Angry Amber f ires her PR team ‘after weeks of bad publicity’
As 3m demand she is axed from Aquaman role...
AMBER Heard has fired her PR team and changed legal tactics as she tries to swing her $100million defamation fight with Johnny Depp in her favour.
She reportedly ditched crisis PR firm Precision Strategies ‘after getting sick of the bad headlines’ emanating from the televised trial, which has put all the bad blood between the warring former husband and wife on show.
Sources told the New York Post that the Hollywood actress had grown ‘frustrated with her story not being told effectively’.
Yesterday a petition calling for Ms Heard to be axed from the forthcoming sequel to the superhero film Aquaman reached three million signatures on Change.org, as fans came to Mr Depp’s defence after hearing his testimony.
Filmmakers DC and Warner Brothers have been urged to cut the actress from the film, also starring Nicole Kidman and Jason Momoa, which is due to be released next March.
Ms Heard is due to give her side this week when she steps in to the witness box. The mother of one was set to be the opening witness in her rebuttal to the Depp case but has now decided to put a clinical and forensic psychologist up first, the showbusiness website Deadline reported.
The ‘final straw’ for Ms Heard was reportedly Mr Depp’s forensic and clinical psychologist diagnosing her with two personality disorders in testimony last week.
Dr Shannon Curry told the court in Fairfax, Virginia, that, in her opinion, the actress had ‘borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder’, characterised by instability in relationships and being over-dramatic, manipulative and image-obsessed. Shortly afterwards Ms Heard fired Precision Strategies.
One of the other unflattering headlines came after a marriage counsellor said the couple engaged in ‘mutual abuse’ and that she hit him back. But Mr Depp has been forced to explain text messages with British actor Paul Bettany in which they joked about burning and drowning Ms Heard.
Mr Depp, 58, is suing her for $50million (€47million) over a 2018 article in the Washington Post in which she said she was a domestic violence survivor. He claims it cost him the role of Jack Sparrow in Pirates Of The Caribbean 6. Ms Heard, 35, countersued for $100million (€95million), claiming Mr Depp’s lawyers smeared her and also cost her Hollywood roles.
PR adviser Lis Smith said: ‘It’s crazy to change teams in the middle of a trial like this because you don’t like the headlines.’
She added that Precision Strategies was ‘one of the best crisis firms but they can’t rewrite the history of what’s happened’.
Ms Heard has hired Shane Communications. David Shane, who runs the firm, arrived with her for the trial yesterday. Mr Depp arrived in an SUV with Jimi Hendrix blaring from the stereo.
Yesterday Travis McGivern, one of Mr Depp’s security guards, testified about the blistering rows he saw between the couple.
Recounting one especially bad incident in March 2015, Mr McGivern said Ms Heard threw a Red Bull can at Mr Depp in their Los Angeles penthouse, hitting him on the back.
Mr Depp responded by throwing ‘every rack of clothing and shoes’ of hers down the stairs. Ms Heard then punched Mr Depp, giving him ‘a nice little shiner’.
‘Gave him a nice little shiner’