In the news
■ Amber Heard has hired a new legal team for an appeal of the $10.4 million defamation verdict awarded to ex-husband Johnny Depp, and will base the case on her free speech right to refer to herself as a victim of domestic abuse. Heard’s new team will be headed by Jay Ward Brown and David L. Axelrod (not the former Obama adviser), who recently successfully defended The NewYork Times against Sarah Palin’s claim of libel. In a statement, Brown and Axelrod said the Heard case has “important First Amendment implications for every American.” Depp sued Heard over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in which she referred to herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” Though she did not name Depp, the actor said the piece “devastated” his career.The trial devolved into a he said/ she said contest over which actor was more abusive to the other, and Heard’s lawyers did not make her right to write the column a central legal issue.
■ Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck planned to throw a three-day wedding celebration for friends and family this weekend at his Riceboro estate in Georgia, the New York Post reported.The couple, who married in a Las Vegas chapel in July and honeymooned in Paris, plan to have a rehearsal dinner, another wedding ceremony, and a barbecue over the three days. Affleck, 50, wants the focus of the festivities to be on Lopez, 53. “It’s going to be all about J.Lo,” a source told the Post.
■ Anne Heche made sevenTV and film projects that may be released posthumously, producers said this week. One of them, Girl in Room 13, in which Heche plays the mother of a teen girl who is sold into sex trafficking, will be aired on the Lifetime network in September. “I know that Anne really was passionate about this film,” said the director, Elisabeth Röhm. In another film, Wildfire:The Legend ofThe Cherokee Ghost Horse, Heche plays a rodeo trainer who helps a troubled young girl.That film will be released to theaters in November, TMZ.com reported, with an “In Memoriam” tribute to Heche as the film’s final shot.