A former TMZ producer has offered explosive new details about an embarrassing video of Johnny Depp, and it doesn’t look good for Amber Heard.
A surprise witness took the stand during the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard and hinted that the actress’ team was in charge of leaking an embarrassing video of the Pirates of the Caribbean star.
Former TMZ field producer Morgan Tremaine spoke in court on Wednesday, six days after contacting Depp’s lawyer.
She said she first worked on a task involving Heard on May 27, 2016, when she sent a photographer to capture her leaving a Los Angeles courthouse after obtaining a restraining order against Depp.
“His goal was to capture her coming out of court and then he would stop and turn to the camera and show the bruises on the right side of his face,” said Tremaine, who did not know who called. at the tip.
About three months later, TMZ received an email with a link to a video that Heard filmed of Depp violently hitting the kitchen cabinets.
The footage was previously played for the jurors, but the clip sent to TMZ was shorter and did not include the beginning showing Heard installing the camera or the ending showing her smiling, Tremaine told the jurors.
TMZ owns the copyright to the video. He said that TMZ obtains copyright if the video is sent to the information line of the original copyright owner, usually the person who recorded the footage.
If the images do not come from the original copyright holder, it will take some time to verify before TMZ can publish a story, he said.
“How long has it been since you received the video from the kitchen cupboard before it was released?” asked Depp’s lawyer, Camille Vasquez.
“About 15 minutes,” he replied.
Tremaine said she worked on other Heard stories, including sending photographers to capture her when she arrived at LAX or visiting her lawyer’s office.
Heard is being sued by Depp for $ 50 million ($ 67 million) to imply that he abused her in 2018. Washington Post op-ed. Although she did not name him, he claims his allegations are false and cost him lucrative roles in the movies.
Heard has opposed the lawsuit, claiming $ 100 million ($ 134 million) and alleging that she suffered “physical violence and rampant abuse” at her hands, but was defamed when it was alleged that she had fabricated the allegations.
The former TMZ employee wanted “15 minutes of fame,” Heart’s lawyer says
In an interrogation, Heard’s lawyer, Elaine Bredehoft, asked Tremaine if she had contacted the case to advertise it.
“Does that give you your 15 minutes of fame?” Bredehoft asked.
“I’m not going to win any of this. In fact, I’m targeting TMZ, a very controversial organization,” Tremaine said. “I could say the same about you taking Amber Heard as a customer.”
The text message reaches Depp
A text message sent between Johnny Depp and his assistant five years ago hooked him during his time in the stands as he continues his defamation suit against Amber Heard.
Today in the courtroom in Virginia, Heard’s lawyer, Ben Rottenborn, asked Depp while under interrogation if he had ever said “if you want to have sex with a woman, is that rightfully yours?”
Depp replied, “That’s ridiculous.”
Rottenborn pressed Depp. “You also said about the women you want to be with,‘ I need, I want, I take, ’right?” The lawyer asked.
Equally ridiculous, “Depp replied.” There’s not enough arrogance in me to say anything like that. “
Rottenborn then confronted Depp about a text exchange he allegedly had with his assistant on February 22, 2017. The messages were delivered by Depp’s legal team.
“Molly’s p ** y is VERY MINE !!!! Shouldn’t she come in and take off her hinges tonight?” says the text. “I want to change your understanding of what it’s like to be beaten like a begging Mackrel … I NEED. I WANT. I’M TAKING.”
Depp denied sending the messages and said someone else might have borrowed his phone and sent a text message to his assistant.
Depp admits there was a phone in the bar area during the Australian fight
In cross-examination, Depp also clashed with his testimony in the UK defamation trial against The sun newspaper to call him a women’s batsman.
They asked him if a “phone that was a wall-mounted phone that you grabbed in your right hand was hitting it repeatedly against the wall with your right hand?”
“That’s possible,” Depp replied. “I don’t think I spent much time on the phone. I remember pulling it off the wall.”
Amber Heard testified that Depp hit her fingertip while hitting a phone during a fight in Australia in 2015.
Depp’s lawyer, Camille Vasquez, suggested that the actress was lying on the phone mounted on the wall. It did not appear in any of the photos of the rented property and the property manager stated that he had not seen any.
This article originally appeared on Fox News and was reproduced with permission.