Johnny Depp and Amber Heard Defamation Trial to Air on Court TV
The upcoming defamation trial between actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard will be televised. On Tuesday, it was announced that the court proceedings will be broadcast on Court TV, with the free multi-platform network serving as the pool feed provider for the case. According to Court TV, the platform will be providing viewers "unobstructed and unbiased views of the proceedings", which are currently scheduled to begin on April 11th in Virginia. Depp is suing Heard for libel, after she penned an op-ed about their past marriage in The Washington Post, in which she claimed that the actor verbally and physically abused her throughout their relationship. The actor is reportedly seeing $50 million in damages.
"Court cases that are as high-profile as this one often create a lot of noise, and it can be difficult for viewers to break through these distractions to have a clear picture of the facts, but that's where we come in," Ethan Nelson, Acting Head of Court TV, said in a statement. "Between the camera feed directly from the courtroom and our first-class lineup of talent, Court TV will be the true source of an unbiased, down-the-middle perspective of the trial as it unfolds."
Court TV's on-air talent currently includes Vinnie Politan, Julie Grant, Michael Ayala, Ted Rowlands and Ashley Willcott, along with correspondents Julia Jenaé, Chanley Painter and Joy Lim Nakrin.
Depp and Heard's legal troubles have gone on for several years now, after Heard divorced the actor and obtained a temporary restraining order from him in May of 2016. Their relationship was also the driving force behind a previous libel lawsuit that Depp filed against the British tabloid The Sun, after the publication referred to Depp as a "wife-beater" in a 2018 article. Depp went on to lose both the initial suit and the subsequent appeal, and resigned from his role as Gellert Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts franchise just days later.
In the aforementioned 2018 article in The Washington Post, Heard spoke about how her comments surrounding domestic and sexual violence have negatively impacted her role in the entertainment industry, particularly with efforts to blacklist her.
"Friends and advisers told me I would never again work as an actress — that I would be blacklisted," Heard wrote at the time. "A movie I was attached to recast my role. I had just shot a two-year campaign as the face of a global fashion brand, and the company dropped me."
As mentioned above, the legal proceedings in Depp and Heard's lawsuit are poised to air on Court TV beginning Monday, April 11th.