Johnny Depp and Amber Heard agree on at least one thing — the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star’s standing is in shambles.
But during opening arguments in their bombshell defamation trial Tuesday, Depp’s team claimed his ex-wife destroyed his life with “a lie,” while Heard’s defense said the actor’s downfall was self-inflicted.
“The evidence will show that Ms. Heard’s false allegations had a significant impact on Depp’s family and his ability to work in the profession he loved,” Depp attorney Benjamin Chew said in the Fairfax, Virginia courtroom. Heard’s attorneys, meanwhile, said they would show how Depp was an “obsessed ex-husband hellbent on revenge” who engaged in “crushing drug and alcohol abuse” and even called himself a “monster.”
“Make no mistake, Johnny Depp’s reputation is in tatters. His career is in a free fall,” defense attorney Ben Rottenborn said in his opening. “But it’s because of problems that he created … It’s not Amber’s fault. It’s because of the choices he made.”
Depp, 58, is seeking $50 million in damages from his ex-wife, who he claims defamed him when she wrote in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed that she was a victim of “sexual violence.”
While Depp wasn’t named in the op-ed, the actor claims it ruined his reputation and career after it was widely assumed Heard was writing about their five-year relationship.
His attorney told the jurors they probably know Depp as a “respected artist whose name was associated with success at the box office, but: “Today...
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...