Johnny Depp court case
(Picture: PA Wire)Several high-profile celebrities are set to give testimony in a US court next month during a lawsuit between Johnny Depp and ex-wife Amber Heard.
James Franco, Paul Bettany and Elon Musk feature on witness lists, alongside representatives of the Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros and the Los Angeles Police Department.
Hollywood superstar Depp, 58, launched a £39m defamation lawsuit against Heard in 2019, after the Aquaman star, 35, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post newspaper in December 2018, describing herself as a victim of domestic abuse.
The trial is set to begin on April 11 at the Fairfax County courthouse, in Virginia.
Both Depp and Heard will give in-person testimony. However, Bettany, Franco and Musk will be giving their testimony virtually, documents claim.
Depp and Heard were married between 2015 and 2017.
In March, Depp was refused permission to appeal the ruling in the libel battle against the newspaper.
Just days later, the actor told the world Warner Brothers asked him to resign from his role in the Harry Potter spin-off series Fantastic Beasts.
The star, who has a following of 11.1million on social media, shared his resignation letter on Instagram.
Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen replaced Depp in his character of wizard Gellert Grindelwald.
Depp later warned “no one is safe” from cancel culture and the “instant rush to judgment”.
Speaking out, he said: “It’s a very complex situation, this cancel culture, or this instant rush to judgment based on essentially what amounts to polluted air.
“It’s got so far out of hand that I can assure you, no one is safe. Not one of you, so long as someone is willing to say one thing.
“It takes one sentence, then there’s no more ground, the carpet has been pulled.”
He added: “It’s not just me that it’s happened to. It’s happened to a lot of people: women, men, children have suffered from various types of unpleasantries that sadly at a certain point they begin to think it’s normal, that it’s them. It’s not.”
