Amber Heard is so upset over the coverage she’s been getting in her court battle with Johnny Depp that she abruptly switched to a new PR team ahead of her highly anticipated testimony this week, The Post has learned.
The “Aquaman” actress ditched crisis PR firm Precision Strategies on Thursday after getting frustrated with the press she’s received since her bombshell defamation trial kicked off last month, sources said.
“She doesn’t like bad headlines,” a source noted.
Another source said Heard, 36, is “frustrated with her story not being told effectively.”
Depp, 58, is suing Heard for $50 million, claiming his ex-wife defamed him in a 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post where she discussed being a victim of domestic violence.
Heard’s lawyers argue that Depp abused the actress physically and sexually.
The actress — who is expected to take the stand in Fairfax, Va., as soon as Tuesday — now has consulting firm Shane Communications on retainer to help her get across her side better in the court of public opinion, sources said.
The sudden PR switch came after several brutal days of court testimony from Depp witnesses and a fiery social-media mob that turned against Heard.
Her new PR team, led by CEO David Shane, has worked against Depp before.
The firm helped highlight allegations lodged by Depp’s former business managers, The Management Group, alleging that the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star needed to hire a shrink for his “compulsive spending” habit of $2 million per month.
Still, communications experts told The Post that Heard’s new flacks have an uphill battle ahead of them.
“After years of narrative building, you can’t change the public’s opinion in the three weeks when someone is suing you in a case,” said a crisis management PR insider.
Ex-Pete Buttigieg campaign maven Lis Smith said, “It’s crazy to change teams in the middle of a trial like this because you don’t like the headlines.”
She said Heard’s former PR firm, Precision Strategies, which was co-founded by ex-Obama adviser and deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter, is “one of the best crisis firms” — “but they can’t rewrite the history of what’s happened.”
The actress never wanted cameras in the courtroom in the first place, but Depp’s team won the fight to have the entirety of the trial testimony livestreamed, meaning neither team could cherry-pick what information made its way out of the courtroom.
To date, the trial has featured photos of feces, severed digits and melted ice cream — as well as a discussion about Depp’s penis.
Interest in the sensational case has led to the courthouse in Virginia turning into a circus, with scores of Depp fans — some of whom have traveled from as far as Australia — packing the gallery.
Precision Strategies, Shane Communications and reps for Depp declined to comment to The Post on Heard’s PR switch.
The actor was not named in the Washington Post essay at the center of the Virginia trial, but he claims it clearly referenced him and ruined his career, damaged his reputation and cost him tens of millions of dollars.
Depp, who has denied the abuse allegations, told the jury he brought the suit to clear his name.
Heard’s lawyers claim that his denials are not credible because he was often too drunk or high to recall what happened.
Depp lost a similar lawsuit in the UK against the Sun over an article that called him a “wife beater.”
The pair met on the set of the 2011 flick “The Rum Diary’’ and wed in 2016 before divorcing the next year.
