Month: July 2022

Amber Heard is seeking a mistrial after a jury in Fairfax County, Va., ruled largely in favor of her ex-husband Johnny Depp during their highly publicized defamation trial.  According to redacted court documents published by Deadline, Heard’s attorneys requested that Judge Penney Azcarate throw out the $10.35 million verdict awarded to Depp over allegations that one of the jurors had not actually been summoned to participate in the trial.

The court documents were filed to supplement an earlier filing from June in which Heard’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft first claimed that Juror 15 was not the same person listed on the jury panel. Bredehoft alleged that the intended juror and the actual juror have the same last name and address but that the person who had been summoned to participate was born in 1945 and that the person who participated was born in 1970.  Bredhoft wrote in the document that a “mistrial should be declared and a new trial ordered,” arguing that Heard’s legal right to due process was compromised.

The 58-year-old Depp filed the $50 million lawsuit against his ex-wife Heard, 35, after she published a 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post claiming that she was a victim of domestic violence, though didn’t name him. Heard countersued Depp for $100 million.

Depp was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The court also awarded $2 million in compensatory damages to Heard for her counterclaim that she had been defamed by Depp’s attorney (who had referred to her allegations of domestic violence as a “hoax.”).

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Disney’s “Thor: Love and Thunder,” the fourth standalone Thor Marvel movie, won the weekend box office with $143 million in its opening weekend.  “Thor 4” had a bigger opening weekend than 2017’s “Thor: Ragnarok,” which opened to $123 million in North America. “Love and Thunder” also had the third-biggest opening weekend of the year behind “Jurassic World Dominion” ($145 million) and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” ($185 million). At the international box office, “Love and Thunder” opened ahead of expectations with $159 million from 47 markets, with $302 million in earnings globally.

“Thor: Ragnarok” filmmaker Taika Waititi returned to direct “Love and Thunder,” which follows Chris Hemsworth’s Thor as he teams up with his former beau Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who now wields her own hammer as the Mighty Thor.

Universal and Illumination’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” took 2nd place with $45.5 million in earnings, falling 57% from its opening weekend. At No. 3 was Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick”, brining in $15.5 million in its seventh weekend of release.  Director Baz Luhrmann’s musical biopic “Elvis” landed in fourth place with $11 million, and Universal’s “Jurassic World Dominion” took the fifth slot, earning $8.4 million in its fifth weekend on the big screen.

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Vernon Winfrey, father of Oprah Winfrey and a former member of the Nashville Metro Council, died late Friday at the age of 88, Oprah confirmed. Winfrey wrote on Instagram: “Yesterday with family surrounding his bedside, I had the sacred honor of witnessing the man responsible for my life, take his last breath. We could feel Peace enter the room at his passing.” 

The post was accompanied by a video of gospel singer Wintley Phipps serenading Vernon Winfrey at a “Vernon Winfrey Appreciation Celebration” Oprah organized in his Nashville back yard on July 4.  Oprah wrote: “Less than a week ago we honored my father in his own backyard. My friend and gospel singer Wintley Phipps saluted him with song. He FELT the love and reveled in it until he could no longer speak.”  A tribute post on Oprah Daily, Winfrey’s website, said the celebration had been a surprise for the older Winfrey, who was initially led to believe he was attending a Fourth of July barbecue.

Winfrey’s mother, Vernita Lee, died at the age of 83 in 2018.  Vernon Winfrey owned and operated Nashville’s Winfrey Barber & Beauty Shop for more than 50 years. Nashville Mayor John Cooper wrote on Twitter:  “I offer my deepest condolences to the family of Vernon Winfrey. Vernon served on Metro Council for 16 years and dedicated his life to entrepreneurship, barbering, and mentoring young men in the community. An Army veteran and deacon, he leaves behind a legacy of service.”

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Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer — known as the Duffer Brothers — are developing a new stage play based off their hit Netflix series. The play is one of several projects the Duffers confirmed they’re working on with their new company, Upside Down Pictures, which is part of their new deal with Netflix.  There are several projects in the works, including a Stranger Things spin-off series “based on an original idea by the Duffer Brothers” (no other details were given).

The only details released about the play were that it would be “set within the world and mythology of Stranger Things,” and that it will be co-produced and directed by film and theatrical director Stephen Daldry.

Stranger Things’ fourth season aired in two parts on Netflix, with the second half of the season dropping on July 1. At the time the fourth season was officially announced, the Duffer Brothers also confirmed that Season Five would be the show’s last.

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