You can see why actor Johnny Depp wanted his defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard to be televised. And why she didn’t.
To be sure, Depp can’t be happy about having the worst parts of his life laid bare before the world, but after Heard wrote a “Me Too” op-ed in The Washington Post in 2018 following her domestic abuse allegation against him in 2016, there wasn’t a lot of life left in Depp’s professional career.
“I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change,” she wrote in the piece.
The op-ed didn’t mention Depp by name, but the film community connected the dots. Depp was fired from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie franchise and was labeled a woman abuser. He was discarded and became an involuntary member of that Hollywood club of letches, abusers, sickos, and casting-couch commandos who’d been Me-Too’d. Looking at you, Harvey Weinstein.
Now, six years after Heard took out a restraining order on Depp and then doubled down with a Me-Too op ed in the Post, Depp wants the world to know his side of the story. He sued Heard for $50 million for defaming him and she promptly counter-sued him for $100 million. Both cases are being litigated before a jury in Fairfax County, Va., because that’s where The Washington Post is published.
The trial has laid bare all the stories of Depp and Heard’s endless drinking and drugging throughout their time together. The world already knew Depp was a big partier, so this wasn’t huge news, but he wanted the world to know he is a Southern Gentleman and would never beat a woman.
His testimony and cross-examination wrapped up this week and now it is Heard’s turn to tell her story. She has spent the last two days on the witness stand telling the twisted story of some of the worst parts of her marriage to Depp in a narrative to buttress her counter-lawsuit against Depp.
You’d think that with all her alleged trauma that she’d have PTSD, but an expert psychologist, called by Depp, said no. Indeed, Depp’s expert witness testified that Heard has a borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder. Heard’s testimony so far has done nothing to dissuade trial-watchers from that diagnosis. That or she’s just a bad actor. Both could be true.
Domestic abuse is real and shouldn’t be discounted. And we know we’re supposed to “believe the women” and “Me Too” and everything, but Amber Heard is unbelievable. No, so far she’s literally unbelievable. Body language experts conclude she’s, well, unbelievable.
She has intermittently “cried” and been stone-faced within microseconds. She cries without tears. She sniffs without tears. She checks the jury to see if they’re sympathetic to her performance. She wipes her eyes and no make up is smeared.
It’s just weird.
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