Amber Heard has fired her public relations team over the onslaught of negative publicity amid the ongoing $50m defamation lawsuit brought by ex-husband Johnny Depp.
On Sunday (1 May), it was reported that Heard, who is being sued by Depp over a 2018 op-ed implying he abused her, had terminated her working relationship with crisis PR firm Precision Strategies last week after growing frustrated with the bad press she has been getting since the trial began last month.
“She doesn’t like bad headlines,” an unnamed source told the New York Post, which first reported the news.
Another source told the newspaper that Heard, 36, is “frustrated with her story not being told effectively.”
Precision Strategies was co-founded by Stephanie Cutter, who served as a deputy campaign manager during former US president Barack Obama’s successful re-election bid.
Communication experts told the Post that Precision Strategies is among “the best crisis firms in the world” but that no PR company can “rewrite the history of what has happened”.
Because of the backlash against Heard, a petition to have her removed from Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has soared in popularity and is set to surpass three million signatures.
Heard who is expected to testify on Wednesday, 4 May, has now switched to the services of LA-based Shane Communications, an organization with Hollywood experience.
Shane Communications has a history with Depp, which might have been one reason why Heard sought their services.
The firm previously represented Depp’s former business managers, The Management Group, when Depp sued them in 2017 in a $25 million fraud lawsuit. The Management Group filed a countersuit, accusing Depp through Shane Communications of a “lack of impulse control” on his spending habits, purchasing hundreds of millions in real estate, wine, vehicles, and other luxuries. The lawsuits were settled in July 2018.
It’s been reported, that Heard opposed the idea of having cameras in the courtroom, however, Johnny Depp’s team won the motion to have everything that occurred during the trial to be televised.
It means that the entirety of the trial could be heard by the public instead of the media simply cherry-picking what made it outside.
