Amber slams Depp’s delay
Amber Heard claims in court papers that her exhusband, Johnny Depp, is trying to play a Virginia judge like a fiddle by claiming he can’t make a January trial date in his defamation suit against her because he’ll be filming “Fantastic Beasts III.’’
The actor has assumed the role of pampered Hollywood star by making “no effort whatsoever’’ to work his schedule around the court’s, Heard seethes in documents filed Saturday, according to the UK Sun.
“Mr. Depp decided that, rather than speak with his employer to work his film commitments around his trial, he asks this court to subserviently reschedule around his employment and the entire film schedule and production,’’ the actress’ lawyers claim.
The Virginia documents were filed in response to Depp’s recent request to have his $50 million case against Heard delayed until later in 2021.
Depp is suing Heard over an op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post about being a victim of domestic abuse. She didn’t name Depp as her abuser, but she has repeatedly publicly alleged he attacked her before and during their marriage.
Depp brought a similar case involving the actress in Britain over a Sun headline calling him a “wife beater,” insisting that he has never attacked Heard. A judge could rule in that case as early as this month.
The “Pirates of the Caribbean’’
star had argued in court papers in the Virginia case that the coronavirus pushed back the shooting on the latest installment of J.K. Rowling’s “Fantastic Beasts’’ franchise, creating an “irreconcilable conflict’’ for him with the trial.
But Heard’s camp fired back in the court papers cited by The Sun: “Although Mr. Depp had been contacted in late June or July with the proposed filming dates, he did not alert [those in charge of the movie] to the trial dates.’’
The actress added that she is set to start filming “Aquaman 2’’ in February, and that if the judge agreed with Depp’s request for a delay, it would adversely affect her.
Granting Depp’s request also would pave the way for a “slippery slope’’ of delays, her camp argued.
Heard filed a $100 million countersuit against Depp last month, seeking to toss what she called his “frivolous lawsuit.”