EXCLUSIVE: Amber Heard will now be the second witness for the defense as her team shifts tactics in the $50 million defamation trial with Johnny Depp.
The Aquaman star had be set as the opening witness in the defense case, as Deadline exclusively revealed last week. However, as is not unusual in such trials as this, events pushed a shift in approach. After the testimony of not board certified forensic psychologist Dr. Shannon Curry on behalf of Depp back on April 26, Heard’s Elaine Bredehoft and Ben Rottenborn-led legal team have decided to put clinical and forensic psychologist Dr. Dawn Hughes on the stand in Fairfax County, Virginia tomorrow.
Heard is now scheduled to follow Dr. Hughes’ testimony in the defense’s case this week, we heard. Reps for Heard had no comment on the schedule change when contacted by Deadline today.
Heard and Dr. Hughes’ respective testimony comes in what is now the fourth week of the five-week long trial that started on April 11. Stemming from Depp’s March 2019 lawsuit based on Heard’s late 2018 Washington Post op-ed about domestic violence, he much delayed proceedings in the Old Dominion will go dark next week as Judge Penny Azcarate has a previously arranged conference to attend
Hired by Depp and his attorneys after a meet and greet dinner at the former Pirates of the Caribbean star’s LA home , not board certified Dr. Curry told the court last week that in her opinion Heard has Borderline Personality Disorder and Histrionic Personality Disorder. That estimation is primarily based on a single 12 hour session between Dr. Curry and Heard late last year.
Pressed hard by Heard’s side, Dr Curry was relatively composed under cross examination. Still, Heard’s team made sure to emphasis that Dr. Curry’s Borderline Personality Disorder opinion is word-for-word the same as labels Depp has been heard slamming Heard with on audio tapes played for the jury and Judge Azcarate from arguments between the couple from several years .
Cited as an expert in “treating victims of intimate partner violence,” Dr. Hughes has made her own evaluation of Heard, we understand. On the stand after the Depp side end their part of the case, Dr. Hughes will offer insights on that evaluation to the court in what is expected to be clear contradiction to Dr. Curry’s opinion on the actress’ mental health.
The change in the witness schedule comes as Heard moved to this weekend to Shane Communications handle her media and PR needs out of the contentious trial. Replacing Precision Strategies, as was first reported in the New York Post yesterday, CEO David Shane comes to this litigation well versed in most things Depp. The well regarded flack worked with Depp’s ex-business managers The Management Group when the actor sued them in a $25 million fraud suit. That January 2017 initiated action ended suddenly in July 2018 with a confidential settlement mere weeks before it was set to go to trial.
Back in session this morning, the Fairfax County Courthouse heard from Depp’s former CAA agent and current talent manager Jack Whigham. Under questioning by Depp’s side via live video link, the suited and booted Whigham outlined for the court how Depp had a $22.5 million deal in place to appear in the as yet still unmade sixth Pirates film.
The figure and statement are particularly noteworthy as Depp is alleging that Heard’s op-ed “destroyed” his career and cost him well-paying roles.
Heard’s team have pressed to prove that Depp had already been side-lined from any more Pirates movies with Disney after his problematic behavior on 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales. They also confirmed with Depp himself during the actor’s testimony that he wouldn’t go back to the franchise even if Disney paid him “ $300 million” and more.
On Monday, now Range Media Partners exec Whigham said the $22.5 million payout deal for Depp on Pirates 6 had “closed” with the help of CAA overlord Bryan Lourd and others before Heard’s op-ed was published. Whigham went on to say that in early 2019, he learned that Disney “were going in a different direction” and would no longer be working with Depp on the not yet made film.
Previously Monday, as both Depp and Heard sat watching, the court heard from another Depp security guard.
Travis McGivern told the jury and others in attendance of an incident in March 2015 where Heard allegedly threw a Red Bull can at her then husband is a dispute at their DTLA residence. Acknowledging Depp’s frequent drug use a decade or so ago, McGivern remarkably stated that cocaine has an effect on Depp unlike almost anyone else in history. “It levels him out,” the security guard said. McGivern also told the court he had seen Heard “push” Depp, but not necessarily be physically abusive.
Still, in the employment of the Pirates actor, the bearded McGivern spoke to the Virginia court via a sometimes glitchy video link from LA. The remarks McGivern gave today are very similar to what he told a UK court back in 2020 during Depp’s unsuccessful libel suit against Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun tabloid for calling the actor a “wife-beater” in print.
The trial continues Monday with cross examination of Whigham.
