FALLS CHURCH, Va. — A Virginia judge on Wednesday rejected an effort by actress Amber Heard to set aside the $10 million judgment awarded against her in favor of her ex-husband, Johnny Depp.

Depp won a defamation suit against Heard last month in a high-profile civil trial. Heard won a smaller, $2 million judgement on a counterclaim she filed against Depp.

Earlier this month, Heard filed a motion seeking to have Depp’s verdict set aside, or have a mistrial declared. Her lawyers cited multiple factors, including an apparent case of mistaken identity with one of the jurors.

In a written order, Judge Penney Azcarate rejected all of Heard’s claims and said the juror issue specifically was irrelevant and that Heard can’t show she was prejudiced.

“The juror was vetted, sat for the entire jury, deliberated, and reached a verdict. The only evidence before this Court is that this juror and all jurors followed their oaths, the Court’s instructions, and orders. This Court is bound by the competent decision of the jury,” Azcarate wrote.

Depp sued for $50 million in Fairfax County after Heard wrote a 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post about domestic violence in which she referred to herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” The article never mentioned Depp by name, but his lawyers said several passages in the article defamed him by implication by referring to highly publicized abuse allegations she made in 2016 as she filed for divorce.

Heard then filed a $100 million counterclaim, also for defamation. By the time the case went to trial, her counterclaim had been whittled down to a few statements made by one of Depp’s lawyers, who called Heard’s abuse allegations a hoax.

The jury awarded $15 million to Depp and $2 million to Heard on her counterclaim. The $15 million judgment was reduced to $10.35 million because Virginia law caps punitive damages at $350,000.

The judge did not spell out rationale for rejecting Heard's other claims in Wednesday's order.

———

Singer-rapper Doja Cat's social media following has reportedly thinned after she blasted "Stranger Things" star Noah Schnapp last week for exposing their private messages.

According to Social Blade, a social media stats and analytics website, the "Kiss Me More" and "Need to Know" hit-maker apparently lost about 200,000 followers on Instagram after blasting Schnapp for the leak. The drop took her from 24.34 million to 24.14 million since July 7, the day she addressed the controversy.

However, her following on TikTok — where she posts and jokes more robustly and where the Schnapp spat played out — appeared unchanged over the past week and held steady at approximately 25.5 million followers.

Meanwhile, Schnapp, who plays Will Byers in Netflix's hit sci-fi series, saw his Instagram following jump from 24.25 million to 25.17 million over the same time period, posting a gain of nearly 1 million followers since the debacle began. The 17-year-old actor also gained nearly 3 million followers on TikTok, jumping from 24.4 to 27.3 million on the video-sharing platform.

Doja Cat, 26, has made no secret of her crush on Schnapp's "fine" co-star Joseph Quinn and pinged Schnapp to connect them. Schnapp then leaked their conversation in a now-deleted TikTok video that he labeled "thirsty Doja."

That didn't sit well with the Grammy-winning rapper. She took to TikTok Live to blast his "borderline snake" behavior, dubbing him a "kid" who is "unbelievably socially unaware and whack."

———

Eminem is now a five-time member of Spotify's billion streams club.

On Wednesday, Eminem and Rihanna’s “Love the Way You Lie,” from Em's 2010 album "Recovery," crossed the 1 billion streams marker on the streaming service.

"Love the Way You Lie" now joins Em's "Lose Yourself," "'Till I Collapse," "Without Me" and "The Real Slim Shady," all of which previously passed the digital milestone. "The Real Slim Shady" hit the 1 billion streams marker last month.

The fiery "Love the Way You Lie" was the second single released from "Recovery," following the earnest, inspirational "Not Afraid." It received five Grammy nominations, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year (it lost both categories to Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now"), and it topped Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart for seven weeks in summer 2010.

The song's Joseph Kahn-directed video stars Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan as a couple playing up the song's themes of domestic strife and abuse. The clip has racked up more than 2.4 billion views on YouTube.

The single was followed by a sequel track, "Love the Way You Lie (Part II)," which was featured on Ri's 2010 album "Loud." The pair teamed up again for "The Monster," from Eminem's 2013 "The Marshall Mathers LP 2," and together they mounted the three-city, six-date Monster Tour.

"Love the Way You Lie" marks Rihanna's fourth song to enter Spotify's billion streams club, after "Work," "Needed Me" and "This is What You Came For," her collaboration with Calvin Harris.

From combined wire services