Text messages exchanged between Amber Heard and a person alleged to be Johnny Depp’s assistant, Stephen Deuters, were released by ET yesterday. Click here and scroll down to read them. Amber and Stephen are going back and forth about an incident that occurred during which Johnny supposedly kicked Amber. Stephen’s trying to convince her that Johnny feels terrible about what happened, is a “little lost boy” who needs help. You’ll note however that during one exchange, Amber tells Stephen that Johnny thinks “he doesn’t deserve this” and that Johnny had actually been sending Amber texts too, but the first couple of messages, it’s suggested, were denials of wrongdoing.
The messages seem to confirm Amber’s claims that Johnny’s been abusing her for years. But they also confirm that Johnny Depp is enabled. This is a grown man asking his assistant to plead with his then-girlfriend to forgive him and understand him…after making his assistant a witness to his violent behaviour. . It’s evidence that there’s an entire corporation that’s been set up to serve and protect Johnny Depp – lawyers, bodyguards, publicists, managers, all of them cleaning up his sh-t so that they can live off his talent. Which is why it doesn’t appear like anyone’s ever held him accountable. And when you’re not held accountable, why would you ever feel accountable?
“He doesn’t deserve this.”
Well, exactly. Classic celebrity entitlement. In its most minor, innocuous form, the celebrity refuses to do interviews, or gets pissy over a negative review. In its most dangerous form, the celebrity is allowed to continue indulging his most destructive impulses – see also Charlie Sheen – without consequence. So Doug Stanhope’s comparison of Johnny Depp to the emperor and his new clothes may have been apt, but the interpretation is all warped. Because in this telling of the story, maybe it’s Amber Heard who’s become the child calling out from the crowd, pointing out that the emperor is actually an abusive and unstable addict.
One more thing:
According to ET, these text messages, if legit, were exchanged almost exactly two years ago, May 2014. I went back through my archives for May 2014. And this is the post that came up for May 7, 2014. Johnny and Amber were at an event to honour Don Rickles. Look at this photo:
And what I wrote at the time:
“The smarmy expression on his face is giving me the skeeves. His left hand on her left arm is giving me the skeeves. The one arm around her shoulders is fine. It’s the double embrace, just the fingertips, that’s making me really uncomfortable. She doesn’t look all that comfortable either.”
