LOS ANGELES: Actress Amber Heard fired her PR crew and switched to a brand new agency after she reportedly grew to become annoyed following per week of ‘dangerous headlines’ through the defamation trial introduced by her ex-husband and actor Johnny Depp, a brand new report claimed.
According to dailymail.co.uk, Heard was being represented by Precision Strategies, which she all of a sudden ditched in favour of LA-based consulting agency Shane Communications. She made the transfer in obvious hopes that she may obtain extra beneficial protection this week – throughout which period she is anticipated to take to the stand and testify.
“She doesn’t like bad headlines,” an unnamed supply advised the New York Post, which first reported the information, studies dailymail.co.uk. Another supply advised the newspaper that Heard, 36, is “frustrated with her story not being told effectively.”
The A-list trial in Virginia, which began on April 11 and is ready to final one other three weeks, has to this point seen Depp, 58, declare he was the sufferer of home abuse throughout his 4 days of testimony – together with his bodyguard on Thursday even describing intimately the injuries on the actor’s face allegedly sustained throughout a confrontation with Heard.
The actor is suing Heard for $50 million, claiming she defamed him and ruined his profession after a 2018 Washington Post article by which she described herself as a ‘public determine representing home abuse’, with out naming her ex-husband.
Heard is counter-suing for $100 million, and after three weeks of sitting silently within the courtroom throughout Depp’s testimony, she is getting ready to begin her fightback, probably as quickly as Wednesday. The PR agency swap got here following a number of days of courtroom testimony from Depp witnesses that noticed the social-media mob all of a sudden flip towards Heard.
Heard’s credibility as a philanthropist additionally took a battering when it was claimed she had not donated her $3.5 million divorce settlement to charity, one thing she had promised publicly to do. She had apparently donated solely $1.3 million and far of that appeared to have come from her former boyfriend, billionaire Elon Musk.
According to Terence Dougherty, the chief working officer of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the recipient of Amber’s ‘largesse’ of $500,000, it got here from a Vanguard fund related to Musk.
Her contributions dried up by 2019, and Dougherty advised the courtroom the ACLU ‘discovered that she was having monetary difficulties’. Heard’s lawyer is arguing Depp abused her each bodily and sexually and she or he hopes to make her level as soon as she takes the stand early this week. Shane Communications is led by its CEO David Shane, who has briefed towards Depp up to now.
In 2017, the agency highlighted accusations made by Depp’s former enterprise managers, The Management Group, alleging that the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ star wanted to rent a shrink for his ‘compulsive spending’ behavior of spending $2 million per 30 days.
Depp then launched a $25 million lawsuit final month towards his enterprise managers, The Mandel Company, claiming ‘gross mismanagement’ of his affairs. One disaster communications professional advised the Post that they believed the brand new PR firm would have its work lower out in an effort to change the narrative.
“It’s crazy to change teams in the middle of a trial like this because you don’t like the headlines,” stated Lis Smith, a senior communications director for Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential marketing campaign.
“After years of narrative building, you can’t change the public’s opinion in the three weeks when someone is suing you in a case.” Heard by no means wished cameras to be allowed within the courtroom in any respect, however Depp’s crew pushed for it, and received. Depp has even accused his ex of defecating on their mattress in an act of aggression.
Testimony to this point has additionally included pictures of severed fingers, photos of feces, movies of explosive arguments and mood tantrums, and even a dialogue in regards to the Hollywood star’s penis. Depp denies the allegations of abuse noting how he introduced the lawsuit in an effort to clear his title.
Lawyers for Heard say such denials will not be credible as a result of the actor was too drunk and excessive to recollect what occurred. The trial within the Fairfax County Courthouse runs Monday to Thursday from 10 am to five pm, and is ready to conclude on May 19.