Johnny Depp’s libel swimsuit towards Amber Heard will proceed regardless of UK ruling

By ANI

WASHINGTON: Despite a devastating authorized loss within the United Kingdom, Hollywood actor Johnny Depp will get a second libel trial to attempt to present that he did not bodily abuse his ex-wife Amber Heard.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Depp has been allowed to maneuver ahead along with his defamation lawsuit towards Heard.

The 58-year-old actor is suing his ex-wife over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed the place Heard wrote about surviving home violence. Heard by no means named Depp within the op-ed, however she did accuse the actor of home violence amid their 2016 break up, which he denied.

In courtroom paperwork obtained by People journal on Tuesday, a Virginia decide granted the actor the fitting to pursue his lawsuit, denying Heard’s supplemental plea to dismiss the case after Depp misplaced his UK libel lawsuit towards British tabloid The Sun.

In November 2020, the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ star misplaced his case towards the British tabloid which referred to as him a ‘wife-beater’. The courtroom upheld the outlet’s claims as being “substantially true.”

Heard’s plea to dismiss Depp’s lawsuit, filed in Virginia in March 2019, got here because the actor argued the UK judgment ought to maintain sway on the proceedings within the US since each lawsuits centre on allegations of the actor as an abuser.

Instead, Fairfax County Chief Judge Penney Azcarate rejected Heard’s plea, saying whereas the actor’s op-ed and The Sun’s article could also be related in that they associated to claims of abuse, the statements made by the tabloid and Heard’s in her op-ed have been “inherently different.”

“Heard argues she was in privity with The Sun because they both had the same interest in the case. However, for privity to exist, Heard’s interest in the case must be so identical with The Sun’s interest such that The Sun’s representation of its interest is also a representation of Heard’s legal right,” Azcarate wrote in her ruling.

“The Sun’s interests were based on whether the statements the newspaper published were false. Heard’s interests relate to whether the statements she published were false.”

Azcarate added Heard hadn’t been named a celebration in Depp’s lawsuit towards The Sun as a result of her op-ed was revealed after he sued the tabloid.

In her December 2018 op-ed, Heard wrote, “I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.”

Three months after it was revealed, Depp filed a defamation lawsuit towards the actor for USD 50 million. At the time, Depp’s legal professionals mentioned within the lawsuit, “Mr Depp never abused Ms Heard. Her allegations against him were false when they were made in 2016. They were part of an elaborate hoax to generate positive publicity for Ms Heard and advance her career.”

In response to the lawsuit, Heard’s rep informed People journal in a press release, “This frivolous action is just the latest of Johnny Depp’s repeated efforts to silence Amber Heard. She will not be silenced. Mr Depp’s actions prove he is unable to accept the truth of his ongoing abusive behaviour. But while he appears hell-bent on achieving self-destruction, we will prevail in defeating this groundless lawsuit and ending the continued vile harassment of my client by Mr Depp and his legal team.”

Following the lack of his libel case towards The Sun, Depp tried to attraction however two UK justices refused his utility for a contemporary trial on the grounds {that a} second listening to was unlikely to provide a special end result.

Depp additionally agreed to exit the function of darkish wizard Gellert Grindelwald within the ‘Harry Potter’ spinoff sequence, ‘Fantastic Beasts’.

Earlier this month, Depp was granted permission to find out if Heard had donated a part of her USD 7 million divorce settlement to the ACLU. Heard beforehand pledged to donate the settlement to the ACLU and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles after their divorce was finalised in 2017.

In a July 22 listening to transcript supplied to People journal by Heard’s lawyer Elaine Bredehoft mentioned her shopper remains to be planning to donate one half of her complete settlement to the ACLU and the opposite half to CHLA — and whereas “it is undetermined what those payment schedules will be,” Heard has already made “the first payment toward the pledges” after which some — particularly, “more than a million” every to the ACLU and CHLA.

“We produced the documents from the ACLU on how much she has. She has always said she fully intends to continue to give the full USD 7 million, but she can’t do it yet. She will do it when she can. But she has given a significant amount to both,” Bredehoft added of Heard, partly.

In an interview with The Sunday Times final week, Depp claimed there was a “boycott” of him in Hollywood as he mentioned his newest movie, ‘Minamata’. The film premiered within the UK final week however has not been given a US launch.

Depp performs W. Eugene Smith, a photojournalist who visited the city of Minamata in Japan within the Seventies to doc the results of mercury poisoning there.