There are a lot of conversations happening around the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard situation, especially in the wake of the jury’s ridiculous verdict. The jury found both Heard and Depp liable for defamation and the basic gist was that sure, the jury believed that Heard was abused but they didn’t think she had any right to talk about the abuse or her abuser. Considering Depp and his team ran a completely obvious and grotesque psyop on Heard during the trial and on social media, perhaps that verdict was always going to be the endgame. There are also plenty of conversations to be had about the misogynist backlash to Me Too, the need for powerful men to silence women and the desire from society at large to stop “believing women.”
All that being said, I also think we need to have a side conversation about how Amber Heard has terrible people representing her legally and publicity-wise. Heard decided to do a sit-down interview post-verdict. Which is fine and what I would do too. Her spokesperson overexplained why Heard decided to do an interview (because Depp had “blanketed the media for days”) which is also true. But here’s the issue: Amber went to Savannah Guthrie at NBC News, and they’re doing a Dateline special which airs this Friday. Guthrie had to disclose last week that her husband did work for Depp’s legal team. Why the f–k did Amber decide that Guthrie was the one to speak to? Even in the new clips, I can 100% tell that Guthrie should not be the one doing this interview.
When Guthrie asks Amber why the jury didn’t believe her (what terrible f–king framing), Heard speaks about the people who testified on Depp’s behalf, and what the social media was like and more:
“How could they make a judgement, how could they not come to that conclusion. They had sat in those seats and heard over three weeks of nonstop relentless testimony from paid employees and, towards the end of the trial, randos — as I say,” she continued.
When Guthrie asked Heard to confirm that she doesn’t blame the jury, the star said, “I don’t blame them, I actually understand. He’s a beloved character and people feel they know him. He’s a fantastic actor.” But, as the host reminded her guest that the jury’s “job is to not be dazzled … and look at the facts and evidence,” Heard replied, “Again, how could they, after listening to three and a half weeks of testimony about how I was a non-credible person, [and] not to believe a word that came out of my mouth.”
In another preview of the interview, Heard also spoke about how social media impacted the trial.
“I don’t care what one thinks about me, or what judgment you want to make about what happened in the privacy in my own home in my marriage, behind closed doors,” she explained. “I don’t presume the average person should know this things, so I don’t take it personally…But, even somebody who is sure I am deserving of all this hate and vitriol, even if you think that I am 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… You can not tell me that you think this has been fair.”
“But, as the host reminded her guest that the jury’s ‘job is to not be dazzled … and look at the facts and evidence.’” Are you joking, Savannah? A non-sequestered jury being inundated by a slick smear campaign in the courtroom and on social media comes up this dumbf–k verdict and you’re going to argue that their job is to not be dazzled? And act like Amber is responsible for how people perceive the fact that she was abused? Again, why did Amber’s team think this was a good idea?
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, screencap courtesy of NBC.
This poor woman is being gaslit left and right and any word she says is leading to death threats. She should not be represented by these people but I wouldn’t be surprised if they convinced her so she would look less “partial”.
This is so depressing. This incident captures exactly why I didn’t seek justice at 18 years old when I was date raped by someone I worked with. I didn’t think I could emotionally handle being gas lit and critiqued, not to mention the money, time, etc. that I did not have. I really feel for Amber Heard—she must feel demolished. And f-ck Depp–a narcissistic vindictive man with money and time to burn against his victims.
Hugs, HelloDolly. It is so depressing.
He doesn’t have money. A bunch of right-wingers are helping to pay for this.
@HelloDolly Bless you. I have been there too. The police wouldn’t prosecute. So it leaves one with a layer of anger that can never properly be assuaged. Huge hugs to you. You’re a survivor.
I hate what is happening to Amber. I believe her implicitly. I too struck back several times in my last relationship, which was hellishly abusive. There’s no such thing as the ‘perfect victim’: that trope should go the way of the dinosaurs, along with all the female virgin-and-whore tropes. Depp is a vicious, vile narcissist who has really enjoyed using the law to punish his ex-wife for the heading of an article (a heading which was written by a sub). Using the law to come after one of your former victims is a recognised form of abuse in itself. Amber has been through hell.
What she said about fairness reminded me of Meghan’s interview in South Africa – that she thought at least they’d be fair. It’s so dispiriting to see how much work we, as feminists, have to keep on doing. Even worse in the United States, where men -100% of whom will never get pregnant- want to deny abortion and contraceptive rights. How do we fight back against this relentless sea of misogyny?
Regardless of whom interviewed Amber, I’m glad she got her side out there. And I hope that she continues to do so. I am rooting for her.
She really was. The fact that the therapist who treated her disputed the other therapist’s diagnosis won’t matter either. Many basically just decided, “That therapist says she has this, so she must be lying about her abuse and Depp must be innocent. Believe nothing she or anyone backing her up says and everything the person in power/abuser and anyone defending him says.
None of this has been a level playing field. I know Heard is going to appeal that lopsided, crazy verdict, so maybe some rationality will correct some of it, but she’s been badly, if not irreparably, damaged by all this. Depp is at the twilight of his career, and can rest on his laurels, but he’s really done a number on hers. She might never recover.
What he and his stans don’t see is that he’s been damaged too. We now see the full extent of how sloppy and disgusting he is, even if you don’t believe he’s an abuser. He’s been a washed-up drunk for years and that won’t change. Nothing Amber did had anything to do with him being fired for the fact that he is simply not profitable. And I do believe that now he has a legacy of being associated with men’s right’s activists and proud boys because of this trial and that will only come into greater relief. I highly doubt any of this attention was welcome to Lily-Rose regarding her career. All this does is drag everyone through the mud.
But to me the evidence from the other trial proved he was abusive. His own manager texted Amber and admitted witnessing him kicking her.
So depressing.
Oh yes. I just meant for people who claim he was never abusive (even though he was, and is by continuing this); not even they can deny he’s a disgusting mess right now.
Except that Johnny’s broke. So he needs to go back to work. But I guess he doesn’t have to do interviews to promote movies and face critical questions (if anyone dared ask them).
@C, @GirlOne — all true. Depp was considered uninsurable and fired from PoTC before they even divorced, IIRC. Didn’t his financial managers countersue him for squandering his wealth on his debauched lifestyle? Anyway, his acting career is probably in the tank, with the possible exception of his godawful Dior commercials, but he’s got a deplorable constituency now that will carry him. I forgot about Lily-Rose — this doesn’t help her at all, still a question how much it’ll hurt.
His career was badly damaged before this – it started when he decided to sue his former business managers, accusing them of stealing millions from him when he reality he blow it all on sh!t. Plus there were LOTS of issues with him during production of the last 2 Pirates movies – there were many stories of him turning up drunk on the set and there were occasions he didn’t even turn up at all. Disney eventually had enough and fired his ass – Rowling gave him a new franchise with Fantastic Beasts and in the end the studio over ruled her and fired him from that.
Isn’t he about to go to trial for punching someone on set?!! The man is violent! But some did bro will hire him for a new gig because did bros stick together. Tell me again, James Patterson, how hard it is out here for a simp.
Sorry, I didn’t get the feeling the jury believed a word Amber had to say. Also, the libel guilt in Johnny’s case was something his lawyer said, not him.
This whole thing is just awful. Neither of them come out looking any better than they did before it started.
Does Amber have any recourse now? Or does she have to fork out millions to her abuser?
I don’t know what the poor woman can even do to do things right.
Whatever interview she gives, it is dissected and her words twisted into some weird new meaning. So like the poster above said, going to “neutral” ground mught be a good idea, because nobody can then accuse the reporter of being partial, but then this happens.
In a way, for her sanity, I wish she was able to just move away from the limelight and have some peace, but then it’s like Depp has won even more, pushing her, and other women who speak out, into the shadows.
Dunno really what to say. There is no win for her in the near future. 🙁
Anyone knows what’s happening with Aquaman?
I cannot deal with Savanah Guthrie. I was a lifelong viewer of The Today show until the Ann Curry situation and of course, Matt Lauer (ugh). I have a soft spot for Amber. She wasn’t perfect, but she didn’t need to be. I don’t see how her career can recover from this. Oh, and fuck Johnny Depp and his weird stans.
She needs to contact Brit Brit’s lawyer
All I could think of when seeing the “coverage” of this trial on social media was that The Peoplel vs. OJ Simpson miniseries. Will there be a similar show twenty, thirty years from now where all of a sudden people realize “oops, yeah, we weren’t very fair at all to Amber”, and “no, of course that jury couldn’t have come to a reasonable verdict”?
My big takeaway from this trial was that everyone in Hollywood is rotted, and I am completely finished with any celebrity preaching at us little people.
’” Are you joking, Savannah? A non-sequestered jury being inundated by a slick smear campaign in the courtroom and on social media comes up this dumbf–k verdict and you’re going to argue that their job is to not be dazzled?”
This.
Yeah SG should not be doing any of the interviews for this case. Does anyone remember the interviewer in Room? The way she framed the questions to Bre Larson’s character as if it was her fault she didn’t try to break free sooner from her kidnapper? Samantha is giving off those vibes.
I really wish cameras were not allowed in the courtroom, the spectacle and farce was unavoidable and very triggering. Johnny was going to spend countless millions on this case, it was never going to be fair.
I like the way you covered this. Unfortunately the implications aren’t good. If Amber Heard and other famous people like Evan Rachel Wood, people with more resources can’t get resolution or speak out about their abuse, women with less will see the writing on the wall.
She needs a new team around her. Her lawyers were mediocre at best , her PR team sucks and now she just hired a new pr guy who is also not great. I don’t think is a good idea to sit down for this interview… also if she needed to, she should have sit down with someone else. Can’t see her career recovering after this. I hope she makes it though, for her sake and her daughter’s. It’s really heartbreaking.
Ah and forgot to mention… Amber’s legal team selected terrible experts .. specially the physiologist and the Spigel guy. They were just terrible.
I thought all of Depp’s witnesses were equally terrible or even worse. This case was decided right from the outset in the court of public opinion for Depp, which has been incredibly noisy since Amber first filed for a temporary restraining order. His personal vendetta against her syncs perfectly with a lot of features about America, toxic male supremacy and deep-rooted misogyny topping the list. To his fans, he’s a demagogue, just like Trump, manipulating their psyche in a. similar way. Amber seems to be trying to reach out to those people by rationalizing how they get sucked in, but unfortunately none of this is about rationality or fairness. I feel for her – at least she does have many of us out here who have experienced some measure of this same treatment. We can stand with her. Depp even tried to divide her from her sister by stating during the trial that he thought her sister always got the dirty end of the stick, etc – CLASSIC triangulating – trying to knock out every single leg of support Amber has, including her own sister. Such a toxic male attribute – literally emanates off him like visible steam. My only advice for Amber would be to stop trying to extend the benefit of doubt to awful people – including men like Depp, his stans, and the jury. That’s what kept her in what was clearly an abusive relationship, which, with all the trials, is ONGOING.
As I said upfront I think unfortunately her legal team (wrongly) thought since this was a case about the law she would win and didn’t prepare for the nonsense other BS that was brought in that had nothing to do with defamation. I would have flat out focused on her history and what was her thinking about writing it, the process that went into, the legal reviews, how she did X, Y, Z to ensure it didn’t name him or anyone else since she was speaking on her whole romantic history and also how she didn’t writ the headline.
Depp wanted a trial that would say see she hit me too and was just as bad. He wont leave her alone.
I agree, both her legal and PR teams were completely substandard, she needs new people.
why was SG’s husband doing “work” for Depp’s legal team and what was the work. He owns a PR firm. Savannah is publicity.
That’s crazy. Sounds like propaganda.
Her lawyers were absolutely abysmal. And for a broke man, entirely too many people are invested in propping up Johnny Depp.
Amber is so right about social media — my social media channels were inundated with pro-Depp discourse (that I actively flagged/disliked/etc. on Insta and TikTok) up until the moment he won, and then completely disappeared. You can’t tell me that wasn’t a dedicated smear campaign bankrolled by him along with his high-level bots and everything else. My TikTok FYP typically revolves around cats, epidemiology, and geeky things like Star Wars. No reason that should’ve been popping up for me to begin with.
Anyone who believes JD and Amber’s fight has been even in anyway is a joke — he is more powerful, famous, wealthy, influential, and older — he has a leg up on her in every single way. I believe there has been ample evidence what a narcisstic, vengeful person he is and how he has the ability to ruin people if he wants to — and he just did while a ton of people cheered, trying to blame her for a fizzling career that was circling the drain long before he married her due to his own self-destructive behavior.
I highly recommend an essay I read called “Who’s Afraid of Amber Heard?” that brilliantly breaks down everything we’ve been saying about this situation.
Yeah, I had a hard time attempting to hide/block all the pro-Depp content that was bombarding social media apps. And now nobody is talking about it. Weird how that works…
The Daily Wire headed by Ben Shapiro spent thousands on ads, videos, and bots (calculated to be at least 11 percent of the Depp supporters), for one thing – Fox News commenters and similar ones helped push them further. Now that they got the verdict they wanted they dropped it, for now.
Same. My insta and facebook feeds were full of pro depp and anti heard memes about the court case PLUS non stop random feel-good memes using images from all of Depp’s past movies. And that stupid ‘captain jack sparrow run challenge.’ It was so obvious. I can’t believe how people fell for it. Absolute morons.
She needed lawyers that are sharks for this case and they were like mild camomile
Why was that jury not sequestered?! It was not the only mistake made in that trial, but it was a huge one. I practiced law for ten years but was never a trial lawyer. My husband is, and he agrees that it was never going to be a fair hearing without keeping the jury away from outside influence.
This terrible bullshit outcome makes me feel like telling the truth about abuses endured by powerful men is futile. The fear of being attacked and humiliated once you’re ‘safe’ keeps so many of us from leaving. Thank you for caring celebitchy.com
Also I wish this would’ve been an interview with Gayle King instead of Savannah Guthrie.