RICHARD KAY: What Mohammed bin Salman told Johnny Depp about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi... and why his answer only strengthened the world's most unlikely 'bromance'

No Hollywood scriptwriter would have dared to pen such an outrageously unlikely plot — and certainly not one involving one of their own fallen heroes.

The scene is a mirrored palace where a costumed Johnny Depp is awaiting his close-up. Instead, the real world interrupts when a messenger approaches the film set with an unexpected request: a Saudi Arabian prince wants a meeting with the star.

Depp, whose reputation has not recovered from the brutal court room battles waged with his ex-wife Amber Heard, in which accusations of sexual abuse were aired, demurs. But eventually the two men meet.

So well goes the encounter that soon the actor is being wheeled into the presence of even more esteemed Saudi royalty — the kingdom’s all-powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known colloquially as ‘MBS’.

Pretty soon the two men are fast friends: one regarded by his critics as a barbaric, bloodthirsty tyrant who presides over a country with an appalling record on human rights; the other a drink-soaked, drug-taking hell-raiser.

‘Theirs will be a bromance like no other,’ is how Vanity Fair gushed this week over this implausible coming-together.

Johnny Depp, 60, first met MBS, 38, after filming Jeanne du Barry, which Saudi Arabia had invested millions, in the summer of 2022

‘They made a genuine connection,’ according to a friend of the Pirates Of The Caribbean star quoted by the magazine. ‘It’s a shock to many of the people who know [Johnny], but it’s what happened.’

This ‘connection’ turns out to be one of shared consternation at how each has been presented to the world.

For Depp, it was those high-profile court cases, in which lurid details of his two-year marriage to Heard included claims he was a ‘wife beater’.

The actor, who claimed he did not recognise himself in news coverage of the trials, found his standing as one of Tinsel Town’s golden sons had been tarnished.

He also took a huge financial hit and was dropped from J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts film franchise.

For the prince, it was the horrific murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whose body was dismembered at the hands of agents of the Saudi government in 2018 — irrevocably soiling MBS’s carefully cultivated image as his country’s brilliant young reformer.

Whether this turns out to be a story of mutual redemption and rehabilitation remains to be seen. The prince, insulated by his great wealth and position as a feared leader, has nothing to lose.

But for Depp, the risks are infinitely higher. There is talk that he may be appointed an ‘ambassador’ for the kingdom, with a seven-figure salary to promote its cultural renaissance.

Already it has triggered ugly reactions online, where the fallen star has been accused of so-called ‘arts-washing’ — the dubious -practice of using the arts to wash clean a country’s unethical reputation, in this case by inviting A-listers to glamorous events to distract from the Saudi regime’s unsavoury attitudes to women, homosexuality and minorities.

The acquisition of star players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and England midfielder Jordan Henderson (who has since left) for Saudi football teams has been cited as egregious examples of ‘sports-washing’.

But Depp’s ‘signing’ as a Saudi cheerleader is of a different magnitude. ‘I guess pieces of s*** go hand in hand together, especially when one is broke and the other has all the money in the world. Rot in hell,’ was one of the milder comments posted about the news this week.

Another accused the actor of being a ‘propaganda machine’ for ignoring the regressive regime’s human-rights abuses. ‘It’s pure evil how he is praising this country,’ said the post.

Johnny Depp has struck up a bizarre friendship with Saudi Arabia ‘s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

So what is going on — and what does this apparent friendship, which includes cosy falconing trips to MBS’s desert oases and excursions on the ruler’s yacht, Serene (a 439ft floating palace) tell us about how Depp is trying to rebuild his life?

Certainly, it appears that, at 60, Johnny Depp seems to be bouncing skywards again on the trampoline of life.

It didn’t look that way a little while ago after the conclusion of his notorious defamation cases in the UK and the U.S. involving his ex-wife. The four turbulent years he spent with Ms Heard, star of the Aquaman films, was laid bare, exposing shocking truths about a seemingly glamorous Hollywood marriage.

A horrified world looked on aghast as one lurid detail followed another, involving drugs, alcohol and claims of violence. There were accounts of fights on private jets, trains and in hotel rooms. Lit cigarettes were allegedly used as weapons and when the tip of Depp’s finger was severed after being struck by a hurled vodka bottle, he used the bloody stub to scrawl on the walls.

In 2020, Depp was found to have domestically abused the actress when he lost a libel case at the High Court in London.

Two years later the action moved to the U.S., where Depp successfully sued Heard for libel over an article she had written for the Washington Post. According to Depp, not only was her allegation of abuse untrue, but it was he who had been abused by her.

Ceo of the Red Sea International Film Festival Mohammed Al Turki, Johnny Depp and chairman of the Red Sea International Film Festival Jomana Alrashid

And the jury agreed. Depp won £12 million in compensation, later reduced to £8.3 million. The same court ordered Depp to pay his former wife £1.6 million after she counter-sued for defamation. In the end, a deal was reached in which the final figures each had to pay were greatly reduced.

The deeply unseemly case, live-streamed on the internet, provoked a vicious online war between rival sets of fans. Neither party emerged from the tawdry six-week saga with their reputations enhanced.

Ms Heard, forced to sell her home to meet her legal bills, retreated out of the spotlight and moved to Madrid.

As for Depp, he sought absolution in the guitar, joining his friend, the British rock star Jeff Beck, who has since died, on stage for his UK tour. This turned out to be a canny move as he mixed with fans who were impressed by his absence of bitterness and low-key appearance, carrying his own luggage and staying in modest hotels.

But returning to the movie world was not as straight-forward. Even Hollywood, which loves a comeback story, has paused, unsure about a figure whose court cases shone an unhealthy light on the culture wars.

In France, however, which has seen a more laissez-faire attitude towards the #MeToo outcry, Depp found a more welcoming approach. The star, who spent 14 years and has two children with the French singer, model and actress Vanessa Paradis, chose a French-language film for his first performance following the lengthy legal battles.

Jeanne du Barry, in which Depp played the libertine King Louis XV, opened last year’s Cannes Film Festival to ho-hum reviews. It finally gets a UK and U.S. release this April.

But the workaday biopic about the 18th-century monarch and his courtesan is only half the story. Its true purpose, it seems, is the role it has played in oiling the wheels of Johnny Depp’s ‘love-in’ with the Saudis.

It emerged that the country’s Red Sea Film Fund arranged to invest millions to cover budget overruns and additional expenditure for Jeanne du Barry.

Which brings us to that unexpected interruption by that messenger on the film’s set.

The person requesting the meeting was Prince Bader bin Farhan Alsaud, Riyadh’s culture minister and a cousin of MBS.

The colourful Prince Bader made headlines in 2017 when he bought for £358 million ($450 million) — on behalf of his cousin — the world’s most expensive painting, Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi.

At first, Depp resisted his entreaties. ‘No way. I didn’t sign up for this,’ he was reported as saying.

But thanks to his multi-million investment, the culture minister prince earned the right to an audience. Eventually the two men met, and in late 2022 the prince persuaded Depp to fly to Jeddah for the Red Sea Film Festival.

According to Vanity Fair, the actor was ‘wide-eyed’ at the changes in Saudi Arabia, where MBS is spending billions of dollars on developing new revenue streams to end his kingdom’s dependence on oil money.

The entertainment industry is apparently a key focus of the crown prince’s so-called ‘Vision 2030’ plan. And by the end of his sojourn, in which Depp was granted a private tour of the kingdom, he had sufficiently proved himself to be wheeled into the presence of the country’s autocratic ruler.

It certainly paints an extraordinary picture: the dishevelled film star — known for his friendships with Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones and the late, legendary journalist Hunter S. Thompson (whose ashes Depp fired into space in a rocket) — and one of the world’s most divisive leaders.

Over the past year, Depp is said to have spent more than seven weeks in Saudi Arabia, staying in royal palaces and camps and being waited on by dozens of staff. He has flown on MBS’s personal helicopter and stayed on his yacht, which at the touch of a few buttons can be transformed into a nightclub, with state-of-the-art DJ equipment.

‘MBS and many of his advisers are night owls, sleeping well into the day,’ Vanity Fair reports. ‘Depp likes to burn the midnight oil, too, and he and MBS would stay up late talking about the Crown Prince’s plans for Saudi Arabia and Depp’s thoughts on how to bring more art and film-making to the country. At one point, Depp gave the prince a painting he’d made.’

It also emerged that the Saudis have invested in the film Modi — which Depp is directing — about the bohemian Italian artist Modigliani, famous for his surreal portraits of nudes.

The film, which stars Al Pacino as an art collector, has a plot bearing some semblance to Depp’s own chaotic journey. According to insiders, Saudi interns have worked on the project ‘across every department’.

So far, so agreeable. Last year, MBS even provided the star with his personal Boeing 747 for a quick trip to London to attend the Jeff Beck memorial concert at the Royal Albert Hall, alongside Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart and other music legends.

Earlier this month, Depp was back in Britain, appearing with Stewart at a charity event for former model Celia Hammond’s animal charity.

If there was a pause for thought about the direction of his new-found friendship with the Saudis, it would have come, you would imagine, as Depp duetted with the gravelly voiced singer at this low-key Lewisham fundraiser. For the principled Stewart turned down a gig in the kingdom to shine a light on what he described were the ‘injustices’ in the country towards women, the LGBTQ+ community and the media.

The American film director Martin Scorsese is another who has declined an invitation to appear in Saudi Arabia.

In what appears to be an attempt to justify Depp’s relationship with MBS, friends insist it is based on ‘an appreciation of film, culture and regional progress . . . They do not discuss or align on global politics’.

Nevertheless, Depp did allegedly tackle the autocrat about the murder of Khashoggi.

The prince told the actor he did not order the killing but admits he was ‘ultimately responsible’ for the death. Clearly, this satisfied the not-very-curious Depp.

Saudi Arabia is good for Depp physically, it is further revealed, because its strict laws mean he has been drinking less. He is also said to have lost weight.

His brief romance with Joelle Rich, one of his London lawyers, is long over, and he is currently single.

Meanwhile, Depp has not completely forgotten his old life. He has teamed up with rackety American rocker Marilyn Manson to record a cover of the Carly Simon hit You’re So Vain.

Away from the spotlight, he has been spending time on his private island in the Bahamas — we understand he recently took Jeff Beck’s widow, Sandra, there for a break, along with singer Joss Stone’s composer mother, Wendy.

There, he says, he enjoys ‘real simplicity’, adding: ‘I don’t have a decadent lifestyle.’

Music, surely, to the ears of his new Saudi buddies.

Additional reporting: Alison Boshoff and Barbara McMahon in Los Angeles