain and to the side while skiing down the mountain was dangerous”.

The defence is seeking damages of up to $3,276,000 (£2,688,000), according to Mr Buhler.

Who was farther downhill?

On ski slopes, Utah law gives the skier who is downhill the right of way, and a central question in the case is who was farther down the beginner’s run when the collision happened.

Both Paltrow and Mr Sanderson claim they were farther downhill when the other rammed into them, causing their skis to intertwine and the pair to tumble.

The defence’s case

Paltrow’s legal team maintain that Mr Sanderson was the one who crashed into her.

Her lawyer Steve Owens called Mr Sanderson’s version of what happened in the incident “utter BS”.

He also said that members of Paltrow’s group checked on Mr Sanderson, who assured them he was fine – an interaction Mr Sanderson does not deny but said in court filings that he cannot remember.

Mr Owens added Paltrow had told her daughter that “some A-hole” had run into her and had been “mad” later, choosing to finish skiing for the day.

Mr Sanderson has accused Deer Valley and its workers of being involved in a “cover up” by not providing complete information on incident reports and not following resort safety policies.

Mr Sanderson first sued Paltrow in 2019, seeking $3.1m (£2.5m) in damages, before that claim was dropped.

Read more from Sky News:
Bruce Willis celebrates 68th birthday following dementia diagnosis
Harry Potter actor dies after collapsing outside King’s Cross

The actress countersued for a symbolic $1, saying it was Mr Sanderson who had caused the crash.

Paltrow’s claim said she was shaken by the collision, adding that Mr Sanderson apologised to her and said he was fine.

The trial is scheduled to last for eight days.

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Kneecap rapper Mo Chara says he’s a ‘free man’ as band draw huge Glastonbury crowd

Published

on

By

Kneecap rapper Mo Chara says he's a 'free man' as band draw huge Glastonbury crowd

Kneecap rapper Liam Og O hAnnaidh told Glastonbury he is a “free man” as the Irish rap band played to a huge crowd – the biggest of their career, they said.

The trio were defiant on stage after calls from some politicians for them to be cut from the line-up.

They were greeted by cheers of support, and dozens of Palestinian flags waving in the crowd, as well as Irish flags and a few “Free Mo Chara” T-shirts.

DJ Provai of Kneecap. Pic: Reuters
Image:
J J O Dochartaigh, aka DJ Provai. Pic: Reuters

Crowd and flags at Glastonbury. Pic: Reuters
Image:
The trio drew a big crowd to the West Holts stage. Pic: Reuters

On stage, the band told fans their legal case had been stressful, but emphasised it was nothing compared with what Palestinians are going through.

Kneecap played the West Holts stage, which has a capacity of about 30,000, and the area was closed by security about 45 minutes before their set.

Moglai Bap and Mo Chara of Kneecap perform at Glastonbury. Pic: Reuters
Image:
O hAnnaidh and Naoise O Caireallain, aka Moglai Bap (right) . Pic: Reuters

A reveller wears a balaclava in the colours of the Irish flag. Pic: Reuters
Image:
A reveller wears a balaclava in the colours of the Irish flag. Pic: Reuters

They started with a montage of news readers covering O hAnnaidh’s charge. “Has anybody been watching the news?” bandmate Naoise O Caireallain joked.

They also thanked Glastonbury organisers Michael Eavis and daughter Emily for not bowing to pressure to remove them from the bill.

Earlier on Saturday, the BBC confirmed they would not be live-streaming the set but said the performance is likely to be made available on-demand later.

It is understood the performance will need to be reviewed beforehand.

Kneecap's Liam Og O Hannaidh leaves Westminster Magistrates' Court in London
Image:
O hAnnaidh outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London earlier this month. Pic: PA

Liam Og O hAnnaidh, also known as Liam O’Hanna – or by his stage name Mo Chara, was charged with a terror offence in May and appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court earlier this month.

Outside the court, he and bandmates Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh were cheered by hundreds of supporters.

O hAnnaidh is accused of displaying a flag in support of the proscribed group Hezbollah at a gig in London last November, after video footage circulated online.

He was released on bail ahead of a second court appearance in August.

One of the band’s lawyers said they would always “defend not only their rights, but the rights of artists and people all around the world”.

Supporters of Kneecap's Liam Og O Hannaidh outside Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, where he is appearing charged with a terrorism offence. The 27-year-old from Belfast, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara and is also known as Liam O'Hanna, has been charged with a terrorism offence relating to displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town on November 21. Picture date: Wednesday June 18, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire
Image:
Supporters gathered outside the court. Pic: PA

On social media, O hAnnaidh and the band denied support for Hezbollah after the charge was announced, but the trio are unwavering in their support for Palestinians and speaking out against the war in Gaza.

But as the band were removed from other festivals, there were calls from some for them to be taken off the bill at Glastonbury, too – with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer saying he thought they should be axed.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch also said the BBC “should not be showing” the trio’s set in a post on social media last week.

Kneecap have the support of dozens of musicians including Massive Attack, Pulp, Primal Scream and Paul Weller, who signed an open letter in May saying there had been a “concerted attempt to censor and ultimately de-platform” the group.

Read more:
‘Prime ministers and pop music don’t go together’
Lewis Capaldi plays emotional ‘secret’ set at Glastonbury
Robbie Williams addresses Glastonbury rumours

Kneecap released their first single in 2017 and built a loyal fanbase in the following years.

They rose to wider prominence in 2024 following the release of their debut album and award-winning eponymous film – a fictionalised retelling of how the band came together and their fight to save the Irish language.

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Robbie Williams addresses Glastonbury rumours – as excitement builds for ‘secret’ sets

Published

on

By

Robbie Williams addresses Glastonbury rumours - as excitement builds for 'secret' sets

Pulp tried to quash the rumours, Robbie Williams was happy to fuel them – sharing a picture of a blue plaque in his name apparently slapped over a famous Glastonbury sign, before seemingly backtracking.

“30 years later…” he captioned his first social media post early on Friday morning – a reference to his headline-grabbing attendance in 1995.

This was the year Williams was famously pictured partying with Oasis‘s Liam and Noel Gallagher, shunning the boyband shackles with bleached-blonde hair and a blacked-out tooth. The writing was on the wall, and the announcement of his departure from Take That came just a few weeks later.

At Glastonbury this year, is the writing quite literally on the wall for a comeback?

Well, maybe not. A few hours after his post, Williams shared another, less cryptic message to say he would not be performing, along with his list of recommended acts to go and see – The 1975, Busta Rhymes, Charli XCX, Self Esteem and Reverend And The Makers, if you’re interested.

Is he bluffing? Double-bluffing? Who knows, but along with celeb spotting and mud, if there’s one topic of conversation that makes headlines when it comes to Glastonbury, it’s speculation about secret artists. Williams has got everybody talking.

Even before his posts, the Let Me Entertain You singer was among the artists rumoured to be performing secret sets this year, along with Pulp and Haim. Lewis Capaldi and Lorde too, with both “TBA” acts turning out to huge crowds on Friday.

Liam Gallagher And Robbie Williams at Glastonbury Festival in 1995. Pic: Brian Rasic/Getty Images
Image:
Liam Gallagher And Robbie Williams at Glastonbury Festival in 1995. Pic: Brian Rasic/Getty Images

In recent years, these surprise sets have turned into some of the event’s most memorable moments – think Foo Fighters as “The ChurnUps” in 2023, Pulp’s comeback in 2011, and Lady Gaga treating fans to a small performance in one of the festival’s after hours areas, Shangri-La, in 2009.

Franz Ferdinand, famous for hits including Take Me Out and Do You Want To in the mid-2000s, were the first to do it back in 2008. This was actually due to Pete Doherty’s band Babyshambles pulling out last-minute, but the approach to announcing the switch was, at the time, a novel one.

While officially, the act was “TBA”, frontman Alex Kapranos wasn’t great at keeping the secret, worried people might not turn up. He and bandmates handed out fliers, and word spread.

Franz Ferdinand perform a secret gig on the Park Stage during day one of the Glastonbury Festival, Somerset. Pic: Yui Mok/ PA
Image:
Franz Ferdinand played the first ever big ‘secret’ set back in 2008. Pic: Yui Mok/ PA

“We played on the Park Stage and we thought, ‘nobody’s going to know we’re playing’,” Kapranos told Sky News ahead of a return performance on Friday. “It actually ended up being one of the most amazing gigs we’ve ever played, people were so up for it and going crazy.

“We weren’t keeping it secret. We were walking about like, ‘we’re playing later on, check it out’. We’re a band from Glasgow called Franz Ferdinand.”

These now not-so-secret performances have become bigger and bigger as each festival rolls around, with leaks making headlines in the run-up to the event.

Providing handy tips and hints – and often eventually confirmation, just in time for fans to be in position – is the Secret Glasto team. They have no official ties to Glastonbury, but over the years have become a reliable source of information.

The account’s founder, who now works in a team of six, spoke to us on site – incognito, of course.

“We’ve got our own sources and we can start checking things because we’ve now had enough years that we can check in with several people,” he said. “And they trust us because we are quite sensible with when we time announcements, which I think is the key thing.”

Sometimes acts themselves will confirm, they said. Their success rate for predictions is “in the low 90%” – but dragged down mainly by inexperience in their first year, which was 2014.

Capaldi’s comeback yesterday, two years after struggling on stage at Glastonbury in 2023, was a special moment.

“It was really, really heartwarming to see him get back up,” Secret Glasto said. “There was such goodwill in the crowd and it was just magical. It’s just what secret sets should be about.”

British band Pulp perform on the Arena Stage as 'surprise guests' at Glastonbury Festival in Glastonbury, England on Saturday June 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Mark Allan)
Image:
Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker performing on the Park Stage for a secret set at Glastonbury 2011. Pic: AP/ Mark Allan


On Saturday evening, a non-existent act called Patchwork have a pretty important billing just before Raye and then headliner Neil Young on the Pyramid Stage.

Pulp keyboard player Candida Doyle dampened rumours by reportedly saying in an interview earlier this month Glastonbury “weren’t interested” in booking the band.

But is this true?

“It happens a few times,” Secret Glasto said, of artists maybe telling little white lies to keep the secret for as long as possible. “They’ve got to keep the suspense somehow…

“Sources that we got for Pulp were really, really strong. It’s just so exciting for us, for the whole team. This is the most exciting secret set that Glastonbury’s ever done.”

Read more:
Glastonbury performers criticise political interference
Sanchez shares picture with Bezos as they tie the knot

It’s a fine balance – not spoiling the surprise but giving fans enough time to get where they want to be. When a festival is this big – home to around 200,000 people over the weekend – at a lot of stages, fans need to be in place early.

“The point is to always make sure people can get to the set if they wanted to.” But if a huge artist is going to surprise fans on a very small stage, sometimes they have to keep schtum for safety concerns over huge crowds. “Sometimes we’re like, we can’t print this.”

So, will Williams be playing? The rumour is that he could be joining his mate Rod Stewart, who is performing on the Pyramid Stage in the “legends” slot on Sunday.

“Robbie Williams entered this area without accreditation, authorisation, or alignment with prevailing taste,” according to the blue plaque in his social media tease, of his attendance in 1995. “His presence was uninvited, unofficial and ultimately inevitable.”

In his candid documentary series, and biopic Better Man, both released last year, Williams has been open about his struggles with fame and imposter syndrome, and how as an artist known for pop he craved respect from those seen as more credible at a time when indie music reigned.

Officially this year, there is no Robbie Williams on the line-up. Unofficially, who knows? But 30 years since his partying with the Gallaghers, pop music is embraced – and there would be a lot of love for the star if he did make an appearance now.

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Lewis Capaldi plays emotional not-so-secret comeback set at Glastonbury

Published

on

By

Lewis Capaldi plays emotional not-so-secret comeback set at Glastonbury

Lewis Capaldi has made an emotional comeback with a “secret” performance at Glastonbury – two years after announcing a break from the spotlight, where he struggled on stage at the festival.

After revealing his new song, Survive, earlier in the day, Capaldi took to the Pyramid Stage and surveyed the huge crowd in front of him as he launched into his 2019 hit, Before You Go.

Glastonbury, how you doing?” was the simple introduction after the first chorus, and then came his second song, Grace.

Fan support for Lewis Capaldi was clear. Pic: Yui Mok/ PA
Image:
Fan support for Lewis Capaldi was clear. Pic: PA

Before the next one, the Scottish star took it all in again and told the audience: “Glastonbury, it’s so good to be back… I’m not going to say much up here today because if I do, I’ll probably start crying.”

But, he added, he wanted to thank his fans, and “finish what I couldn’t the first time round”.

Along with the headliners and the Sunday afternoon “legends slots”, secret sets from the likes of Foo Fighters, The Killers, and Radiohead have become some of the most talked-about performances at Glastonbury in recent years.

This time round, there had been much speculation about some of the big unannounced slots on the bill – in particular the TBA act scheduled to appear on the festival’s main stage, the Pyramid Stage, just before Alanis Morissette on Friday afternoon.

With various clues trailed on social media and in Glasgow, where Capaldi was born, and Castle Cary, near Glastonbury, by the time Capaldi walked on stage, it was in reality no secret to all but a few of the huge crowd that had turned out for the “surprise”.

Lewis Capaldi performing on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. Pic: Yui Mok/PA
Image:
Lewis Capaldi performing on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. Pic: PA

The 28-year-old acknowledged the absurdity of his set being “TBA”, describing it as the “worst kept secret” and joking: “I don’t know who’s been f*****g telling people.”

There were chants of “Oh, Lewis Capaldi!” from the crowd before he began his next songs, including Hold Me While You Wait, Bruises, Forget Me, and Someone You Loved.

Read more: Glastonbury performers criticise political interference in festival

👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈

His performance was more than just a surprise set.

A few months before his last appearance at Glastonbury, again on the Pyramid Stage, in 2023, Capaldi had released the all-access documentary, How I’m Feeling Now.

It showed his rise from viral hit-maker to a star whose debut album, Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent, became the biggest-selling in the UK in its year of release – and the year after, too.

No mean feat when you consider his competition – Ed Sheeran was second in 2019 and Harry Styles in 2020.

Pic: PA
Image:
Capaldi on stage at the festival in 2023. Pic: PA

Fans have always loved Capaldi not just for his talent as a singer and songwriter, but for his class-clown humour and his unfiltered, indifferent style.

But his sense of humour and anti-celebrity attitude masked struggles with his mental health and Tourette’s, which he spoke about candidly in the film.

At Glastonbury in 2023, the strain was clear.

Prior to the performance, he had cancelled several shows to rest and recover. On stage, he apologised as he prepared to belt out his hit song Someone You Loved.

“I’m going to be honest, everybody, but I’m starting to lose my voice up here, but we’re going to keep going and we’re going to go until the end,” he told the crowd.

“I just need you all to sing with me as loud as you can, if that’s okay?”

Lewis Capaldi: How I'm Feeling Now. Pic: Netflix
Image:
Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now. Pic: Netflix

And of course they did, the voices of tens of thousands of people carrying him through.

In a statement afterwards, the star said the sentiment had meant “the world”, before announcing a break for “the foreseeable future”.

“I used to be able to enjoy every second of shows like this, and I’d hoped three weeks away would sort me out,” he said.

“But the truth is I’m still learning to adjust to the impact of my Tourette’s and on Saturday it became obvious that I need to spend much more time getting my mental and physical health in order, so I can keep doing everything I love for a long time to come.”

In May, Capaldi performed his first show in two years – a charity gig in Edinburgh to raise funds for the Campaign Against Living Miserably (Calm), a mental health charity he has supported over the years.

For most artists, playing the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury is a dream. Now, Capaldi has achieved it once again – this time, fans didn’t need to help him with the sing-along, but of course they joined him anyway. The love from the audience was clear.

“How far will you go to get back to the place you belong?” is one of the lines from Survive.

With this performance, Capaldi showed that this, one of the world’s most famous stages, is still that place for him.

Continue Reading

Trending