Of course. This story is a giant “of course.” The only shocking thing is how long it took for the tabloids to work this angle. So, you know how Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis are pretty much over? Although Vanessa claims they’re not, People Mag disagrees and I’m siding with People. Anyway, back in 2010, Johnny Depp went to work in Venice with an actress named Angelina Jolie. Heard of her? Allegedly, Vanessa wasn’t happy that her beloved was working with the famed “homewrecker” and VP attempted to “order” Johnny to quit The Tourist. He didn’t quit it, so obviously, he and Angelina slept together. Ever since The Tourist’s production in the spring of 2010, there were rumors that Vanessa hated Angelina and that this hatred may have even lead to some high-profile shunning at certain events (the 2011 Golden Globes, the Cannes Film Festival). So, with that back story, why did it take the tabloids so long to come up with a “Johnny Depp and Vanessa have split up because of Angelina Jolie, of course” story?

Angelina Jolie is the reason Johnny Depp’s relationship with longtime love Vanessa Paradis is on the rocks, say sources. Vanessa believes Johnny cheated with Angelina during the making of The Tourist, and that’s what tore their 14-year-relationship apart!

“It’s no coincidence that things began to unravel for Johnny and Vanessa when he started working with Angelina on The Tourist last February. Vanessa was absolutely convinced that Johnny slept with Angelina, and her jealousy and suspicions ended up destroying them.”

“Vanessa was against Johnny working with Angelina in the first place,” revealed an insider. “She firmly believed that Angelina stole Brad Pitt away from Jennifer Aniston and felt she’d do the same with Johnny.”

Vanessa begged Johnny to pull out of the project, and failing that, she demanded that a steamy shower sex scene be cut from the script. Still, insiders say the off-screen chemistry between Johnny and Angelina on the Venice set with obvious to everyone.

“Angelina and Johnny were constantly hanging out, cracking each other up,” divulged a source. Meanwhile, Vanessa has denied reports that she and Johnny are splitting up, but the insider insists they are, adding: “Angelina drove a wedge between them.”

[From The Enquirer, print edition]

Do I think Johnny and Angelina boned? Not really. I don’t even buy that they were attracted to each other. For those of us who saw The Tourist, their chemistry was sweet and a bit cute, but not hot and heavy. As for how they seemed on the red carpet – well, they avoided each other and when they were forced to stand next to each other, they kind of looked like they hated each other.

What’s weird is that I think the tabloids were really on to something with the Johnny Depp-Eva Green stories. I still think that one might be on. Star Magazine has a story about Eva and Johnny this week too – “Their romance is getting really steamy” according to Star’s source. They just make sense together. Depp and Jolie? Not so much.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Warner Bros. just released a new still from the latest Tim Burton-Johnny Depp collaboration, Dark Shadows. This is a passion project for Depp and Burton – they’ve been trying to make this film for a decade, I believe. Depp plays Barnabas Collins, a rich and powerful playboy-turned-vampire. After Collins breaks the heart of witch Angelique Bouchard (played by Eva Green), she turns him into a vampire and buries him alive for two centuries. The film also stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonny Lee Miller, Helena Bonham Carter and Chloe Moretz. If you’d like to read more about the film, go here and here.

Dark Shadows is also notable because it seems like the film where Johnny met Eva Green. Though the film wrapped a few months ago, the tabloids have just now started to report about an alleged affair between Eva and Johnny. I believe there could be something there, just because Eva seems like Johnny’s type – beautiful, French, and with a similar face to the Kate Moss/Vanessa Paradis/Winona Ryder type that Johnny seems to enjoy. I’m hoping that the Eva Green rumors get more traction now that everyone is speculating about Depp’s maybe-split with Vanessa.

Speaking of the split, alleged or no, there’s some additional information – I’ll do bullet points:

*People Mag has a new photo of Vanessa, alone in Paris. She doesn’t look weepy or anything, she just looks like she’s cold and tired. Sources say she was shopping at a music and book store near the Arc de Triomphe, and she purchased a DVD box set which included The Seven Year Itch. People Mag says that Vanessa is due to make a red carpet appearance on Monday, so it should be interesting – if she’s got something to promote, I wonder if she’ll talk about the split rumors in interviews?

*According to The Sun, Johnny Depp has spent the past year making lavish real estate acquisitions, seemingly setting up his international bachelor pads – there’s a “13-bedroom mansion he bought in the Norfolk village of Burnham Market in the UK.” Depp has long wanted an English country estate, and now he’s got one. He also bought a “$1.5 million loft conversion in Los Angeles last March, despite the family having an $8 million mansion just a couple of miles away in West Hollywood.” An insider told Now Magazine, “He got the builders in and made it clear he intended to live there, which seemed odd as they have an 8-bedroom house nearby.”

*More details from People Magazine’s cover story this week – an insider tells the mag, “My sense is that this is a couple which hasn’t existed for two years.” In November, both Vanessa and Johnny were in Paris while he promoted The Rum Diary. Vanessa made sure to make separate plans, though – a source says, “While Johnnny went to his premiere, she went instead to a concert that night. It was weird and pretty clear: You’re in town and don’t go to the premiere of [Johnny's] film? One which he starred in, produced?”

*Vanesssa didn’t go with Johny to the Cannes Film Festival in May 2011 – a source says, “We couldn’t believe they wouldn’t come together.” Then, over the summer of 2011, Vanessa and Johnny went on vacation on their yacht Vajoliroja, “but it was an awkward trip.” A witness says, “They didn’t arrive to pick up the boat together. When it was over, they were off in separate directions.”

*Some say that Vanessa put her career on hold a lot over the past decade while Johnny became a huge movie star, and some say that Vanessa kind of resents him for it. She thought they’d be raising their kids in France, in a quieter environment, not spending months and months on location while Johnny worked.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Warner Bros.

Holy hell! People Magazine is calling out Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis ON THE COVER. After weeks and weeks of speculation in the trashier tabloids, People Mag has decided to make the chatter legit by officially speculating on the state of Johnny and Vanessa’s 14-year-relationship. As I said, Radar, Star Mag and the Enquirer have been on this story for weeks, claiming that Johnny has been boozing it up and his drinking and “mid-life crisis” have driven him and Vanessa apart. Radar claimed that Johnny was consulting with lawyers to explore his options (for his money and custody of the kids, I guess). Then, last week, we were one of the first sites to use an Enquirer story which claimed that Johnny and Eva Green had gotten too close while filming Dark Shadows. Now People Mag is getting in the mix:

Once upon a time, Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis lived a quiet family life far from the spotlight in the sleepy French hamlet of Plan-de-la-Tour.

But that time is no more, and now the couple largely reside in L.A. – when they are in the same city at all.

Depp, 48, and Paradis, 39, who are parents to Lily-Rose, 12, and Jack, 9, have not appeared side-by-side on a red carpet for more than a year. Multiple sources tell PEOPLE in this week’s cover story that the relationship is all but officially finished.

In fact, some in their circle say the couple of nearly 14 years have already split. Says one insider: “It’s so sad.”

For much more on this story, including details on Depp’s solo nights out, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

[From People]

As I’ve said from the beginning, I’ll totally buy that Depp and Paradis are having problems. They don’t seem to spend that much time together, and Depp has seemed really weird over the past year, getting drunk in public and seeming to act like a bachelor.

Of course, there’s another tabloid report, this time with the tabloid’s favorite villainess, Angelina Jolie. In this story, though, Angelina is The Guardian of Good Relationships. Now Magazine claims that Angelina has reached out to her “friend” Johnny and urged him to “repair his relationship” with Vanessa. A source tells Now Mag, “They stayed in touch after The Tourist. When she heard what was going on she reached out to him to see how he was coping and urged him to work it out.” So… Eva Green is being cast as the new Angelina Jolie then?

Photos courtesy of People Mag, WENN.

This week’s tabloids are full of rumors and innuendo about Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis’s relationship. These rumors have been swirling for about a month pretty consistently – first it was “Johnny Depp is having a mid-life crisis and Vanessa is pissed” and then it was “Johnny is miserable and Vanessa is holding on and Johnny is consulting lawyers.” And now it’s “Johnny is miserable, consulting lawyers and Vanessa is a Jealous Monster who won’t let him bone Eva Green.” First up, Star Magazine’s story which is basically like last week’s Radar story:

Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis’s world has been crumbling behind the scenes!

“Johnny’s been having relationship problems with Vanessa that have been brewing behind the scenes for a while,” says a source close to Depp. “He started making phone calls to friends toward the end of last year, talking about how unhappy he’s been with Vanessa and how he wants out of the relationship.”

Johnny Depp’s longtime love is green with envy over his sexy young co-star in the upcoming horror movie Dark Shadows, sources say. Vanessa Paradis – who’s had two children with Depp during their 14-year-romance – is seething over his onscreen chemistry with Eva Green, according to insiders.

“They’ve always had a strange relationship, often spending weeks apart… now I think Johnny’s absences are more serious. His friends think he’s going through some sort of mini-midlife crisis.” The source adds that Johnny is “really struggling to deal with the crucial problems between himself and Vanessa.”

One of the biggest problems is Vanessa’s jealousy – “When you’re one of the sexiest men in the world, attractive women are constantly throwing themselves at you – and Johnny can be a bit of a flirt when he’s not home. That’s driven Vanessa crazy in the past, and I’m sure it’s just added to their troubled and helped push them to the brink.”

Meanwhile, “Johnny’s been drinking more over his unhappiness with his and Vanessa’s situation,” says the source. “His behavior is starting to raise some red flags. He just doesn’t seem to be handling this well at all, and it’s heartbreaking.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition]

Vanessa is jealous, you say? Let’s see how she feels when Johnny starts taking breaks with Eva Green in his trailer! That’s the way to mend a 14-year-relationship with the mother of your children, right Johnny?

“Vanessa is afraid that Johnny has fallen head over heels for Eva,” a close source told the Enquirer. “Like Vanessa, Eva is a French actress and model, and Vanessa senses that she’s exactly Johnny’s type. Friends have even remarked that Eva looks like a younger Vanessa. Johnny has brushed off Vanessa’s fears, but it’s caused so much tension that rumors are flying they’re about to split up.”

Vanessa had originally lobbied for her younger sister Alysson to get the Dark Shadows role, but sources say “Johnny wanted Eva all along. He personally had her audition for Dark Shadows and they became close on the set. She spent lots of time in his trailer.”

“Vanessa’s worst fear is that Johnny wants someone new in his life,” added the source. “Even though it all seems to be in her head, it’s making Johnny sick.”

[From The Enquirer, print edition]

Look, none of this paints a very attractive portrait of Johnny Depp. He seems like he’s knee-deep in some kind of mid-life crisis, or maybe he’s just so insanely rich, he’s completely lost perspective on everything. All I know is that it really does seem like he’s spending more time drinkin’ and sluttin’ up the world than he spends with his family. For shame, Johnny.

Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News & WENN.

A few weeks ago, Star Magazine had an interesting story about Johnny Depp. According to their sources, Depp has been acting kind of crazy lately because he’s in the midst of an alcohol-soaked mid-life crisis. Vanessa Paradis, his partner of more than a decade, is not amused. Allegedly, Vanessa has basically told him to go away, get his act together, and then come back to her and the children. Meanwhile, Johnny is still partying and working and basically acting like a single dude. Now, Radar and Star are owned by the same parent company, and this Radar story sounds a lot like Star’s report – but I still find it interesting.

Hollywood heavyweight Johnny Depp’s long term relationship with Vanessa Paradis is on the rocks RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned, and the actor is struggling to deal with their crucial problems, says a source.

Johnny, 48, and the mother of his two children, have been arguing constantly and this may be the end for the couple as they head towards Splitsville.

“Johnny isn’t handling anything well right now,” a source close to the Pirates of the Caribbean star told RadarOnline.com.

“People around him are worried about how Johnny is doing because he and Vanessa seem so fractured right now. Their relationship is heading toward the end.”

While Depp’s movies are doing well, his personal life may be falling apart. “Johnny has started reaching out to lawyers, probably to quietly discuss how to get out of the relationship. They’re not married but they’ve been together for years and have kids together so it isn’t as easy as just breaking up,” the source said.

While Johnny has tried to put on a brave face for his children, the source said friends are concerned about him.

“Johhny is so talented at acting, but he doesn’t seem able to hide how badly things are going right now.”

[From Radar]

On one side, it’s really sad to think that Johnny and Vanessa could be headed for a split. They have an unconventional relationship in general – and I’m not just talking about the whole “famously unmarried” stuff. In Depp’s interviews over the past few years, I find it remarkable how often he and Vanessa are not in the same city. She’s rarely with him while he’s on location, and it just doesn’t seem like they spend that much time together in general. So… that’s sad. On the other hand, it would certainly be interesting to see Johnny Depp as a single bachelor in his 40s, right? How many A-list women would try to hop on that? I think Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard might have a head start. Maybe even Amber Heard…

Photos courtesy of WENN.

When Johnny Depp appeared on Vanity Fair a few months ago, his unfortunate “rape” comments made all of the headlines – he compared photo shoots to “being raped somehow,” and that issue eclipsed the other parts of the interview. Once I got the chance to read the whole thing, it struck me that Depp isn’t the mysterious poet/beatnik that he once was (or that we thought he once was). Nowadays, he’s usually wasted. Nowadays, he’s kind of full of himself. Nowadays, he doesn’t seem to be so obsessed with his girlfriend of 13 years, Vanessa Paradis. Star Magazine has an oddly on-target story about the “rough patch” that Johnny’s been in for a while, and how friends are referring to it as his “mini midlife crisis.” In turn, sources claim that Vanessa was having none of it, and she told Johnny to only come home after he sorted himself out.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Johnny Depp once said when asked why he never married his girlfriend of 13 years, Vanessa Paradis. But multiple sources tell Star the couple recently was mired in a relationship crisis so severe, it threatened to tear them apart for good.

Johnny and Vanessa have been living separate lives for months, as she remained at their home in the South of France and he hit the road to promote his film The Rum Diary. But Johnny wasn’t spending his nights alone. On Nov. 20, Depp showed up at hot NYC lounge Kenmare with seven women in two. In addition to ordering bottle service for his bevy of beauties, “He flirted with more than one model type and danced with several girls,” an insider tells Star. “People were wondering if he was single again, because it definitely looked like it.”

Indeed, sources reveal that Johnny and Vanessa were going through a rough patch as the 48-year-old experienced what his friends believed was a “mini-midlife crisis.”

“Johnny was on a bit of a downward spiral for the past year or so,” a friend admits. “He was drinking and partying more than he probably should.”

Vanessa initially pushed her partner away as his behavior grew more erratic, says the source.

“She told Johnny to come back when he got it out of his system.” But she would never willingly let him go forever, the pal says. “Vanessa has built her life around Johnny and would be destroyed if he left her,” explains the friend, adding that the gorgeous duo have reconciled for now and are back on track. “It’s a strange relationship. Johnny and Vanessa are either madly in love or at each other’s throats. But it works for them.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition]

That’s what I always hear about Johnny and Vanessa – that they’re very passionate and volatile, that they’re two eccentric personalities, and that they spend a lot of time apart. If you go back and read Johnny’s past VF interviews, you start to get an idea of just how much time they spend apart – weeks, even months at a time, and in Vanessa’s absence, Johnny seems to spend his free time partying and drinking (and working, sure). So is there trouble in Paradis-paradise? Maybe. Or maybe they just have an unconventional relationship that works for them?

Photos courtesy of Fame & WENN.

Amber Heard covers the December issue of Women’s Health, which paints a pretty complimentary picture (as well as a flattering photoshoot) of Amber as a very dedicated actress who also happens to be a voracious reader during her off-duty moments. Also, remember that ridiculous story from In Touch about Heard abandoning her lesbian ways for Johnny Depp? That little rumor gets dispelled in very short order as well:

On Keeping Work At Work: She won over Rum Diary director Bruce Robinson and, it would seem, her costar Johnny Depp. When some of the cast went out to blow off steam after a day of shooting, she would disappear. And at the end of filming, says Robinson, “I remember Johnny and I saying, ‘Jesus, where’s Amber?’” What young actress passes up drinks with a film god like Johnny Depp? One who prefers to make an impression on the job, not off it. But also, one who was in a serious relationship at the time. With a woman.

On Keeping A Fitness Routine: If a routine is broken, it’s easy to backslide into laziness. So keep telling yourself, I want this. Because after you get into a routine, your body will want it. “Once you start working out, you feel better and it becomes something you make time to do,” says Amber. Many women hit the gym to look better, but that can’t be your only motivation. Otherwise, you’ll feel discouraged when you don’t see results fast enough. “It’s about feeling healthy,” says Amber. And that’s something that happens the minute you make a positive change.

On Her Exercise: “I personally run, just because that’s all, for me in time management, running seems to be the most time — accommodating exercise to do. I have recently gotten into tennis, and I also do Pilates in LA. It’s funny, because once you start working to really do an hour, you start feeling so much better that it becomes something that you make time to do. We as human beings always make time for the things we really want. I just feel so much better when I start working out that you just find time to do it.”

On Cooking: Amber prefers to make her own food — even when she works a 90-hour week — so that she can control what ingredients go in (mostly vegetables and lean protein). Amber reads food labels — and if she sees an ingredient she doesn’t recognize, she often leaves the item on the shelf. That might limit you in the snack aisle, but it will lead you to eat fewer processed foods. “You feel better when you’re eating food that retains nutritional value,” she says.

[From Women's Health]

Yeah, this is the usual generic fitness advice that most features in women’s health magazines tend to issue on a monthly basis. Nothing new there. However, the part about Amber “ditching” her co-stars for after-work drinks (and more) is actually pretty cool and interesting. She’s a professional and not a casting couch type, and that leads one to believe that Amber isn’t merely a flash in the acting pan.

However, this article certainly implies that Johnny Depp was completely game for drinking with the cast and crew on a nightly basis, right? That’s not terribly surprising, for he’s been hitting the bottle hard lately, and it shows.

Photos courtesy of Women’s Health

Johnny Depp’s sort of been on our collective sh-t list around here lately due to the fact that he really doesn’t seem to be behaving like his usual self in public. Things took a decided turn for the worst with this round of promotion for The Rum Diary. To recap, Johnny compared photoshoots to rape. He whined about the trappings of fame. In response to the poor box office showing for the movie thus far, he stated that middle America doesn’t want intelligent films (and in doing so, he picked on my hometown). And in a particularly awkward moment, he fell over drunk on the street, which led CB to speculate whether he was having relationship problems with Vanessa Paradis.

Meanwhile, In Touch has added fuel to the fire with word from “an insider” that Johnny developed an intense, on-set flirtation with his co-star, Amber Heard, who is a publicly declared lesbian and just happens to have a very serious girlfriend of three years. The article tries to make the case that Amber is “not 100% lesbian.” Really:

As Amber Heard strutted down the red carpet in a skintight gown at The Rum Diary premiere in London, all eyes were fixed on the sexy starlet — including those of her very taken co-star, Johnny Depp. “He immediately greeted her, leaning in to kiss her cheek and whisper in her ear,” an onlooker at the soiree tells In Touch of the pair, who play lovers in the film. “She laughed and rubbed his back. They were definitely flirting!”

And according to an insider, the cozy act wasn’t just for the cameras. Although their reps of course deny they did anything appropriate, “Amber has been saying that she and Johnn had really intense chemistry,” the insider says. At the film’s after-party at New York’s Hiro Ballroom, Amber’s friends were overheard teasing her about her flirtation with Johnny, with one even saying, “Why all know how close you two got on set!” Amber laughed and told them to be quiet, even though she thought it was funny.

One person that might not find this funny — his girlfriend of 13 years, Vanessa Paradis. For years, Johnny has presented himself as a satisfied family man, happy to retreat to his home in France with Vanessa and their kids. But at 48, it looks like the former bad boy is falling back into some dangerous old habits. He’s not only been out late looking wasted at parties in L.A., but he also partied hard with co-star Amber, confides the insider.

In fact, the pair acted like teenagers while making the film. “The set was wild,” the insider claims, adding that with his girlfriend and young children nowhere in sight, Johnny quickly took a liking to gorgeous Amber. “She is a very sexual person,” the insider explains of the 25-year-old. “She is beautiful, and she knows it.” At the many wild after-parties Johnny threw for the cast, Amber always stayed late, flirted shamelessly with him — and showed off her body. “One night, she was dancing very seductively.”

And as the pair reconnect to promote the film on the red carpet at premieres, their partners seem completely unaware. Indeed, Johnny’s still trying to juggle his rock-star side with his stable family-guy shtick with Vanessa — and Amber has no intentions of leaving her girlfriend, Tasya Van Re. “This is what happens on movie sets,” says the insider. If that’s the case, for his next film, Vanessa may want to consider moving into his trailer!

[From In Touch, print edition, November 21, 2011]

So is this report just a bunch of crap? Probably. I think there might be something to CB’s suspicions that Johnny and Vanessa might be having problems because he has been behaving quite oddly lately, which is a good sign that his home life might be off kilter. However, I don’t think there’s much for Vanessa to worry about when it comes to Amber. She’s into girls. Period.

Photos courtesy of Fame

Oh Johnny Depp, why do you have to have foot in mouth disease all the time lately? I used to love you so. (See this post.) Anyway my former lover Johnny gave an interview to The Guardian explaining that on one hand he didn’t really give a toss whether Rum Diary did well at the box office, and on the other that he thinks it will do better in Europe, because “it’s an intelligent film. And a lot of times, outside the big cities in the States, they don’t want that.” So you can accuse me of misquoting him in that title, but that’s pretty much how he was quoted in the Guardian. He also complained about not being able to smoke in America, but said he wasn’t going to accept residency in France because he’d have to pay taxes there. The highest tax rate in France is 40% while the highest tax rate in America is 35%. (Roughly.) Johnny should have moved to Switzerland. Here’s more of what he said, and he came off badly here – again.

“In Los Angeles, the hoity toities, the beautiful people, will sit on Sunset Strip and have their meal at these kind of fancy restaurants where no one can smoke – but you can inhale car fumes all you like.” He shakes his head. “I mean, that to me says it all….”

Early US box office returns suggest The Rum Diary may not break even – but he says he couldn’t care less about the money. “No, God no, no. It’s always a crap shoot, and really if you have that in your head while you’re making a movie the process would become something very different. No, I couldn’t give a rat’s arse really, not really.”

The publicity blitz in the past week might make cynics suggest otherwise. But the film is Depp’s homage to Thompson, who died in 2005, and also the first release by Depp’s own production company, which would account for his uncharacteristically energetic media campaign. “I believe that this film, regardless of what it makes in, you know, Wichita, Kansas, this week – which is probably about $13 – it doesn’t make any difference. I believe that this film will have a shelf life. I think it will stick around and people will watch it and enjoy it.” Does he suspect it will go down better in Europe than the US?

“Most definitely. It’s something that will be more appreciated over here, I think. Cos it’s – well, I think it’s an intelligent film.” He leaves a meaningful pause. “And a lot of times, outside the big cities in the States, they don’t want that.”

Depp’s well-documented love affair with all things European has always had a hint of hero worship about it too. I ask if there’s anything he doesn’t like about Europe, and he thinks hard for a while. “No. Not that I can think of, no. It’s a very old and beautiful culture, people know how to live. You know, here you have Sunday roast or the pub lunch, that kind of thing. It’s comforting. We don’t have that in our culture in the States. Sunday is football day, so it’s chicken wings and pizza…”

So when I ask if he could ever imagine living [in The US] again, his reply comes as quite a surprise.

“Well, I kind of do. I’m between wherever I end up on location, and then the States.”

What? Hang on a minute; why did he leave France? He makes a sour noise, part grunt, part hurrumph. “Cos France wanted a piece of me. They wanted me to become a permanent resident. Permanent residency status – which changes everything. They just want,” and he mimes peeling off notes in his palm. “Dough. Money.”

If Depp spends more than 183 days in France, he explains indignantly, he’d have to start paying income tax. “I’m certainly not ready to give up my American citizenship. You don’t have to give up your American citizenship,” he adds sarcastically, but then he’d have to pay tax in both countries, “so you essentially work for free.”

[From The Guardian]

It’s not true that you can be taxed twice, by a foreign country and the US, if you are a US citizen. You do get credit for taxes paid to a foreign country. I’ve lived abroad for six years and I sort-of know what I’m talking about. (No matter where you live outside the US or for how long, if you’re a US citizen you have to file taxes in the US.) I double-checked and if you’re in Johnny’s league, it can get incredibly expensive and complicated though. So I guess I don’t blame him for not wanting to become a French resident. I do blame him for bitching about his taxes, for claiming he would be working for “free” if he paid more taxes, for acting like the existence of car exhaust somehow excuses smoke fumes or makes people who are adverse to smoke fumes hypocrites, and for saying that anywhere outside the big cities in the US we don’t want “intelligent films” and are somehow uncultured compared to Europe. He really bugs me lately, and he’s been talking a lot of smack. Does he think we don’t read these interviews he does with the British press or does he just not care?

Here’s Johnny addressing the Oxford Union at Oxford. He looks like a Johnny Depp impersonator. You know one of the last celebrities who spoke in front of that illustrious organization? Katie Price. Credit: Fame

Johnny Depp worked the hell out of a blue suit at the Rum Diary premiere in London last night. I think he looks really good here, and like he’s almost back to his old self. It’s probably his perfectly tousled hair, his goatee that looks like it just sprung up unattended but was probably carefully cultivated, and the fact that he looks just like he used to. Remember his 2008 Oscar appearance with Vanessa Paradis? He looks the same here with a few extra pounds that he carries very well.

Johnny is still making headlines for being drunk a lot, just like his character in Rum Diary. In mid October we saw video of Johnny falling over drunk while trying to sign autographs, and at the NY premiere of the Rum Diary Johnny appeared drunk and at some points was held up by a bodyguard. As Evil Beet speculates, Johnny could simply have been acting wasted at the premiere to promote the film, in which his character is a raging alcoholic. This week’s In Touch asks if Johnny is out of control and quotes a “friend” who says that Vanessa is “disgusted” with his drunkenness. They use the photos of Johnny being held up by the bodyguard to illustrate their point.

Johnny Depp is a dedicated 48 year-old father of two. But lately, the former hell-raiser seems to be regressing to his hard-partying youth.

“Johnny mellowed himself out over the past 10 years,” a friend explains, even swearing off hard alcohol at the behest of longtime partner Vanessa Paradis. Now, the friend says, he’s fallen off the wagon – and it’s threatening to destroy his relationship.

“Johnny went on a spectacular bender recently while visiting LA. He was stumbling around and slurring his words.” Perhaps Johnny – currently promoting The Rum Diary… has just gone method? If so, he’d better shape up. “Vanessa is disgusted,” the friend says.

[From In Touch, print edition, November 14, 2011]

I believe that Johnny drinks a lot, and that he has been drinking as he’s doing promotion for Rum Diary. He was wasted during his Vanity Fair interview and he just did an interview with The Daily Mail in which he got drunk with the journalist and the screenwriter/director of Rum Diary, Bruce Robinson. (Shown below.) Robinson blamed Depp for convincing him to drink again after he was abstinent for six years. So it definitely sounds like Johnny loves getting drunk and shooting the sh*t with his friends. He looks sober here, though, and like he’s cool with promoting the film. Look at how cute he is kissing Amber Heard! (Kaiser reviewed her look here.) I bet they had a great rapport on set. If it’s true that his partner is “disgusted” that he’s getting so drunk, I hope everything is ok for him at home. Maybe he’s drinking because they’re having problems, and they’re having problems because he’s drinking. It can be cyclical that way.

Photo credit: WENN and Fame