Hollywood actor Johnny Depp will receive a second libel trial for trying to show that he did not physically abuse his ex-wife Amber Heard, despite a devastating legal loss in the United Kingdom.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Depp has been allowed to proceed with the defamation suit against Heard.
The 58-year-old actor is suing his ex-wife over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed where Heard wrote about surviving domestic violence. Heard never named Depp in the op-ed, but he accused the actor of domestic violence amid the 2016 split, which he denied.
In court documents obtained by People magazine on Tuesday, a Virginia judge granted the actor the right to pursue his trial, complementing Heard’s dismissal of the case after Depp lost his UK libel lawsuit against British tabloid The Sun. The petition was rejected.
In November 2020, the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ star lost his case against the British tabloid, which called him a ‘wife-beater’. The court found the outlet’s claims to be “substantially true”.
Heard’s petition to quash Depp’s suit, filed in Virginia in March 2019, came after the actor argued that the UK decision should stay proceedings in the US as both lawsuits center on the actor’s allegations as a misdemeanor. are in.
Instead, Fairfax County Chief Justice Penny Azkart dismissed Heard’s plea, saying that the actor’s op-ed and The Sun’s article may be similar in the way that they relate to abuse claims, the tabloid and The statements made by Hurd in his op-ed were “naturally different.”
“Heard argues that she was in secrecy with The Sun because they both had an equal interest in the matter. However, for secrecy to exist, Heard’s interest in the matter must be so similar to Sun’s interest as that of The Sun. A representation of his own interest is also a representation of Heard’s legal authority,” Azkart wrote in his decision.
“Sun’s interests were based on whether the statements published in the newspaper were false. Hurd’s interests relate to whether the statements he published were false.”
Azkaret said that Heard was not named a party to Depp’s lawsuit against The Sun because his op-ed was published when he sued the tabloids.
In her December 2018 op-ed, Hurd wrote, “I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s anger at women who speak out.”
Three months after it was published, Depp filed a $50 million defamation suit against the actor. At the time, Depp’s lawyers said in the lawsuit, “Mr. Depp never abused Ms. Heard. His allegations against her were false when they were leveled in 2016. They were to generate positive publicity for Ms. Heard and destroy her career.” Were part of an elaborate fraud to pursue.”
In response to the lawsuit, Heard’s representative told People magazine in a statement, “This frivolous action is the latest of Johnny Depp’s repeated attempts to silence Amber Heard. She will not be silenced. Mr. Depp’s actions proves that he is incapable of accepting the truth. For his ongoing abusive behavior. But when he appears bent on achieving self-destruction, we seek to defeat this baseless trial and seek Mr. Depp and his Will prevail in ending my client’s continued harassment by the legal team.”
After losing his defamation case against The Sun, Depp attempted to appeal, but two UK judges rejected his application for a new trial on the grounds that the second hearing was expected to produce a different outcome. is unlikely.
Depp also agreed to exit the role of dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in the “Harry Potter” spinoff series, “Fantastic Beasts.”
Earlier this month, Depp was granted permission to determine whether Heard had donated part of his $7 million divorce settlement to the ACLU. Heard had previously pledged to donate the settlement to the ACLU and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles after the divorce was finalized in 2017.
A July 22 hearing transcript provided to People magazine by Heard’s attorney, Elaine Breedhoft, states that her client still plans to donate one half of her total settlement to the ACLU and the other half to the CHLA — and while “it It is undetermined what those payment schedules will be,” Hurd has already made “the first payment for the pledge” and then some — notably, “over a million” to each ACLU and CHLA.
“We presented documents to the ACLU about how much she has. She has always said that she wants to continue giving the full USD 7 million, but she can’t do it yet. She will when she can But she’s given a significant amount of money to both,” Breedhoft added on Hurd’s part.
In an interview with The Sunday Times last week, Depp claimed he was “outcast” in Hollywood as he discussed his latest film, ‘Minamata’. The film premiered last week in the UK but has not been given a US release.
Depp hired a photojournalist W. Eugene Smith, who went to the city of Minamata, Japan in the 1970s to document the effects of mercury poisoning.
Watch this space for more updates.
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