Celebrity
Amber Heard Faces Career Ruin & Bankruptcy After Court Demands Her Pay $8,000,000 To Johnny Depp
It’s a “classic murder-suicide.”
The ‘Aquaman’ actress seems to be facing a crisis in her career, and ultimately, her financial situation after the Fairfax court declares that Amber Heard was proven to have defamed her ex-husband, Johnny Depp.
She’s set to pay off $8.35 million in damages to Depp. But the 36-year-old was said to be completely unable to pay off the amount.
She’s “pledged” the $7 million divorce settlement paid by Depp years ago, but Camille Vasquez grilled her after it was shown that she never donated them.
After the grueling six-week legal fight in the civil court, the wind is blowing in Depp’s favor with experts saying that it’ll be challenging for Heard to find a job anytime soon.
But paying in cash isn’t the only option for Heard and she has the next 30 years to think of the method. Attorney Sandra Spurgeon of Spurgeon Law Group shared that typically, one can try negotiating the amount with the receive, and in this case, with Depp himself.
She spoke with CBS, “For an individual who doesn’t have the ability to pay the judgment and no ability to post the bond, then there is a real issue if the winning party intends to execute the judgment.”
If that doesn’t work, she can try to appeal for the inability to pay, but despite that, it might just take too long that she might be forced to file for bankruptcy.
Her last, but not least option, is to garnish her future earnings to Depp until it’s all covered. CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson explained, “That’s not an unusual situation where somebody says, ‘I don’t have – I can’t fulfill this,’ and so I certainly think because she has earning potential part of her wages could be garnished as a result.”
Heard reportedly already had her screentime cut in the sequel to ‘Aquaman’ after previously revealing that she couldn’t renegotiate her offer for the hero flick.
British PR expert Mark Borkowski commented about her situation, “There is no way back for Heard in Hollywood. If you’re sitting there making a movie or thinking about casting it, are you going to hire her? Look at the huge outcry about ‘Aquaman 2.'”
Borkowski was referring to the petition on change.org demanding Heard to be removed from ‘Aquaman 2’ that has reached over 4.4 million signatures. He continued, “The trial pollutes any marketing or PR to launch a film.”
Another expert added that while they “will work again,” it will take a while before they’re considered “safe enough to bet on.”
He added, “The personal baggage that was revealed in this trial was just too icky for a studio to want to deal with.”
Reputation management consultant Alexandra Villa of In House PR said, “Amber’s career appears to be in crisis right now. What has happened will frighten the big Hollywood studios. Smaller productions too will be wary about investing money into Amber for any project.”
“In my opinion, at this moment, producers will have to consider carefully whether they will hire her as the momentum of public opinion has shifted against her. People forget Hollywood studios are businesses. They hire stars on whether they will bring in profits or not. She has a mountain to climb. Much of her testimony has holes in it and she may need to address those issues.”
And according to Spotted Media chief executive Janet Comenos, film producers are keeping their eyes on the two but it has been pretty favorable for Depp.
He said, “It has come up in several conversations of ours with producers; they are curious to understand if there’s a discrepancy between the actions taken by the studios and the public’s opinion.”
“I think the results show pretty clearly that Johnny Depp is extremely hireable and that it would be a risk to a production company to hire Amber Heard because of the precipitous drop in appeal that she has had since the beginning of the trial.”
Heard might have to sell her assets to pay off the debt, including “exclusive use and possession” of things she got from Depp.
They include this black Range Rover she drives that she had “exclusive use and possession” of after her divorce from Depp. She made several demands in order to support her lifestyle. Included under the same policy were also three LA penthouses that were under Depp’s ownership.
Depp has continued to make payments on the homes that Heard had possession of.
But a rather shocking revelation was how she got herself a $570,000 rural home in Yucca Valley, a quiet town located in California’s Mojave Desert.
She’s been residing in the six-acre estate in 2019 after paying $570,000. She had only paid $350,000 to the ACLU a far cry from her $3.5 million pledge to each ACLU and the Children’s Hospital.
An expert crisis management and communications expert from LA dubbed the trial as a “classic murder-suicide” for both parties. Eric Rose said, “From a reputation-management perspective, there can be no winners. They´ve bloodied each other up.”
“It becomes more difficult now for studios to hire either actor because you´re potentially alienating a large segment of your audience who may not like the fact that you have retained either Johnny or Amber for a specific project because feelings are so strong now.”
Heard dropped out of school at 17 and came from a modest income, Catholic family. She dropped out to chase after her acting career and started off as a model in New York. She then became an actor in LA.
Heard had not mentioned anything about a new partner, but she’s mentioned “special friend” Eve Barlow, the daughter of a Scottish GP.
Heard’s lawyer, Elaine Bredehoft, was asked if Heard would be able to cough up the money and she replied, “No, absolutely not.”
Heard, who’s set to pay over $8 million in damages, can and has already planned, to appeal the verdict. The decision was made by the jury, consisting of seven people from various backgrounds, after 13 hours of heavy deliberation.
In order to appeal, Heard must be able to prove that there were errors during the trial and post the bond of the full $10,350,000 with interest charges during the appeal. But that also means that she will need financial backing.
Depp was seen signing his statement after the verdict ruled in favor of him while he was away from the Fairfax court.
He was jamming with his band over in the UK and was later seen hanging out with musicians Jeff Beck and Sam Fender.
Depp later posted his statement after winning the verdict, thanking his supporters and family.
After losing, Heard cried out that this was a “setback for women” in hers, saying that her “mountain of evidence” was not enough.
