The defamation trial between former spouses Johnny Depp and Amber Heard has once again received fresh attention as more than 6,000 pages of court documents from their legal battle have been unsealed.
According to Variety, an American news outlet, The Daily Beast, has reported that Heard’s team in the pre-trial documents claimed that she suffered financial losses in the “USD 47-50 million” range over a “3-5 year period” because of Depp’s defamatory statements against her. Heard’s team also argued that her stature as an actor was “comparable” to the likes of Jason Momoa, Gal Gadot, Zendaya, Ana de Armas, and Chris Pine.
Elsewhere, the newly-unsealed court documents reveal that Heard walked away from “tens of millions of dollars” by refusing to accept the money Depp made off the fifth ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movie.
The sequel was shot during Depp and Heard’s marriage, which made it a “community property asset” and entitled Heard to half the income made.
The outlet also noted that Depp made USD 33 million from the fourth ‘Pirates’ movie, so he likely matched that or made even more on a fifth film. During her divorce proceedings, Heard refused to accept the money all evidence from which was excluded from being used in the defamation trial, reported Variety.
It was also brought to notice via the new documents that Depp’s team had fought hard to keep Marilyn Manson’s name out of the defamation trial. They argued that “references to and evidence regarding Marilyn Manson” would “smear Mr Depp under a guilty by association theory.”
Meanwhile, the ‘Aquaman’ actor’s team requested the judge to throw out a number of “irrelevant personal matters” that Depp’s team was reportedly going to bring up and use against her, as per Variety.
This would have included “nude pictures of Amber Heard; Amber Heard’s sister Whitney’s reality show video; Whitney and Amber’s past romantic relationships; Amber’s brief stint as an exotic dancer years before she met Mr Depp and Mr Depp attempting to frivolously and maliciously suggest or imply that Ms Heard was at one time an escort.”
On June 1, the jury awarded Depp USD 15 million in damages but Heard had to pay USD 10.35 million due to a Virginia law limiting punitive damages (the judge reduced the amount).
In her countersuit, Heard won one of the three defamation counts and was awarded USD 2 million in damages. Both of them recently appealed the verdict.
(ANI)
