A trial over who will be the health care steward for media mogul Sumner Redstone will be open to the public, a judge decided in a tentative ruling on Wednesday.
Attorneys for Redstone had asked the judge to keep part of the trial behind closed doors to protect the 92-year-old billionaire’s privacy, Reuters reported.
The case, pitting Redstone against his former companion Manuela Herzer, has become a sideshow gripping Wall Street and Hollywood, revealing intimate claims about Redstone’s health and mental capacity.
Last year, Herzer sued to be reinstated as the steward of Redstone’s care. Her case claimed Redstone was like a “living ghost,” unable to follow conversations and sign his own name, and exposed prurient allegations of his sexual appetite. Redstone’s lawyers rejected the claims as an attempt to insinuate herself in his estate after she was removed in October.
The two sides appeared close to a settlement earlier this month, having agreed in principle to a preliminary framework for a deal that would have averted a trial. But that deal collapsed, and a trial in the case is set to begin next week.
Redstone is a controlling shareholder of two media giants, Viacom and CBS, thanks to special shares that give him roughly 80 percent control over both.