These are some photos of Vanessa Paradis in Cabourg, France over the weekend. Obviously, she was flying solo at the Romantic Film Festival, but she did look happy and… free? A source told People Magazine that everything about her separation “was all decided before she got on that plane.” Which brings me to the questions I have, and I think a lot of people have: just when did everything go to hell between Vanessa and Johnny Depp? There have been rumors about them for a year, and those rumors really heated up in the past six months, with allegations of affairs (mostly on Johnny’s part) and financial dealings (did Vanessa already get a settlement?) and a constant back-and-forth in the media. I really don’t know WHEN they split, but I suspect that it’s not the version we’re getting right now.

People Magazine has a quote from a source close to the couple claiming that Johnny and Vanessa have been trying to work things out for months – “They’ve tried for months to save the relationship… but have known for weeks that it couldn’t be saved.” For weeks? My guess is still “months”. Anyway, The Mail has an exhaustive piece about the split, and since there’s some new information in there, let’s just go ahead and go through it:

They were said to have been living separate lives from months before it was finally confirmed that Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis had split. And while the break up was only confirmed yesterday it seems that the French singer was preparing to move on and move out weeks ago.

Vanessa, 39, was seen house hunting at a number of plush properties in Beverly Hills at the end of May. The Café de Flore star visited a number of properties with price tags of between $7million and $11million. Vanessa appeared glum as she looked around the properties on May 23 and there was no mistaking the strain of the relationship breakdown has taken its toll. The French star was seen looking at a number of properties in Malibu and Beverly Hills including a seven bedroom home which is listed at $7,995,000.

As late as last month Johnny Depp had denied there was any rift between himself and Vanessa, despite reports stating that they were living separate lives dating back to January.

A source told The Sun last night: ‘It’s so sad. Johnny and Vanessa gambled that they could move to California and be on long stays on film locations for his career. They bet that things would continue there as they had in the south of France. They lost that bet. She went seven years between albums and films, while he became Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates films.’

Reasons for the split have ranged from career obligations pulling them apart to claims Depp had a fling with his Rum Diaries co-star Amber Heard. The blonde bombshell, who came out as bi-sexual in 2010, was seen boarding Johnny’s private jet to Las Vegas in April, fuelling rumours of a relationship between the co-stars.

Yesterday Depp’s publicist confirmed the split in a statement that read: ‘Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis have amicably separated. Please respect their privacy and, more importantly, the privacy of their children.’

Depp is worth an estimated $300million and the family have divided their time between their homes in Meudon, in the suburbs of Paris, two in Los Angeles, an island he bought in The Bahamas and their villa in Le Plan-de-la-Tour, a small town 20 km from Saint-Tropez, in the south of France.

[From The Mail]

The real estate stuff is so interesting because, for the past year, Johnny Depp has reportedly been buying up properties in England and Los Angeles like they were candy. I guess part of the settlement with Vanessa is that she’ll have her own place in Los Angeles, where she and the kids can stay when they’re visiting Johnny at work? I wonder how the custodial issues are going to work out in the end – especially because Lily-Rose is already a teenager. Oh, and I suspect Johnny is worth more than $300 million. Which was probably a factor in the settlement?

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis are over. Finally. I mean, I’m glad they finally got around to making an official announcement because I’m so tired of typing “allegedly” over and over. This stuff has been going on for the better part of a year, and I believe that Depp was and is in the midst of mid-life crisis, complete with other women and lots of toys and money. So why all the angst and back-and-forth and outright denials? Were they really trying to work it out? Or did one of them (Vanessa?) just not want to let go?

It’s official: Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis have split after 14 years together.

The couple “have amicably separated,” Depp’s publicist said in a statement released to Entertainment Tonight Tuesday. “Please respect their privacy and, more importantly, the privacy of their children.”

As PEOPLE has reported, the two drifted into living separate lives after moving to Los Angeles from France. They haven’t appeared together on a red carpet in a year and, an insider told PEOPLE about their crumbling relationship, “It’s so sad.”

The couple have two children together: Lily-Rose, 13, and Jack, 9.

Depp, 49, and Paradis, 39, first got together in 1998. Their romance began that June, when Depp saw the French actress sitting with a group of friends at the bar of the Costes Hotel in Paris, where he was having dinner with colleagues. Depp had a friend invite her over, and they talked for two hours.

A longtime resident of Plan-de-la-Tour in southern France, Depp recently told French magazine VSD that living in France with Paradis and their kids “has given me everything. A marvelous family and also an equilibrium which I missed enormously.”

And in 2010, Paradis gushed to the U.K. edition of Marie Claire about her man.

“I could make an endless list of all the things I admire about him,” she said. “We understand that, if we want our relationship to continue, we must give each other space, allow each other to go off on our own, and trust each other. Not everyone is lucky enough to be given space and trust.”

In another interview, Paradis explained why the pair never felt the need to marry.

“I love the romance of ‘let’s get married,’ but then, when you have it so perfect … I mean, I’m more married than anybody can be – we have two kids. Maybe one day, but it’s something I can really do without,” Paradis once told Elle.

[From People Magazine]

Well, it should be interesting to see how all of this plays out. What does a single Johnny Depp look like in today’s Hollywood? Are women just going to be throwing themselves at him right and left? Will Johnny remain single for a while or do you think he’ll plunge head-first into another relationship? Ashley Olsen wants to know. As does Amber Heard. And Eva Green. As for Vanessa… I feel bad for her. I feel like she put up with a lot of crap from him in the end. Of course, I also think that Vanessa is going to walk away with a nice, quiet settlement, and she’s going to find someone sexy and French to hang out with next. So maybe Vanessa wins in the end, because she’s not the one having a mid-life crisis in the middle of Hollywood.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Are Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis still together? Are they over? Are they sort of together and working it out for the kids? Have they both moved on to other partners? I really don’t know the answers to any of those questions. People Magazine claimed months ago that Johnny and Vanessa were totally over, but Johnny said last month that the split rumors weren’t true. Johnny and Vanessa are sometimes in the same city, but they do seem to be separated by geography most of the time this year. Plus, Johnny can’t go a month without rumors spreading about his various, alleged hookups. Eva Green… Ashley Olsen… and Amber Heard. Personally, if Johnny was going to fool around I hoped it would be with Eva Green, who is a sexy bitch. But it really seems like Amber Heard is the one alleged mistress who is sticking around. The tabloids have been claiming off and on for months that Depp and Heard had an affair, and that they continue to see each other. Here’s something recent:

Among the more complicated celebrity relationships may be the one involving Johnny Depp and longtime love Vanessa Paradis.

In the wake of reports the “Dark Shadows” star and the French singer had split after 14 years and two children, the couple put out the word they are not kaput, even though they have not been seen together in public for more than a year.

There were indications that a fling between Depp and his “The Rum Diary” co-star Amber Heard may have led Paradis to pull the plug, but that was denied by them, even as “Diary” insiders claim it was true. Making it all even more complicated: Heard recently admitted she is bisexual and is involved with artist and photographer Tasya van Ree.

Yet, there also have been recent sightings of Heard and Depp — though the privacy-obsessed Depp has been able to avoid being photographed with Heard, at least so far.

[From Chicago Sun-Times]

Last month there were also rumors that Amber and Johnny had a hot Las Vegas hookup, and Amber was even photographed getting onto Johnny’s private plane. I don’t even know. My guess is that Amber is bisexual, not full-on lesbian, and that she and Johnny did have something going, on and off, no strong commitments. Of course, I also think Johnny is in the midst of a full-blown midlife crisis, so I’ll believe pretty much anything.

In the meantime, Johnny continues to film The Lone Ranger, which has gone incredibly over-budget and weeks behind schedule. You can read more about it here – it sounds like Johnny is having some issues.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.

If you were Johnny Depp, arguably one of the richest, most beloved and most famous actors in the world, would you spend your time confirming or denying your relationship status to the UK tabloid The Sun? No disrespect to the Rupert Murdoch tabloid – I often read The Sun online and pick up stories – but I think less of any A-list celebrity who gives away their exclusive to a rag like The Sun. Allegedly, that’s exactly what happened though. At last night’s UK premiere of Dark Shadows, Johnny spoke to The Sun’s red carpet reporter, and he answered the “Are you and Vanessa Paradis over?” question. Johnny’s reply: “The rumors are not true. They are absolutely not true… No matter what I say about this, people believe the opposite. I can’t say enough about it not being over.”

Now, just the sheer fact that it’s from The Sun is enough to make my side-eye twitch. But People Magazine is running the story too, linking to The Sun’s story. People Mag, as you may remember, was the publication that legitimized all of the other tabloid reports about Vanessa and Johnny’s relationship trouble. People declared them “all but officially finished.” So how does People Mag handle this?

Four months after PEOPLE reported that Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis’s relationship was all but finished, Depp on Wednesday denied that he and his partner of 14 years had split.

“The rumors are not true. They are absolutely not true,” the actor, 48, said on the red carpet for the London premiere of Dark Shadows, according to U.K.’s Sun.

Still, conspicuously absent from the premiere was Paradis, who has not been seen publicly with Depp since reports about trouble between them. She also has not shared a red carpet with him in at least a year and a half.

In January, Paradis was alone at the premiere of her own movie, Café de Flore. At the time, Paradis, 39 – a French singer, model and actress, and mother of two children with Depp – was evasive when asked about a split.

This is the first time Depp has publicly addressed the matter.

“No matter what I say about this, people believe the opposite,” Depp said at Wednesday’s premiere. “I can’t say enough about it not being over.”

Also quoted by the Mirror, Depp reportedly said of the rumors, “There’s no truth anymore. It doesn’t matter what I say to you right now, it doesn’t make any difference.”

[From People]

I believe that Depp’s publicist/manager gave People Mag the go-ahead nod on the January cover story about Depp and Paradis’s split. I think Vanessa and Johnny were having huge problems, and they probably took a break, or a time-out, or maybe they just split for good. I think Johnny has been in the midst of a mid-life crisis – complete with other woman and lots of booze – for more than a year. I also think there’s a strong possibility that Vanessa told Johnny to go and figure his sh-t out and come back to her. Maybe that’s what we’re seeing now – Johnny and Vanessa have worked out some kind of arrangement where they’re “together” for their kids but both are exploring other relationships. Whatever. That’s just how I read it.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

The LA premiere of Dark Shadows went down two nights ago, but we missed covering the photos from the event yesterday (because of the Met Gala). So… even though these pics are kind of late, I hope you enjoy them. Because I’m seeing a lot of gossip-potential and gossip story lines here. First up, Johnny Depp. When I first glanced through the pics, I thought for sure that I was looking at Johnny’s wax figure. Right? His face looks really different/weird to me. Oddly smooth. I’m not screaming “BOTOX!” but it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Depp has had a little something done. Maybe a chemical peel? Some kind of laser treatment? He’s also gotten a tan – he’s been working out in sun, I think, on The Lone Ranger. Other than that… this is the face of a mid-life crisis.

Next up: Eva Green! I still believe the rumors that Johnny and Eva might have had an affair while filming Dark Shadows, and that they might still be engaged in a little something. Eva and Johnny took pains not to pose together. Eva looks kind of crazy, but I think that’s her “look.” She actually IS crazy/beautiful.

Here’s Bella Heathcote. That name may sound familiar to you. Not only is she in Dark Shadows, but she was also had a part in a Brad Pitt film, which shot last year. The tabloids tried to make it sound like Bella and Brad had an affair – go here to read the old story. She does look a little bit like Angelina. I’d like to see what she looks like without those damn bangs.

Chloe Moretz… she’s a pretty girl. I like that she’s covered up on top.

I’m pretty sure Michelle Pfeiffer is a vampire. For real.

I apologize to all of you who don’t understand my Jonny Lee Miller obsession, but good GOD I love this man. He’s so sexy (to me).

Photos courtesy of WENN.

A few weeks ago, there were some photos floating around of Johnny Depp performing on stage with Marilyn Manson – you can see some of the photos here. I think Raccoon McPantless was at that gig too. Anyway, the gig was billed as just some kind of weird thing, a stunt for the Revolver Golden God Awards. Marilyn and Johnny are tight – Johnny might even have a cameo appearance on Marilyn’s next album. So… they’re friendly. Friendly enough for Marilyn to perform at Johnny’s son’s birthday party? Weird, right? In Touch Weekly claims that for Jack Depp’s 10th birthday, Johnny treated him to a big rock n roll extravaganza with a big price tag:

Johnny Depp is possibly the coolest dad in the world, and he proved it once and for all when he threw a wild birthday bash for his 10-year-old son, Jack, at SLS in LA on April 7. An insider says Depp, 48, shelled out more than $50,000 to entertain 500 friends in a ballroom that was turned into a giant arcade. And if that wasn’t quite enough, Marilyn Manson and Aerosmith also performed!

“It was crazy – especially for someone who was turning 10!” says the source. One person not there? Jack’s mom, Vanessa Paradis.

[From In Touch Weekly, print edition]

Is that what 10-year-olds are into? Marilyn Manson and Aerosmith? Wouldn’t a 10-year-old be more interested in Justin Bieber or Selena Gomez or…? I don’t even know. Rihanna? Katy Perry? It sounds more like Johnny threw himself a big party and it just happened to be his son’s birthday. It also sounds like Johnny is balls-deep into his mid-life crisis. I wonder if Vanessa was pissed about her 10-year-old’s birthday party?

Oh, did you want to see the first promotional image from The Lone Ranger? Here you go. I don’t really have any comment on it. Nice bird.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, WENN, header courtesy of Alice Cooper‘s Twitter.

Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis are pretty much done. Allegedly. Johnny has been acting like a single dude, partying, working and living it up, and he’s even rumored to have boned one of the Olsen girls too. Basically, Johnny believes that he’s single. Still, Vanessa is occasionally spotted in LA, where I assume she flies in with the kids so Johnny can have time with them too. Maybe this is the modern relationship – not together, but still very much connected, still caring about one another, but still screwing around. Anyway, Star Magazine reports that Johnny might be one of those “I can’t believe she’s spending time with a dude when I’m hooking up with randoms – how dare she!” kind of men. Yes, Johnny is suspicious of Vanessa’s relationship with a French musician named Benjamin Biolay. This is Biolay:

Suspicious. I hate when men purse their lips like that. So unattractive. Here’s his Wiki – he used to be married to of Chiara Mastroianni (daughter of Catherine Deneuve)! Still, I’m sure someone out there will be all “He’s hot, go Vanessa!” As well they should – I hope Vanessa moves on to someone effortlessly cool and hot. And I hope Johnny just has to eat it.

While Johnny Depp is away, his fed-up longtime partner, Vanessa Paradis, will play. Johnny and Vanessa have not officially announced their split, but Vanessa was spotted sharing an intimate meal in Paris with musician Benjamin Biolay on April 4. And Johnny – who has been boozing a lot and otherwise acting out in Hollywood lately with pals like Marilyn Manson – is devastated by the new relationship, an insider tells Star.

Vanessa and Benjamin, both 39, “are good friends, and she thinks he could be a great writing partner,” the insider explains. “But Johnny isn’t sure what’s going on between them, and he certainly does not like the amount of time she’s spending with Benjamin. He thinks it’s the final sign that Vanessa is over him. She’s stopped talking about them getting back together, when before she mentioned it every time they talked.”

But Johnny is only making things worse for himself with his tortured response from afar, says the insider. “This kind of bad behavior is the reason she left him. It’s not going to win her back.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition]

Well… most people think that Johnny was the one to leave Vanessa, not the other way around. But I’d be willing to say that it was mutual, that Vanessa was fed up with Depp’s mid-life crisis, and that she thought he’d come back to her when he got it out of his system. By the way, I’d still like to know if Depp and Eva Green really had a thing, and if that thing is still on-going. I think they definitely had an affair. But I’m not sure if it’s still happening.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

It was less than two weeks ago when In Touch Weekly claimed that Ashley Olsen and Johnny Depp may have been hooking up in Ashley’s NYC apartment. In Touch claimed that Johnny was spotted by many people coming out of Ashley’s building, having been in her apartment overnight (allegedly, although some reports claim that Depp was in Ashley Olsen’s building for business, and that he didn’t spend the night). It was a pretty gross story, what with Johnny seeming to be in the midst of a full-blown midlife crisis, and Ashley being all of 25 years old. I kind of bought the story because A) Ashley looks like Johnny’s type and B) Why not?

So, if you believed that story, I don’t know what you’ll make of this – the New York Daily News claims that Ashley and her former lover Jared Leto were “rekindling” their romance (“boning”) the other night:

ASHLEY OLSEN and Jared Leto were looking like they’ve rekindled their on-again, off-again romance on Sunday night. The 25-year-old fashion designer and the 40-year-old 30 Seconds to Mars front man — who dated briefly in 2005 and were reportedly spotted making out in 2008 — enjoyed a very flirtatious meal at the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills.

The pair were escorted to a reserved booth around 5 p.m. and couldn’t stop touching each other. Leto played with the twin’s hair, caressed her arm and even playfully poked her with his fork. (We’re not touching that one with a 10-foot butter knife.) After Leto paid for their salads, the two snacked on each other some more: Olsen hugged him and put her head on his lap. Reps for Olsen and Leto did not respond by deadline.

[From NYDN]

Is it weird that I don’t have a problem with the idea of Jared and Ashley? They make some kind of crazy sense together, although I had forgotten that there were rumors about them back in day too. Now, I don’t think much of Jared Leto in general – he’s a try-hard, and I find him rather douchey, honestly. And I’ve never really formed an opinion about Ashley and Mary-Kate, other than my opinion that their “twin brain” is extremely creepy. Ashley could do better, I’m sure. But would she? Will she? Probably not. This is her type, I think. I’m sure at some point she’ll hook up with James Franco too.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.

Will I feel the wrath of the Olsen-stans if I admit that I still can’t tell Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen apart? Because it’s true. It’s also true that I’ve never tried that hard to differentiate between them. Why would I? They share the same creepy twin brain. And now that creepy twin brain knows what Johnny Depp looks like naked. Allegedly. According to In Touch Weekly, Johnny Depp and Ashley Olsen may have hooked up. Er…

Johnny Depp publicly claims to still be happily coupled up with Vanessa Paradis — his longtime partner and the mother of his two children.

However, In Touch can exclusively reveal that on February 27, Johnny was spotted making a hasty exit from an office building connected to Ashley’s apartment building “looking like he didn’t want to be seen,” a witness tells In Touch. In fact, an office worker confirms, “An e-mail went around to the employees saying Johnny Depp was using our building to try to avoid paparazzi.”

It turns out the star, 48, was secretly leaving 23-years younger Ashley’s loft after a sneak slumber party. Arriving in the afternoon of February 26, Johnny hunkered down in Ashley’s Tribeca digs until noon the next day — nearly 24 hours later. “It was quiet in her apartment, like it was just the two of them in there,” an insider recalls, and though no one outside can know what happened, “It didn’t seem like it was just a visit between friends.”

Whatever the twosome were up to during their overnighter, it certainly left Johnny exhausted. When the star finally left the next day, “he looked like he was out of it,” an onlooker said.

[From In Touch Weekly]

Was Johnny even in New York? I keep hearing stuff about him being in LA., where he seems to be on some kind of real-estate-buying binge. Anyway, while Depp going for an Olsen makes some kind of sense (he seems to like small, delicate-looking pouty types), I just don’t think it’s on. I still believe that Eva Green had something to do with Depp’s relationship (with Vanessa Paradis) falling apart, and my guess is that Eva and Johnny are still doing… something. Now, it’s possible he screwing around on Eva too. The tabloids claimed that Johnny has been surrounding himself with ladies as his midlife crisis blossoms even further. I guess I’m just hoping that Eva Green is the one to stick it out.

Whoops, I wrote all of that up before I saw these photos – Johnny leaving a New York apartment building on February 27th. Was he leaving Ashley’s place? They totally boned.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.

I was surprised last week when we got some requests for coverage of a certain Johnny Depp story. For whatever reason (meth!), I didn’t cover it then, but I will now. THR got the scoop last week that Johnny Depp’s current project, The Lone Ranger, had its start date “pushed back a week or two” at Johnny Depp’s request. You see, he had to deal with his “personal life”:

Hi-you Silver-but not right away. The revived Lone Ranger will not gallop into principal photography Feb 12 as planned, after being pushed back from a fall 2011 shoot when its budget got shaved by $40 million. Now it’s getting held a [bit] more. A source on the film says star Johnny Depp, who’s playing Tonto, approached Gore Verbinski- his director on three Pirates films and Rango—-and asked for a reprieve of a week or two, so he can deal with his “personal life”. We assume he was referring to his deep divide with paramour Vanessa Paradis. Verbinski reply? That it would cost $ 4 million–but he ‘d do it for Depp. A spokesperson from Disney confirms the date push, but not the reason for it, nor the expense.

[From The Hollywood Reporter via Comic Book Movie]

A lot of people assume it’s because of Vanessa and the split rumors and the fact that Johnny Depp and his team basically told People Magazine that he and V-Paradis were O-V-E-R. Those people would be right. I think there’s also a decent possibility that Johnny is currently having some boozing problems, and some mid-life crisis issues. Oh, look! Another story about just that:

He may seem like the coolest guy on the planet, but Johnny Depp looks like he’s running headfirst into a midlife crisis. The 48-year-old actor recently spent time at the Highland Haven Creekside Inn in Evergreen, Colorado, where he was attending the engagement party of a friend – without his baby mama, Vanessa Paradis.

While there, Johnny was seen flirting with several gorgeous women.

“He had a crowd of girls hanging on his every word,” says a witness. Meanwhile, another source says he and Vanessa are in counseling to try to save their union. Hmm… can Johnny have his cake and eat it too?

[From In Touch Weekly, print edition]

“Cake” being “random youthful biscuits” of course. Right? Right. Smells like a mid-life crisis, tastes like a mid-life crisis, and looks like a mid-life crisis to me. I’m not sure if I actually feel bad for Johnny, though. He also just made another huge real estate purchase – another Hollywood house, to go with his international collection of estates, private islands, condos, mansions and… I dunno, ranches? Farms? This latest one is in the Hollywood Hills, and Johnny is already working on building a recording studio there. *sniffs air* Ah, Eau D’Ouchebag. Por Homme.

Also – I just love the timing of this. Several weeks ago, the studio released the first images from Dark Shadows. The images featured the likes of Jonny Lee Miller and Depp in various scenes from the movie. Then, very quietly this week, the studio released the photo below – Depp and costar Eva Green. Eva is allegedly one of the big reasons Johnny and Vanessa Paradis are over (or having so many problems). It’s a sexy image, isn’t it?

Photos courtesy of WENN.