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The Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard defamation trial is set to come to a close, with the world waiting to learn the final verdict from the jury. Closing arguments from both Depp and Heard’s legal teams concluded on Friday, May 27, and deliberations were handed over to the jurors.
Amid the ongoing jury deliberations, American activist and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky weighed in on the high-profile case in an op-ed published by Vanity Fair. In her personal verdict of the defamation case, Lewinsky declared everyone “guilty” and called the trial “courtroom p*rn.”
The article went viral online and left the internet divided. While some supported Lewinsky for her take on the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard trial, others called out the activist for her opinion.
Looking into Monica Lewinsky’s op-ed on the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard defamation trial
On Tuesday, May 31, Monica Lewinsky published an op-ed in Vanity Fair to share her own “verdict” on the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard defamation trial. She began her article by describing the trial as a “guilty fascination” and mentioned that people these days often consume such content in “bits and bytes” through what they read or watch or “media-graze.”
Lewinsky said she could not personally watch the trial in its entirety, fearing that the viewing process might be “triggering” due to her own experience with public image and media storms. The activist also dropped a reference to 1998, the year her private affair with former U.S. President Bill Clinton came to light and led to a major controversy.
The former White House intern noted that the consumption of news and gossip has completely changed from the days of Adolf Eichmann's first televised trial in 1961 to the inception of Court TV in the 1990s, which aired The People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson trial.
She claimed that instead of watching real-time coverage, people watched the Depp vs. Heard trial through "sampled mediated accounts" available in the form of memes, video clips, and TikTok clips on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook:
“Our consumption, therefore, has tended to be biased, curated, and cursory.”
Lewinsky alleged that the new form of consumption has replaced "critical thinking" with "cheap thrills":
“Such scattershot consumption hasn’t allowed for real comprehension. Instead, we experience only apprehension, knee-jerk outrage, and titillation.”
She also said that the easy availability of the onscreen trial has enabled people to “look, watch, judge and comment” on the case:
“We end up with this confusing cultural crossover of watching two people (whom we are used to seeing as actors acting on a screen) in a setting—a courtroom—where we would normally expect them to be assuming their characters’ roles.”
Monica Lewinsky further dubbed the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard trial as “courtroom p*rn” and said that she was not surprised that Heard became the main subject of constant hatred and meme culture amid the legal battle:
“I wasn’t surprised that the memes about Amber Heard far outnumbered those about Johnny Depp. I wasn’t surprised that the cruel and vitriolic discourse was predominantly aimed at the woman.”
She also noted that she received more “suggested post[s]” about Johnny Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez and her “performance” in the cross-examination rather than the stars involved in the case when scrolling online.
Lewinsky also expressed her concern about the impact of the trial on the cultural sphere as a whole, beyond Depp, Heard, their loved ones and even survivors of domestic abuse:
“It’s the larger implications for our culture that concern me the most: the ways we have stoked the flames of misogyny and, separately, the celebrity circus.”
She further mentioned that the trial resulted in a “cultural collateral damage” and allowed people to co-opt the trial for their own purposes:
“In the end, the ways we have contemptuously co-opted the trial for our own purposes are a sign of how many of us, the social-media-mongrelized, have continued to devalue our dignity and humanity.”
Monica Lewinsky summed up her personal verdict in the title of her op-ed, claiming that “we are all guilty” in Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s personal legal battle.
Twitter reacts to Monica Lewinsky’s op-ed on Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard trial
The Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard defamation trial garnered major social media attention ever since it began at the Fairfax County court on April 11, 2022. Every member of Depp and Heard’s legal teams, witnesses and others involved in the trial have also faced major online scrutiny.
As Monica Lewinsky published her own verdict on the ongoing case in a Vanity Fair op-ed, several people took to Twitter to share their reactions to her opinion:
As reactions continue to pour in online, it remains to be seen if Lewinsky will react to the conflicting response to her verdict. Meanwhile, Johnny Depp, Amber Heard and their respective legal teams are currently waiting for the actual verdict on the case while the jury is deliberating in court for a third day.
