A new social media campaign, the usage of the hashtag #CannesYouNot, emerged to criticise the Cannes Film Festival for allegedly “celebrating abusers for seventy six years.” The marketing campaign, initiated through supporters of Hollywood celebrity Amber Heard, coincided with the festival’s beginning and the choicest of her former husband, Johnny Depp’s state-of-the-art film, Jeanne du Barry.
Eve Barlow, a journalist and close friend of Heard, shared the hashtag on her social platforms, expressing her belief that Cannes takes delight in supporting rapists and abusers. Barlow’s publish featured pix of accused individuals who’ve been associated with the competition over time, such as Depp, Roman Polanski, Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen, Gerard Depardieu, and Luc Besson.
Supporters of the marketing campaign, lots of whom are survivors of sexual abuse, argue that the Depp vs Heard trial changed into disheartening and alarming, fuelling a backlash against the #MeToo motion. The protesters highlight the wider issue of the film enterprise sheltering and defending guys accused of abuse. While protests are banned for the duration of the competition, organisers pressure their potential to explicit their dissent online.They find it contradictory for Cannes, with its purported anti-discrimination and anti-abuse regulations, to open the festival with a movie featuring Depp. In response to the criticism, Cannes chief Thierry Fremaux brushed off allegations that the pageant helps abusers, mentioning that if it were a festival for rapists, the reporters in attendance could not be gift. “I don’t recognise approximately the photograph of Depp within the US,” he stated at the hole press convention. “To inform you the truth, in my life, I most effective have one rule, it’s the liberty of wondering, and the freedom of speech and appearing within a prison framework…If Depp were banned from performing in a film, or the film changed into banned, we wouldn’t be here talking approximately it.”
Fremaux also introduced that he did now not keep up with the trial. “I’m the ultimate person to have the ability to talk about all this,” he said. “If there’s one character on this global who didn’t locate the least interest on this very publicised trial, it’s me. I don’t know what it’s about. I additionally care about Depp as an actor.”
Despite Depp’s debatable reputation, his profession has currently visible a resurgence, such as his Cannes gold standard, the assertion of his directorial work starring Al Pacino, and a rewarding fragrance address Dior. The movie Jeanne du Barry, directed by using French filmmaker Maiwenn, also faced scrutiny due to the director’s admission of assaulting a journalist.
In a particularly contentious defamation trial in Virginia, actors Depp and Heard faced off as the jury added a mixed verdict. The jury discovered that Depp had been defamed in a 2018 op-ed by using Heard, which did not name the Pirates of the Caribbean big name, granting him a victory in his prolonged felony war over home abuse allegations. However, they also determined that one of the statements made through one in every of Depp’s attorneys turned into defamatory toward Heard.
Depp become awarded a total of $15 million within the verdict, which encompassed $5 million in punitive damages. Under Virginia law, the punitive damages were capped at $350,000. Additionally, they offered Heard $2 million in damages. The trial exposed the turbulent nature in their relationship, with each aspects accusing each different of home abuse.
In 2018, Depp filed a libel lawsuit against the government editor and publisher of The Sun, a British tabloid, over a piece of writing that mentioned him as a “spouse beater.” The case became delivered to the British courts, regarded for being more favourable to plaintiffs.
During the trial in London in 2020, The Sun had the weight of proving the truth in their announcement about Depp. Despite the adverse odds, the newspaper presented evidence, along with testimony from Heard detailing 14 times of alleged abuse by using Depp. The decide ultimately typical that Depp had positioned Heard in fear for her lifestyles. Consequently, Depp was requested to surrender from the Fantastic Beasts franchise.
It’s crucial to word that Depp’s lawsuit turned into in opposition to The Sun and now not Heard, so the verdict, if so, did not affect Depp’s ongoing fit in opposition to Heard.