More than 6,000 pages of court documents used in the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard have been unsealed, with The Daily Beast reporting that Heard’s team claimed in pretrial documents that she suffered financial losses in the “$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 Daily Beast notes that Depp made $33 million from the fourth “Pirates” movie, so he likely matched that or made even more on a fifth film. Heard refused to accept the money during her divorce proceedings, all evidence from which was excluded from being used in the defamation trial.
According to The Daily Beast, the unsealed documents also reveal that Depp’s team fought to keep Marilyn Manson’s name out of the defamation trial. The team argued that “references to and evidence regarding Marilyn Manson” would “smear Mr. Depp under a guilty by association theory.”
Heard’s team, meanwhile, urged 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. Heard’s team alleged that “Mr. Depp inappropriately seeks to introduce evidence” that included “(1) nude pictures of Amber Heard; (2) Amber Heard’s sister Whitney’s reality show video; (3) Whitney and Amber’s past romantic relationships; (4) 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.”
The defamation trial ended June 1. The jury ordered Heard to pay $10.35 million in damages to Depp ($10 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages) after it ruled that she defamed him when she wrote a 2018 Washington Post op-ed alluding to her past claims of domestic violence. While the jury in the verdict sided more with Depp, it still ruled that Depp defamed Heard in the course of fighting back against her charges. The jury awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages for her counterclaim.
Heard filed a notice of appeal earlier this month.
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