Hollywood nervously awaits fallout from explosive Johnny Depp trial

Hollywood nervously awaits fallout from explosive Johnny Depp trial

The Hollywood careers of more than just a couple of film stars are in jeopardy this weekend as the extraordinarily dirty legal battle pitting Johnny Depp against his former wife, Amber Heard, goes into a third dramatic week – a week in which Heard’s team will be in the driving seat.

The outcome of the case – a libel action being pressed by Depp – could affect many of those involved. Other big names drawn in, including Winona Ryder, Paul Bettany and Vanessa Paradis, are in danger of tainted reputations, whether they emerge as innocent bystanders or as partisan supporters. And the casts of major family film franchises, such as the Aquaman series, the Fantastic Beasts Harry Potter spin-offs and the Marvel superheroes stable of stars, may change as result.

Depp is suing the publisher of the Sun, News Group Newspapers, and the paper’s executive editor, Dan Wootton, for describing him as a “wife-beater” in an article from April, 2018, which questioned Warner Brothers’ decision to cast him in a Fantastic Beasts film. The 57-year-old actor, a household name after his roles as Edward Scissorhands and as Jack Sparrow in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean series, had been served a restraining order in Los Angeles in 2016, shortly after their divorce, but he has now made headlines with allegations that it was Heard, not he, with the serious violence and alcohol problem. Notoriously, last week Heard was even accused of defecating on his bed. Heard, 34, is in London to give her version of disturbing events that led to the end of their short, high-profile marriage. Her role in the lucrative Aquaman films might be in doubt if unpleasant accusations made by Depp and his legal team stick. Legal pundits are also questioning whether media law will be permanently altered by the case. “The way the media can write about domestic violence could be changed for ever,” said one legal source. “Journalists would have believed they were clear to talk about someone as a dangerous partner when they were already named in a temporary restraining order in America.” Depp, who has retained a large fortune despite a recent legal action against the business managers he claims defrauded him of $650m, is keen to hang on to the prospect of working on adventure films. Claims and counter-claims of violence and extreme behaviour are unlikely to play well either with family audiences or with Disney and Warner Brothers studios, who own the JK Rowling franchise.

Full report at the gurdian