For months now, we’ve been talking about Johnny Depp’s money problems. During his divorce, he started selling off art work and liquidating some of his assets. He made some unusual moves, like firing his long-time agent and then his long-time business managers. Then he filed a lawsuit against those same managers, The Management Group, earlier this year. People always claimed that at one point, Depp was worth something like $650 million, mostly due to his exorbitant salary on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, plus some generous backend deals. But I doubt that $650 figure actually – I think Depp had tens of millions of dollars coming in, for sure, but I just doubt it was that much.

Anyway, The Hollywood Reporter has an exclusive about what’s really going on with Depp’s finances, his lawsuit against TMG and his history of bad money management. This piece surprised me because it feels like the Hollywood Reporter is taking sides… and they are not taking the movie star’s side. There’s an extensive history of Depp’s financial woes and many, many details of the stupid decisions he was making for years. You can read the full piece here. I’m just going to do a few highlights about how Depp was a f–king nightmare on the Pirates set:

Disney is still betting on Depp: All this comes as Walt Disney Studios prepares for the May 26 release of its latest Pirates movie, the fifth in the series. Studio execs worry that Depp’s personal peccadilloes could impact the marketing of their $230 million-budget tentpole and future of a $3.7 billion box-office franchise. Six years have passed since the last Pirates installment earned more than $1 billion globally, and Depp’s most recent big-budget vehicle, Alice Through the Looking Glass, lost hundreds of millions of dollars for Disney; now it’s betting that the star’s private struggles won’t sink this movie, too.

What he was like on the Australian set of Pirates 5: Sources close to the production report tales of excessive drinking, physical fights with Heard and constant lateness on set, which often left hundreds of extras waiting for hours at a time. Time and again, Bruckheimer, an assistant director and a flotilla of Disney executives led by production chief Sean Bailey were forced to huddle and debate how to handle their star’s tardiness. “He’s not a morning person,” quips one member of that group. “There were certainly days when our plans were challenged,” says Bailey. “But no one should underestimate Johnny’s passion and commitment to this character and franchise.”

Dealing with his lateness: Several times, the production staff raised the matter of Depp’s tardiness with him, both on set and in his trailer, in a largely fruitless attempt to have him toe the line. Often, sources say, a production staffer was stationed in an unmarked car outside the Coomera, Queensland, compound that Depp had rented from Grand Prix champion Mick Doohan so that the sentinel could alert everyone the second a light was switched on in the morning (or afternoon). “When he got up, he’d turn on the light, and the moment the light went on they’d call the line producer, who would then call the directors [Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg]: ‘He’s up! He’s getting ready!’ ” says an on-set source. “They even had a special code term, like ‘The eagle has landed.’ Johnny had no idea this was going on.”

The finger: Filming shut down at one point when Depp injured himself, slicing open his finger. “That was pretty serious,” says Bruckheimer. Though many outlets reported the wound was the result of a booze-fueled marital dispute, Jerry Bruckheimer suggests otherwise. “We don’t really know. He got it caught in a car door, or he got it caught in a sliding door. I’ve heard a couple of versions.”

[From THR]

It really feels like the extended shoot in Australia was the tipping point – that’s where Depp stayed while filming Pirates 5, and that’s when he began pulling away from all of his long-time business associates and friends. TMG’s managers provided the Hollywood Reporter with extensive documentation (receipts, if you will) to back up their side of the story, which is that Depp’s drug and alcohol abuse fell off a cliff about three years ago and it made it difficult to talk sense into him. But even before that, Depp was never good with money and he never thought long-term about what it would cost to keep up all of his properties, his yacht, his artwork and more.

Also: habitual lateness is THE WORST. Imagine if an actress had pulled that sh-t.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Disney.