Anna Good
A former TMZ journalist took to the stand this week and offered up a sharp retort to Amber Heard’s lawyer, Elaine Bredehoft, when she accused him of testifying for his “15 minutes of fame.”
Bredehoft has been constant, noticable mistakes throughout the last six weeks of the widely-televised defamation trial between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp.
The ex-TMZ journalist, Morgan Tremaine, had a difficult time getting onto the witness stand, as his old employer did everything in their power to stop Johnny Depp’s legal team from bringing him forward.
TMZ tried to invoke the first amendment of the United States constitution, specifically the Freedom of Assembly and Petition, however, the judge granted Tremaine permission to testify since this is a civil trial, not a criminal one.
In Tremaine’s testimony, he discussed how TMZ received its tips on news connected to Amber Heard.
At one point in the journalist’s testimony, Bredehoft accused him of only testifying because “this gets you your 15 minutes of fame.”
Tremaine was quick to snap back, “I stand to gain nothing from this. I’m actually putting myself kind of in the target of TMZ, a very litigious organization, and I’m not seeking any 15 minutes here. Though, you’re welcome to speculate.”
“I can say the same thing by taking Amber Heard as a client for you,” he clapped back at the lawyer.
Reactions to his statement in the public gallery were hilarious, and even Depp’s legal team couldn’t help but chuckle. On Twitter, reactions to the burn were equally hilarious.
Later on in his testimony, Tremaine brought out how TMZ knew Heard would be at the Los Angeles courthouse filing the restraining order against Depp, as well as which side of her face the alleged bruise was on.
The point that Depp’s legal team honed in on, however, was how Tremaine’s former employer gained possession of a video in which Depp was shown breaking kitchen cabinets. It is a recording that was filmed on Heard’s laptop.
Tremaine revealed to the court that TMZ received the video footage through a tip line, and that it took only 15 minutes for the company to verify the video and obtain the copyright to it.
He went on to testify that the only way things happen that quickly is when they receive footage directly from the source — or, as the former TMZ journalist called them, “B-list celebrities.”
He added that in those instances, there are often publicists and lawyers from the celebrity involved in sending in the videos, so no matter what, the person in question would know, which seems to be the case since the video was taken directly off of Heard’s laptop.