Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder will not appear in court, as previously planned, but the eighth day of Johnny Depp’s libel suit against The Sun has had plenty else going on, including the story of how an unhoused man retrieved Depp’s phone in exchange for tacos (among other things), and the revival of the dog-smuggling scandal that once put Depp at odds with the Australian government.
Of Paradis, Depp’s ex-partner of 14 years, and Ryder, his girlfriend of four years in the ’90s, Depp’s attorney David Sherborne told the court, per the Daily Mail, “There is no need to reschedule those witnesses, much as it would have been a pleasure to have them here.”
Both women had written statements of support for Depp, who is suing The Sun for calling him a “wife beater” following accusations of abuse from his ex-wife Amber Heard. “I cannot wrap my head around these accusations. He was never, never violent towards me. He was never, never abusive at all towards me. He has never been violent or abusive towards anybody I have seen,” Ryder wrote. “I do not want to call anyone a liar but from my experience of Johnny, it is impossible to believe that such horrific allegations are true. I find it extremely upsetting, knowing him as I do.”
Paradis also qualified Depp as “kind, attentive, generous, and non-violent person and father.”
“On movie sets the actors, directors, and entire crews adore him because he is humble and respectful to everyone, as well as being one of the best actors we’ve seen,” she wrote.
After the women had given the statements, but before the trial got going, a spokesperson for Heard said, “We are glad they did not have the same experience as Ms. Heard. However, one woman’s experience does not determine the experience of another woman.”
Other parts of the show did go on. The court heard from a security guard for the couple’s building. He told a strange story, as recounted by Page Six, of getting Depp’s phone back after Heard allegedly threw it, along with the wallet he kept it in, out the window the night of Heard’s 30th birthday party. (The party has emerged as a a peculiar and central focus in this case—it was also the night of the alleged bed shit and the day that Depp learned he was $750 million poorer than he thought.)
The guard, whose name is Starling Jenkins, said in a witness statement that he located the phone through the Find My iPhone app with Heard’s help, after she told him that she had thrown it out the window. An unhoused man said he had it. Jenkins wrote, “He returned the phone to me in exchange for the following: (1) US$425; (2) three chicken tacos; (3) two bags of chips; (4) two apples; and (5) four bottles of water.”
Jenkins said he drove Heard and some friends to Coachella the next day, and that she threw up in his car at least once. He got her crackers and ginger ale.
There was also a bit of back-and-forth over a photograph of Depp, in which he has a black eye. His bodyguard, Sean Bett, who’s worked for the actor for nine years and took to the stand on Depp’s behalf, said, according to the Daily Mail, that the injury was from the night of Heard’s 30th birthday party, where she “haymakered” him, allegedly. But The Sun’s representation, Sasha Wass, said that it was from a night in 2015 that the court has already heard about, in which Heard claims to have gotten violent toward Depp when she was afraid he was going to push her sister.