News Analysis India

Tag: Johnny Depp

  • Amber Heard to appeal jury verdict; attorney says verdict influenced by social media

    By IANS

    LOS ANGELES: Elaine Bredehoft, Amber Heard’s attorney in her defamation trial against Johnny Depp, opened up about the verdict in a no-hold-barred conversation with Savannah Guthrie on the NBC network’s ‘Today’ show.She said Heard will “absolutely” want to appeal the jury’s decision that was in favour of Depp. “She has some excellent grounds for it,” Bredehoft added, according to ‘Variety’.”She was demonised here,” Bredehoft added about Heard. “A number of things were allowed in this court that should not have been allowed, and it caused the jury to be confused. We weren’t allowed to tell them about the U.K. judgment.”The attorney was referring to the libel case Depp lost in the United Kingdom. The ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ actor sued the popular British red-top tabloid, ‘The Sun’, for calling him a “wife beater” but lost the case.Bredehoft also shared her belief that the vitriol Heard received on social media during the course of the high-profile trial most likely impacted the jury, reports ‘Variety’. Social media was largely on Depp’s side, according to the attorney, as was evident from the viral TikTok trend in which users widely mocked Heard’s testimonies.When asked if social media impacted the jury, Bredehoft replied: “Absolutely. Jurors [weren’t supposed to be looking at social media], but how can you not [be aware]? They went home every night. They have families. Their families are on social media. We had a 10-day break in the middle because of the judicial conference. There is no way they couldn’t have been influenced.”

  • Johnny Depp, Amber Heard face uncertain career prospects after trial

    By Associated Press

    FAIRFAX: A jury’s finding that both Johnny Depp and his ex-wife, Amber Heard, were defamed in a long-running public dispute capped a lurid six-week trial that also raised questions about whether the two actors can overcome tarnished reputations.

    The verdict handed down Wednesday in Virginia found that Depp had been defamed by three statements in an op-ed written by Heard in which she said she was an abuse victim. The jury awarded him more than $10 million. But jurors also concluded that Heard was defamed by a lawyer for Depp who accused her of creating a detailed hoax surrounding the abuse allegations. She was awarded $2 million.

    Depp had hoped the libel lawsuit would help restore his reputation. However, legal and entertainment experts said that both actors’ reputations have been damaged by ugly details about their brief marriage that came out during the televised trial watched by millions.

    “Both of them will work again, but I think it will be a while before a major studio will consider them ‘safe’ enough to bet on,” said former entertainment lawyer Matthew Belloni, who writes about the business of Hollywood for the newsletter Puck. “The personal baggage that was revealed in this trial was just too icky for a studio to want to deal with.”

    The case captivated viewers who watched gavel-to-gavel television coverage, including impassioned followers on social media who dissected the actors’ mannerisms, their wardrobe choices and their use of alcohol and drugs.

    Both performers emerge with unclear prospects for their careers. Depp, a three-time best actor Oscar nominee, was a bankable star until recent years, with credits including playing Capt. Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films. However, he lost that role and was replaced in a “Fantastic Beasts” spinoff.

    Heard’s acting career has been more modest, and her only two upcoming roles are in a small film and the upcoming “Aquaman” sequel due out next year.

    Eric Rose, a crisis management and communications expert in Los Angeles, called the trial a “classic murder-suicide,” in terms of damage to both careers.

    “From a reputation-management perspective, there can be no winners,” he said. “They’ve bloodied each other up. It becomes more difficult now for studios to hire either actor because you’re potentially alienating a large segment of your audience who may not like the fact that you have retained either Johnny or Amber for a specific project because feelings are so strong now.”

    Heard, who attended court Wednesday and was stoic while the verdict was read, said she was heartbroken by what she described as a setback for women in general.

    “I’m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It’s a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously,” she said in a statement posted on her Twitter account.

    Depp, who was not in court Wednesday, said “the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled.”

    “I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up,” he said in a statement posted to Instagram.

    Depp sued Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” The essay never mentioned his name.

    The jury found in Depp’s favor on all three of his claims relating to specific statements in the piece.

    In evaluating Heard’s counterclaims, jurors considered three statements by a lawyer for Depp who called her allegations a hoax. They found she was defamed by one of them, in which the lawyer claimed that she and friends “spilled a little wine and roughed the place up, got their stories straight,” and called police.

    While the case was ostensibly about libel, most of the testimony focused on whether Heard had been physically and sexually abused, as she claimed. Heard enumerated more than a dozen alleged assaults, including a fight in Australia — where Depp was shooting a “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel — in which Depp lost the tip of his middle finger and Heard said she was sexually assaulted with a liquor bottle.

    Depp said he never hit Heard and that she was the abuser, though Heard’s attorneys highlighted years-old text messages Depp sent apologizing to Heard for his behavior as well as profane texts he sent to a friend in which Depp said he wanted to kill Heard and defile her dead body.

    Brett Ward, a family law attorney in New York, said Depp made himself a more believable witness by admitting to drug and alcohol use and that he could be a difficult person. But he said Depp also ran the risk of making those moments more memorable to the public than his film work.

    “He says he did this for his children. Having watched the whole trial, I don’t think that he did any service to his children by airing all of this dirty laundry,” Ward said in an interview.

    “But whether this was worthwhile for Johnny Depp, we will know in five years if he reestablishes himself as an A-list Hollywood actor. And if he doesn’t? I think he’s made a terrible mistake because most people aren’t going to remember his rather distinguished Hollywood career. They’re going to remember this trial.”

  • Kate Moss supports Johnny Depp at concert in London

    By IANS

    LONDON: Days after testifying in Hollywood star Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against Amber Heard, the actor’s ex-girlfriend and model Kate Moss was spotted leaving the actor’s performance at Londons Royal Albert Hall.

    The supermodel was spotted leaving the venue on May 31 after Depp took the stage with rock guitarist Jeff Beck, as seen in photos published by the Daily Mail, reports eonline.com.

    The UK performance marked Depp’s third consecutive show of the week with Beck.

    Throughout their performance series, which kicked off on May 29 in Sheffield, Beck and Depp performed their 2020 collaboration ‘Isolation’.

    Depp also joined Beck to deliver covers of well-known hits on the guitar such as Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Little Wing’, per videos that have surfaced on the Internet.

    Prior to attending his concert at Royal Albert Hall, Moss, who dated the Pirates of the Caribbean actor from 1994 to 1998, testified during his defamation trial against Amber Heard on May 25.

    The supermodel appeared before the court in Fairfax, Virginia, on video after Heard testified weeks earlier that during an alleged confrontation with Depp, she “instantly” thought “of Kate Moss and stairs.”

    While on the witness stand, Heard said that she thought Depp was going to push her sister Whitney Heard down the stairs during an altercation in their Los Angeles home, explaining: “And the moment that happened I remembered information I had heard (that) he pushed a former girlfriend, I believe it was Kate Moss, down the stairs.”

    While on the stand as a rebuttal witness, Moss detailed the moment in question, which occurred in the 1990s.

    “We were leaving the room and Johnny left the room before I did and there had been a rain storm and as I left the room, I slipped down the stairs and I hurt my back,” she recalled.

    “I screamed because I didn’t know what happened to me, and I was in pain and he came running back to help me and carried me to my room and got me medical attention.”

    Additionally, Moss testified that Depp “never pushed me, kicked me, or threw me down any stairs” throughout their four-year relationship.

    Depp filed suit against his ex-wife Heard after she wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post in 2018. During Heard’s op-ed, she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”

    Although Depp’s name was never mentioned during the ‘Aquaman’ actress’ personal essay, his lawyers stated in previous court documents that she “concocted the story in hopes of generating positive publicity and to advance her career.”

    After more than six weeks of trial concluded, the jury ruled that Heard was liable for defaming Depp. After reaching this verdict, the jury awarded $10 million to Depp in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, which the judge lowered to $350,000 due to the state of Virginia’s cap.

    Heard, who filed a $100 million countersuit against Johnny, was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages.

  • Johnny Depp wins defamation case, ex-wife Amber Heard to pay USD 15 Million

    By Associated Press

    FAIRFAX: A jury on Wednesday awarded Johnny Depp $10.35 million in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, vindicating his stance that Heard fabricated claims that she was abused by Depp before and during their brief marriage.

    The jury also found in favor of Heard, who said she was defamed by Depp’s lawyer when he called her abuse allegations a hoax. The jury awarded her $2 million in damages.

    The verdicts bring an end to a televised trial that Depp had hoped would help restore his reputation, though it turned into a spectacle of a vicious marriage. Throughout the trial, fans — overwhelmingly on Depp’s side — lined up overnight for coveted courtroom seats. Spectators who couldn’t get in gathered on the street to cheer Depp and jeer Heard whenever either appeared outside.

    Depp sued Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” His lawyers said he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name.

    While the case was ostensibly about libel, most of the testimony focused on whether Heard had been physically and sexually abused, as she claimed. Heard enumerated more than a dozen alleged assaults, including a fight in Australia — where Depp was shooting a “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel — in which Depp lost the tip of his middle finger and Heard said she was sexually assaulted with a liquor bottle.

    Depp said he never hit Heard and that she was the abuser, though Heard’s attorneys highlighted years-old text messages Depp sent apologizing to Heard for his behavior as well as profane texts he sent to a friend in which Depp said he wanted to kill Heard and defile her dead body.

    In some ways, the trial was a replay of a lawsuit Depp filed in the United Kingdom against a British tabloid after he was described as a “wife beater.” The judge in that case ruled in the newspaper’s favor after finding that Heard was telling the truth in her descriptions of abuse.

    In the Virginia case, Depp had to prove not only that he never assaulted Heard, but that Heard’s article — which focused primarily on public policy related to domestic violence — defamed him. He also had to prove that Heard wrote the article with actual malice. And to claim damages he had to prove that her article caused the damage to his reputation as opposed to any number of articles before and after Heard’s piece that detailed the allegations against him.

    Depp, in his final testimony to the jury, said the trial gave him a chance to clear his name in a way that he the U.K trial never allowed.

    “No matter what happens, I did get here and I did tell the truth and I have spoken up for what I’ve been carrying on my back, reluctantly, for six years.” Depp said.

    Heard, on the other hand, said the trial has been an ordeal inflicted by an orchestrated smear campaign led by Depp.

    “Johnny promised me — promised me — that he’d ruin my life, that he’d ruin my career. He’d take my life from me,” Heard said in her final testimony.

    The case captivated millions through its gavel-to-gavel television coverage and impassioned followers on social media who dissected everything from the actors’ mannerisms to the possible symbolism of what they were wearing. Both performers emerge from the trial with reputations in tatters with unclear prospects for their careers.

    Eric Rose, a crisis management and communications expert in Los Angeles, called the trial a “classic murder-suicide.”

    “From a reputation management perspective, there can be no winners,” he said. “They’ve bloodied each other up. It becomes more difficult now for studios to hire either actor because you’re potentially alienating a large segment of your audience who may not like the fact that you have retained either Johnny or Amber for a specific project because feelings are so strong now.”

    Depp, a three-time best actor Oscar nominee, had until recent years been a bankable star. His turn as Capt. Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” film helped turn it into a global franchise, but he’s lost that role. (Heard and Depp’s teams each blame the other.) He was also replaced as the title character in the third “Fantastic Beasts” spin-off film, “The Crimes of Grindelwald.”

    Despite testimony at the trial that he could be violent, abusive and out of control, Depp received a standing ovation Tuesday night in London after performing for about 40 minutes with Jeff Beck at the Royal Albert Hall. He has previously toured with Joe Perry and Alice Cooper as the group Hollywood Vampires.

    Heard’s acting career has been more modest, and her only two upcoming roles are in a small film and the upcoming “Aquaman” sequel due out next year.

    Depp’s lawyers fought to keep the case in Virginia, in part because state law provided some legal advantages compared with California, where the two reside. A judge ruled that Virginia was an acceptable forum for the case because The Washington Post’s printing presses and online servers are in the county.

  • Jury sides with Johnny Depp in libel case, awards him over USD 10 million

    By Associated Press

    FAIRFAX: A jury sided Wednesday with Johnny Depp in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, awarding the “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor more than $10 million and vindicating his allegations that Heard lied about Depp abusing her before and during their brief marriage.

    But in a split decision, the jury also found that Heard was defamed by one of Depp’s lawyers, who accused her of creating a detailed hoax that included roughing up the couple’s apartment to look worse for police. The jury awarded her $2 million.

    The verdicts bring an end to a televised trial that Depp had hoped would help restore his reputation, though it turned into a spectacle that offered a window into a vicious marriage.

    Heard, who was stoic in the courtroom as the verdict was read, said she was heartbroken.

    “I’m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It’s a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously,’’ she said in a statement posted on her Twitter account.

    Depp, who was not in court Wednesday, said “the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled.”

    “I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up,” he said in a statement posted to Instagram.

    Depp sued Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” His lawyers said he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name.

    The jury found in Depp’s favor on all three of his claims relating to specific statements in the 2018 piece.

    Throughout the proceedings, fans who were overwhelmingly on Depp’s side lined up overnight for coveted courtroom seats. Spectators who couldn’t get in gathered on the street to cheer Depp and jeer Heard whenever they appeared outside.

    A crowd of about 200 people cheered when Depp’s lawyers came out after the verdict. “Johnny for president!” one man yelled repeatedly.

    Greg McCandless, 51, a retired private detective from Reston, Virginia, stood outside the courthouse wearing a pirate hat and red head scarf, a nod to Depp’s famous role as Capt. Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series.

    “I do believe that there was defamation, and I do believe that it did hurt his career,” McCandless said. “I think the jury heard the evidence, and the verdict was just.”

    In evaluating Heard’s counterclaims, jurors considered three statements by a lawyer for Depp who called her allegations a hoax. They found she was defamed by one of them, in which the lawyer claimed that she and friends “spilled a little wine and roughed the place up, got their stories straight,” and called police.

    Sydni Porter, 30, drove an hour from her home in Maryland to show support for Heard. She said the verdict was disappointing, but not surprising, and sends a message to women that “as much evidence as you have (of abuse), it’s never going to be enough.”

    The jury found Depp should receive $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, but the judge said state law caps punitive damages at $350,000, meaning Depp was awarded $10.35 million.

    While the case was ostensibly about libel, most of the testimony focused on whether Heard had been physically and sexually abused, as she claimed. Heard enumerated more than a dozen alleged assaults, including a fight in Australia — where Depp was shooting a “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel — in which Depp lost the tip of his middle finger and Heard said she was sexually assaulted with a liquor bottle.

    Depp said he never hit Heard and that she was the abuser, though Heard’s attorneys highlighted years-old text messages Depp sent apologizing to Heard for his behavior as well as profane texts he sent to a friend in which Depp said he wanted to kill Heard and defile her dead body.

    In some ways, the trial was a replay of a lawsuit Depp filed in the United Kingdom against a British tabloid after he was described as a “wife beater.” The judge in that case ruled in the newspaper’s favor after finding that Heard was telling the truth in her descriptions of abuse.

    In the Virginia case, Depp had to prove not only that he never assaulted Heard, but that Heard’s article — which focused primarily on public policy related to domestic violence — defamed him. He also had to prove that Heard wrote the article with actual malice.

    And to claim damages, he had to prove that her article caused the damage to his reputation as opposed to any number of articles before and after Heard’s piece that detailed the allegations against him.

    The case captivated millions through its gavel-to-gavel television coverage, including impassioned followers on social media who dissected everything from the actors’ mannerisms to the possible symbolism of what they were wearing. Both performers emerge from the trial with reputations in tatters with unclear prospects for their careers.

    Eric Rose, a crisis management and communications expert in Los Angeles, called the trial a “classic murder-suicide.”

    “From a reputation-management perspective, there can be no winners,” he said. “They’ve bloodied each other up. It becomes more difficult now for studios to hire either actor because you’re potentially alienating a large segment of your audience who may not like the fact that you have retained either Johnny or Amber for a specific project because feelings are so strong now.”

    Depp, a three-time best actor Oscar nominee, had until recent years been a bankable star. His turn as Sparrow helped turn the “Pirates of the Caribbean” into a global franchise, but he’s lost that role. He was also replaced in the third “Fantastic Beasts” spin-off film, “The Secrets of Dumbledore.”

    Despite testimony at the trial that he could be violent, abusive and out of control, Depp received a standing ovation Tuesday night in London after performing for about 40 minutes with Jeff Beck at the Royal Albert Hall.

    Heard’s acting career has been more modest, and her only two upcoming roles are in a small film and the upcoming “Aquaman” sequel due out next year.

    Depp’s lawyers fought to keep the case in Virginia, in part because state law provided some legal advantages compared with California, where the two reside. A judge ruled that Virginia was an acceptable forum for the case because The Washington Post’s printing presses and online servers are in the county.

  • ‘They’re incredible’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk hopes Amber Heard and Johnny Depp ‘move on’

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: With every passing day, the noise around Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s trial is growing more than ever.

    ALSO READ| Tesla won’t manufacture in India, here’s why

    The recent development comes just the day before the jury is to begin deliberations in the defamation case. Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and Amber Heard’s ex-boyfriend took to Twitter, saying he hopes ‘they move on’ and that both the celebrities are ‘incredible’ at ‘their best.’

    Responding to a tweet on Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s trial, Elon said, “I hope they both move on. At their best, they are each incredible.”

    I hope they both move on. At their best, they are each incredible.
    — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 28, 2022
    Elon Musk and Amber Heard had been in a brief relationship after the split from Johnny Depp. Musk and Heard split in 2017 after a year of dating. However, the couple rekindled their love in 2018 but gave up on each other after a few months.

    ALSO READ| Elon Musk advises Jeff Bezos to party less, work more

    On the contrary, the Pirates of the Caribbean Star had another version. He claimed in a lawsuit that Heard and Musk had begun dating “within a month after marriage” in February 2015.

    In 2018, Depp filed a lawsuit against Heard for her opinion piece in the Washington Post about her becoming a victim of domestic violence. Although she never mentioned Depp, the actor’s lawyers claim it damaged his career and reputation.

  • At long last, Depp jurors hear closings, begin deliberations

    By Associated Press

    FALLS CHURCH: After a six-week trial in which Johnny Depp and Amber Heard tore into each other over the nasty details of their short marriage, both sides told a jury the exact same thing Friday — they want their lives back.

    Heard “ruined his life by falsely telling the world she was a survivor of domestic abuse at the hands of Mr. Depp,” Depp lawyer Camille Vasquez told the jury in closing arguments in his libel trial against his ex-wife.

    Heard’s lawyers, meanwhile, said Depp ruined Heard’s life by launching a smear campaign against her when she divorced him and publicly accused him of assault in 2016.

    “In Mr. Depp’s world, you don’t leave Mr. Depp,” said Heard’s lawyer, J. Benjamin Rottenborn. “If you do, he will start a campaign of global humiliation against you.”

    Depp is hoping the trial will help restore his reputation, though it has turned into a spectacle of a vicious marriage, with broadcast cameras in the courtroom capturing every twist to an increasingly rapt audience as fans weighed in on social media and lined up overnight for coveted courtroom seats.

    Johnny Depp’s attorney Camille Vasquez gives closing arguments at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax. (Photo| AP)

    “This case for Mr. Depp has never been about money,” said Depp lawyer Benjamin Chew. “It is about Mr. Depp’s reputation and freeing him from the prison in which he has lived for the last six years.”

    Depp is suing Heard for $50 million in Virginia’s Fairfax County Circuit Court over a 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” His lawyers say he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name.

    Heard filed a $100 million counterclaim against the former “Pirates of the Caribbean” star after his lawyer called her allegations a hoax. Though the counterclaim has received less attention at the trial, Heard’s lawyer Elaine Bredehoft said it provides an avenue for the jury to compensate Heard for the abuse Depp inflicted on her even after they split by orchestrating a smear campaign.

    “We’re asking you to finally hold this man responsible,” she told the jury. “He has never accepted responsibility for anything in his life.” The seven-person civil jury began its deliberations at 3 p.m. Friday and finished for the day about two hours later. They will resume Tuesday.

    Depp says he never struck Heard and that she concocted the abuse allegations. He has said he was the one physically attacked by Heard multiple times. “There is an abuser in this courtroom, but it is not Mr. Depp,” Vasquez said.

    During the trial, Heard testified about more than a dozen episodes of physical and sexual assault that she said Depp inflicted on her.

    Vasquez, in her closing, noted that Heard had to revise her testimony about the first time she said she was struck. Heard said Depp hit her after she inadvertently laughed at one of his tattoos. Heard initially said it happened in 2013 — after a fairy-tale year of courtship and romance — but later corrected herself to say it happened in 2012, very early in their relationship.

    “Now in this courtroom she has suddenly erased an entire year of magic,” Vasquez said. Jurors have seen multiple photos of Heard with marks and bruises on her face, but some photos show only mild redness, and others show more severe bruising.

    ALSO READ: At long last, jury gets closing arguments in Depp trial

    Vasquez accused Heard of doctoring the photos and said evidence that Heard has embellished some of her injuries is proof that all her claims of abuse are unfounded.

    “You either believe all of it or none of it,” she said. “Either she is a victim of ugly, horrible abuse, or she is a woman who is willing to say absolutely anything.”

    In Heard’s closing, Rottenborn said the nitpicking over Heard’s evidence of abuse ignores the fact there’s overwhelming evidence on her behalf and sends a dangerous message to domestic-violence victims.

    “If you didn’t take pictures, it didn’t happen,” Rottenborn said. “If you did take pictures, they’re fake. If you didn’t tell your friends, they’re lying. If you did tell your friends, they’re part of the hoax.”

    And he rejected Vasquez’s suggestion that if the jury thinks Heard might be embellishing on a single act of abuse that they have to disregard everything she says. He said Depp’s libel claim must fail if Heard suffered even a single incident of abuse. “They’re trying to trick you into thinking Amber has to be perfect to win,” Rottenborn said.

    When the jury deliberates, it will have to focus not only on whether there was abuse but also on whether Heard’s op-ed piece can be considered legally defamatory. The article itself focuses mostly on policy questions of domestic violence, but Depp’s lawyer point to two passages in the article, as well as an online headline that they say defamed Depp.

    In the first passage, Heard writes that “two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath.” Depp’s lawyers call it a clear reference to Depp, given that Heard publicly accused Depp of domestic violence in 2016 — two years before she wrote the article.

    Actor Amber Heard’s attorney Benjamin Rottenborn speaks during closing arguments at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax. (Photo | AP)

    In a second passage, she states, “I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real-time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse.” The online headline reads “Amber Heard: I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath.”

    “She didn’t mention his name. She didn’t have to,” Chew said. “Everyone knew exactly who and what Ms. Heard was talking about.”

    Heard’s lawyers said Heard can’t be held liable for the headline because she didn’t write it, and that the two passages in the article are not about the abuse allegations themselves but how Heard’s life changed after she made them.

    Rottenborn told jurors that even if they tend to believe Depp’s claim that he never abused Heard, he still can’t win his case because Heard has a First Amendment right to weigh in on matters of public debate.

  • At long last, jury gets closing arguments in Depp trial

    By Associated Press

    FAIRFAX: A jury is scheduled to hear closing arguments Friday in Johnny Depp’s high-profile libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard.

    Each side will have two hours to summarize their case in a trial that has stretched on for six weeks. With broadcast cameras in the courtroom, a celebrity trial that garnered intense interest from the outset has only gained momentum as fans have weighed in on social media and lined up overnight for coveted courtroom seats.

    Depp is suing Heard for $50 million in Virginia’s Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” His lawyers say he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name.

    Heard filed a $100 million counterclaim against Depp after his lawyer called her allegations a hoax.

    Depp says he never struck Heard and that she concocted the abuse allegations to gain an advantage in divorce proceedings.

    Heard testified about more than a dozen episodes of physical and sexual assault that she said Depp inflicted on her.

     

  • Amber Heard ends testimony asking Johnny Depp to ‘leave me alone’

    By PTI

    US: Amber Heard told jurors Thursday that a harassment campaign waged against her by ex-husband Johnny Depp has left her humiliated and scared for her life from multiple death threats, and said she just wants, ‘Johnny to leave me alone’. Heard was expected to be the final witness in the six-week libel trial Depp brought against his ex-wife.

    With cameras in the courtroom, millions of people have followed the trial, and interest seemed to gain momentum as the weeks went on and both Depp and Heard testified about the ugly details of their relationship.

    Online and at the courthouse, Depp’s fans have overwhelmingly dominated the narrative, with groupies lining up overnight to get one of the few spots in the courtroom and wave at Depp as he walks in and out. Heard has been booed by spectators on the street as she enters and leaves the courthouse.

    “The harassment and the humiliation, the campaign against me that’s echoed every single day on social media, and now in front of cameras in the showroom, every single day I have to relive the trauma,” Heard said as she fought back tears.

    “Perhaps it’s easy to forget I’m a human being. Depp is suing Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as ‘a public figure representing domestic abuse.’ His lawyers say he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name.

    Heard said she hopes the lawsuit will allow her to regain her voice, and said she had the ‘right as an American’ to publish an article that described her experiences and how they relate to the national debate over domestic violence.

    “Johnny has taken enough of my voice,” she said. “I have the right to tell my story.” Depp has denied he ever struck Heard, and says she was the abuser in the relationship. Heard has testified about more than a dozen separate instances of physical abuse she says she suffered at Depp’s hands.

    The final witness Thursday morning for Depp’s side was a hand surgeon, Richard Gilbert, who said he thinks the injury that occurred to Depp’s middle finger could have occurred as Depp describes it. The tip of the finger was severed during a fight the couple had in Australia. Depp says it occurred when Heard threw a large vodka bottle at him.

    Heard says Depp did it to himself in a drug-fuelled rage on a night when he also sexually assaulted her with a liquor bottle.

  • Kate Moss denies rumour Johnny Depp once pushed her down the stairs, court hears

    By IANS

    LOS ANGELES: Supermodel Kate Moss appeared at Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s $100 million defamation lawsuit via video link to deny rumours that her ex-boyfriend had pushed her down the stairs.Heard, 36, previously referenced the model during the ongoing court case, when she discussed an alleged altercation between Depp and her sister, Whitney Henriquez, saying: “(Whitney’s) back was to the staircase, and Johnny swings at her. I don’t hesitate, I don’t wait – I just, in my head, instantly think of Kate Moss and stairs.”When asked in court by Benjamin Chew, a member of Depp’s legal team, if the 58-year-old Hollywood actor had ever pushed her down the stairs while they were dating, Moss replied: “No, he never pushed me, kicked me or pushed me down any stairs.”She told the court how during a holiday in Jamaica with Depp he had picked her up and “got (her) medical attention” after she had fallen down some stairs.She explained: “We were leaving the room and Johnny left the room before I did. There had been a rainstorm and as I left the room I slid down the stairs. I hurt my back. And I screamed because I didn’t know what had happened to me and I was in pain. He came running back to help me, carried me to my room and got me medical attention.”Moss, who gave evidence in less than five minutes, was not cross-examined by Heard’s team. Heard first made the allegation during her testimony in the UK in 2020. She said at the time: “I remembered information I had heard [that] he pushed a former girlfriend – I believe it was Kate Moss – down the stairs. I had heard this rumour from two people and it was fresh in my mind.”But Depp’s legal team were seen pumping their fists when she first mentioned Moss’ name during the ongoing defamation case in Fairfax, Virginia. The reference gave them the opportunity to call the model as an impeachment witness to disprove the allegation. Moss previously shared it took her years to overcome the heartache of her split from Depp.She said: “There’s nobody that’s ever really been able to take care of me. Johnny did for a bit. I believed what he said. Like if I said, ‘What do I do?’, he’d tell me. And that’s what I missed when I left. I really lost that gauge of somebody I could trust.”The explosive court case has been taking place over the last few weeks after Depp sued his ex-wife Heard for $50 million over a 2018 op-ed in which she recalled being a victim of domestic abuse.