Did The Depp-Heard Trial "End #MeToo"?

The Guardian, for instance, raises that question:

When Hollywood star Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against Amber Heard ended in his favor on Wednesday, some observers worried that the verdict might have a chilling effect on the #MeToo movement.

The whole trial enexpectedly turned into a media event with manifold implcations -- Depp was revealed as a master of improv tongue in cheek on the witness stand, for instance. What a loss it's been not to have his talent available for the past half decade. As a personality, he simply outshone Heard, her attorneys, and her witnesses in a way that the worldwide audience found delicious. #MeToo was just an incidental casualty.

The main problem is that it was a Hollywood media event, certainly the equivalent of a blockbuster film, except that the Hollywood machine that might have created such an event in the past -- the Star Wars franchise, for instance -- was AWOL, clueless, not involved. It emerged spontaneous, unscheduled, without spin, without photo ops, without programmed PR in People magazine.

Isn't that the unintentional subtext of this tweet?

Far Left = Amber is a Liar.
Far Right = Amber is a Liar.
Vast Majority of Public = Amber is a Liar.

CNN/MSNBC/ABC/CBS/NBC = Believe Amber because she is a woman. Believe the lies.

This is the real story coming out of the Depp trial.

— Nate The Lawyer (@NatetheLawyer) June 4, 2022

I think the public didn't even know how badly it wanted a Captain Jack Sparrow back, but the character Depp played in the trial is also a cousin to Han Solo, and Amber Heard somehow turned out to be an anti-Prinicess Leia.

If you think about it, Princess Leia in the Star Wars franchise manifested classical virtues, prudence, temperance, justice, fortitude, and indeed even faith in the Force. Our image of Ukraine's President Zelensky in the popular imagination owes something to her implied leadership of the Rebel Alliance -- and let's not forget that Zelensky started out as an actor and comic.

What we saw in the Depp-Heard trial was Hollywood out of control, without producers, writers, flacks, and handlers who normally manipulate the public imagination. Amber Heard's character spontaneously emerged as a woman utterly without virtue, and the public loved it. Official Hollywood would never have allowed this. Woman must always be victim.

The public is generally aware that women tell lies, they cheat, they cover for each other, they're histrionic, vengeful, and vain. It's normally polite not to point this out. On the other hand, a pirate of the lovable sort can get away with this simply because he's a pirate.

When we all stop laughing sometime in coming days, we'll just go back to living out the normal pathology of everyday life, having been helped along by some unintentionally great entertainment.