But the Hollywood scoundrel only gets a cut-to-the-bone 8.4 million dollars in damages — not the 50 million he wanted.
Ex-wife Amber Heard was awarded a measly two million by the jury in her countersuit. The verdict left Johnny pleased as Punch, but Amber could face financial ruin.
She was paid three million for her Aquaman roles but could have future wages garnisheed or even face bankruptcy after losing the defamation case.
The trial lasted six weeks and unearthed a vipers nest of domestic violence, wild drunkenness, drug abuse and foul language between the two actors during their 15-month marriage.
The proceedings followed the predictable gender agenda. Many women believed Amber Heard, and most men went with Johnny. Certainly the sentiment outside the courtroom and in front of TV screens around the world was consistent with the age-old Battle of the Sexes.
This was also a David and Goliath battle. The Aquaman actress has one-millionth of the fans that Johnny has. Maybe she was lying about being the victim of spousal abuse, but it’s hard to ignore the cell phone and other footage that showed an insanely drunk and drug-crazed Johnny Depp smashing furniture and behaving like a horse’s ass. The jury of three men and two women ignored it, but that’s five people.
It’s also hard to ignore the argument that Amber Heard is a psychotic, scheming shrew. She gave as good as she got in the couple’s marriage from hell. Even after watching the whole trial, one is left to wonder, Who the hell was the abuser here? The answer, of course, is both of them.
But there’s no doubt where public sentiment settled in the end. Johnny Depp’s Instagram crowing about his victory racked up 16 million ‘likes,’ while Amber Heard’s ‘The disappointment I feel today…’ statement scored a paltry 290,000 ‘likes.’
FISH AND CHIPS
Johnny Depp wasn’t in the courtroom for the verdict — he’s still in England after performing on stage in London with rock guitarist Jeff Beck, his 77-year-old buddy.
Johnny heard the verdict after a meal of fish and chips with friends in a British pub in Newcastle in northern England.
He responded to the good news with this statement: “The jury gave me my life back.”
Amber Heard listened to the verdict with a crushed expression, a palpably deep depression frozen into her face.
“The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband,” Heard said in a statement after the verdict.
Johnny sued 36-year-old Amber for 50 million bucks over an article she wrote for the Washington Post in 2018 describing herself as a victim of domestic abuse. The defamation trial was held in Fairfax, Virginia, because that’s where the article was printed.
Even though Amber Heard didn’t name Depp in the article, his legal team said his reputation was damaged because it clearly implied he was the abuser. The 59-year-old actor was fired from his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney’s highly popular and profitable Pirates of the Caribbean movie series as a result of the article.
And, despite the favorable verdict, family-oriented Disney will never reinstate him in the role. Depp’s career, in fact, will never be the same, the trade papers say. He may be offered indie roles and leads in European pictures, but his super stardom Hollywood career is ‘toast,’ as one insider put it.
Heard countersued Depp for 100 million, claiming her career was destroyed after Depp’s lawyer publicly said she had fabricated her domestic abuse allegations. There is an attempt underfoot to have her fired from the Aquaman movie series. Depp and Heard divorced in 2016.
The jury reached its verdict after less than 13 hours of deliberations. The jury rendered a unanimous decision that Heard’s article defamed Depp and that she wrote it with malice intended to destroy his character and reputation.
Almost overshadowing the trial itself was the apparent romance between Johnny Depp and his stlyish attorney Camille Vasquez, 37. Obviously neither of them could acknowledged it to the swarm of reporters buzzing around the courtroom, but they’ll be seeing a lot more of each other in the coming months.
