This is a long one, folks.
We began the day with a van outside the court with a large display featuring Amber Heard with the caption: Ditch the Witch, and a lot of supporters for Johnny Depp.
Inside the court, things started off with few legal arguments back and forth about the allowance and review of some written submissions that were apparently put in at the last minute, doesn’t say what they are. The judge gave both parties until 1pm tomorrow to review and respond to them.
The defense also complained about Adam Waldman tweeting his “In memoriam” tweet from court and asked that AW be forced to desist from tweeting. DS called this a stunt, but the judge agreed that the phrase “In memoriam” is unwelcome because it might be misconstrued as a threat and left it there. AW wasn’t instructed not to tweet, as I understand it.
Amber Heard takes the stand wearing a short-sleeved light colored v-neck blouse with her hair braided over one shoulder. She confirms that her witness statement is true and correctly signed. Now that she’s been sworn in, her witness statement will be released to the public and we’ll be able to see what nonsense she’s come up with, including whatever she testifies to in private.
Out of the gate, Amber’s witness statement starts off painting her as the poor little victim to Johnny Depp’s “monster” getting brutalized, and woe is her, the poor little thing.
Right.
She also insisted that he tried to control her professional life, reviewing her scripts and berating any romantic scenes she was in and insinuating that he told her what parts she could or couldn’t take based on whether or not there were nudity or romantic scenes. And she said that he began to say that she dressed like a whore and began to tell her what she could and couldn’t wear. She certainly did her homework about what real victims go through. Pity, though, that this is the first we’re hearing about all this, four years later. She even said that Johnny said that he hoped she’d get raped by “Slimy Mexicans” or a big gang of black MF-ers because of the sexy or revealing clothes she wore, accusing him not only of verbal abuse, but also of using racial slurs to do it with.
Mind you, this is all in her witness statement. She hasn’t begun to testify yet.
Out of the gate, Amber shows what a liar she is. Throughout her relationship with Johnny, she kept her house on Orange Ave, which means that she was never in danger of being homeless, like she claimed when trying to keep Johnny’s penthouse.
Also from the beginning, the female barrister isn’t having any of Amber’s showboating (which I almost misspelled as sow-boating, which would have been just as appropriate). Whenever Amber tried to add or embellish, FB yanked the chain and got the subject succinctly back on track.
FB’s first questions to Amber were about her family and friends that came to live in the Eastern Columbia building penthouses rent free.
Next, Amber admitted that she didn’t sign a prenup, nor was she asked to. But FB produced an email from David Kipper (a doctor) saying that Johnny and Amber had been fighting non-stop because he wanted a prenup. So she didn’t get five minutes in without contradicting herself with a lie. It also bears mention that Amber is so animated and agitated that the judge asked her to slow down with her answers.
They went back and forth about the prenup that never got signed, with Amber managing to get in that JD beat her up over it, of course. It’s rather hard to keep up with AH because she seemingly contradicts herself with every breath. There was no prenup, then there was. First Johnny wanted it, then it was his sister Cristy who wanted it, as well as a litany of his friends. But in the end, there WAS a prenup that simply never got signed.
She said at least twice that Johnny insisted that the only way out of the marriage was death. Implying, I supposed that he’d kill her before he’d let her go. Painting him as that monster again. Joke’s on her, innit? Because he did let her go.
Once again, the judge stops Amber from giving such lengthy answers that stray from the question. FB made this easier by asking a series of yes or no questions. Love her!
ML is FB asked about Amber’s statement that she didn’t take cocaine after the age of 18. Amber insisted that it was true, and that she didn’t take coke in front of Johnny, ever.
I swear, it’s almost impossible to keep up with Amber’s answers because she either contradicts herself so much, or she picks a fringe point to answer without addressing the direct question. Asked if she had coke issues, she says she never had anxiety eating disorders, which was mentioned, but wasn’t the point at all.
Amber insists that she never had anxiety eating disorder, is not bipolar, and never had a substance abuse problem. Dr Kipper, who wrote notes about all of the above, is either lying, got it wrong, or made a mistake. He’s the one, she says, that put her on such a range of meds that she’s lost track of them all.
ML nailed AH on taking drugs at Coachella, where Amber’s memory seems spotty about who she took MDMA and mushrooms with. First Amber said that she took them, but doesn’t remember who she took them with, then changed her story to say that she didn’t take them, and still doesn’t remember who she didn’t take them with. ML reminds her that it’s a high profile male she’s talking about, but Amber still feigns amnesia about it.
Amber then denies taking MDMA or mushrooms in Australia. She insists that she’s only done shrooms or MDMA (ecstasy) a handful of times, including Coachella and her bachelorette party. So Coachella’s back on the map. ML: So lots of medical professionals are either lying or misrepresenting Heard’s drug use? Amber blames it on Johnny, saying that HE misrepresented her drug use to all these people.
Amber denies being the one who puked in the parking lot at Coachella, insisting that she’s never barfed in a parking lot in her life. Instead, she blames the vomiting incident on her (then) pregnant sister. But a note/email to a friend says that Amber admitted to puking in the parking lot and being high for 24 hours. Amber tried to turn it around on Johnny, saying that he’s the one that did drugs, but ML (love her!) asked Amber to try to answer the question without making negative comments about her ex-husband. Amber had to agree to just answer the questions.
It bears noting that at every step of Amber’s testimony, netizens in the Twitterverse were posting screen grabs that directly contradict her. And a picture is worth a thousand words. If you haven’t followed Nick Wallis on Twitter, it’s worth looking him up, reading his spot-on live tweeting, and having a look at the comments. They tell the real story, unlike Amber.
Next, ML asked about Amber’s allegation that Johnny took her mustang away from her for 3.5 years, or longer, Amber added. She says he took the car and had his drivers take her everywhere so that he could keep tabs on where he was going. Maybe it’s just me, but I wouldn’t care if he knew where I was if I wasn’t doing something shady. There was some discussion at length about Johnny fixing the car up on the tv show Overhaulin in order to get out of paying for it and how Amber alleges that the car didn’t work right after the show – despite the plethora of photos she’s taken of herself driving “Cherry Thunder” as she’s dubbed it. How this has anything to do with the Sun calling Johnny a wife-beater is beyond me, but hey. What do I know?
They moved on to a matter of whether or not Samantha McMillen worked for, and was paid by, Amber Heard. Amber insists that SM never worked for her during a certain period, that she was only along as a “friend” or unpaid intern, but EL refers to a document where Amber admits to paying SM $1,300, complete with a photocopy of a check. To be honest, I don’t know what this has to do with the Sun, either, but it certainly does discredit Amber’s integrity as a witness, insisting that SM wasn’t her assistant, despite SM getting paid.
Amber was asked about her temper, and admitted that she had outbursts of rage during arguments with JD, but evidence was presented that Amber just has a bad temper in general, and has outbursts with more people than just Johnny Depp. Proven.
They played the tape where Amber admits to punching/hitting him, and admits to starting the fight. But Amber still insists that she was only reacting to Johnny’s violence towards her. Regarding the bathroom door incident, she says that she only pushed the door to keep Johnny from falling down, because, she says, he had a tendency to pass out drunk and vomit all over himself. Everyone who says she was the violent one, she says, is lying for Johnny. She only acted in self-defense.
After lunch, they stuck to the topic of Amber’s temper, which she said only got out of hand with Johnny, and only in response to his violence toward her. EL puts forth that that’s not true, and addresses Amber’s arrest for domestic violence against Tasya Van Ree in Washington in 2009. Amber insists that her relationship with Van Ree is the most peaceful relationship that she’s ever heard of, despite evidence of screaming matches and that arrest which Amber downplays as a non-event.
Moving on, EL talked about the day Amber went to court and the fact that there was so much press. EL asked if Amber tipped off the press. She said no and blamed the press being there on Johnny’s lawyers and TMZ – despite the fact that the TMZ article came out well before that. So, no dice there. She says that IF there was a leak of information, it didn’t come from her. It came from somebody else, either on behalf without her knowing, or that it was Johnny’s team. Anybody but her.
EL then questioned Amber as to why she wanted to meet with Johnny when the restraining order was in effect if she was so petrified of him. Amber gave some half-arsed statement about how she wasn’t afraid of Johnny, she was afraid of the monster.
Amber was then asked about the night of the fight where Amber says Johnny threw a phone at her face. Amber admits that Rocky Pennington, iO Tillet-Wright and Josh Drew were in the adjoining apartment. Not their own penthouses, as has been previously declared. She also admits that she called her lawyer and her publicist, as well as iO calling the police.
Every time She was caught lying by somebody else’s testimony and evidence, Amber was asked, “So are they lying?” She said she didn’t want to call anyone a liar, but then proceeded to call them a liar. She must have said that half a dozen times. Most of what they talked about has been said before, all about the night of that fateful fight and the aftermath. This accounting is long and rambling enough, so I’m not going to repeat it all. Suffice it to say that She says Johnny beat her up, hit her with a phone, and wrecked PH5 where she kept all her personal stuff, including her wardrobe. So, EL asked if the police officers were lying when they said they saw no damage to the property. Amber avoided giving a yes or no answer by saying things like “They must have seen it,” or “I don’t know how they could have missed it.”
At one point, EL said: “You’re making this up as you go along.” AH denied it, of course, but I LOVE EL for saying it.”
I also love that EL is showing pictures of the magical moving disappearing bruises and asking her to explain them, as well as whey they weren’t there the next day, and why people have testified that she had no marks on her at all. The answers are that the pictures were taken a different day, or she was wearing concealer, and everyone is lying.
And that was it for the day. And, unless somebody else steps up to live-tweet, that’s pretty much it for my timely updates. I’ve relied upon Nick Wallis’ brilliant live-tweeting for my updates, and he sadly won’t be able to do it anymore. So let’s all say thank you to Nick, and look forward to whatever updates might come our way.