Amber Heard sues comedian over Johnny Depp blackmail allegation
Amber Heard has filed a defamation lawsuit against a comedian who accused her of blackmailing husband Johnny Depp and making false allegations of domestic abuse.
In the court documents, Heard accuses Doug Stanhope and 20 unnamed defendants of making accusations that are "completely false and highly defamatory" and claims they caused her "tremendous harm".
The papers claim they "orchestrated a plot to write an article, which was published at TheWrap.com, which falsely accuses plaintiff Amber Heard of 'blackmail' and other criminal behaviour towards her husband, Johnny Depp, from whom she is seeking a divorce".
Stanhope, a close friend of Depp's, wrote a guest column two days after Heard was granted a restraining order against her estranged husband, called "Johnny Depp Is Being Blackmailed by Amber Heard - Here's How I Know."
In it he claimed that Heard was "threatening to lie about him (Depp) publicly in any and every possible duplicitous way if he didn't agree to her terms" and that Depp "got used, manipulated, set up and made to look like an a-hole" by her.
Her filing says that all the accusations are fabricated and part of a "calculated publicity campaign to smear Heard for having the temerity to file for divorce".
"Defendants are engaged in a classic case of 'attacking the victim,' in an effort to discredit Heard, destroy her good name and reputation, and severely harm her hard-earned entertainment career, on top of the campaign of violence that Depp has inflicted upon her for years," the suit claims.
Heard's lawyer Charles J. Harder said she is seeking the "maximum possible jury award" which she will donate to a domestic violence shelter in Arizona "in an effort to counter the setback made to women by the defendants' defamatory article and related wrongful acts".
The documents repeat Heard's accusations in her restraining order application that Depp has "hit and kicked" her on numerous occasions and has "thrown objects at her".
They make the fresh claim that "at one point (Depp) nearly suffocated her to the point where she feared for her life".
In the papers, she calls Depp "an alcoholic and drug addict", saying the abuse primarily occurred when he had "relapsed into a cycle of substance abuse".
Heard said she stayed in the relationship "hoping optimistically that the man she married would change his behaviour".
Depp's attorney Laura Wasser said in court documents related to the restraining order that Heard "is attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse".
The couple met on the set of film The Rum Diary in 2011 and married in February 2015. She filed for divorce on May 23.
Additional reporting by the Press Association
