Erik von Detten, the actor who played Josh Bryant, the smooth talking senior who kissed Mia Thermopolis in front of the paparazzi in The Princess Diaries, has been sued by a 97 year old man and his 85 year old wife who say he talked them into buying roughly $2 million in gold coins worth far less than they paid.
The couple, Norman and Sheila Greenberg, filed the lawsuit against von Detten and his employer, the precious metals dealer Rosland Capital, in Los Angeles County Superior Court. It accuses both of elder abuse, intentional misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, constructive fraud and conversion. The complaint was filed on May 11 and surfaced publicly on Tuesday.
From Genovia To Gold Coins
Von Detten, now 44, spent most of the 1990s and early 2000s working for Disney. He voiced Sid, the toy torturing kid next door, in Pixar’s Toy Story in 1995 and reprised the part for a brief cameo in Toy Story 3. He starred in Escape to Witch Mountain the same year, led the 1998 Disney Channel Original Movie Brink! as skater Andy Brinker, played Clu Bell on So Weird, and then landed the Josh Bryant role opposite Anne Hathaway in Garry Marshall’s 2001 hit. Josh was the boy Mia wanted until he used her for a photo op on the beach, and it is still the role most fans know him for.
He largely stepped away from acting afterward, and by 2018 was working at Rosland Capital, a Los Angeles company that sells gold and silver and advertises heavily on television. The Greenbergs say one of those ads is what led them to Rosland.
What The Lawsuit Says
According to the complaint, the couple called Rosland in 2020 after seeing one of its commercials and were put in touch with von Detten. They told him they knew little about gold but had about $2 million in their retirement accounts. The suit says he impressed them with his knowledge and offered to guide them, and they agreed to two orders totaling roughly $1 million in Lady Liberty gold coins. The coins were sent to a storage warehouse rather than to the couple, the suit says.
A short time later, the Greenbergs say, von Detten made a second purchase of about $1 million in coins on their behalf. They say they later learned the coins were worth significantly less than they had paid. According to TMZ, the couple put the total at about $2.1 million, say the coins are now worth about $1.3 million, and are seeking roughly $900,000 plus punitive damages. The complaint also accuses Rosland more broadly of marketing to senior citizens and playing on their fears about financial stability to sell them overpriced metals.
Rosland Filed For Bankruptcy Weeks Later
Rosland Capital filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on July 2, less than two months after the Greenbergs sued. The company’s unsecured creditors’ committee asked the bankruptcy court this month for permission to question von Detten and obtain documents from him, which is part of why the case is drawing attention now.
None of the allegations have been proven in court, and neither von Detten nor Rosland has publicly responded to the suit. Von Detten has occasionally returned to acting in recent years and most recently appeared in the 2024 thriller My Acting Coach Nightmare.
The suit comes as Disney develops a third Princess Diaries film with Hathaway returning, and The Princess Diaries In Concert premieres in London on November 27, with more performances around the world promised.
For the latest news and updates make sure to follow us on social media! Facebook | Twitter | Threads | Instagram | TikTok
