‘Just burn it’: Amber Heard’s dress mocked after trolls spot wardrobe repeat

There was a pointed message in the dress Amber Heard wore to court yesterday – but some are now mocking the star for the symbolic move.

Eagle-eyed followers of the ongoing Amber Heard and Johnny Depp saga have spotted a striking similarity between Heard’s legal outfits.

She appears to have worn the same black “funeral dress” the day she filed a restraining order against Johnny Depp in 2016, as well as in 2020 when attending court in the UK against him. And she wore it again on Thursday when the defamation trial verdict was decided.

The jury awarded 58-year-old Depp $US10 million ($A14 million) in compensatory damages and $US5 million ($A7 million) in punitive damages. Virginia law states that punitive damages must be capped at $US350,000 ($A480,000), meaning Depp will actually receive a maximum total of $US10.35 million ($A14.24 million). Heard was awarded $US2 million ($A2.75 million) in compensatory damages and no punitive damages.

Stream more entertainment news live & on demand with Flash. 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer ends 31 October, 2022 >

Heard wore a simple black dress in court yesterday – and it’s one she appears to have worn before. Picture: Getty

On that day, Heard, 36, donned an all-black ensemble, but the dress seemed eerily familiar.

Back in March 2021, Heard posted snaps in the same dress – one in 2016 amid her divorce and another from 2020 leaving a UK courthouse – on Instagram with the caption, “One dress, four years apart. Sometimes it’s important to wear the same thing twice.”

So naturally, when Twitter users spotted the infamous frock yet again, they dug into Heard’s fashion choices.

“Sometimes it’s important to wear the same dress three times. The day you ruined his life, the day you agreed to lie in the court of law, the day you lost,” wrote one Twitter user.

“This manipulative show pony planned to use the verdict as a PR stunt when she put on her ‘Amish-dress’ for the third time all the PR in the world can’t fix her reputation now. We’ve all heard the audiotapes, they show the real Amber Heard,” one said.

“Not @realamberheard trying to do something by wearing the same ugly funeral dress? Ma’am, just burn it,” wrote a third.

Heard in court yesterday. Picture: AFP

“LOVE that Amber Heard wore the same black dress that she wore for the restraining order, the UK trial, and now the US one where she lost big time. I’m sure she was trying for some sort of ‘poetic justice’ moment summed up by a dress. But she lost and that was a total flop,” tweeted another.

Despite her loss to her ex-spouse, Heard is expected to appeal the amount she owes.

“No one will be writing any cheques until the case is finally resolved – whether it’s on appeal or motions for a new trial, but there is going to be more litigation before we know who’s getting paid what,” Halim Dhanidina, a former California judge and current criminal defence lawyer told The Post earlier.

Even Heard’s lawyer Elaine Bredehoft said on Todaythat “she has some excellent grounds” for appeal. On the show, she blamed “suppressed evidence” for Heard’s loss.

Depp outside court last week. Picture: Getty

“They were able to suppress the medical records, which were very, very significant because they showed a pattern going all the way back to 2012 of Amber reporting this to her therapist, for example,” she said. “We had a significant amount of texts, including from Mr Depp’s assistants, saying, ‘When I told him he kicked you, he cried, he is so sorry.’

That didn’t come in.”

In 2020, Depp sued The Sun for calling him a “wife beater” in a 2018 article, but the judge ruled in the tabloid’s favour in November 2020, saying Heard’s allegations were “substantially true”. Yet, this time around, it was a different story.

Heard was found liable for defamation on three counts, while Depp was only liable for one.

“This is a setback for women inside the courtroom and outside the courtroom,” Ms Bredehoft told CBS Mornings. “What this jury said is, if you don’t record it, it didn’t happen.”

While Heard was a no-show on-air, she gave a statement in the wake of the verdict.

“The disappointment I feel today is beyond words,” Heard wrote. “I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence and sway of my ex-husband.”

She claimed shows “publicly shamed” and “humiliated,” arguing she lost her right to “freedom of speech”.

On CBS Mornings, New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporting saw Harvey Weinstein eventually jailed, chimed in to the #MeToo conversation, as it relates to Heard.

“The way Amber Heard was attacked was, in one way, very familiar,” Kantor said. “There was a lot of misogyny that we’ve seen before. There was a kind of weaponisation of the reputational warfare online. There was almost this hate machine built against her.”

She said it’s a “scary prospect” for women who want to bring justice to their abusers, now fearing they would face a defamation lawsuit in return.

Even after the verdict was declared, Heard clearly still faces backlash from the trial in the form of social media trolls.

“I had never seen it at that level and directed at one woman at that intensity,” Kantor said.

This story originally appeared on Page Six and is republished here with permission