Jack Whigham

“we finished the deal, and we closed the deal at 22 1/2 million for that film is my memory.”

Whigham's direct assertion that a Pirates 6 deal was completed, the most contested factual claim in his testimony and a predicate to Depp's lost-earnings damages.

“with respect to Johnny, it was catastrophic because it was coming from, you know, a first-person account. It was not from a journalist. It was not from someone observing. It was from someone saying, "This happened to me."”

Whigham distinguishes the op-ed from prior press coverage and explains why it was uniquely damaging to Depp's career from an agent's perspective.

“The financing became shaky. The budget had to come down. Johnny's fee came down in order to save the movie.”

Concrete account of Minamata's post-op-ed financial instability, illustrating the op-ed's immediate downstream effect on an in-progress production.

“After the op-ed, it was impossible to get him a studio film, which is what we normally would have been focused on in that time period.”

Direct testimony linking the op-ed to Depp's studio-film exclusion, the core of the financial damages narrative.

“It would be fair to say that I have not seen a document on Pirates.”

The core admission of the cross: Whigham could not produce or recall any written confirmation of the Pirates 6 deal he described as 'closed' on direct.

“I have not seen 22.5 million written on a page; you're correct about that.”

Whigham conceded the specific dollar figure from direct—the claimed deal value—was never documented in any form he had seen.

“My testimony is that it reads like a victim statement from someone involved and the recipient, and it became a, yes, a bit of a death knell, catastrophic thing for Mr. Depp in the Hollywood community.”

Whigham restated the op-ed's impact framing on cross, which Bredehoft then used to contrast with pre-existing UK press damage.

“Since July 2020, he has not done a film.”

Bredehoft's closing line of questioning: Whigham confirmed the career gap, which she tied to the July 2020 UK trial rather than solely to the December 2018 op-ed.

“Often on a franchise movie, when you're dealing with big stars and you're talking about future optional pictures, you engage at the high level, meaning the president or the top of the studio, to get an understanding of what that deal is going to be.”

Explains industry norms for franchise deal-making to counter the implication that no written contract meant no real deal.

“it was trending badly in the late fall on behalf of Disney, but I was - but Jerry Bruckheimer and I were lobbying to make it happen. And so we had hoped, and it became clear to me in early 2019 that it was over.”

Establishes that the final decision to drop Depp came in early 2019, after the op-ed, supporting the causation theory.