James Franco subpoenaed in Johnny Depp's defamation suit against Amber Heard

Actor James Franco is now involved in the ongoing legal drama between former partners Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

He is the latest celebrity to be dragged into Depp's USD 50 million defamation suit against his ex-wife Heard, reported Page Six.

Depp's lawyers are sending 'The Deuce' actor a subpoena over a video that shows him getting close with Heard in an elevator, one day after the former couple's marriage-ending fight in 2016.

Depp claimed that Heard used makeup to gin up bruises, and his legal team wants to ask Franco and Heard's ex-boyfriend, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, what she looked like at that time.

In a statement to The Blast, as cited by Fox News, Depp's attorney, Adam Waldman, said, "We are interested in James Franco and Elon Musk as fact witnesses because we have evidence they are men who saw Amber Heard's face in the days and nights between when she claimed Mr. Depp smashed her in the face on May 21 and when she went to court with painted on 'bruises' to obtain a temporary restraining order on May 27."

The civil subpoena is a part of Depp's USD 50 million defamation lawsuit against Heard, which he filed earlier this year after the actor wrote a Washington Post op-ed about domestic abuse. Depp's complaint said that although Heard did not use his name in the article, it was clear that she was referring to him.

In response to the news of the subpoena, Heard's attorney Eric George told Fox News on Tuesday, "This bogus story is just another lame attempt by Johnny Depp and his team to spread deliberately misleading information through the tabloid media so that he can continue to attack and abuse his ex-wife."

"Amber Heard and James Franco once lived in the same apartment complex and were simply taking an elevator at the same time. Period. Johnny Depp and his team have been trying and failing to place a salacious story based on this irrelevant footage for weeks. It's pathetic," George added.

Depp and Heard were married for just over a year before they separated in May 2016. Heard filed for divorce from Depp in 2016 amid reports that the actor physically and verbally abused her. Depp has repeatedly denied any allegations levelled against him.

The two, who met on the sets of the 2011 film 'The Rum Diary', settled their divorce in 2017.