• Woody Allen breached his four-movie deal with Amazon by making statements about the #MeToo movement that damaged prospects for promoting his films, an Amazon lawyer said Friday. Attorney Robert Klieger told U.S. District Judge Denise Cote that the online giant protected itself after Allen made "public comments that at a minimum were insensitive to the #MeToo movement." The hearing was related to a lawsuit Allen filed in February. The lawsuit said Amazon ended his 2017 contract in June without ever releasing a completed film, A Rainy Day in New York. John Quinn, Allen's lawyer, told the judge that Seattle-based Amazon initially claimed it was ending the deal because of allegations made against Allen, not because of his recent statements, adding that the claims were well-known when Amazon signed its deal with Allen in August 2017. Allen's adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, said in 1992 that Allen molested her in an attic when she was 7. Allen has repeatedly denied it. In court papers, Amazon said Allen made a series of public comments "suggesting that he failed to grasp the gravity of the issues or the implications for his own career." They also noted that after Farrow recounted her memories of sexual abuse in January 2018, Allen publicly dismissed the statements in a newspaper article as "cynically using" #MeToo for attention. The effect of the comments means the pictures can no longer be made or promoted, Klieger said.
• Actress Amber Heard asked a judge to dismiss a defamation lawsuit her ex-husband Johnny Depp filed over an opinion piece about domestic violence she wrote in The Washington Post, and provided new evidence toward her allegations of abuse. In the motion filed in the Circuit Court of Fairfax, Va., Heard describes in new detail more than a dozen instances before and during their marriage when she says Depp slapped her, shoved her, pulled her hair or choked her. Depp has denied any such abuse. Depp's lawyer said Friday, as the original lawsuit did, that Heard's allegations are false and it was in fact she who was abusive to him. Depp attorney Adam Waldman said he and Depp have collected dozens of videos, photographs and eyewitness to back up assertions she was abusive toward Depp. The Post piece by Heard, published in December, does not mention Depp by name or describe any incidents, but it discusses the societal plight of those who speak up about domestic abuse. But Depp's lawsuit says it was clear Heard was talking about him, and that it worsened the damage the allegations had already done to his career.
A Section on 04/14/2019