VA - Johnny Depp's defamation case against ex Amber Heard, who countersued #2

[Allabouttrial]

Sky News

'His wine bill has shrunk to virtually zero'

Questioning moves on to 2020 Wine Merchants, a purveyor of wine in Los Angeles, we hear.

Edward White says he satisfied the liabilities that Johnny Depp incurred at 2020, which was about £160,000 at the end of his marriage to Heard.

"His wine bill has shrunk to virtually zero," Mr White then says, aside from "a few gifts at Christmas time".

He is then asked if he is familiar with a wine called Vega Sicillia.

Mr White says it is a "very expensive" wine that Amber Heard enjoyed drinking.

It costs $500 a bottle, we hear.

Mr White tells the court he was in charge of paying for the wine for Heard's birthday party on 21 April 2016. Heard ordered five bottles of this wine and eight other bottles, he tells the court.

That's an expensive party!

 

[Allabouttrial]

Sky News

'Challenging' finances

Johnny Depp's business manager Edward White is now being cross-examined by Amber Heard's lawyer Ben Rottenborn.

We hear he charges Depp $710 an hour for work, which he says is his standard rate, and that his firm has been paid millions of dollars by the actor and his company since he first started working with him.

Mr White gave a deposition in the case in February and charged Depp for his time giving testimony, the court hears.

Part of his work includes paying bills to doctors and for maintenance, the court is told.

Mr Rottenborn is now asking about Mr White's first meeting with Depp and puts it to him that the actor owed money to the Bank of California at this time.

Mr White says he doesn't recall this but says he had other commercial loans.

Asked if Depp's finances were "challenging" Mr White says they were but they had the ability to solve the problems.

Putting it in layman's terms, Depp was spending more than he was bringing in at the time, Mr Rottenborn says, which Mr White confirms.

 

[squareandrabbet]

Vinnie Politan @ lunch:

(1): "I'll never look at an op-ed the same way again, now that I know what kind of multiple artificial filters it gets jammed through";

(2), "hey, remember the opening salvo from Amber's attorneys, where they said "you will discover that nobody even MENTIONED Johnny Depp's name!"... only for us to discover from the horse's mouth that Johnny Depp's name in fact was plastered all over editorial drafts #1, #2, and #3?"

 

[Allabouttrial]

Sky News

$5m to blast Hunter Thompson's ashes out of a cannon

Amber Heard's lawyer Ben Rottenborn is now questioning Edward White about some of Johnny Depp's more elaborate purchases.

He asks Mr White if Heard bought any of the dozens of properties that Depp owned, and he says this is correct.

"She didn't pay $5m to blast Hunter Thompson's ashes out of a cannon, did she?"

"Not to my knowledge."

"She didn't but a yacht she couldn't afford and then have to sell it to JK Rowling, did she?"

"Not to my knowledge."

(Depp played the late author Thompson in Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas in 1998).

 

[Allabouttrial]

Sky News

Depp needed 'new gigs' to improve finances

Amber Heard's lawyer Ben Rottenborn asks about the business meeting on 21 April 2016, and if the news Johnny Depp was given that night about his finances was "catastrophic".

Business manager Edward White says "no".

Mr Rottenborn then asks Mr White about giving testimony in Depp's unsuccessful UK trial against The Sun in 2020.

Mr White confirms that at the 21 April 2016 meeting they talked about ways to reduce spending, ways to get "new gigs" and properties that Depp may have to sell.

They also discussed tax liabilities running into millions of dollars, the court hears.

Mr Rottenborn is now asking Mr White about any understanding he had of Depp being late.

The court is shown a text to the business manager from Depp's former agent Tracey Jacobs, saying she had received a call from Disney about the actor being "five hours late" for work in London on the fifth Pirates Of The Caribbean film.

 

[squareandrabbet]

Sky News

Depp needed 'new gigs' to improve finances

Amber Heard's lawyer Ben Rottenborn asks about the business meeting on 21 April 2016, and if the news Johnny Depp was given that night about his finances was "catastrophic".

Business manager Edward White says "no".

Mr Rottenborn then asks Mr White about giving testimony in Depp's unsuccessful UK trial against The Sun in 2020.

Mr White confirms that at the 21 April 2016 meeting they talked about ways to reduce spending, ways to get "new gigs" and properties that Depp may have to sell.

They also discussed tax liabilities running into millions of dollars, the court hears.

Mr Rottenborn is now asking Mr White about any understanding he had of Depp being late.

The court is shown a text to the business manager from Depp's former agent Tracey Jacobs, saying she had received a call from Disney about the actor being "five hours late" for work in London on the fifth Pirates Of The Caribbean film.

IIRC partly the "five hours late" thing (or, in fact, any hours); involves the fact that putatively the project's representatives should fine the actor under SAG rules; in addition to any inconvenience rendered to the production by the actor's not showing up.

 

[shotgun09]

Malcom Connoly , JD's Bodyguard is the next witness, appearing via video conference from Essex UK

 

[Allabouttrial]

Sky News

'We can both read the letter. The answer's yes'

Questioning has moved on to charity donations to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the ACLU, as the court has previously been told were pledged by Amber Heard.

The actress said she would split her full $7m divorce settlement between the two, but the jury has been told that not all the money has been paid out.

There is an air of tension between Amber Heard's lawyer Ben Rottenborn and Johnny Depp's business manager Edward White, who has been cut off by the attorney a few times already for going beyond the scope of the questions he is being asked.

He has been shown two letters showing donations of $100,000 by Depp to the charities, which reference that they are "the first of multiple scheduled instalments to honor the full amount" of Heard's pledged gift.

Mr Rottenborn wants to confirm this is what the letter says, to which Mr White starts to tell the court he understood Heard would be paying.

"I understand you want to speak your own narrative here," Mr Rottenborn says and asks him to answer the question.

"We can both read the letter," Mr White replies. "The answer's yes."

It seems the lawyer is suggesting that Depp might have been liable for the charity pledge payments.

 

[turaj]

By reading the posts here every day, I get the sense that most posters were well versed in the AH/JD relationship way before this trial began. Thus, opinions had already been formed.

I knew nothing of AH when this trial started and don't follow celebrity news, so it's been easy to have an open mind. Having said that, I innocently have deduced that nearly everyone following this trial is on team-Johnny. Looking forward to next week's testimony.

Same here...knew nothing of either of them. Will reserve judgment until all testimony has concluded.

 

[Allabouttrial]

Sky News

'Has Mr Depp paid all his taxes?'

Johnny Depp's business manager Edward White is asked a couple more questions from one of the actor's lawyers.

The final one is if he has now paid his taxes.

"Yes, he has. He's fully current with all his federal, foreign and state tax obligations."

With that, Mr White is told he is free to go.

 

[turaj]

I don't like the optics of Depp and attorneys laughing at the defense's questions and I sense it is a strategy to make jury disregard anything that is not favorable to JD. What a fool to keep supplying her and her friends 500/bottle wine. I mean really?

 

[Chelly]

Same here...knew nothing of either of them. Will reserve judgment until all testimony has concluded.

I am joining you in Mutual Neutrality.

 

[Allabouttrial]

Sky News

Next witness...

This next one is a live video testimony from Malcolm Connolly, who is testifying from home - which is Essex, here in the UK.

He is a close protection officer, the court hears, which means "looking after the personal wellbeing and physical wellbeing" of clients, he says.

The jury is told he has been in the business for 25 years.

He met Johnny Depp more than 20 years ago, Mr Connolly tells the court. He was tasked with looking after the actor's then partner Vanessa P and their children J and LR.

His job was to make sure they were safe when Depp was at work. He later moved to start looking after the actor and tells the court his job entails escorting him to public places to "make sure he's not in any danger". It's usually a two-man detail, the court hears.

 

[squareandrabbet]

White to Attorney Chew: White was involved in the negotiation of marital dissolution settlement.

Amber's demands for $$ increased every time they sat down at the table.

Originally she started asking for $4M.

Next was a request for $5M; then $5.5; then $7M: culminating in an ask for a whopping total of $14M.

 

[Allabouttrial]

Sky News

Heard 'wanted to wear the pants in this relationship'

Security guard Malcolm Connolly says he first met Amber Heard in about 2010 when she was doing promotional work for the film Drive Angry, with Nicolas Cage, and he was commissioned to work with her.

He says he looked after her for a week and it was a "pleasant" week. After that, he did not see her again until The Rum Diary, which is the film set that Heard and Johnny Depp met on.

This was at a premiere in LA, he thinks. He says he did not know that they were in a relationship but surmised there was a "spark" and later assumed there was a budding romance.

At the beginning of their relationship they were "lovey dovey" and it was "great to see Johnny happy again".

But "things started to change... Amber started to change", he tells the court. She started becoming more "demanding". He says it was "pretty obvious" that Heard "wanted to wear the pants in this relationship".

He says the actress could get "frosty at the drop of a hat".

He says Depp became quieter.

Heard was always fine with him, he says, never anything other than professional or polite.

Asked about any arguments between the former couple, he says he didn't see them but heard them. Mostly he could "hear Amber screaming", he says. This wasn't every day but became more often than not over time, he says.

 

[Chelly]

I wish the judge would instruct all members at the two plaintiff's tables to knock off the inappropriate smirking.

 

[Allabouttrial]

Sky News

Thrown lighter and soda can

Security guard Malcolm Connolly says he never witnessed any physical violence.

But then he says he remembers two incidents. One was on a private plane when he could hear bickering and then saw a plastic lighter bounce off Johnny Depp's chest, the jury is told.

Another time was at Depp's penthouse apartment in LA, he says. The door was ajar slightly, the court hears, and there was "a bit of shouting going on".

He says he saw a soda can "launched" from the mezzanine floor and smashing on Depp's "huge TV - biggest TV I've ever seen". It smashed with "force" he says and sprayed all over the place.

Depp already had his jacket on and a bag over his shoulder and they walked out, Mr Connolly says.

He tells the court that Depp was about 10ft back from where the can was thrown.

Heard was present in the apartment, he says. He couldn't see her but could hear her voice coming from upstairs, he tells the court.

 

[tlcya]

AH counsel makes it hard not to smirk. MOO

 

[squareandrabbet]

AH counsel makes it hard not to smirk. MOO

AH is doing her share of smirking over the past 2 days.

 

[shotgun09]

Mr Connoly states he witnessed a flying full soda can come crashing in to the TV from upstairs in the Penthouse. He didn't see AH, but heard her voice.

Goodness! She was wild! She was dangerous!