FOG BLOG ENTERTAINMENT NEWS LOG: JOHNNY DEPP'S DEFAMATION TRIAL AGAINST WIFE GETS UGLY:

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard to Face Off in Defamation Trial........Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard: Defamation trial gets ugly, fast.......Johnny Depp and ex-wife Amber Heard arrived separately at the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia on Tuesday morning for Day 1 of their much-anticipated US$50-million defamation trial.

Though the actors and former spouses both wore suits, the energy around the courthouse was anything but subdued, as the fully televised court proceedings quickly became a media spectacle...The court hearing is the latest in a very public legal battle of the divorced couple, with both Heard, 35, and Depp, 58, claiming to be victims of domestic violence. The initial court case began when Depp filed a $50-million defamation lawsuit over a Washington Post op-ed penned by Heard in late 2018 about domestic abuse.

Heard did not mention Depp by name in the article, though in court documents he alleges his reputation and career were still “devastated” as a result.

Court proceedings began with opening statements from both actors’ lawyers, with Depp’s lawyer Benjamin Chew speaking first.

Chew told Judge Penney S. Azcarate and the seven-member jury (plus four alternates) that Heard’s claims of graphic domestic violence have painted the Pirates of the Caribbean actor as a “villain.”