BREAKING NEWS–Johnny Depp on the cover of NEWSWEEK!

Run, don’t walk, to your local newsstand to pick up a copy of NEWSWEEK’s June 26th issue, which features a laudatory cover story on Johnny Depp by Sean Smith called “A Pirate’s Life.” Smith begins, “He wasn’t looking for superstardom, so superstardom came looking for him. Johnny Depp on family, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2–and how he got a chest of gold without selling his soul.” The article includes a new interview with Johnny and a couple of yummy new pictures by F. Scott Schafer–click HERE to see one . . . .

Smith calls DEAD MAN’S CHEST, which opens July 7th, a “welcome blast of sunshine” in a summer of movie disappointments. Assessing Johnny’s status in the movie industry, Smith writes that he “still seems an unlikely addition to the A-list. Top-tier stars, even those who are great actors, stay on top by being true to their personas. We pay $10 to see Will Smith or Julia Roberts precisely because they don’t surprise us. It’s not that they’re playing themselves. It’s just that the force of their personalities swamps everything else. They’re more than actors. They’re brands. Depp, 43, is almost pathologically unpredictable. He can be bizarre, hilarious, unsettling–even annoying. But he is never the same. He’s the anti-Tom Cruise. ‘Nothing against Tom, but Johnny may be a bigger star now,’ says director John Waters, who cast Depp in 1990’s CRY-BABY. “Nobody is sick of Johnny Depp.”

The Zone thanks emma for breaking the story–and thanks to Sean Smith for a great read! You can read the full story on the Zone’s News & Views forum.