Amber Heard's Friend Thrown Out Of Courtroom During Johnny Depp Trial

Amber Heard's close pal was forced to leave the courtroom during the ongoing trial of Johnny Depp's $50 million defamation lawsuit against the actress.

British music journalist Eve Barlow got in trouble with the judge Thursday when she texted and tweeted live from the front row of the courtroom, which is usually reserved for legal counsel, Page Six reported, citing unnamed sources who attended the trial that day.

Barlow – the former deputy editor of NME and a New York Magazine contributor – has allegedly been acting like she's part of the actress' legal team, the sources claimed.

"Amber had her closest journalist friend sit front and center – with her legal team – at the trial, live-tweeting, texting and posting information," one source told the outlet. "Eve Barlow seems to think she's part of Amber's legal team. Depp's lawyers finally had enough and had her barred from the courtroom."

Barlow attempted to intervene in the trial over "Depp-friendly" witness Gina Deuters, court insiders claimed. The journalist reportedly asked Heard's legal team to show Judge Penney S. Azcarate that Deuters was allegedly compromised as a witness.

Barlow allegedly brought up a social media post from Deuters, claiming it was a recent post from the current trial, sources told Page Six.

However, the post she brought up had been shared in 2021 during Depp's prior trial against the publisher of British tabloid The Sun for calling him a "wife-beater" in a 2018 article. Depp lost that case, and the judge denied his petition to appeal.

On Thursday, Deuters – who is the wife of Depp's longtime employee and collaborator, Stephen Deuters – admitted that she had seen clips of the trial online prior to giving testimony. She was dismissed from the courtroom, and her testimony was struck from the record, according to the report.

Depp's lawyers then pushed a motion to have Barlow barred from the courtroom for the rest of the defamation trial.

Judge Azcarate approved the motion.

"She was tweeting live from my courtroom … and I know the deputies took her out because she was texting. That's against the court order. Ms. Barlow is not coming back into the courtroom during this trial," the judge said, according to court transcripts.

Depp and Heard split in May 2016, when she sought a domestic violence restraining order against him, accusing him of abusing her. The actor denied the claims, and the former couple settled their divorce out of court in August 2016.

Depp is suing Heard for defamation in Fairfax, Virginia, over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she wrote about being a domestic abuse survivor. The "Pirates of the Caribbean" star wasn't named in the piece but claimed that Heard fabricated the abuse allegations, damaging his career.

Heard also accused Depp of sexual violence, which the actor's lawyers vehemently denied.

"These fictitious claims were never made at the onset of Amber's allegations in 2016, and only advantageously surfaced years later once she was sued for defamation after noting in her op-ed that she was a victim of 'sexual violence,'" a spokesperson for Depp said.

"Words are key in a defamation case and conveniently, this allegation only came after that," the rep continued. "This follows a pattern of her elaborate, erroneous claims which have continued to change and evolve over time for the purpose of Hollywood shock value of which Amber has mastered and used to exploit a serious social movement."