Legal
Johnny Depp’s Abuse Allegations Cost Actor Sixth ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ Film, Court Hears
May 27, 2016, was the day that Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s marriage went from private misery to public, career-killing spectacle. Heard, who had just filed for divorce, arrived at a Los Angeles courthouse that day to seek a temporary restraining order, showing up with a clear mark on her face, which she said Depp inflicted during a fight six days prior. Photographers captured the scene, and the allegations became tabloid fodder across the globe. Depp says he never hit her, and now he’s suing Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court. On Wednesday, jurors in the case heard from police officers who responded to the couple’s penthouse immediately after the fight. None of the officers saw the red mark that was so prominent six days later. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See ...
Johnny Depp Completes Four Days on Stand, Says Defamation Trial Is His ‘Fight Back’
Actor Johnny Depp concluded a grueling four days on the witness stand Monday, telling jurors in a calm voice that he filed his libel lawsuit against his ex-wife because it was his best chance to reclaim his reputation, just hours after they heard audio clips of him berating his wife with coarse vulgarities. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “It was the only time I was able to fight back and use my own voice,” Depp said of his decision to sue Amber Heard for a 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post in which she refers to herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” He continued to deny that he ever hit Heard, and accused her of hitting him and throwing items including paint cans and vodka bottles at him. And jurors heard an a...
Justin Bieber, Dan + Shay Accused of Stealing ‘10,000 Hours’ in New Lawsuit
Justin Bieber and Dan + Shay are facing a new copyright lawsuit that claims they copied large parts of their Grammy-winning country hit “10,000 Hours” from a decades-old song. In a complaint filed Thursday in Los Angeles federal court, a company called Melomega accused the stars of stealing the “core portion” of their hit song from a little-known 1980 song called “The First Time Baby Is A Holiday.” Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “Defendants’ theft is impudently bold,” lawyers for the company wrote, also naming Warner Music Group as a defendant. “One need only listen to ‘First Time’ and the infringing ‘10,000 Hours’ to discern the unmistakable similarities between the songs.” Melomega said their claims against Bieber and Dan + Shay had been cor...
Johnny Depp Testifies Ex- Amber Heard Attacked Him, He Never Hit Back
Actor Johnny Depp scoffed at the notion during court testimony Wednesday that his constant quarrels with ex-wife Amber Heard would ever prompt him to hit her, and insisted on cross-examination that her allegations devastated his career. “Violence isn’t necessary,” Depp said from the stand during his libel lawsuit against Heard, his second day of testimony. “Why would you hit someone to make them agree with you?” Heard has accused Depp of physically and sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions before and during their brief marriage. The former “Pirates of the Caribbean” star sued after Heard, who is also an actor, made an indirect reference to those accusations in an op-ed piece she wrote for The Washington Post. Depp addressed Heard’s accusations in detail Wednesday. Heard has said th...
Johnny Depp Takes The Stand In Defamation Trial, Says Amber Heard ‘Grossly Embellished’ Abuse Claims
Over the course of six years, Amber Heard has reiterated accusations that ex-husband Johnny Depp had an alcohol and substance abuse problem that led to him beating her in fits of rage and stupor. Depp, taking the stand for the first time on Tuesday in a U.S. trial on whether Heard’s accusations amounted to defamation, claimed that his ex-wife “grossly embellished” his “quote unquote substance abuse” and that there’ve been “no moments where I would’ve been considered out of control.” Depp continued: “A lot of it is just plainly false. I think that it was an easy target for her to hit because once you’ve trusted somebody for a certain amount of years and told them all the secrets of your life, that information can of course be used against you.” Eleven jurors considered Depp’s testimony on t...
Post Malone Is Headed To Trial. But Will It Be In Front Of Jury?
Post Malone is definitely heading to trial over accusations that he failed to credit one of the co-writers of “Circles.” What’s less certain is whether that trial will feature a jury. With the case now hurtling toward a trial date next month, the two sides are still battling over whether it should be decided by a judge or jury. Malone says there’s “no basis” to put the case before 12 of his peers, but attorneys for accuser Tyler Armes say the star is trying “deprive plaintiff of his Constitutional right to a jury trial.” “It is no surprise that defendants have failed to cite a single case in in support,” lawyers for Armes wrote Monday. “This is clearly because such cases are typically tried before a jury.” Armes, a Canadian producer and songwriter best-known for his work in the band Down w...
Lauryn Hill Champions California Bill to Limit Record Labels’ Power: ‘Greed Often Perverts’
Lauryn Hill has come out in support of a California bill that would prevent record labels from suing artists who leave their record contracts prematurely. On Thursday (April 14), the eight-time Grammy-winning singer/rapper made a public plea to members of the California State Assembly’s Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media to support the FAIR Act, also known as Assembly Bill 2926. Introduced by Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) in February, the bill would repeal a 1987 amendment to California’s “Seven-Year Statue” (a.k.a. California Labor Code Section 2855) that allows record labels to sue artists for damages if they leave after seven years but before delivering the required number of albums in their contract. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts an...
Justin Bieber’s Vocal Producer Sues Scooter Braun for Breach of Contract
Chris “Tek” O’Ryan, a music producer who specializes in tuning vocals so that they sound pristine on recordings and during performances, filed a lawsuit against Justin Bieber‘s manager Scooter Braun and the company JRC Entertainment on Thursday (April 7), alleging that Braun “reneged” on a deal to pay the producer for his work on Bieber’s tracks. O’Ryan claims that he was promised a point — 1% of the master recording revenue — on dozens of Bieber songs he helped produce starting in 2018. But in the filing in Los Angeles Superior Court, O’Ryan’s attorneys allege that Bieber’s representatives subsequently backed out of this agreement. As a result, the producer is suing Braun for breach of contract, promissory estoppel and intentional interference with contract. “Having now been effectively c...
Ed Sheeran Wins UK Copyright Case Over ‘Shape Of You’
Ed Sheeran has won a copyright battle in UK court over his chart-topping 2017 hit “Shape of You,” after a judge ruled Wednesday (April 6) that the star did not copy the song from a little-known track. The judge ruled that Sheeran’s mega hit, which spent 12 weeks atop the Hot 100, did not infringe a 2015 song called “Oh Why” released by an artist named Sami Chokri, who performs as Sami Switch, and music producer Ross O’Donoghue. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Sheeran quickly celebrated the ruling in a video posted to social media – and blasted what he called “baseless” lawsuits and the harm they’re doing to the music industry. “While we’re obviously happy with the result, I feel like claims like this are way too common now and have beco...
FAIR Act Bill to Repeal California’s ‘Seven-Year Statute’ Amendment Wins First Committee Vote
The Free Artists From Industry Restrictions (FAIR) Act passed out of the California State Assembly’s Labor & Employment Committee on Wednesday (March 30) after a 4-2 vote in favor of the legislation. The bill now moves to the Assembly’s Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media for an April 19 hearing and vote. Introduced by Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) in February, the FAIR Act — also known as Assembly Bill 2926 — would repeal a 1987 amendment to California’s “Seven-Year Statue” (a.k.a. California Labor Code Section 2855) that allows record labels to sue artists for damages if they leave after seven years but before delivering the required number of albums in their contract. The Seven-Year Statute, which limits personal services contracts for state ...
FAIR Act Bill to Repeal Amendment to ‘Seven-Year Statute’ Up for Vote in California Assembly
Artists and labels are headed for a face off Wednesday (March 30) in Sacramento as the California State Assembly holds the first hearing and vote on repealing an amendment to the state’s “Seven-Year Statute” following February’s re-introduction of the Free Artists From Industry Restrictions (FAIR) Act. Held by the Assembly’s Committee on Labor and Employment, sources from both sides expect the vote to pass. If it does, the bill would then move to the Assembly’s Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media for an April 19 hearing and vote. Assembly Bill 2926 builds on California Labor Code Section 2855. Enacted in 1944 after the judgment in actress Olivia de Havilland’s lawsuit against Warner Bros. Pictures, 2855 limits personal services contracts for state residents...
Kidd Creole’s Murder Trial Opens With Self-Defense Claim
The trial of rapper Kidd Creole has begun in New York City with his lawyer telling a jury it was self-defense when the hip-hop pioneer stabbed a homeless man to death in 2017. The artist, a founding member of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, is charged with murder and went on trial Friday (March 25) in a Manhattan criminal court. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Prosecutors said the rapper, whose real name is Nathaniel Glover, stabbed John Jolly twice in the chest with a steak knife after becoming enraged because he thought Jolly was gay and hitting on him. The stabbing happened as Glover was walking to his maintenance job in midtown Manhattan shortly before midnight on Aug. 1, 2017, and Jolly asked him “What’s up?” authorities said. “L...
