"Hollywood star Johnny Depp has made an unannounced visit to a London primary school after receiving a letter from one of its pupils. The actor turned up at the school in Greenwich, South London, dressed as his Pirates of the Caribbean alter-ego Captain Jack Sparrow. He said nine-year-old Beatrice [Delap] had written to Captain Jack, asking him to lead a mutiny against her teachers."
posted by ericb on Oct 8, 2010 - 50 comments

Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrance at Owl Creek Bridge" is considered "one of the most widely read, widely anthologized, widely taught, and widely admired short stories in all of American literature." As well as TVTropes' earliest example of [SPOILER] a Dying Dream. An Oscar and Cannes award winning short film was made from the story, "La Rivière du hibou" that was aired on American TV as an episode of "The Twilight Zone" (part one, two, three). Since then, it has been read by 'Front Porch Al' on the CBC's "As It Happens", and been the basis of umpteen other short films. Recently, the original film was 'mashed up' with Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick", and now the story has gotten the full Music Video treatment, for the (not really related) song "Unlovable" by Babybird, directed by Johnny Depp. [more inside]
posted by oneswellfoop on Apr 21, 2010 - 55 comments

Johnny Depp reads letters he received from Hunter S. Thompson while filming "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."
posted by WhoseVoice on Apr 13, 2010 - 22 comments

Brando, Depp, the missing millions and Divine Rapture, the lost movie: "After settling into his rented Georgian mansion, Brando phoned [director] Eberhardt asking if they could meet at 11pm. "I said, 'No, Marlon, I'm too tired. I've been rehearsing all day.' Then he said, 'I'm going to shave my hair off and wear an orange wig'."" [more inside]
posted by Len on Dec 14, 2009 - 14 comments

Four-year-old Rei-chan plays the electone on tv. Then the "genius electone girl" is invited to perform for Johnny Depp (part 2, part 3), when he went to Japan to promote the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie. (She and her friends also gave the same performance for Orlando Bloom.) [more inside]
posted by emmling on Sep 20, 2008 - 12 comments

Libertines (NSFW) would frown on the idea of Valentine's Day and devoting yourself to your one true love; they were all about fun, all the time. Think free love (or polyamorism as current practitioners would call it) is a product of the swingin' 70s? No way. The libertine philosophy has been around since at least the 17th century. Notable practitioners include John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, who wrote some juicy poetry on the topic; Choderlos de Laclos of Les Liaisons dangereuses fame; the Marquis de Sade; the fictional Don Juan; and the poster boy for libertinism, Charles II of England. In fact Rochester once had to flee court for making fun of Charles's appetites (though Rochester was no angel himself).

Fast forward to the current day, when Johnny Depp is starring in a new movie, "The Libertine," in which he portrays Rochester to some critical acclaim. Is Rochester simply a sad, sorry sort who justified a lifestyle that some see as immoral, and got his just deserts when he died of syphilis? Or was he caught up in a way of life that he alternately enjoyed and despised, finding that "Old age and Experience, hand in hand / Lead him to Death, and make him understand, / After a Search so painful and so long, / That all his Life he has been in the wrong." Maybe there's something to be said for abstinence, after all.
posted by MiHail on Feb 14, 2005 - 18 comments

Depp: Dumb Puppy Comment Wasn't Anti-U.S. "I am an American. I love my country and have great hopes for it. It is for this reason that I speak candidly and sometimes critically about it."
posted by Twang on Sep 5, 2003 - 48 comments

Famous Self-Injurers. "Johnny [Depp] has a series of seven or eight scars on his left forearm where he has cut himself with a knife on different occasions to commemorate various moments or rights of passage in his life ... 'It was really just whatever [times when he hurt himself]--good times, bad times, it didn't matter. There was no ceremony. It wasn't like "Okay, this just happened, I have to go hack a piece of my flesh off"' ... 'My body is a journal in a way.'" On this website are accounts self-afflicted injuries from Fiona Apple, Richey Edwards, Christina Ricci and more.
posted by moz on Apr 10, 2002 - 18 comments