Agent: Johnny Depp Was to Have Earned $22.5 Mn for 'Pirates' 6

Actor Johnny Depp. AP
Actor Johnny Depp. AP
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Agent: Johnny Depp Was to Have Earned $22.5 Mn for 'Pirates' 6

Actor Johnny Depp. AP
Actor Johnny Depp. AP

Johnny Depp was to have been paid $22.5 million for a sixth "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie but the project was scrapped by Disney after his ex-wife Amber Heard accused him of domestic abuse in a Washington Post op-ed, the actor's agent said Monday.

Jack Whigham, testifying on behalf of Depp at the celebrity couple's high-profile defamation trial in Virginia, said the Post op-ed was "catastrophic" for Depp's Hollywood career.

"After the op-ed it was impossible to get him a studio film," Whigham told the seven-person jury hearing the case in Fairfax County Circuit Court.

Whigham, who has been Depp's agent since 2016, said that a deal had been reached with Disney for the actor to appear as Captain Jack Sparrow in a sixth installment of the lucrative "Pirates" franchise.

"We closed the deal on $22.5 million," he said.

But Disney decided to go in a "different direction" following the December 2018 publication of the op-ed in the Post, Whigham said.

"I successfully made contact with them, but I was not successful in rescuing Pirates for Johnny," he said.

Depp filed a defamation case against Heard over the column she wrote for the Post in which she described herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse."

The 36-year-old Heard, who had a starring role in "Aquaman," never named the 58-year-old Depp but he sued her for implying he was a domestic abuser and is seeking $50 million in damages.

The Texas-born Heard countersued, asking for $100 million and claiming she suffered "rampant physical violence and abuse" at his hands.

Depp has denied ever being physically abusive towards Heard and has claimed at the trial that she was the one who was frequently violent.

Whigham, under cross-examination by Heard's lawyers, said the agreement with Disney on Depp's compensation for another "Pirates" movie was "verbal" and there was no signed contract.

"There was an understanding of what the deal was going to be," he said.



Brian Wilson's Top Five Beach Boys Songs

Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs onstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs onstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
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Brian Wilson's Top Five Beach Boys Songs

Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs onstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs onstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

From the carefree sound of California surf music to the sophistication of later darker works, here are five of the top hits penned by influential Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson.

'Surfin' USA' (1963)

"Surfin' USA" was the Beach Boys' first global hit, taken from their eponymous debut album. A youthful ode to sea, sun and girls, it became an anthem for the West Coast and beyond.

It demonstrated Brian Wilson's increasing songwriting prowess as well as the band's unique vocal sound achieved thanks to double tracking.

"We'll all be gone for the summer/ We're on safari to stay/ Tell the teacher we're surfin'/ Surfin' USA," it rang out.

Wilson intentionally set his lyrics to the music of "Sweet Little Sixteen," by Chuck Berry, leading Berry to take legal action.

'California Girls' (1965)

On the big hit of the summer of 1965, Wilson's cousin Mike Love burst into song to celebrate the sun-tanned women of California.

"I wish they all could be California girls," the band members sang in seemless harmony.

It was also the first song written by Wilson under the influence of LSD, "which could explain why the accompaniment seems to move in a slow, steady daze at odds with the song's bright, major-key melody," Rolling Stone magazine wrote.

'God Only Knows' (1966)

It took Wilson just 45 minutes to write "God Only Knows," the legendary eighth track on the album "Pet Sounds" which has gone down as one of the greatest love songs ever.

Sung by brother Carl Wilson, Brian's rival Paul McCartney declared it to be his favorite song of all time and said it reduced him to tears.

But the record company and other members of the group were wary at the new turn in style.

'Good Vibrations'(1966)

"Good Vibrations" was a massive commercial success, selling one million copies in the United States and topping charts there and in several other countries including the UK.

At the time the most expensive single ever made, the "pocket symphony" was recorded in four different studios, consumed over 90 hours of tape and included a complexity of keys, textures, moods and instrumentation.

The song was a far cry from the group's surf-and-sun origins and the enormity of the task brought Wilson to the brink. He was unable to go on and complete the album "Smile," of which the song was to have been the centerpiece.

- 'Til I die' (1971) -

On side B of the album "Surf's Up,'Til I die" was composed in 1969 by a depressed Wilson worn down by mental illness and addiction.

He wrote in his 1991 autobiography that it was perhaps the most personal song he had written for the Beach Boys.