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Testimony in Johnny Depp’s defamation lawsuit towards his ex-wife Amber Heard resumed Tuesday on the Fairfax County Circuit Courtroom in Virginia as a former nurse for Heard and a forensic accountant took the stand.
Erin Falati, the nurse, was proven images she acquired in 2016 from Heard who seems to have crimson marks on her face, however mentioned she did not recall the pair preventing.
Monday’s witnesses included Depp’s agent and a longtime safety guard. The agent, Jack Whigham, testified that the 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Put up wherein Heard described herself as a sufferer of home abuse was “catastrophic” to Depp’s profession and coincided with the lack of an almost $23 million deal for a “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel.
Heard’s legal professionals pushed again aggressively towards the agent’s assertion on cross-examination, suggesting that the article was inconsequential amid a stream of unhealthy publicity for Depp introduced on by his personal unhealthy habits.
Depp is suing Heard for libel, saying her article defamed him when she described herself as “a public determine representing home abuse.” The article by no means mentions Depp by title, however Depp’s legal professionals say he was defamed however as a result of it is a clear reference to abuse allegations Heard levied in 2016.
In testimony Monday, Whigham mentioned Depp was nonetheless in a position to work after the preliminary allegations made towards him in 2016. He was paid $8 million for “Metropolis Of Lies,” $10 million for “Homicide on the Orient Categorical” and $13.5 million for “Improbable Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” all of which shot in 2017, albeit underneath contracts reached previous to the allegations made towards him.
However he mentioned The Washington Put up piece was uniquely damaging to Depp’s profession.
“It was a first-person account, extraordinarily impactful,” Whigham mentioned of the op-ed.
After that, he mentioned Depp struggled to get any sort of work. He needed to take a pay lower — right down to $3 million — to do the unbiased movie “Minimata,” and a $22.5 million verbal deal he had with Disney for a sixth “Pirates” movie was scuttled, Whigham mentioned.
On cross-examination, although, Heard’s legal professionals requested whether or not the “Pirates” deal had already gone south by the point Heard’s article was printed. Whigham acknowledged he by no means had a written deal for Depp to look in a sixth “Pirates” movie.” And whereas he mentioned “Pirates” producer Jerry Bruckheimer talked favorably all through 2018 about Depp coming again to the franchise, Disney executives had been noncommittal at finest.
By early 2019, weeks after Heard’s op-ed, Whigham mentioned it was clear that Depp’s position in any “Pirates” movie was scuttled and that producers had been as a substitute seeking to transfer forward with Margot Robbie in a lead position.
Heard’s legal professionals have cited a wide range of components — together with experiences of heavy drug and alcohol use, a lawsuit by a crew member in July 2018 who says he was punched on set by Depp, and a separate libel lawsuit Depp filed towards a British newspaper in 2018 — as issues that broken Depp’s picture greater than the Put up article.
For Depp’s Virginia lawsuit to achieve success, he not solely wants to point out that he was falsely accused, however he additionally wants to point out that the op-ed piece — not Heard’s abuse allegations in 2016 when she filed for divorce and obtained a brief restraining order — is what induced the injury.
Depp’s legal professionals additionally offered testimony from an mental property professional who testified in regards to the destructive flip in Depp’s status. However his personal knowledge, displaying pattern strains from Google searches, confirmed destructive spikes occurring after the 2016 abuse allegations, however negligible or nonexistent modifications after the Put up article.
The court docket additionally heard testimony Monday from a longtime safety guard for Depp who witnessed the couple’s more and more risky relationship. Travis McGivern described listening to arguments between them ramp up after they returned from a visit to Australia in March 2015 — “I would not say nightly, however each different evening, a number of instances every week,” he mentioned.
McGivern mentioned he was current for “numerous name-calling, numerous f-bombs,” which he mentioned had been sometimes from “Miss Heard, directing her emotions towards Mr. Depp.” He additionally described an argument wherein “I noticed Miss Heard throw a Purple Bull can from her place that struck Mr. Depp within the again.”
The trial has now entered its fourth week. A lot of the testimony in the course of the first three weeks centered on the risky relationship between Depp and Heard. Depp says he has by no means struck Heard. Her legal professionals mentioned in the course of the trial’s opening statements that she was bodily and sexually abused by Depp on a number of events.
Heard is anticipated to testify later this week.
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