Elon Musk and James Franco DECLINE to testify in Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial
Amber Heard’s old flame Elon Musk and actor James Franco have reportedly decided not to testify in the Virginia court, where the actress and her ex-husband Johnny Depp are fighting to get back their respective "lost reputations". The Twitter boss and Franco were on the ‘Aquaman’ star’s witness list for the $50 million defamation suit that began in Fairfax County on April 11.
However, now The New York Post has revealed that the men won’t appear in court to present their stories. Alex Spiro, who is Musk’s lawyer, said on Wednesday, April 27, that the Tesla CEO won’t take the stand. Meanwhile, an insider close to the trial claimed that ‘The Disaster Artist’ star will also not give his testimony.
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Both celebrities' names were included in the list of Heard’s witnesses because Franco, as claimed by the ‘Criminal Minds’ star during the UK trial, saw her bruised face after Depp hit her with a phone in May 2016. She said of the ‘127 Hours’ star: “We were talking. He was saying to me, ‘Oh my God, what happened to you?’ He saw my face, and he said, ‘What the f–k?’”
On the other hand, Musk had a romantic relationship with Heard for almost a year. The two were reportedly together from 2017 to early 2018. The two first met in 2013 on the set of ‘Machete Kills’. Though Depp has alleged that Heard and Musk got involved while the former was still married to him, the entrepreneur has denied this allegation and said they got together after their divorces from their respective former partners in 2016.
But a doorman at Depp and Heard’s LA house, named Alejandro Romero, had earlier told a different story. In 2020, during the UK trial, Romero had said in a written statement that he saw Musk “a few times a week” late at night in Depp-Heard’s LA house and that he’d “always visit when Mr. Depp was not at home”. “After he had made a few visits, Ms. Heard provided Mr. Musk with his own garage remote and a fob to Mr. Depp’s penthouse,” he had added. Also, the ‘Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them’ actor had accused Musk and Heard of being involved in a threesome with Cara Delevingne in 2016 when he had gone to Australia for work.
However, the 2020 libel suit against The Sun for calling Depp a “wife beater”, ended with the actor losing the case. Now, he is suing Heard for a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she described herself as a domestic violence survivor. In the essay, she wrote, "two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.”
The 36-year-old had not directly referred to Depp in the article. But his legal team said the write-up indicates a "clear implication that Mr. Depp is a domestic abuser”. They also added that Heard’s allegations were “categorically and demonstrably false,” before suing her for $50 million. ‘The Playboy Club’ actress then filed a counter suit against Depp for defamation, asking $100 million.