- Johnny Depp V. Amber Heard
There are two pieces of news that happened over the past week that I want to discuss. As many of you know, actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were embroiled in a defamation lawsuit brought against Heard by Depp for an op-ed that Heard had written accusing Depp of physical and sexual abuse. That op-ed did some pretty gnarly damage to Depp’s career, even though it was already in decline, but it kept him from taking on roles in major movies. I’m not a legal analyst of any kind, so I’m going to leave the details of the lawsuit to the experts who know far more about this than I do. I’m going to focus on the aftermath of the verdict. The verdict came in that awarded Johnny Depp 10 million dollars, but also 5 million in punitive damages. However, due to a statute in Virginia, the punitive damages were reduced to the maximum cap of $350,000. So, Depp won 10.3 million dollars. However, the jury award Amber Heard 2 million dollars for one count of defamation. So, the total award to Johnny Depp comes to about 8.3 million dollars. While I’m sure that there are going to be die-hard defends of Amber Heard out there screaming that she got screwed by the judge and jury. It couldn’t be further from the truth, which is clearly what Amber Heard failed to do in this case. She’s planning an appeal of the verdict, but the problem here is that she doesn’t have the money to do it. I could be wrong about that, so don’t take my opinion as gospel. What IS going to happen is that movie studios are going to take a long, hard look at deciding to cast Amber Heard in any of their projects or not. My gut feeling says no. This lawsuit, that she lost so spectacularly, just ended her career. At least for the time being. Public perception is CRITICAL, not only to actors, but also to movie studios and execs. They don’t want somebody that could potentially become a liability or risk making their projects look bad. It rarely ends well. The verdict in this lawsuit is going to paint Amber Heard as an abuser and a liar herself, whether you think it’s fair or not. Nothing is more damaging than a negative out-look in the court of public opinion. Her attorney has been going on talk shows blaming the jury and judge and is not helping her in any form. Johnny Depp on the other hand, while he may not have the same draw that he did a decade ago, is going to be fine. The public’s on his side, and because of that, he’s probably going to get more offers as a supporting actor. That’s just my observation about the situation.
2. Star Wars Actress Gets Death Threats and Racist Messages
On May 27th, Disney released the first two episodes of Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney Plus. This show is about what the character of Obi-Wan Kenobi has been doing between Episodes III and IV. It’s a very dark period in the Star Wars time-line, and I found myself fully enjoying the show. A lot of people were. However, a very loud vocal minority has been sending actress Moses Ingram death threats and racist messages. They also accused Disney of “filling their diversity quota” which is a roundabout way of saying that they don’t want a woman of color in a major role in a Star Wars story. The backlash that Disney got for casting Thandiewe Newton in the Han Solo movie and than killing her off early on was severe. To their credit, Disney knew that this could happen and they got out in front of it. Ms. Ingram has gotten a lot of support from folks who aren’t even fans of Star Wars. The show’s main star, Ewan McGregor, even released a video singing her praises and condemning that hateful minority, calling them non-Star Wars fans. This isn’t the first time this has happened and it won’t be the last. As long as there’s a bunch of tiny-minded, scum-sucking cousin-humpers that have nothing better to do than send hateful messages, this will continue to be a thing. To Moses’ credit, she’s also come out against it and NOT slowing down. Regardless of how you feel about her performance in the show, she doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment. Nobody does. Racism and white supremacy are a blight on the civilized world and has no reason to exist. They’re clearly jealous at not being as successful as Moses Ingram is. It’s also because they’re trying to over-compensate for their pathetic little insecurities. Moses Ingram will be remembered for being a part of something as big as Star Wars. What have these dirt-bags done with THEIR lives lately? As Star Wars puts it on twitter: “There are twenty million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy. Don’t choose to be a racist.”