London is suddenly bursting with Johnny Depp . There he is on the escalator, peering prosthetic-nosed though distinctive as Ebenezer in the projected Christmas cinema hit. Next he smoulders at the bus stop, peddling Sauvage cologne for Dior. Meanwhile, we have it on good authority that the one-time pariah of Hollywood is set to command megabucks when he returns as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean 6. As comebacks go, Depp turned his into an artform. More than ever before, disgrace and rehabilitation are part of the life-cycle of celebrities, statesmen and royals. From minor gaffe to major cancellation, it is all but impossible to tread a path in the public eye without a tumble. What is interesting is how best to get back up. Historically it was all about the big three: apology, taking responsibility and doing some sort of public penance. When Jeffrey Archer died a few weeks ago, the great and the good swarmed to pay homage. Despite, or perhaps because of, a four year prison sentence for perjury and perverting the course of justice (to cover up a sleazy sex scandal), by the time of his death in October, Archer was treated by MPs and royals alike as a national treasure. A roguish one, but a national treasure nonetheless. Queen Camilla called the author “as rich, varied and colourful as any of the characters in his books, with as many surprising plot twists”. While Kemi Badenoch , the leader of the party he once brought into disrepute, praised “his storytelling, vibrant life force and charitable support”. In short, his prison time cleansed his brand. These days a penal sentence can happily be replaced with a laceratingly humble and confessional interview or a reality TV stint. The more humiliating the better. I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here is the obvious example of reputation rehabilitation earned in the televised stocks. Good-natured scrotum eating affords a clean slate. Matt Hancock might have gone into the jungle a hypocritical Covid groper but he emerged, in third place, a remarkably palatable figure. This is decisively not the road that Depp has trod. Although he lost his libel lawsuit against The Sun, who had accused Depp of being a wifebeater, in 2020, he has never accepted this charge let alone apologised for any of his conduct. Behind every fallen celebrity marches a team of shadowy figures who have managed their path back into the public’s affection Shored up by a successful subsequent lawsuit in the US in 2022, in which he took Amber Heard to court for writing a blind piece in The Washington Post about domestic abuse, Depp has maintained an almost Trumpian stance of unrepentance. The President prescribes to the mantra of his mentor Roy Cohn, who famously taught his young acolyte to, “never waste time on regrets, never show any doubts and never, ever apologise.” Depp is mightily abetted in this position by the best PR wizards that money can buy. Celebrity crisis relations have long been big business, and behind every fallen celebrity (Winona Ryder, Will Smith, Boris Becker, Prince Harry) marches a team of shadowy figures who have managed their path back into the public’s affection. The way that they function has changed radically in recent years though. For mega stars, such as P Diddy and Kevin Spacey, the war of their reputation is not tearfully fought on a chat show couch anymore, but on social media, the secret hands that control the content and the bots that manipulate how scandals are reported and received. When it comes to civil court it is fascinating to note that although the initial claim in the Blake Lively v Justin Baldoni saga was over sexual harassment and hostile work environment, the most bitterly contested charge argued by each of them was of reputational harm. Te only thing worse than the obscurity of disgrace and ostracisation is the disaster of a botched comeback. Huw Edwards is the poster boy for this. Edwards resigned from the BBC in 2024 after revelations that he had been in a secret re
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