The defamation trial between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp is finally over. Each side spent something like 250,000.00, and that is likely a conservative number. And in the end, the jury sided with Depp. They awarded 10 million in damages and 5 million in punitive damages, versus 2 million for Heard.
At one level this was a trial of two entitled, pampered Hollywood stars being nasty to each other, but there are so many other levels. Their relationship was revealed to be violent, mutually abusive physically and emotionally, and even began in violence. Both of them are drug users and heavy drinkers. But there was so much more in the evidence, all of it bad for Heard.
She claimed Depp abused her, her attornies saying (rightly) that even one episode of abuse makes Heard's op-ed true, and therefore not defamatory. Depp said he never abused Heard, although their relationship was violent. And then everything went off the rails for Heard. She claimed Depp did a 'cavity search' for drugs, and sexually assaulted her. But she never sought medical care. And she sent texts clearly expressing love and desire for him. And when he left her, she wanted a hug and for them to be friends.
Except that's not close to all of it. Depp presented one witness after another testifying to Heard being the emotional and physical aggressor, and others saying Depp never abused her but acted in self-defense. Pictorial evidence of her 'bruises' turns out to have been doctored, and her bruise appears to have been make-up. Then came the emails showing she set up all the coverage of her 'bruise'. And then the emails showing the ACLU wrote her defamatory op-ed in return for her promise of 3.5 million dollars.
Then the nearly dozen times Heard was caught in overt lies on the stand. She claimed her teacup Yorkie, a dog that weighs 2-3 pounds, pooped on Depp's side of the bed. Then there was testimony she boasted about doing it. Oh, wait! She meant it as a joke! And this just one of multiple concealments and overt lies.
Depp made a better impression on the jury. He came across as very genuine, as you can see if you watch video of his testimony. Amber Heard came across as cold, concealing, arrogant. She is not an A list actress, and her performance on the stand certainly confirmed this. Her heaving, sighing, sobbing and 'tears' affected most viewers and analysts as fake. It came across as both too much and badly done.
In view of all this it is not surprising Depp won. He lost in Britain because there is a different standard for defamation (albeit an easier one), and because the judge accepted as true all of Heard's statements. In the US, a jury heard far more material and made up their own minds about Heard's truthfulness, and came to the opposite conclusion.
Besides the money, the spectacle, and the lurid tabloid coverage, much else was at stake here.
Johnny Depp got his life and career back. The crowd overwhelmingly supported him, and studios noticed. Even before the trial was over he was in negotiation for new movie roles.
Amber Heard's career, in contrast, is over. She did not simply appear to be a liar, she IS a liar. She can never again play love interest roles, or exploit her sexuality and beauty on the screen. All the fantasies she must have evoked about her body are gone now, forever replaced by an image of her squatting over a bed and defecating. Not really a romantic or sexual image, and definitely not how we imagine the love interest of Aquaman. Amber Heard's personal life is also likely to be markedly constrained. What person wants to date or be intimate with a violent, manipulative liar, and that is exactly what the evidence showed. Amber Heard is going to be out of movie parts and out of dates for quite a while, and the age clock is going to rapidly end whatever rump career she might have had.
Much more importantly, this is the end of #Believe Her and #MeToo. Thousands of men have been castigated by employers, universities, family, and friends on the mere accusation of a woman, on the assumption that that a female accuser is being truthful. This is no different than a Soviet denouncement and show trial. Guilt is presumed, and no one is listening to the defendant. Far too many of these cases have been demonstrably false, but universities in particular, awash in Wokeism, have expelled male students anyway, or prevented them from participating in athletics or other public activities. All that is over. In our society you are innocent unless proven guilty. Now women will be expected to prove their case, not simply assert it, and men have been given more legal precedent to sue for injuries when they are falsely condemned and accused. Duke University paid something like 20 million to the lacrosse players, and Rolling Stone got torched for their false rape story. There will be much more of that now, as men refuse to accept mob 'justice'.
That's all good, but what is going to happen to genuinely abused women is not. Heard melodramatically claimed her case was about all abused women. No, it wasn't. It was about you, Amber, and you're a manipulative, violent liar. But by being so publicly caught out you have badly damaged the credibility of all women who make claims of abuse. While #Believe Her is legally and ethically wrong so is impugning the honesty and character of women who claim injury at the hands of men. Now every woman making such claims will have to pass the unspoken 'Amber test', to see if she is emotionally and personally credible. This will harm the least educated, least articulate women.
Several liberal outlets have claimed this trial is a backlash from #MeToo. They have claimed Depp won simply because he was more popular. Some have even linked Depp's win to the impending reversal of Roe v Wade, claiming a societal movement to silence women, whose speech is the most threatening of all.
Those claims are ridiculous and over-the-top. Seeing how a manipulative, lying woman can destroy a man through public accusation brings home how unfair and destructive #BelieveHer is. Women were not on trial; Amber Heard was on trial. Women are not being silenced, but to paraphrase Scott Turow, when you go public accusing a man of abuse and violence you had best be able to prove it. Right now.
Accusation is no longer enough, and that's good. I hope we can abandon sexual McCarthyism and return to our ethical and legal normality, which rpesumes innocence and requires proving an accusation. I believe we can end the witch-hunt prosecutions of men accused of sexual wrongdoing, and achieve that without demeaning or ignoring women who are assaulted.
Comments
Post a Comment