A frenzied scene materializes 4 days every week on the Fairfax County Courthouse in Virginia as followers search seats on the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard.
The line to enter the courthouse begins earlier than dawn. Throughout the day, individuals seem carrying indicators, carrying fan merch and costumes, even strolling a pair of alpacas. Nearly all of them are there for Depp.
“We just want to support our captain,” mentioned Jack Baker, 20, who arrived Monday dressed like an additional in Pirates of the Caribbean to movie footage for his YouTube channel. “If he goes down with the ship, we’re going down with him.”
Maryam Alam, 29, and Alina Alam, 29, had hoped to get into the courthouse, however once they confirmed up at 7 a.m., they have been already too late. Both grew up watching Depp on display screen — enjoying such characters as Edward Scissorhands, Captain Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka — and have been anticipating the prospect to see him in individual.
Sisters Esther Gunn, left, and Margaret Gunn wait close to the safety entrance exterior the Fairfax County Historic Courthouse for an opportunity to see actor Johnny Depp’s arrival in Fairfax, Virginia, April 27, 2022. (Valerie Plesch/The New York Times)
“It’s fulfilling a childhood fantasy,” Maryam Alam mentioned. “It’s the reason why everyone else is here.”
High-profile celeb circumstances have drawn a large viewers ever since Court TV started broadcasting from courtrooms within the Nineties. But the trial of Depp and Heard has turn into a case research in what occurs when complicated claims are filtered via the lenses of stan tradition and social media.
In addition to the stay protection on TV, YouTube, and varied information and leisure web sites, numerous quick clips edited for optimum virality have circulated on Instagram and TikTok — “fancams,” in social media parlance, that includes forensic analyses of Depp’s and Heard’s trial apparel, and courtroom exchanges which have been described as “SAVAGE.”
Depp, 58, is suing Heard, 36, over an essay she revealed in The Washington Post in 2018 about sexual violence, by which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” Although Depp was not named within the article, he has argued that it clearly alluded to him, damaging his status and profession. (Heard filed for divorce in 2016 and, quickly after, for a restraining order towards Depp, which she was granted.) In his testimony, Depp denied ever hanging Heard and argued that she was the aggressor of their relationship. The jury is concurrently contemplating a defamation countersuit by Heard towards Depp.
Natasha Miller Miller drove from Reno, Nevada to attend the defamation trial between actor Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, his ex-wife. (Valerie Plesch/The New York Times)
Many of the accusations have been aired in 2020, throughout a libel case Depp introduced towards The Sun, a British newspaper that ran a headline referring to him as a “wife beater.” The choose dominated that the defendants had proven that what they revealed was “substantially true,” and Depp misplaced the case.
Although the jury in Virginia has been instructed to rigorously weigh the proof and attain a verdict solely after testimony is full (Heard has but to take the stand), and fan observers have been suggested to not react audibly or visibly to both get together within the courtroom, the remainder of the world is beneath no such obligation.
In a TikTok video captioned “AMBER HEARD CAUGHT LYING AGAIN,” Ethan Trace (2.8 million followers) gleefully recounts how Heard’s lawyer mentioned in courtroom that the actress used a make-up palette to cowl up bruises Depp gave her throughout their marriage. The lawyer held up a palette to bolster her level, and whereas she didn’t title the model, it was identifiable in images and video from the trial, and web sleuths shortly named the corporate, Milani Cosmetics.
Milani, the model, later launched a TikTok video that acknowledged the product Heard’s lawyer confirmed didn’t turn into out there till after the couple had separated. (“Milani Cosmetics is not taking a formal stance on the trial, evidence or future outcome of the case,” a spokesperson wrote in a press release.)
“Boom!” Trace says within the video. “Milani Cosmetics: We love you! Thank you for sharing this!” The video has greater than 16 million views.
In an e-mail, Trace mentioned he felt Depp had been handled unfairly by the media. “How could no one be talking about evidence that could possibly prove a man’s innocence after being labeled an ‘abuser’ in the eyes of the public?” he wrote.
From left, Ines Sorto-Rojas, Kailyn Diaz, and Anasofia Almanac present their help for actor Johnny Depp exterior the courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, April 25, 2022. (Valerie Plesch/The New York Times)
On April 13, shortly after testimony started, Gawker famous that the TikTok hashtag #justiceforjohnnydepp had acquired 1.1 billion views. In two weeks, that quantity has greater than quadrupled. As of this writing, #justiceforamberheard has 22 million views.
Heard’s supporters hope her testimony will shift the dialogue surrounding the trial. “Instead of looking at all these TikToks and everything, I think that people should actually follow the case,” mentioned Carmen Diamandis, 22.
“Stans will literally go to any extent to defend anyone,” he mentioned of Depp’s supporters, including: “Amber Heard, she has not got that fan base.”
Marianne Nafsu, 32, a true-crime content material creator from Detroit who has posted in regards to the case, mentioned: “I can’t wait to hear her side when she stands trial.” She added that “it’s only fair to listen to both sides and see: Where’s all this coming from?”
Asked for a touch upon the fan response, Heard’s attorneys offered her buddy Eve Barlow, a music journalist who has been tweeting in help of Heard.
“The social media landscape is shockingly brutal for Amber,” Barlow wrote in an e-mail, including that lots of the feedback on TikTok and Twitter mirror “misogynist hate.” Depp’s representatives didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Rachel Louise Snyder, writer of “No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us,” mentioned in an interview that Depp has sure benefits over Heard within the courtroom of public opinion.
“People will dispense with the same critical eye that they would give anybody else when it comes to someone who is really a beloved figure,” she mentioned. Snyder added that the case gives a possible counternarrative to widespread misconceptions of abuse: who can perpetuate it and who generally is a sufferer.
“We don’t think about victims as wealthy. We don’t think about victims as men. We don’t think about perpetrators as women,” she mentioned. “I’m not saying that she’s a perpetrator and he’s a victim. I’m just saying that we have an opportunity to look at our own myths and stereotypes around ‘Who’s the victim and who’s the perpetrator?’” (Abuse impacts 1 in 4 girls, based on the National Domestic Violence Hotline, and 1 in 7 males.)
On TikTok, a lot of Depp’s supporters have posted a couple of recording by which Heard says: “Tell the world, Johnny, tell them, ‘I, Johnny Depp, a man, am a victim too of domestic violence,’ ” and continues, “See how many people believe or side with you.”
Scout Robert, 24, was bowled over by Heard’s phrases. “When she said that, she made the statement to the world that as a man, you cannot be abused,” she mentioned in an interview. Robert, who has greater than 40,000 followers on TikTok, has posted quite a few movies on the platform, by which she has referred to as Heard a liar, abuser and hypocrite. Some have been seen lots of of hundreds of instances.
Robert mentioned she felt the #MeToo slogan “believe women” had turn into overused. Rather, she mentioned, individuals must “listen to women,” whereas acknowledging “that men can be victims of domestic abuse as well.”
Snyder, likewise, thinks the Depp trial might spur extra nuanced conversations about abuse and the way it doesn’t at all times fall inside neatly prescribed boundaries.
“Maybe he’s a victim; maybe he’s an abuser; maybe he’s a little bit of both,” she mentioned. “Same for her.”
Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial brings stan tradition into the courtroom
Source: Panapanahon News
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