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The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
Johnny Depp's agent testified Monday that his ex-wife's 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post describing herself as a victim of domestic abuse was "catastrophic" to his career and coincided with the loss of a $23 million deal for a "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequel.
Amber Heard's lawyers pushed back aggressively against the agent's assertion on cross-examination, suggesting that the article was inconsequential amid a stream of bad publicity for Depp brought on by his own bad behavior.
Depp is suing Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court, saying her article defamed him when she described herself as "a public figure representing domestic abuse." The article never mentions Depp by name, but Depp's lawyers say he was defamed nevertheless because it's a clear reference to abuse allegations Heard levied in 2016.
In testimony Monday, agent Jack Whigham said Depp was still able to work after the initial allegations made against him in 2016. He was paid $8 million for "City Of Lies," $10 million for "Murder on the Orient Express" and $13.5 million for "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald," all of which shot in 2017, albeit under contracts reached prior to the allegations made against him.
But he said The Washington Post piece was uniquely damaging to Depp's career.
"It was a first-person account, extremely impactful," Whigham said of the op-ed.
After that, he said Depp struggled to get any kind of work. He had to take a pay cut -- down to $3 million -- to do the independent film "Minimata," and a $22.5 million verbal deal he had with Disney for a sixth "Pirates" film was scuttled, Whigham said.
On cross-examination, though, Heard's lawyers asked whether the "Pirates" deal had already gone south by the time Heard's article was published. Whigham acknowledged he never had a written deal for Depp to appear in a sixth "Pirates" film." And while he said "Pirates" producer Jerry Bruckheimer talked favorably throughout 2018 about Depp coming back to the franchise, Disney executives were noncommittal at best.
By early 2019 -- weeks after Heard's op-ed -- Whigham said it was clear that Depp's role in any "Pirates" film was scuttled and that producers were instead looking to move ahead with Margot Robbie in a lead role.
Heard's lawyers have cited a variety of factors -- including reports of heavy drug and alcohol use, a lawsuit by a crew member in July 2018 who says he was punched on set by Depp, and a separate libel lawsuit Depp filed against a British newspaper in 2018 -- as things that damaged Depp's image more than the Post article.
For Depp's Virginia lawsuit to be successful, he not only needs to show that he was falsely accused, but he also needs to show that the op-ed piece -- not Heard's abuse allegations in 2016 when she filed for divorce and obtained a temporary restraining order -- is what caused the damage.
Depp's lawyers also presented testimony from an intellectual property expert who testified about the negative turn in Depp's reputation. But his own data, showing trend lines from Google searches, showed negative spikes occurring after the 2016 abuse allegations, but negligible or nonexistent changes after the Post article.
The trial has now entered its fourth week. Much of the testimony during the first three weeks centered on the volatile relationship between Depp and Heard. Depp says he has never struck Heard. Her lawyers said during the trial's opening statements that she was physically and sexually abused by Depp on multiple occasions.
Heard is expected to testify later this week.
The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
Veteran TSN broadcaster Darren 'Dutch' Dutchyshen, one of Canada’s best-known sports journalists, has died. He was 57. His family says 'he passed as he was surrounded by his closest loved ones.'
A ‘lifetime of abuse’ led Dallas Ly to snap and repeatedly stab his mother inside their Leslieville apartment in 2022 but he never intended to kill her, his defence lawyers argued during at his murder trial in Toronto on Thursday.
A burgeoning track star says his dream of going to the Olympics is being derailed by a deportation order after Immigration officials rejected his family’s claim for asylum
A Montreal father who kidnapped his daughter who has autism and lied to police when they asked where she was should serve three years in prison, a Crown prosecutor said.
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. said Thursday it's ready to sign on to the grocery code of conduct, paving the way for an agreement that's been years in the making.
A medical examiner says a Massachusetts teen who participated in a spicy tortilla chip challenge died from ingesting a substance 'with a high capsaicin concentration.'
To give Canadians a break on their summer road trips, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to suspend all gas and diesel taxes from Victoria Day to Labour Day.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is imposing sanctions on Israelis she accuses of 'extremist settler violence' in the West Bank, three months after pledging to do so.
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.
ALS patient Mathew Brown said he’s hopeful for future ALS patients after news this week of research at Western University of a potential cure for ALS.
When Adam Kirschner wrote 'Slap Shot,' he never imagined the song would be embraced by his favourite team.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A $200 reward is being offered by a North Vancouver family for the safe return of their beloved chicken, Snowflake.
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
Mother's Day can be a difficult occasion for those who have lost or are estranged from their mom.
YES Theatre Young Company opened its acclaimed kids’ show, One Small Step, at Sudbury Theatre Centre on Saturday.