[imagesource: Daily Mirror / Andy Stenning]
The ongoing libel trial involving Johnny Depp and Amber Heard is thankfully on a break until next Monday.
That means plenty of time for Depp’s legal team to prepare to cross-examine Heard, who spent the final days of last week on the stand telling her side of the story.
No, she did not hoover up cocaine while on the stand. You’re more intelligent than that.
Over in the UK, another celeb trial is grabbing headlines and it even comes with a catchy nickname – Wagatha Christie.
It involves Rebekah Vardy, the wife of former England and current Leicester City footballer Jamie Vardy, and Coleen Rooney, the wife of Wayne.
Vardy is on the left above, and Coleen is on the right.
The trial starts today. Let us rewind to where it all started with the help of the BBC:
The dispute all stems back to October 2019. Coleen Rooney believed someone was leaking information about her to The Sun newspaper and embarked on some online detective work to deduce who she thought was responsible.
Over a series of months, she wrote made-up tales on her Instagram stories on her personal account, restricted who could read them and waited to see if they would appear in The Sun. Sure enough they did…
Which led Coleen to draw a conclusion revealed in a suitably dramatic manner:
This has been a burden in my life for a few years now and finally I have got to the bottom of it…… pic.twitter.com/0YqJAoXuK1
— Coleen Rooney (@ColeenRoo) October 9, 2019
That final line – a finish on par with Wayne in his prime.
Rebekah immediately denied that she was the leak, called Coleen to protest her innocence, and took to social media herself:
View this post on Instagram
Coleen refused to issue a public apology or back down, so Rebekah decided to sue her for libel.
See, the link between this case and the Depp / Heard saga isn’t so tenuous.
There has already been plenty of drama pre-trial to keep the tabloids busy:
In a pre-trial hearing it emerged that Rebekah Vardy’s agent Caroline Watt had dropped her mobile phone in the North Sea, when the boat she was on hit a wave, just days after being ordered to hand it over for a forensic examination…
[Media lawyer Jonathan Coad] estimates that the legal costs for each side will be upwards of £1 million and that even the winner will only recover about 70% of their legal bill, leaving them with around £300,000 still to pay. If any damages are awarded, they are only likely to be in the £15,000 to £40,000 range.
Not exactly the $50 million claim and $100 million counterclaim we’re seeing in Depp versus Heard.
Both Jamie and Wayne have stayed relatively silent regarding their wives doing battle, although Jamie did ‘like’ his wife’s initial denial on Twitter.
Sky News reports that the trial, held at the High Court in London, is scheduled to last six days.
A judgment will then be released at a later date.
