This is a shocker! A judge has ruled that Johnny Deppโs two-year-old defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard will not be dismissed, meaning the case is set to proceed to a trial next year.
Fairfax County Chief Judge Penney Azcarate rejected Heardโs motion to dismiss the case โ Heardโs third such motion since Depp filed his lawsuit in March 2019.
Heard tried to get the Virginia lawsuit thrown out citing the ruling of a London judge last year in a libel lawsuit Depp filed against the publisher of The Sun tabloid and subsequently lost following a contentious legal showdown in an English courtroom.

The London judge concluded that the 2018 article branding Depp a โwife beaterโ was not libelous and that โthe great majorityโ of Heardโs claims of domestic abuse โcould be proved to the civil standard.โ
But Virginiaโs Judge Azcarate concluded that the two cases were not the same โ Heard was not a party in the London lawsuit, although she was a witness for The Sun โ and thus her argument for dismissal failed under well-established legal precedents governing when civil cases can be dismissed.
โDefendantโs claim that refusing to recognize the U.K. Judgment in this case would set a dangerous precedent is unfounded,โ Azcarate said in her opinion. โIf anything, upholding English libel judgments in the United States would create the chilling effect and could create a dangerous precedent. Accordingly, this Court is unpersuaded by Defendantโs argument.โ

โMr. Depp is most gratified by the Courtโs decision,โ the actorโs lawyer Ben Chew of the DC office of Brown Rudnick told Deadline.
In a recent interview with Britainโs The Times, which is part of the same publishing group owned by Rupert Murdoch that also owns the tabloid The Sun, Depp called the last five years of dealing with the case โsurrealโ and referred to a Hollywood โboycottโ of him.