The Zone welcomes 2008 with a wonderful comment Johnny Depp made in the recent “Unscripted” interview he and Tim Burton did for Moviefone, in which the men interviewed each other using questions that Moviefone’s readers submitted online. Tim asks Johnny, “Do you ever go online to see what your fans are saying?” Of course one would expect the answer to be “No, of course not,” but instead Johnny says this:

JOHNNY DEPP: There are a couple of sites that are actually very, very helpful . . . like, a couple of them I can access and I can see what’s happening before, like, before I know, before my agent knows . . . .

TIM BURTON: There’s a lot of stuff that’s not accurate, isn’t there? I mean–

JOHNNY DEPP: Yeah, but they sift through somehow, miraculously, they . . . these people are able to sift through and get to the, you know, the actual part of it, you know, the truth. [. . .] Either that or they know, they’re familiar enough with me and, you know, who I am, that . . . they can slice away the crap, you know what I mean, and go straight to the heart of the matter. It’s, it’s . . . they’re amazing; it’s really . . . a lot of information out there.

The Zone would like to begin 2008 by thanking our intrepid newshounds who keep us up-to-date with all of the latest developments regarding Johnny Depp’s career projects and public appearances, and our picture detectives and Depp historians who share their photographs and their expert knowledge on our forums–always with accuracy, sensitivity, and respect for Johnny Depp. And we would like to thank Johnny for speaking so kindly about his fansites. We will replay that interview clip over and over!

To see the Moviefone clip where Johnny talks about websites, click here: http://tinyurl.com/yrfw7h Unfortunately AOL/Moviefone is not available for viewing in all areas; we apologize if the clip does not play for you. Many thanks to namaste for bringing the clip to our attention, to Lucky13 for designing our New Year’s photo, and to Theresa for the transcript of Johnny’s remarks. What a wonderful surprise it was to hear those words! –Part-Time Poet