Amber Heard is cutting all legal ties to Johnny Depp, including his friend.
Less than a month since settling her divorce from her ex for $7 million in charity donations, the actress has dropped her lawsuit against Depp's stand-up comedian pal, Doug Stanhope.
According to documents obtained by E! News, Heard's legal team filed a stipulation for dismissal of the case and for each party to handle their own attorney fees. According to Heard's lawyer, the dismissal of the case is the result of her larger settlement with Depp.
"I can tell you that Ms. Heard and Mr. Stanhope did NOT reach any agreement to settle the case," Heard's attorney said in a statement to E! News. "No money changed hands between them, and there is no confidentiality agreement between them. In fact, I have been unable to reach Doug for some time and given his lifestyle, where he lives and where he travels, I'd be surprised if he even knows anything about the conclusion of the case. Instead, the dismissal of the case against Mr. Stanhope was negotiated as part of a larger deal between Ms. Heard and her ex-husband, Johnny Depp. Doug Stanhope is one of Johnny Depp's closest friends, and it appears that Johnny was able to convince Amber to drop the lawsuit against Doug as part of a global resolution of their divorce."
In the statement, Heard's attorney also noted that the dismissal was done "without prejudice," meaning she could re-file the lawsuit within one year of the date Stanhope published his article about Heard. "As far as we know, Ms. Heard has no plans to re-file the case against Mr. Stanhope, but that option remains available to her," the statement concluded.
Heard first filed a defamation lawsuit against Stanhope in June after he published a guest article titled Johnny Depp Is Being Blackmailed by Amber Heard—Here's How I Know for The Wrap. Within the article, the comedian wrote that "she was going to pull off some kind of ruse to f--k him over" and that she would "lie about him publicly in any and every possible duplicitous way if he didn't agree to her terms."
"The Complaint alleges that Stanhope is a close friend of Johnny Depp and, as part of a coordinated effort, wrote a highly defamatory article about Ms. Heard, filled with completely false, highly defamatory and very hurtful statements. Ms. Heard seeks the maximum possible jury award, and will donate 100 percent of the proceeds from the lawsuit to Chrysalis, 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," Charles J. Harder, Heard's civil litigation counsel, told E! News in a statement at the time of the filing.
Just a few days after the divorce settlement was confirmed, Heard seemed to be back in the swing of things with celebrity friends Margot Robbie, Margot's boyfriend Tom Ackerley and Cara Delevingne during a night out in London, including a Rolling Stones exhibition and late-night eats at the Ivy Kensington Brassiere.
Meanwhile, Depp has already sent the first installments of Heard's charity donations to the ACLU and Children's Hospital, though Amber's counsel insist the payments are not the right amount.
While Amber "appreciates Johnny Depp's novel interest in supporting two of her favorite charities," a member of Heard's team told E! News, "if Johnny wishes to change the settlement agreement, we must insist that he honor the full amount by donating $14M to charity, which, after accounting for his tax deduction, is equal to his $7M payment obligation to Amber...We would also insist that the full amount be paid immediately and not drawn out over many years."
"Anything less would be a transparent attempt by Johnny's counsel, Laura Wasser and Patti Glaser, to reduce their client's true payment by half under the guise of newfound concern for charities that he has never previously supported," the statement concluded.
Depp's team has not yet responded to E!'s request for comment.