Johnny Depp scrunched his face, sometimes touching his lip, as Amber Heard’s attorneys made allegation after chilling allegation of domestic abuse during the opening statements of Depp’s defamation trial — which came to include the new claim that he sexually assaulted Heard with an object. Heard’s lawyers told the jury that she had fallen in love with Depp’s charismatic side and he lured her into his abusive world. At one point in their relationship, when things had taken a turn for the worst, Depp admitted to having “rage like a demon,” according to Heard’s lawyers.
Heard’s allegations of domestic abuse are being aired in court as a result of her December 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post, in which she wrote that there needed to be more support for domestic-violence victims. Heard referred to personal experience in making the argument. She did not name Depp as her abuser in the article; however, in 2016, she had accused him of abuse. Depp filed a $50 million civil suit against her in March 2019, citing Disney dropping him from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise as an example of damage. Depp has vehemently denied Heard’s abuse allegations. He alleged that Heard was the abuser. Heard is pursuing counterclaims against Depp — maintaining that his denials defamed her.
Heard and Depp met while working together on The Rum Diary, started dating a couple years later, married in 2015, and split in 2016. During their tumultuous years together, Depp was frequently drunk and high,...
A front-page article with the byline of veteran New York Times opinion writer Nicholas Kristof is the latest poisonous example of what I call the NGO “halo effect.” Headlined “The Silence That Mee...