Monica Lewinsky Says Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Trial Is 'Courtroom Porn' and 'We Are Guilty'

Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty; STEVE HELBER/POOL/AFP via Getty (2) From left: Monica Lewinsky, Amber Heard, Johnny Depp

Monica Lewinsky is giving her two cents on the "circus" surrounding the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

Before Wednesday's explosive verdict in the trial between Depp, 58, and Heard, 36, Lewinsky, 48, wrote in an opinion piece for Vanity Fair that the "legal spectacle would be sad enough if it just impacted the personal lives of Depp, Heard and their loved ones." (Depp won all three defamation counts in his case brought against Heard over her 2018 op-ed about coming forward with domestic abuse allegations. The jury awarded Depp with $15 million in damages but Heard will only have to pay $10.35 million due to Virginia law cap on punitive damages.)

"It would be sad enough even if we just considered how it has impacted domestic violence survivors or those who have sought strength in the #MeToo movement. However, it's the larger implications for our culture that concern me the most: the ways we have stoked the flames of misogyny and, separately, the celebrity circus," Lewinsky added in the piece, which was published Tuesday.

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She went on to say that the ease of ability to watch the trial, through streaming means, makes many "think, subconsciously, that we have a right to look and watch. To judge. To comment."

"And we end up with this confusing cultural crossover of watching two people (whom we are used to seeing as actors acting on a screen) in a setting — a courtroom — where we would normally expect them to be assuming their characters' roles," she continued, referring to the seemingly addictive nature of the trial as "courtroom porn" and drawing parallels to the soma drug in the classic dystopian social science fiction novel, Brave New World.

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getty (2) Johnny Depp; Amber Heard

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Lewinsky also hinted at her own past controversy (her mid-'90s affair with former President Bill Clinton, an era-defining political scandal that fueled his impeachment) in her essay — joking, "Google: 1998" — and mused that she "wasn't surprised that the memes" she saw about Heard "far outnumbered those about" Depp.

"I wasn't surprised that the cruel and vitriolic discourse was predominantly aimed at the woman," she added. "And I shouldn't have been surprised (but I was) that shortly after my search, I began to be served suggested posts on the trial."

"But they were less about Depp and Heard; more seemed to idolize Camille Vasquez (Depp's lawyer) for her 'performance' cross-examining Heard. (Oh, you thought we wouldn't have any girl-on-girl action in this trial? That's on Misogyny's greatest-hits album.)," Lewinsky wrote.

She also discussed the concept of entitlement when it comes to opinions about testimonies in the trial and how cruelty comes into play in the overall treatment of those involved, drawing comparisons to her own situation. Lewinsky said, "In the end, the ways we have contemptuously co-opted the trial for our own purposes are a sign of how many of us, the social-media-mongrelized, have continued to devalue our dignity and humanity. (Forgive me if I climb up on my high horse for a paragraph or two. Having been on the receiving end of this kind of cruelty, I can tell you the scars never fade.)"

Lewinsky ended her essay by opining that "We are drenched in the taint of the dirt and aggression of the social media wars. The obsessive chatter around the Depp–Heard trial is just one small example of the ever-expanding, ever-demanding search for schadenfreude and titillation," adding, "No matter whom the jury's verdict favors — be it defendant Heard or plaintiff Depp — we are guilty."

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Around lunchtime Wednesday, the seven-person jury reached a verdict in the explosive six-week trial after beginning deliberations Friday afternoon and resuming Tuesday morning after the Memorial Day holiday.

In regards to Heard's countersuit brought against Depp, he was found to have defamed her on one of three counts. He'll pay $2 million in damages.