Getty Image
Add Johnny Depp and Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the list of all-time bizarre friendships, right up alongside Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong-un.
According to a new piece from Vanity Fair, the 60-year-old former Pirates of the Caribbean star apparently has a “bromance” with the ruler of the controversial oil state.
“Theirs [Depp and bin Salman] will be a bromance like no other,” Vanity Fair writes. “The bromance is now in full gear, people close to Depp say.”
“Over the past year, Depp has spent more than seven weeks in Saudi Arabia, staying in royal palaces and camps, traversing the country by yacht and helicopter, and even flying to London and back on MBS’s personal 747 for a quick trip to attend the Jeff Beck Memorial Concert at the Royal Albert Hall.”
A friend of Depp tells the outlet that the pair, who share a 22-year age difference, have made a “genuine connection” and that the Oscar nominee is “now weighing a seven-figure annual contract to promote Saudi Arabia’s cultural renaissance.”
Mohammed bin Salman is best known in the Western world, as the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, for orchestrating the brutal murder of American journalist and Saudi Arabian activist Jamal Khashoggi.
Intelligence indicates that on October 2, 2018, Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate but never left, as he was murdered and then dismembered inside the building.
Despite the CIA concluding that bin Salman ordered the grizzly assassination, the 38-year-old dictator has yet to admit to any involvement in the crime.
Given the way Depp’s movie career has fallen off a cliff over the last half-decade, it certainly wouldn’t be surprising to see the controversial movie star take Saudi Arabia’s bloody oil money to shill for the nation.
Depp most recently starred as King Louis XV in the little-seen 2023 French film Jeanne Du Barry, and is also set to direct the upcoming Italian film Modì.