Courtroom domestic drama taking us to Depps of depravity
AS the world watches on in endless horror at the ongoing death and destruction in Ukraine, there is another battlefield on which war is raging.
But whereas in Kyiv, innocent lives are being lost, both opponents are guilty of their own demise in this other bloody conflict.
For when looking at a fight of mutually assured destruction, it comes no bigger than Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard.
After a stormy short-lived marriage, the former couple has since become embroiled in years of acrimony and legal drama that has spanned three continents.
Now, in the latest unedifying chapter in their domestic dispute, the pair’s life together is hardly unravelling in a Fairfax County courthouse, it’s exploding.
Depp is suing his ex-wife for more than £38 million, saying her domestic abuse claims against him have ruined his career and reputation.
The actress, 35, has filed a countersuit against the actor, 58, seeking almost £78 million in damages and saying his legal team falsely accused her of fabricating claims against him.
Depp’s defamation case against his ex-wife Heard has become like the War of Roses movie but on steroids – although class A drugs in this pair’s case.
If ever there was an example of when fame and fortune infantilise two grown people, this is it. Each desperately needs to have the last word and have it in public.
The accusations between the pair are like nothing heard before.
The interactions between them are on a whole different level.
The words spoken to each other or about each other are some of the vilest comments ever played out in a courtroom. Bizarrely, the pair would record each other in secret. Who does that?
They include, at one point, Depp telling a friend he wished his wife was found dead in the boot of a Honda Civic and that he would have sex with her decomposing body.
Meanwhile, the Pirates of the Caribbean star has detailed how Heard allegedly flew into fits of violence, once slicing off the top of his finger after throwing a vodka bottle at him.
He also alleged she used nail polish to pretend he broke her nose while repeatedly leaving him with cuts and bruises.
The actress is heard in one recording admitting she hit Depp, and there were photographs offered to support his claims that she was physically abusive.
Over four days of testimony on the stand which ended this week, he delivered his version of their short life together in a soft and often halting voice, as his ex-wife looked on with a stony demeanour.
Depp depicted himself as a confused, melancholy, peaceful soul who somehow stumbled into global fame and ungodly fortune, bringing with it untold demons of drink and drugs.
Not once did he hide that he was an utter train wreck of a human being.
Even the couples’ therapist,
Laurel Anderson, has described in the court the couple’s dynamic as “mutual abuse”.
How humiliating to have your therapist testify to the world what awful spouses you were?
When Heard takes the stand, we are almost guaranteed an equally dramatic performance providing her versions of events that will undoubtedly differ wildly from
Depp’s.
With the Oscars so bereft of outstanding acting performances in recent years, this pair would clean up if their televised courtroom drama was entered for best movie.
After all, it has all the makings of a Hollywood hit except for one thing - the absence of a single redeeming character.
DONALD Trump is being fined almost £8,000 a day after a judge found him in contempt of court.
This week, the former US president was hit with the penalty over failure to comply with a subpoena to hand over documents to investigators relating to his tax affairs inside his business empire.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron told him: “Mr Trump, I know you take your business seriously, and I take mine seriously.
“I hereby hold you in civil contempt and fine you $10,000 (£7,854) a day.”
Hasn’t Trump been contemptible his entire life?
This pair would clean up if their televised courtroom drama was entered for best movie