If you’ve been reading multiple media outlets’ coverage of the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard saga, you might feel like Hollywood is split 50/50. There’s been a lot of effort to create a sense of false equivalency around Heard and Depp, with people continually saying “Yeah he probably abused her but let’s be fair, she was no saint.” Because Amber isn’t the perfect victim, get it? While the false equivalency arguments might be this week’s media strategy, I do think there are big forces in Hollywood reconsidering Depp. In fact, he might be persona non grata to a lot of producers and studios. Entertainment Weekly has a piece in their print issue about how Depp has become (or is becoming) radioactive – go here for a taste from EW. There are also rumors that Disney is panicking. But guess who isn’t panicking? Brett Ratner, who is hellbent on producing a film where Depp plays a character loosely based on Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Brett Ratner is going full steam ahead with his new project, “The Libertine,” starring Johnny Depp as a Dominique Strauss-Kahn-like politician accused of sexual assault — despite all the controversy surrounding the star. Ratner announced his plans for the film at the Cannes Film Festival on May 11. “The Libertine” will star Depp as “a powerful French politician who endures house arrest in a luxury NYC apartment while awaiting trial for sexual assault against a hotel maid,” Deadline reported. The film’s “loosely based” on the 2011 DSK sex-abuse scandal. Criminal charges were dropped against DSK, who settled a civil suit with the maid for an undisclosed amount.

Ratner added, “The whole movie takes place in one location, and I’ve never done that before. It’s one of the best scripts I’ve ever read. People are surprised, because I’ve always been a commercial filmmaker, and this is a much smaller movie.”

But an insider told Page Six of the project, “Everybody agreed it would be impossible to still use Depp in light of the [abuse allegations].” Casting Depp “would create some controversy; they decided it was too hot to go near. You can’t do it. Brett would be devastated as this is a dream project.” But a rep for Ratner said of dumping Depp, “It’s not true,” adding the film is in “active development” with the actor attached.

The film’s produced by Lloyd Braun and Andrew Mittman. Deadline reported at Cannes that Warner Bros. was “involved,” but we hear the project isn’t being developed at the studio.

[From Page Six]

I’ve been doing this too long, because my first thought was “Johnny Depp isn’t capable of pulling off an authentic Frenchman.” As for the film, it sounds awful. It sounds like a terrible premise, and Depp’s people should tell him not to do it. But! Maybe he “needs” to do it? I get the feeling that Depp might be worried about money all of a sudden? But how can that be, he has hundreds of millions of dollars, doesn’t he? Well, he’s selling off his Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings. They could easily go for tens of millions of dollars at auction.

Johnny Depp is auctioning off millions of dollars worth of paintings ahead of his potentially pricey divorce with Amber Heard. The Alice Through the Looking Glass star is set to unload his collection of paintings by famed artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, according to a press release by Christie’s auction house. He will sell nine paintings in total, which he collected over the past 25 years. Most of the pieces were completed by Basquiat in 1981.

‘Nothing can replace the warmth and immediacy of Basquiat’s poetry, or the absolute questions and truths that he delivered,” Depp said, according to Christie’s. He added, “The beautiful and disturbing music of his paintings, the cacophony of his silence that attacks our senses, will live far beyond our breath.”

[From People]

Basquiat’s works are highly collectible and highly sought-after by major collectors. It’s a remarkable thing for NINE Basquiats to come up for auction all at once, and I bet Depp will be making so much money. It’s also an interesting move for someone going through a divorce, right?

Photos courtesy of WENN.