Amber Heard (right) stepped into the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni fray after learning that the crisis control PR firm Baldoni had hired was the same one ex-husband Johnny Depp used during their 2022 defamation trial. Photos: AFP, TNS
Amber Heard stepped into the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni fray on Monday (Dec 23) after learning that the crisis control PR firm Baldoni had hired was the same one ex-husband Johnny Depp used during their 2022 defamation trial.
“Social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on,’ ” she told NBC News. “I saw this firsthand and up close. It’s as horrifying as it is destructive.”
Heard was vilified online during the bitter trial between her and ex Johnny Depp, and there are some suspicions that Saudi bots could have played a role, according to CBC News. While there is no indication Baldoni’s firm employed such measures, The New York Times on Saturday reported on apparent attempts to discredit Lively after she complained during the shoot about Baldoni’s behaviour.
Heard and Depp were embroiled in a bitter trial amid duelling defamation charges stemming from a 2018 Washington Post op-ed Heard penned saying she was a domestic abuse survivor. While she didn’t name Depp in the piece, he sued her for US$50mil in damages. Depp denied all allegations made by Heard during their trial, including one of sexual assault.
After months of contentious testimony, a seven-member jury found unanimously that Heard had libeled her ex and awarded him US$10mil in compensatory damages and US$5mil in punitive damages. Heard was awarded US$2mil in defamation damages for her countersuit. They settled the case in December of that year, with Heard paying US$1mil to Depp. He later said he planned to donate the money to charity.
Lively alluded to the firm’s clientele history in the complaint she filed Friday with the California Civil Rights Department accusing her It Ends With Us director and co-star of sexual harassment followed by a smear campaign. Baldoni’s attorneys and spokespeople have vehemently denied her allegations, calling them “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.”
The day after Lively filed her complaint, Baldoni’s talent agency, William Morris Endeavor (WME) dropped him.
In addition, author Colleen Hoover, whose novel of the same name is the basis for the movie, came out in support of Lively, as did the star’s sister, Robyn Lively. Soon afterward her Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants co-stars America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel and Amber Tamblyn shared a joint statement declaring they “stand in solidarity” with their friend of 20-plus years.
Since then, a slew of other Hollywood stars have cropped up in Lively’s corner, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Amy Schumer and director Paul Feig, according to Deadline. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
