Was I naïve to think that Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis’s separation would be civil and not controversial in the least? Because that’s what I thought. Yes, Johnny Depp seems to be in the midst of a full-blown mid-life crisis, and yes, there was a lot of money involved and all of that, but I thought that at the end of the day, the split would be handled with some dignity and class. Not so much, as it turns out. Johnny and Vanessa are getting the full Brangelina treatment in the tabloid press, to the point where I really have to wonder if there isn’t a Team Depp camp and a Team Paradis camp leaking damaging information like crazy. First move: make Johnny sympathetic because he was slowly going out of his mind with bordeom because of Vanessa.

Johnny Depp’s breakup with his long term partner Vanessa Paradis was brewing for a long time, and RadarOnline.com has exclusive details about the real reason why they split.

“Johnny didn’t want to be with Vanessa anymore. They had grown so far apart, and he wanted to be free and try new things,” a source close to the former couple tells RadarOnline.com. “He was bored senseless with her, being with Vanessa was making him miserable. The spark had gone, and there was nothing left. Johnny just wants more from life and believes Vanessa deserves to be happier too. He’s not embroiled in some hot and heavy new romance and he has no plans to jump straight into something straight away, but he is keen to have some fun again.”

“Johnny was not handling keeping their split secret too well, it was difficult for him to carry on a farce, so now that it is out in the public he is feeling a lot happier about the situation.”

As RadarOnline.com previously reported, has been planning the split for a while.

“Johnny has wanted this relationship to end since last year,” the source says. “He has tried to get out of this for a long time.”

However, one thing is for sure — even though Johnny no longer wants to be romantically involved with Vanessa, he is determined to continue to be a hands-on dad when it comes to their two children, Lilly Rose and Jack.

“Make no mistake, Johnny is not walking away from his kids, at all,” the source says. “He loves his children, more than life itself, and he is determined to remain a constant everyday presence in their lives.”

[Via Radar]

But! The British tabloids claim that things between Johnny and Amber Heard have been “heating up,” and that Amber was ultimately “the other woman”. One UK outlet even claims that Johnny “bought Amber a horse so they can ride together.” ??? Lainey continues to say that Amber and Johnny are not boning because Amber is a full-on lesbian… although Amber herself doesn’t self-identify as a lesbian (or as bisexual, or as straight). I tend to think Amber probably is bisexual, in that she’s had sexual and romantic relationship with men and women, and will continue to do so. Basically, I’m not buying the “Amber is a lesbian, that’s why she’s not boning Johnny Depp” defense. They were in Las Vegas together several weeks ago, and she was photographed boarding his private plane. Sure, they could just be friends. But what if?

As for the money question, which we discussed yesterday – I still don’t know if Vanessa walked away with a settlement, if there is some nondisclosure contract, etc. Johnny is allegedly worth $300 million, although I think that figure is low-balling. According to The Sun and The Mail, “sources” claim that Johnny basically handed Vanessa half of his fortune (a reported $150 million) to “keep the split as amicable as possible for the sake of their children.” Yeah… I don’t believe that. Sure, I’ll buy that Vanessa walked away with a really nice settlement, but I don’t think she got half of his fortune.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

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.

Did you know the most magnificent alien on earth, Tilda Swinton, was and is tight with Karl Lagerfeld? Why have I never made this connection before? Probably because Tilda doesn’t wear anything from Chanel, from what I’ve seen. Karl Lagerfeld’s current aesthetic veers on the girly, the frilly, with lots of lace and tiered ruffles and beading and spangles. Which is totally not Tilda’s style. So why was Tilda hanging out with Lagerfeld at yesterday’s Cruise 2012-2013 Chanel fashion show? Unknown. But she was there, and she looked fabulous.

The show was held at Versailles. No joke. I think Lagerfeld has done shows at Versailles before, as have other designers. The truth is, anyone can rent out Versailles if you have enough cash. You can read more about the Chanel show here at The Telegraph. Personally, I can’t see Tilda wearing any of these frocks, which Lagerfeld claims are all about “serious frivolity.” There is nothing frivolous about Tilda.

That being said, I could see Vanessa Paradis in just about everything from the show. Vanessa is one of Karl’s “muses” so she was there too. And she looked really tired, didn’t she? We haven’t seen Vanessa since Johnny Depp publicly denied their relationship troubles, although… they still haven’t been out and about together in months and months. Where is Johnny right now while Vanessa is looking beat with Karl Lagerfeld in France?

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

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.

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.

Here are some new photos of Vanessa Paradis last night, at a dinner in Paris. God, I dislike this dress so much. This cut is completely wrong for a woman with small (or non-existent) breasts. It’s not flattering at all on her. Still no Johnny Depp around, although Vanessa claimed that the split rumors are “false”. I covered Vanessa’s comments a few days ago – I found her statements rather cryptic, but some of you yelled at me and claimed that we should just take VP’s denial at face-value, I guess. I don’t see Johnny Depp bending over backwards to defend his relationship, and I don’t see him rushing to Paris to be with Vanessa and save the relationship either. I do think there’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes, and if you told me Johnny was screwing around with other women, I would totally believe you.

Speaking of, In Touch Weekly has a story about a few of the ladies that Vanessa didn’t trust around Johnny. ITW claims that Johnny has been “secretly getting cozy” with his longtime publicist Robyn Baum, 47. Allegedly, Johnny and Robyn have been spending a lot of time together (maybe to work out a media strategy on how to handle Johnny’s breakup?), and Johnny publicly kissed Robyn at a premiere last year. But it just looks like a kissy-face thing between two professionals and friends, so whatever.

In addition to Johnny’s relationship with his publicist, Vanessa was also jealous/furious with his relationship with Amber Heard, according to In Touch. Amber and Johnny partied, dirty danced and flirted with each other a lot while they were making The Rum Diary, and Vanessa couldn’t stand it. Blah.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Yesterday, I covered the photos from Monday night of Vanessa Paradis at the Paris premiere of her latest film, Café de Flora. I thought she looked beautiful – prettier than she had looked in a while. I also thought I might have detected some sadness in her eyes, but I could have just been projecting. These are some new photos of Vanessa at the Chanel show on Tuesday – once again, I think she looks great. So what’s up with all of the Johnny Depp-split rumors? Vanessa didn’t confirm or deny the split on the red carpet for Café de Flora, but she did get cryptic during a radio interview yesterday. When asked about the split rumors, Vanessa said:

“You know, when I eat three peas, I’m pregnant. When I visit a city, I’m buying a house. In the winter I separate, in the summer I marry. It’s been fifteen years since I’ve been getting married every year. In addition I have to answer all these rumours!”

[Via The Mail]

Apparently, she also said that she doesn’t believe in marriage or soul mates because “If you lose your soulmate everything is done for. Cafe De Flore speaks of love, its joys, its pains and its dramas – to love and to lose. This story upset me, I was upside-down, in the depths of myself. The idea of a soulmate is beautiful and very romantic to talk about it in a movie or a song, but in reality, I find it scary.” Damn, Vanessa is playing this close to the vest, isn’t she? I don’t know what to think – my guess is that they really are over, but it’s relatively amicable, and neither one of them has an axe to grind. That could just be wishful thinking, though.

UPDATE: People Mag has a different version of Vanessa’s comments, which… are still odd. She says the rumors are false though:

“The press is going on about this separation with Johnny Depp … How do you handle these rumors?” asked Massenet [PEOPLE's French correspondent translated the interview].

“It depends which rumor,” Paradis replied. “Here, this is one which could hurt my family. After that … they say that we have 52 houses in France, we separate in winter, we get married every summer. Me, I’m in my 12th pregnancy.”

“All this is, I don’t know, because the Queen of England didn’t lose her teeth this week and there’s nothing happening,” Paradis continues of the coverage of her relationship with Depp, 48.

“And to finish the rumors off, they are false?” asked the program’s host, Michel Denisot.

“Yes, they are false,” she replied.

Which rumors she was referring to remains unclear (or perhaps lost in translation?) But multiple sources tell PEOPLE in this week’s cover story that Depp and Paradis’s relationship is all but officially over.

[From People]

So… still together then? I don’t even know.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame.

Should I discuss my absence yesterday? Late Sunday night, my body went into some kind of disgusting revolt – CB thinks I have food poisoning, I think I have some nasty stomach flu that’s been going around. Whatever is going on in my stomach, I feel like ten kinds of hell.

There isn’t a great segue from my stomach problems to Vanessa Paradis’s marriage problems, but here goes. Last night, Vanessa walked the red carpet solo for her new film Café de Flore. I’m assuming that we’re supposed to think that Vanessa going solo is a sure sign that she and Johnny Depp are definitely over, but throughout their relationship, they’ve often done premieres and stuff solo. That being said, I do think they’re over.

Vanessa Paradis attended the Paris premiere of her new film, Café de Flore, on Monday, marking her first official public appearance since PEOPLE’s report that she and longtime partner Johnny Depp are living separate lives.

The actress, 39, breezed past photographers on the red carpet, pausing only once to pose with Marin Gerrier – the young actor who plays her son in the movie – and the film’s director, Jean-Marc Vallée.

“She had the air she always does – polite, smiling saying hello to everyone inside,” says French TV reporter Christophe Beaugrand. But reporters were explicitly told that no personal questions were allowed.

She sported a black tuxedo jacket, a flowing black tie, rust-colored leather pants and four-inch heels for the event.

Paradis seemed happy to be in Paris and was accompanied by her sister Alysson at the premiere, 5,000 miles away from Depp, who was last spotted in Los Angeles Thursday.

Last week, she was photographed shopping in the French city.

Paradis left the premiere early and briefly signed autographs for fans outside the UGC Danton theater, before heading to the afterparty at the nearby Chez Castel nightclub.

[From People]

I will say this – Vanessa looks really beautiful in these photos. She looks sort of like… Eva Green…? And Johnny might have been fooling around with Eva Green too – what does it all mean?

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame.

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.