Dear Gossips,
It’s Wednesday. Magazine day. And, as expected, Amber Heard and Johnny Depp are on most of the covers. PEOPLE Magazine has delivered, by far, the most exclusive coverage with new photos of an injured Amber from a violent incident in December. Before we get to that though, today’s long read is a throwback from another PEOPLE Magazine story over 20 years ago, in 1994. (Thanks SS!) Back then, PEOPLE had some balls with their reporting. And this is a portrait of Johnny before Vanessa, before Pirates, before parenthood. Click here to revisit that time. It’s a good reference point not only in light of what’s playing out now but also in analysing the celebrity ecosystem overall and how it’s mutated and rotated over the last two decades.
Exactly a week ago is when news first broke that Amber had filed for divorce from Johnny. It’s gotten darker and darker, and more and more public, every single day. And while this kind of sh-t and scandal isn’t new, we usually see it playing out among low ranking stars, or Duggers. At this level though? I keep saying it because I still can’t believe it. There are, maybe, four or five names as big as Johnny Depp’s in the business. And fewer and fewer are being created. Jennifer Lawrence is probably the only true Movie Star who’s emerged in the last decade. I wonder then if the others are microscoping their business right now, locking down all their sh-t. Or if even after all this, their sense of celebrity immunity is still intact.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
