Another (Equally Inevitable) Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Trial Piece

Not long ago I remarked the way the '90s seemed packed with tabloidish media events that (supposedly) transfixed the nation (when in fact boring and annoying much of it), and thought that these days we had moved past such nonsense--not because the public had more intelligent or the media more responsible, but as a result of sheer fragmentation. There is simply so much going on that you can miss it--especially if you would prefer to miss it.

The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial has persuaded me that I was wrong.

Of course, there are times when I am happy to be proven wrong.

This is not one of them.

Still, it is the case that this is an unusual spectacle, which leads me to ask: What makes this one so different from so many prior celebrity trials?

I can think of some possible factors.

One is the particularly high stature--and "glamour"--of the figures involved. There has undeniably been enormous regard out there for Depp, even before The Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) made him one of the biggest stars in the world. Heard has her own portion of A-lister fame, as an Atlantean Princess in the Justice League franchise, no less. Meanwhile even the minor figures in the drama are quite capable of commanding considerable attention in their own right, even while doing nothing really newsworthy at all. (Heard--allegedly while "on the rebound"--was with that exceedingly tiresome figure the media insists not only on deifying but compelling everyone to worship as well. I'm sure you know the one.)

There is the sensationalism of the details, many of which are so distasteful that I will neither cite them nor link to pages that do cite them (those who are really interested can easily find them elsewhere)--details perhaps particularly intriguing to the kind of person who is fascinated by stories of beautiful people (again, an Atlantean Princess!) doing ugly things.

And, of course, as with so many of the high-profile '90s affairs there is the identity politics element, after a quarter of a century of its near-constant escalation, exemplified by the #MeToo movement, for which the mainstream media has made this out to be some sort of defining moment. I'm doubtful that the course of a movement like that can really be altered so much by a single trial. But the thought that it could does make its contribution to keeping the web churning with this stuff--and helping line the pockets of those who find this kind of show profitable.