Doug Stanhope Defends Johnny Depp

STANHOPE johnny depp amber heard

Johnny Depp is in a world of shit.  His wife is divorcing him, but that’s nothing- she’s also got a restraining order and claims he physically abused her- with photos of bruises she allegedly suffered at his hand.  On top of that, his new movie Alice Through the Looking Glass had a rough weekend at the Box Office, and there are already rumblings in the media that the reign of Depp might be coming to an end.

But Depp does have a defender- opinionated comedian Doug Stanhope has come out in his defense, first somewhat vaguely on Twitter, and now in an article he wrote for The Wrap. Stanhope has a rabid fan base who have come to love him for his fearlessness, his brutal honesty, and for living life by his own rules. He and Johnny Depp are good friends- which shouldn’t surprise anyone. Both of them come from a sort of Hunter S. Thompson school of life, it makes sense they would get along.

Stanhope wrote that he can’t sleep because his friend is being “pilloried in the press for domestic violence” and “murdered on social media.” He says he knows the accusations Heard is leveling against Depp are bullshit, and says she was threatening to lie about Depp.  In fact, Stanhope claims that he has watched her manipulating Depp for years, but says he never wanted to say anything about it, because “he’s Johnny Depp. And we didn’t want to be thrown out of the circle for saying that The Emperor was being Stripped of His Clothes.” According to Stanhope all of Depp’s friends were aware of what was happening, but nobody wanted to be the one to bring it up.

In the article, Stanhope says he was at Depp’s house just days before the alleged assault, right after Depp’s mom passed.  He says Depp told him Amber was leaving and was threatening to blackmail him, so Stanhope and his wife Bingo finally came clean with their friend about what they thought of Heard.  When the abuse story broke in the media, Stanhope says he waited days to speak up because he was afraid he would come across like a media sycophant, trying to attach himself to a big story.  (He does have a new book out.) Ultimately, he says, he decided he couldn’t leave a friend hanging just to avoid appearing to be a name dropper/Hollywood suck up.

“I’ll name-drop now. Johnny Depp is my friend,” he wrote. “But any one of my friends will tell you I always call them out on bulls—. Abusing women is bulls—. Johnny doesn’t abuse anyone. And he told me that day ahead of time that she’d pull some kind of s— like this.
Johnny Depp got used, manipulated, set up and made to look like an a–hole. And he saw it coming and didn’t or couldn’t do anything to stop it.”

Stanhope writes that he doesn’t know if Depp will be angry with him for coming forward saying he stands up for his friends, and tells the truth.

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