Johnny Depp loses a bid to delay his $25million fraud trial in the wake of a devastating interview

Lawyers acting for Depp – seen performing with the Hollywood Vampires Band at a festival in France on Friday – have been refused their application to have his fraud lawsuit deferred in the wake of a devastating interview in Rolling Stone

Johnny Depp has been denied an attempt to push back a trial over his $25 million fraud lawsuit against his former managers following a damning article about his split with Amber Heard, money troubles and love of drugs.

Lawyers for the star, 55, asked on Friday for the August 15 scheduled jury trial to be pushed back by 60 days following the devastating Rolling Stones interview, but had the request refused by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Friday. 

Depp has accused The Mandel Co. of stealing his money when they were meant to be looking after it, and has sued them for negligence, fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.

His primary lawyer, Benjamin Chew, claimed that a mediation date set for July 14 was too close to the trial on August 15, so Depp’s team needed more time to prepare before going before a jury. This was an unusual move as Depp’s team are the ones bringing the case.

Chew’s filing read: ‘In light of the close proximity of that mediation date to the August 15th trial date and the related pre-trial filing dates which back up from the August 3, 2018 Final Status Conference, without a trial continuance the parties will effectively had been required to complete virtually all of their discovery and trial preparation prior to attending the mediation. 

‘A brief trial continuance would enable the parties to some extent to conserve the resources which would otherwise be devoted to completing discovery and trial preparation to be used for settlement purposes at the mediation.’

The defense claimed the appeal was a work of ‘gamesmanship’ and a ‘lack of diligence’, and the judge agreed to strike it down and continue the trial as scheduled.

The news will come as a relief to Warner Bros, as the delayed trial date suggested by Depp’s lawyers would have fallen a month before the release of the Fantastic Beasts sequel, in which the actor stars as the eponymous villain Grindelwald.

The actor's split from Amber Heard in 2016 sent him into a depression where he would drink vodka in the morning and sometimes did not want to wake up, he said 

The actor’s split from Amber Heard in 2016 sent him into a depression where he would drink vodka in the morning and sometimes did not want to wake up, he said 

The Rolling Stone interview saw Depp speak candidly about how his tumultuous split from wife Amber Heard sent him into a deep depression which has been compounded by his financial woes.

The interview took place over the course of three nights in a $10,000 mansion Depp was renting in London earlier this year, before he was seen looking worryingly thin and gaunt in Russia during a tour with his band The Hollywood Vampires. 

During their interviews, he smoked a mixture of tobacco and ‘hash’ and drank. The writer mentions once seeing a joint as large as a ‘stogie’ left by the sink.  

It was set up by his new lawyer, Adam Waldman, who is a lobbyist for the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. 

Depp has lost almost all of his $600million fortune and, according to the interview, is desperate to explain how, saying the ‘truth’ is ‘full of betrayal’. He hired Waldman after severing ties with his long-term manager Joel Mandel in 2016.

The star became emotional, according to the writer, when he described how his son learned about his money problems from other children.  

‘My son had to hear about how his old man lost all his money from kids at school, that’s not right,’ he said. 

 ‘My son had to hear about how his old man lost all his money from kids at school, that’s not right’

Speaking of his separation from Heard and the state he was in afterwards, he said: ‘I was as low as I believe I could have gotten. 

‘The next step was, ‘You’re going to arrive somewhere with your eyes open and you’re going to leave there with your eyes closed.’

‘I couldn’t take the pain every day,’ he said, describing his darkest moment which fell in 2016 as his marriage to Heard collapsed, his money was fast disappearing and his mother had died. 

‘Betty Sue, I worshiped her. She could be a real b**** on wheels,’ he said, recalling what he said at her funeral – ‘My mom was maybe the meanest human being I have ever met in my life.’

He decided to cope with the pain of it all by going on tour with his band, The Hollywood Vampires, and writing a memoir. 

‘I poured myself a vodka in the morning and started writing until the tears filled my eyes and I couldn’t see the page anymore.  

Depp is seen in one of his most famous roles as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

Depp is seen in one of his most famous roles as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)

‘I kept trying to figure out what I’d done to deserve this. I’d tried being kind to everyone, helping everyone, being truthful to everyone.

‘The truth is most important to me. 

‘And all this still happened,’ he said. 

His marriage to Heard was not what his sister, Christi, or others in his close circle wanted him to pursue. 

They warned him, according to the interview, not to get married without a prenuptial agreement but he proceeded anyway and spent $1million on a wedding on his Bahamian island.

Cut off from his family because of it and having severed ties with his long-term managers and friends, he has spent the last two years alone.  

He was honest about his drug use, describing how he loved quaaludes and used to find bootleg versions once they had faded from the party scene. 

‘They’re made with just a little bit of arsenic, or strychnine. 

‘So the high was far more immediate. You either wanted to smile and just be happy with your pals, or f***, or fight, he said.  

Depp also sought to explain how his money had been pillaged. 

 ‘I was as low as I believe I could have gotten. ‘The next step was, ‘You’re going to arrive somewhere with your eyes open and you’re going to leave there with your eyes closed.’ I couldn’t take the pain every day

Between supporting his ex-wife Vanessa Paradis, their children, his own family in Kentucky who, he claims, spent wildly on his dime, and his own extravagant habits, the money simply dwindled. 

It is what is at the root of his ongoing lawsuit against his former management company.  

He claims they misappropriated and mismanaged his funds while rewarding themselves handsomely. 

”If there were things for me to sign that would come in – and there would be occasionally – I would sign them like this,’ says Depp, pantomiming signing an imaginary paper with his right hand while his head was swiveled far to the left, staring into the London gloom.

‘I don’t want to fucking see what they are because I trust these people. Now I look right at everything I sign,” the article said. 

His managers say he was an out-of-control spendthrift who drank all of his wine investments. 

‘Wine is not an investment if you drink it as soon as you buy it,’ they said in their lawsuit. 

He responded their claim that it was $30,000-a-month: ‘It’s insulting to say that I spent $30,000 on wine because it was far more.’ 

Speaking of his family and the death of his mother Betty Sue, he said: ‘Their thinking is that I’m going to take care of them forever and that the farm is now theirs

‘I didn’t make that promise,’ he said.

Depp sparked fears earlier this month when he emerged in Russia looking pale and gaunt 

Depp sparked fears earlier this month when he emerged in Russia looking pale and gaunt 

It was his managements’ job, he said, to cut off his family’s credit cards when their spending got out of control – something that was never done. 

‘That’s what I am paying them for,’ he said. 

He said he had ‘no clue’ that he was in such dire straits, particularly over his late tax payments for which he eventually had to pay $5.6million in late fees. 

‘I just had no clue. If you’re knowingly not paying the United States government taxes, somebody is gonna f****** catch up with you and hand you a bill and you’ll probably go to the pokey,’ he said. 

 ‘I just had no clue. If you’re knowingly not paying the United States government taxes, somebody is gonna f****** catch up with you and hand you a bill and you’ll probably go to the pokey

Elsewhere, he described how he would discuss his destructive lifestyle with late friend Tom Petty, telling the magazine: ‘We’d call each other and ask, ‘Hey, you still smoking?’ 

‘Tom would go, ‘Yeah, I’m still smoking,’ and I’d feel better: ‘Well, if Tom is still smoking, I’m OK.’ Petty died in October 2017 and the loss was devastating to Depp. 

He also spoke of Harvey Weinstein who he called a ‘bully’ and who shut down one of his movies. 

‘He was a bully. Have you seen his wife? It’s not a wide range. It’s not like he went, ‘I must go to the Poconos to find some hairy-backed b****,’ he said.

He then told how he once went with the mogul to collect his daughter from school and how he was stunned by how affectionate he was towards her. 

‘The image that took my breath away was Harvey Weinstein, a goliath Shrek thing, bending down to put on his daughter’s raincoat,’ he said. 

Of Marilyn Manson, whose music video he recently starred in, he said: ‘Marilyn’s the best. He’s played Barbies with my daughter.’ 

He pawns off the bulk of his legal woes to his attorneys, saying: ‘I’m just a small part of this. It’s the f****** Matrix. 

‘I didn’t see the movie, and I didn’t understand the script, but here’s what it is.’ 

Towards the end of the interview, the author described him recalling his childhood and explaining that he never meant to hurt anyone. 

‘I have never, ever in my life been the bully kid. 

‘I never went out of my way to hurt anybody. When I was a little kid, what I was taught was never f****** start a fight, but if somebody f****** tags you or invades your f****** world, finish the f****** fight. To my mom’s exact words, ‘Lay them out with a f****** brick.”

The interview comes after 18 months of strife for Depp.

His worrying appearance made fans question his health and a string of public appearances where he has seemed incoherent has also triggered concern. 

He has spent the last several months touring Europe with The Hollywood Vampires. 

Depp is fighting his old management company for $25million which he says they owe him.  



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