After over 100 hours of testimony across six weeks of Johnny Depp’s $50 million defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard, the jurors have finished hearing evidence as of Thursday. But in these final days in court, there were certainly more viral moments, including Amber Heard’s lawyer Elaine Bredehoft being struck with a sick burn by a witness while questioning him at the stand. Johnny Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez had a memorable reaction as well.
Former TMZ employee Morgan Tremaine took the stand on Wednesday to share his interactions with the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp relationship back in 2016. While he was testifying, Elaine Bredehoft alleged that he was trying to get his “15 minutes of fame,” leading to a spitfire moment in court. Check it out, per Law & Crime Network:
#AmberHeard’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft alleged that a former #TMZ employee is trying to get his 15 minutes of fame by testifying. “I could say the same thing by taking Amber Heard as a client, for you,” he said. @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/0brhqHzRBOMay 25, 2022
Tremaine shared that he stood to “gain nothing” from taking the stand and argued that he was putting himself in the “target” of TMZ, which actually objected to their former employee testifying prior to the judge ruling against the organization. He said he was not seeking any 15 minutes, but she was “welcome to speculate.” The burn occurred directly after that when Tremaine said he “could say the same taking Amber Heard as a client.”
Elaine Bredehoft fired back, saying he was “a little argumentative” before he shot back saying he found his own claims to be “purely logical.” The former TMZ employee was on the stand to discuss an assignment relating to Amber Heard back in 2016 when she was filing a restraining order against Depp. In the video, you can see Camille Vasquez sitting down on the right who holds back a laugh while Bredehoft and Tremaine had their viral back and forth.
Tremaine claimed that they dispatched cameras to a downtown Los Angeles courthouse, which “very often” come from sources such as publicists, managers, agents, lawyers and celebrities themselves, via Newsweek. He said the goal was to capture Heard as she was leaving, along with catching her as she was going to “stop and turn towards the camera to display the bruise on the right side of her face.”
The witness also referenced a video of Johnny Depp slamming kitchen cabinets, which had been shown multiple times in court over the years. He claimed that TMZ received the video via their email tip line, which the outlet was able to verify and publish within 15 minutes of it being sent out. Tremaine also shared that videos only can be published if they were shot by TMZ, source-verified by the original copyright owner or obtained directly from the source.
There were tons of viral moments during the six-week trial, including Johnny Depp’s reaction to an expert witness talking about Willy Wonka and another one where a Disney executive was asked about Pirates of the Caribbean. We’ll look forward to reporting more about the developments of the case alongside coverage about upcoming 2022 movies.