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Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's apology video mocked by Australian Deputy PM: 'Do it again Johnny, do it with gusto'

'I don't think he'll get an academy award for his performance,' says the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia

Maya Oppenheim
Tuesday 19 April 2016 11:08 BST
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Barnaby Joyce mocks Depp and Heard over apology video

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The Australian politician who threatened to kill Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s dogs has poked fun at the couple’s surreal official apology video.

Australia’s highest profile criminal quarantine case finally ground to a halt on Monday when Heard avoided conviction for smuggling their Yorkshire terriers Pistol and Boo into the country.

The 29-year-old actress pleaded guilty to making a false statement on her immigration card about the dogs and received a one month good behaviour bond. If she breaks the bond she will be ordered to pay A$1,000 (£540).

Barnaby Joyce, the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and the Agriculture minister, has since mocked the Hollywood couple’s somewhat bizarre apology video.

“I don't think he'll get an academy award for his performance... He looked like he was auditioning for The Godfather,” Joyce told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Joyce dominated headlines last year when he threatened to put down the pair’s dogs unless they “buggered off back to the United States”.

The couple’s sombre apology has been widely mocked on social media with numerous viewers likening it to a hostage video.

Joyce was far more effusive about the wide reach of the video, which has already amassed nearly two million hits since being posted to the Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources’ YouTube channel.

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard record apology for bringing dogs to Australia

“At the end of it we've got a message that is going all around the world right now, it's going off like a frog in a sock telling people that if you come into this nation and you don't obey our laws, you're in trouble,” added Joyce.

In a separate interview with Channel 7's Sunrise breakfast TV programme, Joyce continued to lampoon Depp.

“As far as me directing this atrocious movie, no, even I could have done a little better than that,” he continued. “Do it again Johnny, do it with gusto mate, a bit of gusto. Rise to the camera old trout”.

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