Actress Uma Thurman lost a bid Thursday to bar the press from attending parts of a weeklong custody trial filed by her ex-boyfriend, hedge fund honcho Arpad “Arki” Busson, over their 4-year-old daughter.
The trial starts Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Thurman’s attorney, Eleanor Alter, said the public should not be able to read about expected testimony from a court-appointed psychologist. “I think it’s a lot different now for children because 30 years ago you couldn’t Google it. Now it follows the child for the rest of her life,” Alter argued.
But Justice Matthew Cooper said that the psychologist’s report “only says good things about the child.”
“Let’s face it, the only problem in this case is that the parents don’t like each other and that’s the main problem,” Cooper said.
John M. Browning, attorney for The New York Post, argued that the press should be allowed to cover the custody trial because Thurman and a court-appointed attorney representing her daughter hadn’t put forward the “compelling evidence” required under the law to close the proceedings.
The judge agreed. “I cannot find that those compelling circumstances have been demonstrated, accordingly I will deny the motion,” Judge Cooper said, adding that he wouldn’t treat the parties differently just because they are “rich and famous.”
Busson’s lawyer, Peter Bronstein, had argued that the case is a matter of public importance for foreign fathers trying to assert their parental rights in U.S. courts.
“I have a responsibly to make sure that my client — who is not American, who is a French citizen, who has a home in London, and a home in the Bahamas, and has an American child — is able to see his child,” Bronstein said.
Bronstein said Thurman is trying to restrict his client to visiting with his child only in New York City and prevent him from traveling with his daughter to his foreign homes.
The judge reminded Bronstein that the “world is going to hear about your client’s finances as well,” because the ex-couple is fighting over child support.
“He is not happy about that,” Bronstein conceded. But, he said, “The question here is about his love for the child. The question is, do foreign dads have rights? If he’s going to be denied his rights they’re going to be denied in public,” Bronstein said.
Busson, 53, was not in court. Thurman, 46, who closed her eyes following the ruling, declined to comment.
“What can I do,” she said before while leaving court.
The “Pulp Fiction” actress dated Busson on and off for seven years starting in 2007. They were engaged twice but never married.