Disney dropped Depp from ‘Pirates’ over abuse allegations
From Washington, Johnny Depp was dropped from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise because of the domestic abuse allegations made by Amber Heard, his former Hollywood agent said Wednesday, backing up the actor’s claim against his ex-wife.
“My opinion is that it was related to the accusations that Amber has made,” Christian Carino, who works for Creative Arts Agency, said in a videotaped deposition in the defamation suit filed by Depp against Heard.
Depp filed a defamation case against Heard over a column she wrote for The Washington Post in December 2018 in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse”.
The 36-year-old Heard never named the 58-year-old Depp but he sued her for implying that he was a domestic abuser and is seeking $50 million in damages.
The Texas-born Heard countersued, asking for $100 million and claiming she suffered “rampant physical violence and abuse” at his hands.
Prince Andrew loses freedom of the city of York
In York, Prince Andrew was on Wednesday stripped of his status as a freeman of the city of York because of his associations with convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
At an extraordinary meeting of York City Council in northern England, councillors voted unanimously to withdraw the honour that was conferred on him in 1987.
There were two formal abstentions, from the lord mayor and the lord mayor elect.
2,200-year-old shipwreck pillaged off French coast
From France, an ancient trading ship carrying wine that lay undiscovered at the bottom of the Mediterranean for more than 2,000 years has been damaged and looted since being discovered by archaeologists, French authorities said Wednesday.
The ship, named Fort Royal 1, is thought to have sunk off the coast of Cannes on the French Riviera during the second century BC.
Divers tasked with the first official explorations of the wreck, which was discovered in 2017, found that some of the clay containers used to transport wine at the time had been removed by divers who had broken into the vessel.
“Well-conserved wrecks from this period are particularly rare,” said a joint statement from the department of marine archaeology in the French culture ministry and local police. “That’s why the opportunity to study the wooden body and the cargo is absolutely exceptional.”
