Would you strip for a Johnny Depp lookalike?

Disneyland park in Anaheim, California is retiring the live actors that play Captain Jack Sparrow of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. While officials say they’re no longer actively promoting the films, which won’t come out in a fourth installment featuring Johnny Depp until 2012, rumor has it that the park had another reason to get rid of the dashing Depp lookalikes. Women were lifting their tops to pose with the dirty pirates, compromising the family-friendly image of Disneyland. A former employee says it’s true and claims that’s why the actors lost their job right before the holidays:

Disneyland management has fired the four actors who played pirate Jack Sparrow because officials were worried about young female park-goers flashing the swashbuckling actors late at night, according to one former cast member.

“They lost control when they saw Jack Sparrow,” said former pirate Brandon Pinto, who left the role after a dispute with management a year ago. “This is a sexy, rock-star pirate.”

The pirate actors said they were told they were no longer needed at about the same time that
additional fairies were added to the park’s cast, presumably to promote Disney’s new movie “Tinkerbell.”
Disneyland officials confirmed that the pirate was indeed fired (due to declining relevance and diminishing visitor requests), but flatly denied published reports that the dismissal had anything to do with female fans flashing their breasts at the swashbuckling actors who portray Jack Sparrow at the Anaheim theme park.

Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown called the breast-flashing rumors “absolutely false” and “simply not true.”

The animatronic characters on the Pirates of the Caribbean water-wide will remain, according to Disneyland officials.

The fired Jack Sparrow actors greeted visitors and posed for photos on Tom Sawyer Island and occasionally wandered around New Orleans Square near the POTC ride. Disneyland promises the bad boy buccaneer, made famous by Johhny Depp in the trilogy of movies, will eventually return — “some day.”

[From KTLA.com]

Would you show your boobs to Jack Sparrow? You would hope there are plenty of cocktails involved for the ladies in question. While you can’t drink at Disneyland there are margaritas to be had at nearby Downtown Disney and California Adventure. It wouldn’t take much to get me to take my top off for Johnny Depp, but I would like to think that an imposters wouldn’t inspire as much foolishness.

Images by photographer salady found on Flickr.