James Franco subpoenaed in Johnny Depp's $50 million lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard
Depp's legal team has said the Pineapple Express actor could prove their claim that Heard ‘painted on bruises’
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Your support makes all the difference.James Franco has been subpoenaed to give evidence in Johnny Depp’s $50 million defamation suit against his former wife Amber Heard, after surveillance footage emerged that Depp’s legal team claim could shine light on Heard’s abuse allegations.
Speaking to The Blast, Depp’s attorney Adam Waldman said that he is eager to speak to Franco as he shared an apartment building with Depp and Heard at the same time in which Heard alleged Depp gave her a black eye.
Waldman also claims that surveillance footage of Franco and Heard interacting in an elevator on the night of an alleged altercation between Depp and Heard could prove Depp’s claim that Heard “painted on bruises” in order to obtain a temporary restraining order against him. Waldman also revealed that he is interested in subpoenaing Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is a close friend of Heard’s, as an additional witness.
“We are interested in James Franco and Elon Musk as fact witnesses because we have evidence they are men who saw Amber Heard’s face in the days and nights between when she claimed Mr. Depp smashed her in the face on May 21 [in 2016] and when she went to court with painted on ‘bruises’ to obtain a temporary restraining order on May 27,” Waldman told the gossip outlet.
Surveillance footage of Franco and Heard shows the pair interacting in an elevator, with Franco resting his forehead on Heard’s shoulder at one point. Heard’s attorney Eric George insisted to Fox News that the meeting was innocuous.
“This bogus story is just another lame attempt by Johnny Depp and his team to spread deliberately misleading information through the tabloid media so that he can continue to attack and abuse his ex-wife,” he said. “Johnny Depp and his team have been trying — and failing — to place a salacious story based on this irrelevant footage for weeks. It’s pathetic.”
Depp is suing Heard for $50 million over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she wrote about her experiences as a domestic violence survivor. While she did not name Depp as the perpetrator of the violence, Depp has claimed that it is strongly inferred.
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