If you were Johnny Depp, arguably one of the richest, most beloved and most famous actors in the world, would you spend your time confirming or denying your relationship status to the UK tabloid The Sun? No disrespect to the Rupert Murdoch tabloid – I often read The Sun online and pick up stories – but I think less of any A-list celebrity who gives away their exclusive to a rag like The Sun. Allegedly, that’s exactly what happened though. At last night’s UK premiere of Dark Shadows, Johnny spoke to The Sun’s red carpet reporter, and he answered the “Are you and Vanessa Paradis over?” question. Johnny’s reply: “The rumors are not true. They are absolutely not true… No matter what I say about this, people believe the opposite. I can’t say enough about it not being over.”

Now, just the sheer fact that it’s from The Sun is enough to make my side-eye twitch. But People Magazine is running the story too, linking to The Sun’s story. People Mag, as you may remember, was the publication that legitimized all of the other tabloid reports about Vanessa and Johnny’s relationship trouble. People declared them “all but officially finished.” So how does People Mag handle this?

Four months after PEOPLE reported that Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis’s relationship was all but finished, Depp on Wednesday denied that he and his partner of 14 years had split.

“The rumors are not true. They are absolutely not true,” the actor, 48, said on the red carpet for the London premiere of Dark Shadows, according to U.K.’s Sun.

Still, conspicuously absent from the premiere was Paradis, who has not been seen publicly with Depp since reports about trouble between them. She also has not shared a red carpet with him in at least a year and a half.

In January, Paradis was alone at the premiere of her own movie, Café de Flore. At the time, Paradis, 39 – a French singer, model and actress, and mother of two children with Depp – was evasive when asked about a split.

This is the first time Depp has publicly addressed the matter.

“No matter what I say about this, people believe the opposite,” Depp said at Wednesday’s premiere. “I can’t say enough about it not being over.”

Also quoted by the Mirror, Depp reportedly said of the rumors, “There’s no truth anymore. It doesn’t matter what I say to you right now, it doesn’t make any difference.”

[From People]

I believe that Depp’s publicist/manager gave People Mag the go-ahead nod on the January cover story about Depp and Paradis’s split. I think Vanessa and Johnny were having huge problems, and they probably took a break, or a time-out, or maybe they just split for good. I think Johnny has been in the midst of a mid-life crisis – complete with other woman and lots of booze – for more than a year. I also think there’s a strong possibility that Vanessa told Johnny to go and figure his sh-t out and come back to her. Maybe that’s what we’re seeing now – Johnny and Vanessa have worked out some kind of arrangement where they’re “together” for their kids but both are exploring other relationships. Whatever. That’s just how I read it.

Photos courtesy of WENN.