Photographs of Jack Jordan and a card he sent Uma Thurman by Louis Lanzano/AP
The man accused of stalking actress Uma Thurman took the stand yesterday and admitted, "I imagined incorrectly a relationship with Miss Thurman." But while Jack Jordan, 37, acknowledged he might have been "foolish" in his pursuit of the actress, but also said in his obsession with Thurman said, "It seems almost as if Uma was courting me. We were engaged in a game of cat and mouse."
The "game of cat and mouse" was precipitated by Thurman's film work. Jordan, who was surprised Thurman was so disturbed by his overtures, was entranced with her after seeing The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and when he saw Kill Bill, he was "overcome by a strong feeling of affection for her." The NY Times described Jordan, who was hospitalized in a mental institution in 2005 and said the antipsychotic drugs given to him damaged his work abilities, explain how he came to NYC in search of Thurman:
But in August 2007, after failing a public schoolteacher examination, he drove cross-country to New York.
He began sleeping in his car while looking for a “wealthy enclave” in which to drum up tutoring business. Walking “zigzag” from 30th Street to the financial district, he identified Ms. Thurman’s house, which did not have a number on it, from photos on the Internet.
The street was so beautiful, he said, that he parked his car there. Every time he rang her bell, he said, a housekeeper told him to come back later, so he did.
“Did you think you would be invited in?” [prosecutor Jessica] Taub asked.
“I thought it was a possibility,” Mr. Jordan said.
He also called the cards he sent her, including one with a strick figure drawing of Thuman next to a grave with a stick figure of Jordan on an "ACME" razor, "kind of dada...a reference to Looney Tunes, you know, Coyote and Road Runner."
Jordan was the only defense witness. Closing arguments are expected on Monday.
