Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against Amber Heard took a new turn Wednesday when his former CAA agent, Christian Carino, told the court that the actor had become unemployable in Hollywood following Heard’s allegations of abuse.
Carino, a longtime agent who previously represented Depp, said he warned the actor’s handlers that his legal disputes were becoming a “distraction” for the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star’s career.
“People don’t want to hear that the people they look up to are in litigation,” Carino said in a videotaped deposition recorded on Jan. 19, 2021 as part of Depp’s $50 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife.
Seated in the Fairfax, Virginia, courtroom on Wednesday, Depp appeared to be paying close attention as the tape was played.
Carino noted that it wasn’t just Depp’s lawsuits with Heard, or the libel claim he filed against U.K. tabloid the Sun — and lost — over an article that called him a “wife beater,” but the breathless media coverage surrounding the various litigation.
“It’s about the coverage,” Carino explained.
The agent added that there was a layer of mystery surrounding Depp early on, but the legal disputes made the actor front page news and exposed his personal issues for the world to see.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Wrap