James Franco and Elon Musk are among the high-profile celebrities who will testify in Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s defamation trial next month.
According to Deadline, James and Elon are both on Amber’s witness list, after Johnny accused them of having affairs with his ex-wife.
WandaVision star Paul Bettany and representatives of the Walt Disney company and Warner Bros will also attend the trial, which is set to begin on April 11 at the Fairfax County courthouse in Virginia.
Johnny launched the defamation lawsuit against Amber in 2019, after she wrote about being an alleged victim of domestic violence in an op-ed for the Washington Post in December 2018.
While the actor’s name was excluded from the piece, his legal team have argued that the op-ed implied that he “perpetrated domestic violence against her.”
Johnny’s defamation suit against Amber is separate to his libel case against The Sun newspaper.
The actor launched legal action against The Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers, after they published an article in 2018 that labelled him a “wife beater”.
The case led to a three-week High Court trial in July 2020, which shed light on Johnny and Amber’s rocky marriage – which came to an end in 2016.
In court, the 58-year-old vehemently denied being physically abusive towards his ex-wife, but NGN defended the article’s publication by trying to prove that he was.
Johnny ended up losing the case, after a High Court judge found the article was “substantially true”.
However, the Pirate of the Caribbean star’s legal team applied for permission to appeal the ruling.
Amber countersued Johnny for $100 million in September 2020, after she failed to get the matter moved to California or dismissed.
Amber filed for divorce from Johnny in 2016, just one year after the couple tied the knot.
At the time, the actress obtained a temporary restraining order against him, and alleged that he was verbally and physically abusive towards her – claims Johnny has vehemently denied.
The pair eventually settled their divorce out of court in August 2016, and issued a joint statement which read: “Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love. Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain. There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm.”
