Tag: Pirates of the Caribbean

  • Disney’s reported USD 300 million offer is ‘made up’, says Johnny Depp’s rep

    By IANS

    LOS ANGELES: Hollywood star Johnny Depp has not been offered an apology deal worth $300 million. One of the representatives of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ star has denied the existence of any such deal saying, “This is made up,” reports NBC News.

    A media report had earlier said that after Depp won his defamation suit against Amber Heard, Disney offered the deal plus an apology letter to Depp with the request to return to the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ franchise.

    ALSO READ | Johnny Depp celebrates Amber Heard trial win, spends Rs 48 lakhs at Indian restaurant in Birmingham

    The NBC News report further states that Depp, who has played Captain Jack Sparrow in all the five ‘Pirates’ movies, the latest being the 2017 film ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’, has declined to be part of the franchise irrespective of how lucrative the offer is. The actor had made the statement in court.

    At one point during the trial, Heard’s attorney Ben Rottenborn asked the actor, “The fact is, Mr Depp, if Disney came to you with $300 million and a million alpacas, nothing on this earth would get you to go back and work with Disney on a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ film? Correct?”

    Depp replied in the affirmative, “That is true, Mr. Rottenborn.”

    ALSO READ | Judge makes jury’s USD 10.3 million award official in Depp-Heard trial

    A Virginia jury later ruled that Heard was liable for defaming Depp. The jury awarded $10 million to Depp in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.

    The Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Penney Azcarate later reduced the punitive damages to $350,000, which is the state’s statutory cap or legal limit, making his total damages less than $10.4 million.

    Back in May, ‘Pirates’ producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who is now working on two more films, was asked if Depp would be back for future projects. He told ‘The Sunday Times’, “Not at this point. The future is yet to be decided.”

  • 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.

  • Johnny Depp’s ex-agent: Abuse cost him ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ franchise

    By IANS

    LOS ANGELES: A former agent for Hollywood star Johnny Depp testified that Amber Heard’s abuse allegations had a ‘traumatic impact’ on Depp’s image, and cost him the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ franchise.Christian Carino, a talent agent at Creative Artists Agency, appeared by video deposition at Depp’s defamation trial.Depp is suing Heard, his former wife, for $50 million, claiming that she destroyed his career by fabricating claims of domestic violence, reports ‘Variety’.Carino testified that it became clear, through conversations with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and CAA co-chair Bryan Lourd, that Disney had decided it could not continue to employ Depp.Carino said that the abuse claims were never openly discussed as the reason, but that it was simply “understood” within the industry.Carino was friends with both Heard and Depp, and represented both of them at various points, though he said he no longer has a relationship with either of them.He testified that Depp is “one of the finest actors of his generation”, and that has not changed despite the turmoil of his life in recent years. But he also said that the lawsuits with his former business manager, his former attorney, and with Heard have damaged Depp’s off-screen image.”I think what he was known for off-screen was a shroud of mystery of who he was, because he was not visible to the public,” Carino said.”It changed with the exposure that came with the lawsuits.”According to ‘Variety’, Carino was asked about the production of the fifth ‘Pirates’ film, in 2015, and acknowledged that Depp was routinely late to set.”I’m aware of him being tardy, but he’s been tardy on everything his entire life,” Carino said, adding that the production had figured out how to work around the issue.Carino was vague about when Disney decided not to hire Depp for a potential sixth ‘Pirates’ film, which remains in limbo, saying at first that he could not specify even the year when it occurred. The timing of that decision is a key issue in the case.Depp’s lawyers contend that it came just days after Heard published an op-ed, on December 18, 2018, in which she referred to herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse”.Heard’s lawyers argue that the decision was actually made earlier.Depp’s lawyers presented Carino with an email chain from December 20, 2018, in which Depp’s agents and publicist passed around a MovieWeb article that stated that Depp “won’t return” to the franchise.”Were we told this officially from Disney?” Carino wrote.Jack Whigham, another agent, responded, “No”.Heard first levelled her allegations in May 2016, when she filed for divorce and sought a restraining order. The restraining order was later dropped and the couple issued a joint statement, in which they stated that neither had made false claims for financial gain.According to ‘Variety’, on Wednesday, the jurors saw video depositions with two LAPD officers and a front desk employee who works at the Eastern Columbia Building, where Depp used to own several penthouses.The officers were called to the penthouses on May 21, 2016, for a report of domestic violence. Heard refused to make a report, and the officers testified they saw no evidence of injury.