Courtroom Left In Stitches At Ex-Journalist's Response To Amber Heard’s Lawyer's Questioning
Morgan Tremaine worked as a field assignment manager for TMZ
The courtroom was left in stitches at a former TMZ journalist's response to a question from Amber Heard's lawyer. Watch below:
Depp, 58, is currently suing ex-wife Heard, 36, in a $50 million (£38.2 million) defamation lawsuit over abuse claims she made in a 2018 article in The Washington Post, despite not mentioning Depp by name in the op-ed.
Morgan Tremaine, who worked as a field assignment manager for TMZ, was called up by Depp's legal team to testify in court.
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The ex-journo claims he was tipped off for a photo opportunity when Heard had a bruise on her face that she alleged was caused by Depp.
Elaine Bredehoft, Heard's lawyer, questioned Tremaine's supposed motivation for his court appearance.
She asked: "So this gets you your 15 minutes of fame?"
Tremaine clapped back, with a somewhat sassy reply: "I have nothing to gain from this.
"I'm actually putting myself in the crosshairs of TMZ, which is a very litigious organisation.
"I'd say the same thing if you took Amber Heard on as a client."
As soon as he said that, the courtroom, although they low-key tried to keep their cool, found it very amusing.
The ex-reporter claims he was tipped-off to dispatch paparazzi to where Heard was set to appear for a deposition, while on 12 August 2016 he testified that TMZ received a 'video depicting Johnny Depp slamming some cabinets that was captured by Ms. Heard'.
"Do you typically send paparazzi to parking lots of law offices?" Depp's lawyer, Camille Vasquez, asked.
"No, not at all," Tremaine replied.
"Did you get the shot of Ms. Heard?" Vasquez asked, to which Tremaine replied: "We did."
"The video was sent in through our email tip line," he added, suggesting that TMZ owned copyright.
Vasquez then asked: "How does TMZ obtain copyright over images and videos?"
"The only way to obtain copyright over media would be if we shot it ourselves, if it was sent to the tip line and the source verified it was from the original copyright owner and then either purchased from that person or given to us and then the third option would be if it was directly given to us by the copyright holder like a direct source," Tremaine replied.
"It was much shorter than the video that's been played in this trial," he added.
"There was a bit at the beginning that was played here in which Ms. Heard is seemingly sort of setting up the camera and getting into position.
"And then, there's a bit at the end where she's seemingly snickering and looks at the camera. That part was not present in what we received."
Topics: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard
Anish Vij