Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial: Actors banned from court photos as opening

Although the couple both live in California, the defamation case brought by Depp against his former wife is in Virginia, where the trial will play out at Fairfax County’s district courthouse.

Online editions of The Washington Post are published through servers located in Fairfax County, which is thought to be one of the reasons behind Depp’s lawyers deciding on the location.

Another is because of Virginia’s anti-Slapp law, which is not as broad as the one in California. The provision allows a person to claim protection from a lawsuit when speaking about issues of public concern.

Lawyers for Heard, who have filed a counter defamation claim, are expected to use the anti-Slapp law during the trial. It comes four years after her Washington Post article titled: I spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press

Depp and Heard will be prohibited from taking selfies with fans and signing autographs outside the court house in Fairfax, Virginia, following an order entered into the docket by the judge last month.

The $50m defamation case brought by Depp against his ex-wife, Heard, will fully get underway on Tuesday with opening statements made by both sides.

In the order on 29 March, the judge said “Litigants and their legal teams in this trial will not pose for pictures or sign autographs in the Courthouse or on Courthouse Grounds”.

The court attracted a group of supporters and fans of Depp and Heard on Monday when the jury was selected. Some fans were thought to have travelled for hours to be in Fairfax for the trial involing the actors.

The multi-million dollar trial involving Jophnny Depp and Amber Heard will get fully underway on Tuesday in Fairfax, Virginia, following the selection of jurors.

The 58-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean star was pictured outside the court house on Monday for the selection of the jury in his case against his 35-year-old ex-wife, Hearf.

The case centres on allegations of defamation following a 2018 article in The Washington Post in which she desctribed herself as a victim of domestic violence, but did not name her ex-husband, Depp.

On Tuesday, both sides will begin to set out their opening statements in the Fairfax County Circuit Court. The trial is expected to last for several weeks.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

Johnny Depp claimed “no one is safe from cancel culture” while accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award at Spain’s San Sebastian Film Festival in September last year.

At the time, Depp was responding to a question about Disney removing him from his career-defining franchise The Pirates of the Caribbean movies after allegations of abuse were leveled against him by ex-wife Amber Heard in 2018.

Four days after Heard’s The Washington Post op-ed, in which she alluded to physical and sexual abuse by the 58-year-old actor, Disney announced Depp would not be reprising his role as Captain Jack Sparrow.

Depp has sued Heard for a sum of “not more than $50m” claiming that the “categorically and demonstrably false” accusations of abuse in the opinion piece have impacted his Hollywood career adversely.

The actor, 58, was photographed outside Virginia’s Fairfax County Courthouse before trial for his defamation case against…