Featured Image Courtesy: Billboard
It is going to be a messy and ugly fight inside a Fairfax, Virignia courtroom. Johnny Depp is suing his ex-girlfriend, Amber Heard, in a six-weeks long trial that may even pull in big names like Marvel actor Paul Bettany. But what really has Hollywood on edge about this situation is the decision the presiding judge has made: cameras will be allowed. That means Depp, Heard and other celebrities called to testify will be playing themselves in one of the biggest roles of their lives.
While the latest Deadline article on the matter decides to veer into creepy fan reactions, buried under all of that is the sort of industry secret that has the moguls sitting on needles. Warning, there’s some language here:
Before that, failing to get the suit moved to California or dismissed, Heard countersued Depp in 2020. As a part of the countersuit, Heard’s lawyers asserted her ex-husband’s close associate and former lawyer Adam Waldman defamed her in remarks to the press. There is also the matter of private communications like Depp’s texts to Avengers alum and anticipated witness Paul Bettany exclaiming a desire to “drown” and “burn” Heard. “I will f*ck her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead,” Depp added of Heard to his sometimes debauchery buddy. Those texts were read out aloud to varying degrees of reaction in the UK case.
With the trial beginning today, this has the potential to become a mini-OJ sort of situation. No, there’s no murder involved, but there’s plenty of weirdness and macabre content that touches on a bunch of different Hollywood stars. The whole thing is being broadcast on Court TV and will probably have things like Johnny Depp writing messages in his own blood come up during the process. Amber Heard isn’t a saint either and the whole thing smacks of the sort of divorce court darkness you might see if child custody were involved… only in this case, it’s Depp’s career that may hang in the balance. He’s already lost Jack Sparrow and Dumbledore. For him, he’s fighting to give himself a chance at restoring his possibility of starring in a big film at any point in the future.
johnny depp arriving to court!!! pic.twitter.com/VONlV2kluU
— b ✧⡱ (@j0hnnycdpp) April 11, 2022
To some degree, we’ll cover any revelatory information from the trial here at That Park Place. At the same time, we don’t really want to dive into the smutty kind of issues that are likely to arise here. A broken relationship sucks and having all the drama surrounding a bad dynamic out in the public is a little gross. There are emotions from fans on both sides of this and its doubtful either Depp or Heard will ever gain their full stature from before the issues. We also want to keep perspective — the writers here are well-aware that the world will pay attention to this deeply while Alec Baldwin killed a woman and is being relatively left along. There’s also the issue of people being subjected to horrific abuse, as well as animals, in the city of Shanghai. Don’t forget the war in Ukraine. But yes, we’ll follow the trial with Depp and Heard to whatever degree is appropriate.
Just don’t expect us to cover it to the same level other sites may. Now that cameras are in the courtroom, it will be the easiest production budget many of those sites and channels have ever had to deal with.
For all the latest news that should be fun, keep checking out That Park Place! If you have a strong opinion about this trial, make sure to drop a comment down below.