Virginia Blackburn

HOW do you know when someone has totally lost touch with reality? When they claim it would be a f ****** nightmare to travel commercial rather than by private jet. Step forward Johnny Depp. According to correspondence that has come to light in the course of his legal battle with his former management company (which he is suing for financial mismanagement), while he agreed he had to cut back his expenditure, foregoing the private jet was a step too far. The nightmare would be of “monumental proportions”, apparently. Right.

The rest of the emails make for pretty eye-watering reading too. He writes about starting to film The Tourist for “20 mil”, followed by “PIRATCS (sic) 4 for 35 mil and then in turn DARK SHADOWS for another 20 mil”. For most these sums are so colossal as to be incomprehensible, for Johnny they were a normal payday. No wonder he lost sight of real life.

But what it does go to show is that irrespective of whether you are rich or poor some people can manage money and some cannot. I think that if I got just one of Johnny’s film fees I would set myself up for life but then again I am one of life’s spenders and when I am in funds I do tend to reach for the credit card, so perhaps not.

Some of his fellow stars live frugally and put it away for a rainy day. Sir Paul McCartney famously took a very level-headed attitude to his fortune, living in a small house (actually a number of small houses and they weren’t that small) and sending his children to comprehensives, with the result that most of that fortune is still intact.

Nicolas Cage is another one who got carried away, buying two castles, nine Rolls-Royces and quite a bit