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Tag: Amber Heard

  • Amber Heard is back in ‘Aquaman 2’ despite rumors she was cut out of the movie

    Amber Heard is back in ‘Aquaman 2’ despite rumors she was cut out of the movie

    Hollywood star Amber Heard is in the anticipated sequel to “Aquaman.”  

    The first trailer of “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” was shown at CinemaCon, the annual movie-theater convention, on Tuesday during a presentation by Warner Bros, attended by Insider.

    Heard, who played Mera, the love interest of Aquaman (Jason Momoa) in the hit 2018 original movie, is featured in two brief shots during the trailer in which she’s doing battle underwater. She has no dialogue in the trailer. 

    In June of last year, a now-deleted post on Just Jared reported that Heard was being “cut out” of the sequel.

    “The rumor mill continues as it has from day one — inaccurate, insensitive, and slightly insane,” a spokesperson for Heard told Insider in response to the post.

    Heard’s Mera character was first introduced in the 2017 film “Justice League” before becoming a protagonist in 2018’s “Aquaman” alongside Momoa.

    During her defamation trial with her former husband, Johnny Depp, Heard said her role was heavily reduced in “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.”

    “I fought really hard to stay in the movie — they didn’t want to include me in the film,” Heard said on the stand, adding that she performed “a very pared-down version” of the role that took away action scenes between herself and another character. 

    If the trailer is any indication, Heard’s Mera is not the main supporting character she was in the first movie. Instead of Aquaman and Mera teaming up for most of the movie, in the sequel, it’s Aquaman and his half-brother Orm Marius, played by Patrick Wilson. 

    “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” opens in theaters on December 20.

  • Amber Heard files appeal against Johnny Depp’s US libel win ruling

    In June, a US jury found Ms Heard defamed her ex-husband, Mr Depp, with an article in which she claimed she was a victim of domestic abuse.

    Jurors awarded Mr Depp – who denied abusing Ms Heard – $15m (£12m) in compensatory and punitive damages.

    Her team have now asked for the jury’s verdict to be reversed, or for a new trial entirely.

    Ms Heard, 36, won one of three counter-claims against Mr Depp, 59, and was awarded $2m (£1.6m) in compensatory damages.

    But her team is now arguing the trial was held in the wrong state and also objected to the judge’s decision to exclude certain pieces of evidence, including notes from therapists documenting allegations of abuse.

    ‘Chilling effect’

    In a lengthy written document, her lawyers argued: “That holding, if allowed to stand, undoubtedly will have a chilling effect on other women who wish to speak about abuse involving powerful men.”

    The actress’s team went on to note the previous unsuccessful libel suit the Pirates of the Caribbean star brought against The Sun newspaper in 2018, for calling him a “wife-beater” in print. Suggesting the subsequent, separate US libel case “should never have gone to trial” because “another court had already concluded that Depp abused Heard on multiple occasions”.

    “After Depp filed this case, the United Kingdom High Court of Justice [the High Court of England and Wales sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice] ruled in a separate defamation action brought by Depp that Heard’s abuse allegations were true,” they said.

    The move comes a month after Mr Depp filed his own formal appeal against some of the verdict of the case. The BBC has asked his representatives if he has any comment on Heard’s appeal.

    The Rum Diary co-stars, who divorced in 2017, presented conflicting versions of their doomed relationship in the trial.

    Over six weeks, the court in Fairfax, Virginia, heard tawdry details of Mr Depp and Ms Heard’s tempestuous marriage, and its unhappy ending.

    Polls suggested many Americans were more interested in the legal drama than the war in Ukraine or a potentially historic ruling on abortion expected any day from the US Supreme Court.

    Coverage of the trial – which was televised and livestreamed – hit billions of views on social media.

    Source: BBC

  • Gloria Steinem, over 130 experts sign open letter condemning ‘vilification’ of Amber Heard

    Gloria Steinem, along with several experts in intimate partner violence, are “deeply concerned” by the verdict in the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

    Steinem and organizations including the National Organization for Women, the National Women’s Law Center, Equality Now and the Women’s March Foundation went public with an open letter in support of Heard Wednesday.

    “The vilification of Ms. Heard and ongoing online harassment of her and those who have voiced support for her have been unprecedented in both vitriol and scale,” the open letter states. “Much of this harassment was fueled by disinformation, misogyny, biphobia, and a monetized social media environment where a woman’s allegations of domestic violence and sexual assault were mocked for entertainment.”

    Gloria Steinem reflects on her decades-long fight for equality, the violence women face

    The signees added: “The same disinformation and victim-blaming tropes are now being used against others who have alleged abuse.”

    The experts called the verdict in Depp’s favor “a fundamental misunderstanding of intimate partner and sexual violence and how survivors respond to it. … We have grave concerns about the rising misuse of defamation suits to threaten and silence survivors.”

    “We condemn the public shaming of Amber Heard,” the open letter concludes.

    he outpouring of support for Heard comes one week after Depp’s appearance in Rihanna’s “Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 4” show, which stirred controversy.

    What happened in the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard defamation trial?

    Earlier this year, Depp faced his ex-wife Amber Heard in court during a highly contentious trial in which he accused Heard of defaming him in a December 2018 op-ed. In June, a Virginia jury awarded him more than $10 million in damages. Heard also partially won her countersuit with the jury awarding her $2 million in damages.

    The trial resurfaced Heard’s allegations of abuse by Depp during intense testimony, which was steamed live daily. Depp said he never abused Heard and claimed she abused him.

    Heard said after the trial she was “heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband.” She also voiced worry that it “sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed in humiliated.”

    “Even somebody who is sure I’m deserving of all this hate and vitriol, even if you think that I’m lying, you still couldn’t look me in the eye and tell me that you think on social media there’s been a fair representation,” she later said in a “Dateline” interview with Savannah Guthrie. “You cannot tell me that you think that this has been fair.”

    Meanwhile, Depp’s attorney Camille Vasquez told “Today” host Savannah Guthrie that the actor, who was not in the courtroom when the verdict was read, had an “overwhelming sense of relief.”

    The attorney also shared that a mutual friend between her and Depp said, “I haven’t seen Johnny smile like that in six years.”

    “We encourage all victims to come forward and have their day in court, which is exactly what happened in this case,” she added.

    Source: Yahoo.com 

     

  • Lily-Rose Depp explains why she’s remained silent on Father Johnny Depp’s defamation trial

    Johnny Depp’s daughter has yet to comment on her father’s messy legal battle—and it appears she never will.

    In an Elle magazine cover story, Lily-Rose Depp explained why she’s remained silent about her dad’s defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard. The 23-year-old model/actress, whose mother is Vanessa Paradis, said her parents always made it a point to protect her and her younger brother from the dark side of fame, and that growing up in the public eye gave her a deep respect for privacy.

    “My parents protected my brother [Jack] and me from it as much as possible,” she said. “I know my childhood didn’t look like everybody’s childhood, and it’s a very particular thing to deal with, but it’s also the only thing that I know.” She went on to add, “It’s different experiencing [fame] firsthand rather than by proxy. I guess it’s something that I’ve had to make my own way with.”

    Depp feels her father’s legal drama was simply too personal for her to publicly address.

    “When it’s something that’s so private and so personal that all of a sudden becomes not so personal…I feel really entitled to my secret garden of thoughts,” she said. “I also think that I’m not here to answer for anybody, and I feel like for a lot of my career, people have really wanted to define me by the men in my life, whether that’s my family members or my boyfriends, whatever. And I’m really ready to be defined for the things that I put out there.”

    After a weeks-long trial earlier this year, Johnny Depp and Heard were each found liable for defamation. The Pirates of the Caribbean star pointed to a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which Heard implied Depp had abused her during their relationship. Heard filed her own defamation suit alleging her ex-husband’s attorney, Adam Waldman, had defamed her by dismissing her abuse claims as a hoax. Johnny Depp was ultimately awarded $15 million damages, and Heard $2 million in damages.

    Earlier this month, Depp filed to appeal the $2 million verdict awarded to Heard, arguing he was not responsible for Waldman’s comments. He also claimed he wasn’t aware of his lawyer’s remarks until after Heard filed the countersuit.

    Shortly after Heard’s abuse allegations came to light, a then-17-year-old Lily-Rose defended her father on Instagram. The 2016 post included a photo of Johnny Depp holding up Lily-Rose when she was a toddler.

    “My dad is the sweetest most loving person I know,” she wrote. “He’s been nothing but a wonderful father to my little brother and I, and everyone who knows him would say the same.”

    Source: Complex.com

  • Johnny Depp appeals $2 million awarded to Amber Heard in defamation ruling

    Johnny Depp filed an appeal Wednesday over the single count of defamation ruled in favor of ex-wife Amber Heard in their court case.

    People reports Depp is asking the court to overturn her counter suit victory—$2 million, versus the $15 million he was awarded—because he believes he should not be held accountable for a statement made by his attorney Adam Waldman. The Daily Mail published an article in April which included remarks from Waldman where he claimed Depp was set up by Heard and her friends with abuse allegations in 2016.

    “So Amber and her friends spilled a little wine and roughed the place up, got their stories straight under the direction of a lawyer and publicist, and then placed a second call to 911,” Waldman said, according to TMZ.

    Heard was awarded $2 million because the jury determined that Waldman was acting as a mouthpiece for Depp, but the actor argues Heard’s legal team didn’t present any evidence that could have tied him to his lawyer’s remarks. Depp also mentions he testified that he was unaware of those comments prior to the filing of her counter suit.

    Depp was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5M in punitive damages. The latter was reduced to $350,000 due to “the state’s statutory cap or legal limit.” Heard indicated shortly after the verdict that she intended on appealing the ruling.

    Heard filed a motion in July to toss out the defamation verdict on the grounds that she never mentioned Depp by name in the 2019 Washington Post op-ed in which she discussed being in an abusive relationship. The appeal was denied two weeks later.

    Another appeal was filed by Heard later that same month, and the actress overhauled her entire legal team in anticipation for her latest appeal, which appears to be rooted in defending her First Amendment rights.

    “We welcome the opportunity to represent Ms. Heard in this appeal as it is a case with important First Amendment implications for every American,” her new attorneys David L. Axelrod and Jay Ward Brown said in a joint statement. “We’re confident the appellate court will apply the law properly without deference to popularity, reverse the judgment against Ms. Heard, and reaffirm the fundamental principles of Freedom of Speech.”

    In her first interview following the verdict, Heard defended her testimony in the defamation case, asserting she stands by every word.

    Source: Complex.comm

  • Johnny Depp reportedly dating Lawyer who represented him in UK Amber Heard trial

    Johnny Depp is reportedly dating his lawyer Joelle Rich, who had previously represented the embattled actor during his losing UK trial against The Sun tabloid newspaper.

    The Pirates Of The Caribbean actor sued The Sun’s publishing company News Group Newspapers back in 2020 over an April 2018 article that detailed accusations of abuse against his ex-wife Amber Heard, referring to him as a “wife-beater.”

    Over the course of nearly three weeks that summer, Justice Andrew Nicol listened to grueling testimonial accounts from both Depp and Heard in which the pair accused the other of abuse. Nicol ruled later that fall that Heard’s statements were “substantially true,” and that he found “the great majority of alleged assaults of Ms. Heard by Mr. Depp” had “been proved to the civil standard.”

    Rich was among Depp’s legal counsel who said it would be “ridiculous” if the actor didn’t appeal the ruling.

    TMZ has reportedly “confirmed” that the pair are now romantically seeing each other, and that the mother of two is currently in the process of getting divorced from her husband.

    While Rich was not a part of Depp’s legal team during his Virginia defamation case, she was reportedly present in the courtroom for “support,” according to Us Weekly.

    This news arrives a few months after Depp was rumored to be dating his U.S. lawyer Camille Vasquez, but she shut down those rumors in an interview with People.

    “I guess it comes with the territory of being a woman just doing her job,” Vasquez said at the time. “It’s disappointing that certain outlets kind of ran with it or said that my interactions with Johnny — who is a friend and I’ve known and represented for four-and-a-half years now — that my interactions in any way were inappropriate or unprofessional. That’s disappointing to hear.”

    TMZ had reported at the time that Depp and his entire legal counsel had grown very close during his summer defamation hearing, which he emerged victorious from after suing Heard for accusing him of abuse in a Washington Post op-ed. Vasquez said they would spend many late nights together working on Depp’s case, sometimes staying up until 5 a.m.

    “I care very deeply about my clients, and we have obviously become close. But when I say we, I mean the entire team, and of course that includes Johnny,” Vasquez said at the time. “And, I’m Cuban and Colombian. I’m tactile. What do you want me to say? I hug everyone. And I’m not ashamed about that.”

    The jury in that case found that Depp had, among other things, proven elements of defamation and that Heard “acted with actual malice.” Depp was awarded $10 million for compensatory damages and punitive damages of $5 million, Amber Heard and her legal team have said she plans to appeal the ruling.

    Heard said in a widely viewed interview following the ruling that she had “always told the truth.”

    “I would not blame the average person for looking at this and how it’s been covered and not think that it is Hollywood brats at their worst,” Heard said on NBC. “But what people don’t understand is it’s actually so much bigger than that. This is not only about our First Amendment right to speak.”

    Source: Complex.com

  • Heard’s team change course on Johnny Depp testimony

    Amber Heard’s team will not call Johnny Depp to the stand, a source close to Ms Heard said, a strategic U-turn in the last days of the high-profile trial.

    Ms Heard’s team had planned to call Mr Depp for more questioning on Monday, but changed course without explanation at midday.

    Mr Depp, 58, sued his ex-wife for $50m (£40m) for a column she wrote in which she claimed to be a victim of domestic abuse. Ms Heard, 36, has countersued.

    The case is expected to wrap this week.

    British supermodel Kate Moss, a former girlfriend of Mr Depp, is among witnesses expected to take the stand in the remaining days of the defamation trial.

    On Monday, the court in Fairfax, Virginia, heard from several witnesses called by Ms Heard’s team, including psychologist David Spiegel.

    Dr Spiegel testified that Mr Depp “has behaviours that are consistent with someone that both has substance use disorder as well as behaviours of someone who is a perpetrator of intimate partner violence”.

    About 40-60% of intimate partner violence is committed under the influence of alcohol or substance use disorders, Dr Spiegel told jurors.

    Mr Depp’s lawyers sought to undermine this testimony on cross-examination, highlighting that Dr Spiegel had reached his conclusions without any direct contact with Mr Depp.

    Also on Monday, a hand surgeon testified it was unlikely that Mr Depp’s finger was cut during a fight with Ms Heard in Australia in the way that he has described.

    Mr Depp has said the tip of his middle finger was severed when Ms Heard threw a vodka bottle at him.

    The jury saw graphic images of Mr Depp’s injured finger as Dr Richard Moore said that the damage was more consistent with being pinched by a closing door.

    Dr Moore did not physically examine Mr Depp at the time of the injury.

    Ms Heard’s team is expected to rest its case early this week before Mr Depp’s team takes its final chance to sway the jury.

    In Cannes, France on May 15, 1998-Johnny Depp and Kate MossGETTY IMAGES
    Kate Moss and Johnny Depp in Cannes in 1998

    The testimony from the two medical doctors on Monday was just the latest in a long line of competing expert testimony. One psychologist, called by Mr Depp’s team, testified that Ms Heard suffers from two personality disorders.

    Another, called by Ms Heard’s team, rejected this finding and said instead that Ms Heard had post-traumatic stress disorder.

    Ms Heard and Mr Depp have each testified in the weeks-long battle, offering starkly different accounts of their brief, tempestuous marriage.

    Ms Heard claimed Mr Depp was prone to alcohol and drug binges, easily triggered by feelings of jealousy and often consumed by violent rages.

    Mr Depp, in turn, alleged he was the victim of Ms Heard’s volatile moods, telling jurors he routinely endured her verbal, emotional and physical abuse.

    Source: BBC

  • Amber Heard denies striking Johnny Depp and doctoring photos

    Johnny Depp’s legal team has accused Amber Heard of using drugs, striking him and manipulating photos she has used as evidence of his alleged abuse.

    Ms Heard, 38, was being cross-examined about her allegations that Mr Depp could be violent while using alcohol and drugs.

    The 58-year-old actor is suing his ex-wife for $50m (£40m) for a column she wrote in which she claimed to be a victim of domestic abuse.

    He has denied ever assaulting her.

    Mr Depp’s lawyers cross-examined Ms Heard on her version of events related to a lengthy 2015 argument between the former couple, which took place while in Australia.

    That argument has been raised repeatedly over the course of the trial.

    Mr Depp has claimed his ex-wife severed his fingertip by throwing a vodka bottle at him. Ms Heard has told jurors that Mr Depp sexually violated her with a bottle.

    In court on Tuesday, Mr Depp’s lawyer questioned why Ms Heard did not seek medical attention despite claiming she suffered cuts and bruises during the chaotic fight.

    “You’re the one who assaulted someone with a bottle in Australia, isn’t that right Ms Heard,” attorney Camille Vasquez said.

    In response, Ms Heard said that she “didn’t assault Johnny, ever”.

    But she did acknowledge that she struck Mr Depp on several instances, which she said happened after “years of not defending myself”. She made similar statements on Monday, saying she “reactively” hit him during physical altercations.

    Jurors were also shown an extract from a journal – which Ms Heard described as “love notes” – in which she appears to have apologised to Mr Depp.

    “I’m sorry I can get crazy. I’m sorry I hurt you,” she wrote. “I can get wicked when I’m hurt”.

    Explaining the entry, Ms Heard said that “it’s important to apologise when you’re trying to move past fights”.

    Jurors also heard audio in which Ms Heard can be telling her then husband that “she gets so mad, she loses it” and that she can’t promise “she won’t get physical”.

    Ms Vasquez also questioned the veracity of a May 2016 photograph that Ms Heard has said shows the aftermath of Mr Depp’s alleged physical abuse.

    “Isn’t it true you just edited these photographs?” Ms Vasquez said.

    Ms Heard replied: “No, I’ve never edited a photograph.”

    During the gruelling cross-examination, jurors were also shown an itinerary for the couple’s wedding, which included plans for a “dance party and drugs and music”.

    Ms Heard has repeatedly characterised Mr Depp’s drug use as problematic and a source of tension in their marriage.

    “So, your original idea was to do drugs on an island after your rehearsal dinner to the drug-fueled monster that you were about to marry?” Ms Vasquez asked.

    In response, Ms Heard said it was a draft itinerary and that there was “going to be weed” at the event. She also admitted to drug use on her 30th birthday.

    Over several days of testimony earlier this month, Ms Heard repeatedly said that Mr Depp had attempted to control her career, did not like her taking on new roles, and sometimes became jealous of her co-stars.

    During cross-examination, Ms Vasquez accused Ms Heard of being the “jealous one”, who had landed her role in the high-profile Aquaman film thanks to Mr Depp.

    “No, Ms Vasquez, I got that role by auditioning,” she responded.

    Mr Depp’s defamation case against his former wife hinges on a 2018 opinion piece in the Washington Post newspaper in which she described herself as a victim of abuse, though the piece did not name Mr Depp.

    She has countersued him for $100m.

    Source: BBC