What’s Eating Johnny DEpp?
( wine) . . . apart from the alleged cocaine habit and the £22,000 a month he blew on fine
When he’s not acting or carousing, Johnny Depp is a proud member of a rock supergroup, the hollywood Vampires. And so it was fitting that he looked every inch one of the undead as he posed for snaps with fans on the Russian leg of a world tour this week. But it didn’t appear to be make-up.
his famously handsome features had disappeared, replaced by a pale, haggard and hollow- eyed visage that instantly set social media alarm bells ringing among his followers.
Accustomed as they have been over the years to the hard-living star not always looking his best, even so they were clearly horrified by how ‘sick’, ‘weak’ and ‘skinny’ he looked.
‘I think my hero looks ill,’ one tweeted. ‘ he looks like someone sucked the life out of him, hope he is OK,’ said another.
‘F*** me, is that Johnny Depp?’ commented a third, summing up the general reaction.
Compared with the rum-swigging, buccaneer Captain Jack Sparrow, all dreadlocks and eyeliner, he plays in the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise, the 54- year- old was almost unrecognisable.
Of course, actors often change their appearance when they take on a new role and some fans insisted Depp was looking less than healthy after playing a terminally-ill academic in a forthcoming film, Richard Says Goodbye. however, that finished filming last summer.
Maybe it was the angle? he didn’t look nearly so gaunt when photographed visiting a Moscow museum a few days ago. Whatever the truth, it’s not hard to understand why fans tend to assume the worst with Johnny Depp in his long struggle with drink and drugs.
Last november, he appeared on the Graham norton Show with co-stars from Murder On The Orient express. his slurred, laboured performance prompted some to suggest he was either drunk, stoned or both.
A month ago, it was claimed Depp attacked a location manager on forthcoming film, City Of Lies. The star allegedly tried to punch the crew member, yelling: ‘I’ll give you $100,000 to punch me right now!’ before he was pulled away.
The confrontation occurred after Depp, who was directing a scene and had reportedly been ‘smoking and drinking all day on set’, objected to the location manager telling him their permit had run out and they had to stop filming.
Certainly the actor is under great pressure and most damaging to his reputation is a new legal suit filed against him by two former bodyguards.
EUGENE
ARREOLA, a retired Los Angeles police detective who looked after Depp from 2007 until January this year, and a colleague, private security veteran Miguel Sanchez, have launched a lawsuit against him in California’s Supreme Court. It contains a series of astonishing claims about the private life of the troubled actor. They even complain they had to wipe drugs off his face.
They are suing for unpaid wages and overtime, as well as for being exposed to unsafe working conditions. The latter included exposure to ‘illegal substances’, loaded weapons and ‘volatile situations’. Depp’s issues with drugs and alcohol are well documented, not least by himself. ‘I’m a dumb-a**e and I poisoned myself for years,’ he has said.
It’s the same with his financial problems. In accusations that would embarrass any grown man, let alone one twice voted the sexiest man alive and the finest actor of his generation, the plaintiffs portray Depp in court papers as a pathetic, over-indulged child.
They say they were expected to nanny Depp and others around him who were ‘engaging in illegal activity’. They claim they were ‘forced to protect [Depp] from himself and his vices while in public, becoming caretakers for him’.
After years of a good working relationship, they allege they saw the star ‘become increasingly embroiled in personal turmoil and detached from the reality around him’.
It was, in early 2016 — as his second marriage to the actress Amber heard was disintegrating — that the former bodyguards say they noticed a ‘stark change in Depp and in the atmosphere on his hollywood hills compound’. (heard herself said in court papers that he ‘is an alcoholic and drug addict . . . who has relapsed into a cycle of substance abuse’).
Referring to the ‘chaos’ and ‘ financial hurricane’ sweeping through the Depp household, Mr Arreola and Mr Sanchez say they were ‘ asked repeatedly to drive vehicles that contained illegal substances’ and ‘ were asked to monitor unstable individuals in Depp’s life and entourage’.
The pair relate that an ‘incident at a local nightclub involved [Arreola and Sanchez] alerting Depp of illegal substances visible on his face and person while preventing onlookers from noticing Depp’s condition’.
The illegal substance isn’t identified, although hollywood won’t need much help to reach its own conclusion. Amber heard depicted him as a violent cocaine fiend.
The two bodyguards said they felt they had to stop working for Depp ‘as a result of the toxic and dangerous work environment’. They are demanding unspecified damages and want their case heard by a jury.
Depp has yet to respond to the bodyguards’ claims, and this isn’t the first time those close to him have offered an alarming insight into his dysfunctional private life.
Last year, Depp sued Joel and Robert Mandel of The Management Group, who had handled his finances for 17 years, in a $28 million fraud case. he claims they collected more than $25 million in fees he never agreed to pay and failed to pay his taxes on time.
The company has counter-sued, rejecting his claims and insisting they had done their utmost to save him from his ‘irresponsible and profligate spending’.
They said he ‘lived an ultraextravagant lifestyle that often knowingly cost Depp in excess of $2 million per month to maintain, which he simply could not afford’.
The Mandels provided a jawdropping list of some expenses, headed by more than $75 million
spent on 14 homes including a 45- acre chateau in the South of France, a chain of islands in the Bahamas and Hollywood houses.
He also reportedly spent $18 million to buy and renovate a 150ft luxury yacht, and millions on ‘at least 45 luxury vehicles’. He had a huge art collection and enough Hollywood memorabilia to fill 12 storage facilities.
He spent $30,000 (£22,000) a month on wine and $3 million to blast the ashes of his friend, the writer Hunter S. Thompson, from a cannon. It was also claimed he spent $150,000 a month to protect his children (a son and daughter with French singer and actress, Vanessa Paradis) and $300,000 a month on 40 staff.
Depp’s lawyers didn’t dispute the figures, but accused his ex-business managers of trying to shift attention from their alleged offences. When they claimed Depp’s spending on wine was an ‘investment’, the Mandels challenged them to produce a single bottle that hadn’t been drunk.
They piled on the humiliation in further court filings last year in which they claimed Depp was so lazy he was fed lines through an earpiece so he didn’t have to learn them.
The Mandels said their ex-client may have ‘compulsive spending disorder’ and needed a ‘mental examination’.
Depp’s lawyer dismissed these claims as ‘psychobabble’. The case has yet to be settled.
It remains to be seen if it will rival the most infamous dent in his wallet to date — the $7 million he paid ex-wife Heard, who accused him of domestic abuse, in 2016.
In recent years, Depp has sold possessions, including an $11 million Venice mansion and two paintings worth $11.5 million. Even his film career must give him little cheer nowadays.
According to Forbes, Depp was the world’s fifth highest-paid actor in 2016, but last year he didn’t even make the top ten. Increasingly, the star of Edward Scissorhands and Finding Neverland is now more associated with costly flops.
J.K. Rowling backed his casting in the next Fantastic Beasts film, only to be castigated by two of Harvey Weinstein’s reported victims.
Why was the right-on author supporting a man accused of beating his wife, they asked.
No doubt, a world tour with the Hollywood Vampires was a chance to get away from it all. The band was formed to honour rock stars who died from drug and alcohol addiction in the Seventies.
Some fear the actor on lead guitar is in danger of getting a little too much ‘in character’.