Why on earth is Johnny Depp on the Fenty Show?

A few months ago, actor Johnny Depp won a defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard on the grounds that a few lines in a comment she wrote — one that never mentioned him by name — ruined his career and his ruined reputation. To me, that claim felt tenuous, especially when juxtaposed with the throngs of fans screaming outside the courthouse and the legions screaming more online. And yet Depp has only become more visible since then. Before the trial was even complete, he was back on stage, enjoying a standing ovation in the UK. In August, he emerged in a space suit as the VMA moonman. And now he’s popping into Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty Vol. 4 runway show — a “star moment,” according to TMZ’s original report, which comes just under 20 minutes into the show. The camera cuts to Depp wearing a soul patch, a goatee and an open shirt over his mesh bodysuit. Unlike many of the other performers in the video, Depp doesn’t dance or actually do anything; He just walks across the clearing, mostly making eye contact while OutKast’s “So Fresh, So Clean” plays in the background. His 30 seconds end with the gentle snuggling of a tree.

It’s an odd vibe, but according to TMZ, “Rihanna and her team invited Johnny to be a part of it and both sides were super excited to make it happen.” I’m sure he is, but Rihanna? For real?

The Cut has reached out to Fenty representatives for comment and will update when we receive feedback. However, as Depp’s nightmare trial inevitably made clear, many, many people — famous and not — never bought Heard’s account of the relationship, even though it brought plenty of evidence to the table. The court reviewed cruel, violent text messages from Depp to his friends, in which he ranted about burning and raping Heard’s body. The jury saw photos of her bruises and heard from a witness who remembered having to cover them up; Other witnesses attested to Depp’s allegedly explosive temper, confirming the idea, previously put forward by several publications that Depp did not sue, that the actor’s drug use and “unprofessional conduct” helped weaken his career. Depp himself told the court how, after a blowout fight with Heard, he used the stump of his severed finger to scribble threatening “little memories of our past” on the walls in blood.

As I listened to all of this, and then saw celebrities post-trial post-trial celebrity Instagram post-trial, I wondered how so many people came to see Depp as the good guy. Weeks later, as I perused previously sealed court documents — which Depp’s fans paid to publish — I revisited the question. Across thousands of pages, the files show that Depp’s attorneys tried to use Heard’s file as evidence, a legal tactic that bears a close resemblance to revenge porn. They argued (successfully) against including lyrics in which Depp’s assistant acknowledged that his boss “kicked” Heard on a flight in 2014. Some of the information contained in the document cache (e.g. Depp’s lyrics) had already come to light in the course of his unsuccessful UK defamation lawsuit, but suffice it to say that the publication did not cast Depp in a positive light – not that it appears to have to be very important. While a handful of celebrities quietly rescinded their likes, attempts to rehabilitate Depp’s image continued, earning him a “cool and chic” (to quote TMZ) cameo in a marquee Rihanna production.

However, my central question remains the same. Whether or not you believe Heard’s version of events, there are certainly other artists out there who don’t write gruesome “jokes” to their friends about their ex-boyfriends drowning and burning. Why are so many people determined to bring this one back? Why Rihanna? Why this guy?

This article has been updated.