Johnny Depp, Amber Heard's Supporters Battle Over Makeup Brand's Video

Fans of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard have been debating a makeup brand over the weekend, amid the former couple's court battle.

Depp, 58, has filed a $50 million lawsuit against Heard, 36, alleging that she defamed him in an op-ed published by The Washington Post in 2018, in which said she was a victim of domestic abuse.

While Heard didn't name Depp in the article, his lawyers have argued that it was obvious she was referring to the actor. Heard has countersued for $100 million for nuisance, with her attorneys arguing that the op-ed was a matter of public interest.

During recent opening statements in the Fairfax, Virginia, courthouse where the trial is taking place, one of Heard's lawyers, Elaine Bredehoft, said that the actress had used makeup to cover up bruises throughout her relationship with Depp.

"All kinds of people saw Amber that week, and she didn't have any bruises on her face. Well, let me show you this," said Bredehoft as she held a makeup palette aloft. "This is what Amber carried in her purse for the entire relationship with Johnny Depp.

"She's an actor. Do you honestly think she would have left her apartment ever without makeup? Do you think that she ever would have wanted other people to see her bruises and her cuts. This is what she used.

"She became very adept at it, and you're going to hear the testimony from Amber about how she had to mix the different colors for the different days of the bruises, as they developed in the different coloring, and how she would use these to touch those up to be able to cover those. She also used concealer foundation.

"You'll hear from her makeup person that Amber didn't even leave her bedroom without having foundation on. And one of the people that was at that building testified. He said she had makeup on and it would have covered that bruise."

In the days that followed the testimony, members of the public following the trial identified the product Bredehoft was holding as Milani Cosmetics' Conceal & Perfect All In One Correcting Kit. The brand was never specified by Bredehoft.

Late last week, Milani Cosmetics released a TikTok video in which it was pointed out that the particular product in question was not in circulation during Heard and Depp's relationship, which started in 2012 and ended in 2016.

"You asked us... let the record show that our Correcting Kit launched in 2017!" Milani's caption read on the video, for which a remix of The Backyardigans' "International Super Spy" served as the soundtrack.

"Take note: Alleged abuse was around 2014-2016, got divorced 2016, makeup palette release date: December 2017," read the text added to the video. The video has been viewed more than 4.6 million times.

"We are here to provide the facts of the case," the brand added in the comments, as a host of followers compared the video to Reese Witherspoon's hit Legally Blonde movies.

However, while Depp supporters reacted to the TikTok video as providing evidence of an inaccuracy, fans of Heard shared a link to a Glamour magazine article about concealers, which includes Milani Cosmetics' Conceal & Perfect All in One Correcting Kit.

The date on the article is June 3, 2016, which would indicate that the product would have been in circulation from 2016 and possibly before.

Countering this, another fan of Depp used the Wayback Machine—an internet archive that allows users to see pages how they were originally published—which showed that the original Glamour article did not include the Milani product.

As is customary with articles listing products in such a fashion, it would indicate via internet archives that the feature was later updated to include the palette. It should also be noted that such makeup palettes by other brands can be similar in appearance.

Newsweek has contacted representatives of Heard and Milani Cosmetics for comment.

The former couple's court battle comes less than two years after Depp lost a 2020 libel case against British tabloid The Sun, which had labeled the actor a "wife-beater" in reference to Heard's allegations of domestic abuse.

Heard accused Depp of domestic abuse during their divorce proceedings in 2016. The stars, who wed in 2015, had their union officially dissolved in January 2017, months after Heard filed for divorce.

While Depp had repeatedly denied ever having been violent to Heard during the three-week trial in London, the overseeing judge found that the U.K. publication's claims that the actor was abusive to Heard were "substantially true."

Amid the subsequent fallout, Depp was "asked to resign" from Fantastic Beasts 3, in which he was set to reprise his role as Gellert Grindelwald. He was replaced by Mads Mikkelsen.