Johnny Depp named Hollywood’s most overpaid actor

Depp has been named the most overpaid movie star in Hollywood by Forbes magazine, after posting a string of box office turkeys.

Depp, one of the highest-paid actors on the planet with estimated annual earnings of $30m (£20m), returned just $1.20 for every $1 he was paid according to the financial magazine’s metric. His poor position is due to the financial failure of movies such as Mortdecai, Transcendence and The Lone Ranger, all of which bombed at the box office on the back of derisive reviews. 

Ironically, the actor is expected to be among the best actor Oscar nominees for his turn as Boston gangster Whitey Bulger in mob thriller Black Mass. But Scott Cooper’s film, which has scored $94.6m against a budget of $53m off the back of strong reviews, fell outside the period measured by Forbes. The magazine considered only each actor’s most recent three films prior to June this year, while ignoring animated films, smaller budget movies, bit parts and cameos.

Nicolas Cage returns stolen dinosaur skull to Mongolia

Nicolas Cage bought a Tyrannosaurus bataar skull in 2007, unaware it had been stolen. But after learning of the circumstances, he voluntarily agreed to hand over the skull.

The Con Air star bought the skull for $276,000 (£185,000) from a Beverley Hills gallery that issued him with a certificate of authenticity. The actor and gallery are not accused of any wrong doing. Alex Schack, a publicist for Cage, said the actor was contacted in 2014 by the Department of Homeland Security who told him the skull might have been stolen. The US attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, filed a civil forfeiture complaint to take possession of the Tyrannosaurus bataar skull last week.

Since 2012, Bharara’s office has recovered more than a dozen Mongolian fossils, including three full Tyrannosaurus bataar skeletons.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 9th, 2015