Johnny Depp’s 40-second cameo in Rihanna’s fashion show eclipsed the event

Johnny Depp’s 40-second cameo in Rihanna’s fashion show eclipsed the event

Remark

Midway into “Savage X Fenty Clearly show Vol. 4,” the latest streamable style show promoting Rihanna’s lingerie line, the digicam lingers on a shadowy figure leaning versus a tree. As it nears the figure, who is surrounded by gentlemen dancing in sync to Outkast’s “So Fresh, So Cleanse,” the mysterious particular person is disclosed to be Johnny Depp, sporting a dim robe and other garments from the Savage X Fenty menswear assortment.

Depp saunters away from the tree, in the course of one more. At just one issue on his limited journey, he moves in sluggish motion. His blank gaze remains properly trained on the camera, apart from the transient times in which it shifts to the coordinated dancers he passes or up toward the tree he approaches and frivolously hugs.

The full factor usually takes up about 40 seconds in a particular long lasting as numerous minutes, but Depp’s quite inclusion in “Vol. 4” set off times of outrage in the guide-up to its Wednesday launch on Key Online video. The 59-calendar year-aged actor has been a polarizing presence these times, the ire towards him stemming from ex-spouse Amber Heard’s allegations that he abused her all over the program of their romantic relationship, which ended in 2016.

In June, Depp won his large-profile defamation lawsuit in opposition to Heard over a 2018 op-ed in which she described herself as a consultant of domestic abuse he was awarded $15 million, even though she gained $2 million after the jury observed that Depp’s lawyer Adam Waldman defamed Heard (just one of 3 counts in her countersuit).

Depp returned to organization soon right after the verdict. He designed a TikTok account that garnered 16.5 million followers and announced he would be releasing an album with British guitarist Jeff Beck. He booked film projects, which include a biopic of the artist Modigliani that Depp is set to immediate and co-produce with Al Pacino. Dior ongoing to stand by Depp, who has been the celebrity confront of its Sauvage cologne considering the fact that 2015.

Rihanna isn’t the to start with to aid Depp publicly, and “Vol. 4” is not the initial shock visual appearance Depp has made this calendar year — in August, he created a bizarre digital cameo at the MTV Movie Audio Awards as the Moonperson, the VMAs mascot that commonly seems in trophy type. But supplied Rihanna’s massive impact as a pop celebrity and billionaire small business mogul, critics of Depp have argued that she is misusing her platform. On social media, Depp’s fervent lover base interpreted his visual appeal in “Vol. 4” as Rihanna, a prominent survivor of domestic abuse, showing solidarity with Depp, who has alleged that Read was abusive toward him.

Rihanna, whose organization ventures Savage X Fenty and Fenty Beauty have been commended for serving diverse sets of people, has also gained praise for the inventiveness of her Savage X Fenty reveals, which have previously showcased celebs. Depp seems in “Vol. 4” alongside Hollywood stars these types of as Winston Duke, Taraji P. Henson and Sheryl Lee Ralph, as perfectly as supermodels such as Joan Smalls and Cara Delevingne. Representatives for Savage X Fenty have not responded to The Washington Post’s request for remark on Depp’s physical appearance in the demonstrate.

Before this yr, information broke that Depp planned to appeal the $2 million verdict from Heard’s countersuit Virginia Court docket of Appeals data indicate that his lawful group officially submitted previous week.