Amber Heard vs. Johnny Depp Trial: 10 Celebrities Named In Defamation Trial

When a relationship between two A-listers is self-destructing, there are inevitably certainties.

Celebrities from Elon Musk to Kate Moss have been implicated in the explosive case between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

Depp is suing his ex-wife Heard for $50million (£40million) over a Washington Post She wrote an editorial in 2018 in which he said he implied he had abused her.

Heard countersued for $100m (£80m), accusing Depp of orchestrating a “defamation campaign” against her and describing his lawsuit as a continuation of “abuse and harassment”.

The 2022 trial took nearly two months, and at times it was difficult to keep track of the number of people involved in the case.

Below we’ve compiled a list of 10 celebrities who appeared in the Depp-Heard trial, whether they liked it or not.

Elon Musk

During her testimony, Heard described the moment she met Elon Musk at the 2016 Met Gala, after her then-husband Depp “picked me up” on the red carpet.

“He seemed like a real gentleman. He was really nice,” Heard said of forging a friendship with Tesla’s billionaire CEO.

Heard and Musk are rumored to have been dating off and on between 2016 and 2018, and the SpaceX boss was on her witness list for the trial. However, he did not appear on the witness stand.

In the opening statement, Heard’s attorneys said that Depp was “obsessed” with Musk.

Later in the trial, it was revealed that Musk had donated at least $500,000 to the ACLU and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles on Heard’s behalf.

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Paul Bettany

Depp testified that Heard “despised” his boyfriend Paul Bettany because she saw him as a “threat” to their time together.

“Ms Heard loathed Mr Bettany mostly because we had become such close friends and he was a threat to her and would take me away from her and if Paul Bettany got the attention from me that would be a real head turner.” It would cause all sorts of inconveniences,” Depp said.

Depp’s friendship with the wall vision Star had already come up against him in his previous defamation lawsuit The sun in 2020. Text messages between the two were used as evidence in both trials – in which the couple joked about the burning and drowning of Heard.

“Let’s drown them before we burn them!!! “I’ll fuck her burned corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead,” Depp wrote in the lyrics.

Bettany elaborated on the messages during an interview The Independent in December 2021 and said it was “embarrassing” that the news would be made public.

“And we live in a world without context,” he said The times.

James Franco

On the witness stand, Heard claimed Depp subjected her to a “disgusting” and violent slur for a sex scene she filmed with James Franco.

“He was mad at me for taking the job at James Franco,” Heard said. “He hated, hated James Franco and was already accusing me of secretly dating him in my past since we did it Pineapple Express together.”

The dispute over her association with Franco came to a head during a private flight between Boston and Los Angeles, Heard said. She told the court that Depp hit her and kicked her to the ground while insulting her.

Later in the trial, jurors were shown elevator footage of Franco visiting Heard at her home on May 22, 2016, the night before she filed for divorce from Depp. Four days later, the Aquaman Star then sought a domestic violence restraining order from her then-husband.

In the footage, the two appear to have put their heads together before exiting the elevator.

Kate Moss

Heard told the court that she thought of Kate Moss and stairs “immediately” when she recounted an argument with Depp that involved her sister Whitney.

Heard referenced her previous claim that Depp pushed Moss down a flight of stairs during their relationship in the 1990s.

During Depp’s 2020 UK defamation trial against the publishers of The sun Heard told the paper, “He pushed Kate Moss down the stairs, I heard that from two people and it was fresh in my mind.”

Moss has never accused Depp of domestic violence and appeared at the hearing via video link to testify that Depp had not pushed her down the stairs and that she slipped on some outside steps after a rain shower while the couple were only vacationing at a resort in Jamaica In the 1990s.

Winona Ryder and Vanessa Paradis

Two of Depp’s other exes, stranger things Star Winona Ryder and French singer Vanessa Paradis were mentioned in the lawsuit by Heard’s friend iO Tillett Wright. Wright told the court that Depp confided in him that he experienced “major bouts of jealousy” in relationships, which also fueled his drinking problems.

Ryder and Depp dated four years in the early 1990s, while Paradis dated Depp for 14 years after meeting in 1998. Depp and Paradis have two children together, Lily-Rose, born in 1999, and Jack, born in 2002.

“He went through big bouts of jealousy in relationships that had also led to heavy drinking and lots of angry outbursts,” Wright testified.

“He told me that what happened to Winona. He told me that’s what happened to Kate. Sorry, starring Winona Ryder and Kate Moss.

“He told me that’s what happened to Vanessa Paradis.”

In testimony during Depp’s trial in 2020 The sunRyder and Paradis called the domestic violence allegations against him “impossible to believe”.

Eddie Redmayne

On the witness stand, Heard claimed that Depp accused her of having an affair with Eddie Redmayne during filming The Danish girl (2015).

“I got the feeling he thought I was sleeping with the director [Tom Hooper]”And then it was with the actor I was shooting with,” Heard said.

When asked who the actor in question was, Heard replied, “Eddie Redmayne.”

Heard testified that she did not have an affair with either Hooper or Redmayne during that time, but said that Depp continued to ask her about it and ended up calling her hotel room to check if she was there.

Marilyn Manson

Depp testified that he once gave Marilyn Manson a pill to “stop talking so much.”

Depp was questioned by Heard’s attorney about drug use with the heavy metal artist, to which he replied, “We drank together, we drank cocaine together, maybe a few times.”

However, the courtroom erupted in laughter when Depp responded when asked if he’d ever taken “pills” with Manson. “I once gave Marilyn Manson a pill to make him stop talking so much,” he said.

Ellen Barkins

Actress Ellen Barkin said in her testimony against Depp that her relationship with Johnny Depp was “sexual” and not “romantic.”

The two actors had a relationship in 1998 after working on ” Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas together.

“The friendship went from purely platonic to romantic,” Barkin said, before raising her hand and asking, “Can I switch this to a sexual one?”

Barkin also testified that one day she was in a Las Vegas hotel room with Depp, his assistant, and his friends when “a fight was going on” and the actor picked up a wine bottle and threw it across the room. Depp has denied the incident, saying she called him offensive because she harbored a “grudge” against him.

Billy Bob Thornton

Billy Bob Thornton is another actor Heard claims Depp accused her of having an affair with.

Heard and Thornton worked together on the film in 2013 London Fieldswhich was only released in 2018.

Depp told the court that he wrote the message “Starring Billy Bob & easy Amber” in paint on a mirror after Heard slung a vodka bottle at his finger.