14 DAY TRIAL // Last month, Johnny Depp and wife Amber Heard flew into Australia, where he’s shooting the fifth “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, “Dead Men Tell No Tales,” bringing his 2 Yorkshire Terriers on board their private jet. They didn’t declare the dogs and, as such, they avoided quarantine, which started the DogGate scandal with the country’s Agriculture Minister.
For breaking the quarantine law, Barnaby Joyce issued a stern warning to Depp: come get your dogs or they will be put down, no questions asked. The actor was given 50 hours to comply. At the time this happened, he was on a break from shooting and had left the country.
Amber Heard says Joyce is attention-hungry
Depp eventually sent his private jet to take the dogs, Pistol and Boo, out of Australia and thus escape certain death. That still didn’t satisfy Joyce, who pledged the actor would have to answer for his crime in the court of law: the quarantine law was standing for a reason, and breaking it had to entail some sort of punishment.
Last time we talked about this, Joyce was gunning for a hefty fine and serious jail time for Depp. It’s likely he will get off with a slap on the wrist, if that.
Even though a law was broken, Amber thinks Joyce’s reaction was disproportionate to the severity of the crime. If she were honest, she’d say that he only picked on Depp because he’s an A-lister and the boost in media attention helped him (Barnaby) extend his 15 minutes in the spotlight.
People who are this attention-hungry make her not want to visit Australia ever again.
The comment was made (in a slightly different wording) in an interview with Australia’s Sunrise, as the video below will confirm. Amber is promoting her role in “Magic Mike XXL,” the sequel to “Magic Mike” scheduled for theatrical release at the beginning of next month.
The law is the law
“I have a feeling we're going to avoid the land Down Under from now on, just as much as we can, thanks to certain politicians there,” Amber says with a smile. “I guess everyone tries to go for their 15 minutes [of fame], including some government officials.”
The way she puts it, Joyce caused a storm in a teacup because he knew he’d get more media attention on himself, not because he really believed Depp’s crime had been this severe.
However, as the two Sunrise co-hosts remark after her video is shown, they did break the law - and knowingly so. Isn’t it a bit disrespectful for her to appear on TV now claiming they’re being made into targets because they’re famous?
Is the law the law, or are Hollywood types above it? That’s today’s million-dollar question.