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“A jury sided Wednesday with Johnny Depp in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, awarding the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ actor more than $10 million and vindicating his allegations that Heard lied about Depp abusing her before and during their brief marriage.” AP News
Here’s our previous coverage of the lawsuit. The Flip Side
The right agrees with the verdict, and hopes that Depp’s reputation will be restored.
“What can we learn from all this? First, of course, there is always a potential upside for fighting to clear your own good name even if you (like Johnny Depp) have a ton of dirty laundry. Depp has all manner of troubles with drink, drugs, and money. He has run through a lot of women. He is, at 58, no longer matinee-idol handsome, but visibly carries a lot of the same sorts of darkness and eccentricity he has brought to his characters on film. He is, in some ways, kind of pathetic. But he insisted that he was not what Heard painted him to be, and fighting back has done a lot to convince the public that there is more to his story…
“Second, slogans are no substitute for facts. ‘Hear all women’ is a pledge we should all make. ‘Believe all women,’ however, is asking people to shut their brains off at the approach of a slogan and forget the fact that women are people, too. Sometimes they shade the truth or lie, sometimes they are the more abusive party, and sometimes they are cynical, show-business shams. The evidence at trial changed a lot of minds.”
Dan McLaughlin, National Review
“Those worried about a ‘chilling effect’ should bear in mind that the legal foibles of very rich people are rarely a template for the average joe. A blue-collar domestic abuser who wants to silence his victim with a defamation suit would first have to find a lawyer willing to devote the many hours needed to building a case, which will depend on the likelihood of victory and the amount of the prospective damages. That’s assuming that they work on contingency; if not, the abuser would be on the hook for hourly fees. Abusers may also be deterred by the fear of what might come out during discovery and testimony in court, since that could lead to criminal charges…
“That’s not to minimize the ‘chilling effect’ risk. Many women who are abused may clam up rather than chance being sued successfully by their abuser after absorbing today’s verdict, never mind that the odds of that happening are low. But what’s the alternative? If you hold women completely harmless from leveling a possibly false allegation, you’re destined to get many more false allegations.”
Allahpundit, Hot Air
“There are actually women out there who should be believed when a man does something terrible to them, and Heard’s continued performance hurts those women in that it breeds skepticism in cases where there shouldn’t be any…
“There are no good guys in this situation. Depp is a troubled man in his own right, having left his family for this kind of relational chaos. Yet, Heard is clearly not an innocent victim. Not only was she physically abusive by her own admission, but from a fair reading of the evidence, she appeared to be emotionally abusive as well. I can’t know for sure what happened when they were the only ones present in the room and won’t make definitive statements, but based on what we do know, the right verdict was reached here.”
Bonchie, RedState
The left worries that the verdict will discourage abused women from coming forward.
The left worries that the verdict will discourage abused women from coming forward.
“Depp sued Heard despite the fact that a judge in Britain had already found in a 2020 trial that Depp had repeatedly assaulted Heard and put her ‘in fear of her life.’ Texts introduced in court from Depp to his friend, actor Paul Bettany, in which Depp wrote ‘let's drown her before we burn her’ and discussed having sex with Heard's body after killing her arguably provide further evidence of abuse, as did the testimony of the couple's marriage counselor that Depp and Heard abused each other…
“The fact that Depp sued Heard for defamation despite the evidence introduced in court and a previous judge's ruling in the UK is a stark reminder of the very real threat women have to contend with if they accuse powerful men of abuse. This trial also reminded us of another factor that victims will have to consider when coming forward: the possibility that people will band together to support the alleged perpetrator and make additional threats against the accusers…
“People on social media didn't just side with Depp. They also actively threatened Heard. ‘People want to kill me and they tell me so every day,’ Heard testified. ‘People want to put my baby in the microwave and they tell me that.’… This lawsuit started when Heard claimed she was a public figure representing domestic abuse. Now, she has become a public figure representing the societal abuse toward women who dare to speak out."
Kara Alaimo, CNN
"Depp’s fans seem to not so much deny Depp’s alleged violence against Heard, but to approve of it. ‘He could have killed you,’ says one viral Tiktok supporting Depp, the text superimposed over photos of Heard’s bruised face. ‘He had every right.’ The post has more than 222,200 likes…
“The backlash to #Me Too has long been under way… The forces of misogynist reaction are perhaps even stronger now for having been temporarily repressed. Where once women refused, en masse, to keep men’s secrets, or to remain silent about the truth of their own lives, now, a resurgence of sexism, virulent online harassment, and the threat of lawsuits, all aim to compel women back into silence – by force.”
Moira Donegan, The Guardian
“The way this trial has been picked apart online, the ridicule and vitriol Heard has been subjected to, and the utter disdain for a woman who claims a powerful man abused her, all seem proof that we never progressed past the idea of good vs. bad, of perfect victim vs. evil abuser. As we continue to reinforce that narrative, that there’s no room for nuance for assault victims, it’s the abusers who have everything to gain… Because Heard harmed Depp, her own alleged abuse experiences are being discounted — as if she’s automatically lying about being abused because she too has done harm… If the spectacle produces awareness of a problem, there is a growing concern it may also drive survivors back into silence.”
Lexi McMenamin, Teen Vogue
