Amber Heard was seen kissing It director Andy Muschietti in Los Angeles Wednesday, even as she battles her ex-husband Johnny Depp in court.
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PEOPLE published photos of the new couple in Los Angeles, showing Heard all smiles. The Aquaman actress, 32, wore a black scoop neck top, black shirt, a tan trench coat and boots. Muschietti, 45, wore brown pants, a maroon sweater and a tan jacket.
Muschietti recently finished filming the sequel to It, his hit adaptation of the Stephen King novel. It: Chapter Two stars James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Jessica Chastain and Bill Skarsgard and opens on Sept. 9. The Argentine filmmaker also directed the 2013 hit horror movie Mama, starring Chastain.
The photos with Muschietti followed rumors Heard was dating art dealer Vito Schnabel. Heard and Schnabel were seen holding hands at Wimbledon in London last year.
Heard was previously married to Depp for 15 months from 2015 to 2016, and finalized their divorce in January 2017. She later dated Tesla co-founder Elon Musk.
Heard accused Depp of domestic violence during their brief marriage. In December 2018, she wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post titled “I spoke up against sexual violence โ and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.”
On March 1, Depp filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against Heard, calling her abuse claims an “elaborate hoax” and claimed she was using the alleged abuse to advance her career. Depp claimed the op-ed damaged his career, resulting in Disney dropping him from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
“Ms. Heard purported to write from the perspective of ‘a public figure representing domestic abuse’ and claimed that she ‘felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out’ when she ‘spoke up against sexual violence,’” the lawsuit reads.
“Ms. Heard also knew that her elaborate hoax worked: as a result of her false allegations against Mr. Depp, Ms. Heard became a darling of the #MeToo movement, was the first actress named a Human Rights Champion of the United Nations Human Rights Office, was appointed ambassador on women’s rights at the American Civil Liberties Union, and was hired by L’Oreal Paris as its global spokesperson,” Depp’s attorney said in a statement to The Blast.
Heard’s attorney called the lawsuit “frivolous” and said she “will not be silenced.”
“Mr. Depp’s actions prove he is unable to accept the truth of his ongoing abusive behavior,” Heard’s attorney, Eric M. George, said. “But while he appears hell-bent on achieving self destruction, we will prevail in defeating this groundless lawsuit and ending the continued vile harassment of my client by Mr. Depp and his legal team.”
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