The unmanicured quality of the trial recalls an earlier shambolic iteration of celeb culture, roughly from 1990 to 2005. In its salacious disclosures (i.e., anything involving a bed and a teacup Yorkie), it’s like watching Haley’s Comet streak across the celebrity firmament, revealing just how much Hollywood has changed over the past two decades. Heard stands out for being a rare unfiltered mess. But the main reason might be simpler: In a landscape where celebrity culture is increasingly curated and sanitized, Depp vs. Then there’s the less obvious reason that the trial litigates, in technicolor, many of the issues our post-MeToo society has been grappling with (more on that below). Why has this trial so thoroughly captured the public imagination? There are the obvious pandemic-related reasons related to boredom and widespread WFH allowing more people to stream during their 9-to-5. Outside the Virginia courthouse where the trial is being held, people (and the occasional alpaca) line up for wristbands each day, eager for a front seat to the day’s disclosures, which have included everything from the disturbing-such as Heard’s description of alleged sexual assaults-to the surreal, including Heard’s lawyer objecting to his own question. On TikTok, #IStandWithAmberHeard has been viewed 8.2 million times #JusticeForJohnnyDepp, 15 billion times (yes, billion with a “B”, a disparity that’s launched a thousand think pieces).
And yet, instead of turning it off, many of us seemingly can’t click away.Ĭourt TV, which has essentially been live streaming the trial, has doubled its daytime ratings. It’s a very real, very serious battle of legal wills between two people who were-at the very least-in an extremely toxic relationship. (Johnny Depp has brought a defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard, who he alleges falsely accused him of domestic abuse in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed he alleges that Heard was, in fact, abusive toward him. Moss’s four-minute appearance this week is the latest “is this actually happening?!” moment in the Amber Heard–Johnny Depp trial that has captured public attention-and monopolized internet discourse-since it began on April 11. As surreal moments in the zeitgeist go, the famously private Kate Moss appearing via video link to testify to a packed courtroom that Johnny Depp never pushed her down the stairs has to be right up there.