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Title: Through the Mirror

Author: Gaynor Flynn

Publication: FilmInk

Issue: November 2009

The first time that you see Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, he’s hanging under Black friars Bridge in London with a noose around his neck. It‘s an incredibly disturbing moment given that it’s only 21 months since the actor was found dead in New York from an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. When Gilliam first heard about the death of his friend, he was grief stricken. Then, of course, there was the film to consider. The news had barely flashed around the world, but investors had already begun to desert the sinking ship. “l didn’t see how we could finish it without Heath, because he’d only done approximately half of his roIe.“ says Gilliam wearily. “The financial people were dropping out, and I thought that everything was over. I was so depressed that I didn’t want to continue working. Luckily, I always surround myself with really good people, and they wouldn’t let me stop. They said, ‘Fuck you, you lazy bastard! You’ve got to fix this thing because of Heath.” So we went back td work.’

Gilliam, his 31-year-dld daughter Amy (who makes her producing debut on the film), and cinematographer Nicola Pecorini shut themselves away in a room and tried to think of a solution. “Amy was the one who initially said that we could do this.

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Title: Sexiest Man Alive

Publication: People

Issue: November 2009

Johnny Depp should come with a warning label: Close encounters are likely to cause extreme nervousness, impaired judgment and embarrassing displays of rapture. Take it from actress Missi Pyle, his co-star in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. “It was my sister’s birthday, and I said, ‘Would you mind writing a little something for her?’” recalls Pyle. “And he was like, ‘Why don’t you come to my trailer for a picture?” Decked out in her character’s teased blond wig and Day-Glo makeup, “I remember running back and washing and blow—drying my hair and putting on my real makeup because I looked so frightening,” says Pyle. “I walked in to his trailer and there were candles burning and he’s like, ‘Would you like a glass of wine? A cigarette? He rolled his own—I had quit smoking—but I was like, ‘Of course!’ I was nauseous for four hours because they were really strong.” And then there was the awkward issue of remembering to look at his eyes-and not, y’know, other mesmerizing bits—while chatting with him. “I would find myself talking to his mouth,” says Pyle. As for her reaction when director Tim Burton suggested she get closer to Depp during the production, Pyle says: “I felt a party go off inside of me.”

Break out the Bordeaux, the whoopee cushions and the bangin’ Keith Richards guitar solos (all Depp favorites),

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