Jennifer Aniston, as soon as considered one of Hollywood’s best-known #MeToo advocates, was amongst greater than 50 celebrities who “preferred” Johnny Depp’s celebratory Instagram submit Wednesday, expressing thanks that a civil jury discovered that his ex-wife, Amber Heard, libeled him when she printed an op-ed about being a sufferer of home violence.
Each the Every day Beast and BuzzFeed Information counted the “Pals” star amongst a rising checklist of celebrities whose “likes” confirmed obvious approval for Depp’s assertion and victory. Depp repeated the allegation that he made in the course of the seven-week trial — that he had been the sufferer of a girl’s false reviews of home and sexual violence.
Whereas the Every day Beast mentioned Aniston’s “like” was shocking, it seems to reveal Hollywood’s difficult response to Depp’s trial and victory. Maybe simply as “telling” is the silence coming from many different outstanding #MeToo supporters, leisure reporter Kyndall Cunningham wrote.
The jury in Fairfax County Virginia awarded Depp $15 million in compensatory and punitive damages for issues Heard mentioned about being an abuse sufferer in a 2018 Washington Publish op-ed. The sweeping victory for Depp’s defamation claims confirmed that the jury didn’t imagine Heard’s detailed, emotional accounts of abuse.
The jury, nevertheless, did agree with considered one of Heard’s claims — that Depp’s lawyer defamed her when he mentioned Heard and her buddies had perpetrated a “hoax” and staged a scene for police. The jury awarded her $2 million for damages to her popularity and profession, however no punitive damages.
The one notable #MeToo supporter to talk up within the wake of the decision was Kerry Washington. In a prolonged Instagram Story submit, the “Scandal” star declared: “The ‘Me Too’ motion isn’t useless, the system is useless.”
The #MeToo motion arose in late 2017, after bombshell allegations of sexual assault and harassment have been made in opposition to producer Harvey Weinstein.
Whereas Washington didn’t point out the names of both Depp or Heard in her submit, and didn’t straight point out the trial, she mentioned: “This is identical authorized system that y’all have been counting on for justice and accountability for many years to no avail. Whenever you get the decision you need, ‘the motion works’ — if you don’t, it’s useless.
“We constructed the nation’s first political agenda created solely by survivors,” Washington continued. “For the primary time since Anita Hill took the stand three many years in the past, we’ve had a sustained nationwide dialogue about, not simply sexual harassment, however the spectrum of sexual violence within the nation. The motion may be very a lot ALIVE. … It means one thing to tens of millions and tens of millions of oldsters. It means freedom. It means group. It means security. It means energy. … We're past the hashtag.”
In her op-ed, Heard recognized herself as “a public determine representing home abuse.” She additionally mentioned she felt “the total drive of our tradition’s wrath for girls who converse out.”
Heard actually was the item of on-line wrath every single day of the televised trial as tens of millions of Twitter, TikTok and Instagram posts shared gossip about Heard or known as her vicious names. The net abuse Heard endured made the silence from many Hollywood feminists “deafening,” Cunningham mentioned.
“The quantity of cruelty and ignorance displayed by Depp’s followers and supporters all through the proceedings spoke volumes concerning the state of #MeToo and our tradition’s restricted understanding of home abuse,” Cunningham mentioned. “However the silence that surrounded Heard, particularly from her personal business, teaches an equally invaluable lesson concerning the fickleness of celebrity-led social actions and sophistication solidarity among the many wealthy and well-known.”
On this context, Aniston’s obvious approval of Depp’s assertion is value contemplating. Hailey Bieber, LaKeith Stanfield, Zoe Saldana and others additionally gave a thumbs as much as Depp’s submit, So did Heard’s “Aquaman” co-star Jason Momoa, who additionally occurred to “like” what Heard wrote after the decision, BuzzFeed Information and the Every day Beast mentioned.
In her assertion, Heard, who has vowed to enchantment the jury’s verdict, mentioned it “units again the clocks to a time when a girl who spoke up and spoke out could possibly be publicly shames and humiliated. It units again the concept violence in opposition to girls is to be taken critically.”
Aniston hasn’t mentioned why she preferred Depp’s submit. Web page Six reported in early Could that Aniston started following Depp’s Instagram. Maybe, just like the jury in Fairfax County, Virginia and the tens of millions of Depp supporters all over the world, Aniston didn’t discover Heard’s testimony about bodily and sexual abuse credible. Maybe, she as an alternative accepted Depp’s claims that he was the abuse sufferer, or that she agreed with others who mentioned that Heard shouldn’t be held up as spokesperson for the trigger. It’s additionally attainable that Aniston is aware of Depp personally, or finds it onerous to imagine he could possibly be able to such violence.
In one other report, the Every day Beast acknowledged that some celebrities don’t run their very own social media. “Nonetheless, one does must marvel what would encourage an individual, at the moment of all days, to ‘like’ Johnny Depp,” the Every day Beast.
One purpose that Aniston’s approval could seem sudden is that she herself has lengthy been the goal of vicious on-line gossip and private assaults. Associated to #MeToo, Aniston additionally was a possible goal of Weinstein’s makes an attempt to bully and silence her when he believed she was about to talk out in opposition to him.
Within the days following revelations within the New York Instances and the New Yorker that Weinstein allegedly used his energy to sexually assault girls, the producer got here to imagine — incorrectly — that Aniston deliberate to publicly accuse him of groping her, the New York Instances reported. The producer fired off an e mail to his consultant, saying “Jennifer Aniston needs to be killed,” the New York Instances mentioned.
In the meantime, Aniston voiced her assist for the Time’s Up motion within the run-up to the 2018 Golden Globes. Like different proponents — together with Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey, Emma Stone, Laura Dern — she wore black in solidarity with the nonprofit group that was initially based to create a authorized fund for victims of office harassment.
The following 12 months, Aniston addressed the necessity for change in Hollywood’s “energy construction” in an interview to advertise her Apple TV+ collection “The Morning Present.”
The present’s first season instructed the story of a strong male information anchor who was accused of sexual harassment. The story clearly was impressed by the scandal involving “At this time” present anchor Matt Lauer, who was fired in 2017 after being accused by a number of NBC colleagues of sexual harassment.
Aniston spoke to The Guardian about how narcissistic males in Hollywood and different industries preserve getting away with abuse.
“There’s this absolute denial — ‘It was consensual, it was consensual’ — for those who’re a narcissist to the diploma lots of these guys are,” Aniston mentioned. “They suppose, after all, each lady desires to sleep with (them).”
The Every day Beast’s Cunningham mentioned that the one well-known girls who've straight provided public assist to Heard are “Uncut Gems” star Julia Fox, comic Kathy Griffin and veteran actor Ellen Barkin. The latter dated Depp within the Nineties testified on the trial about how he was a jealous, controlling man who was frequently drunk and medicines.
4 years in the past, many A-list actors, filmmakers and entertainers appeared snug speaking about the necessity to “imagine girls,” even when these girls have been making critical allegations in opposition to a few of the strongest males within the business.
Cunningham famous that Time’s Up has but to difficulty an announcement about Depp’s lawsuit, or to even condemn the web abuse directed her approach. With a long-beloved star akin to Depp defending himself in opposition to such allegations, and backed up by a fierce on-line military of supporters, it appears that evidently many in Hollywood choose to not have this dialog in any respect.