From Ted Johnson and Dominic Patten’s Deadline summary of today’s courtroom cross-examination of Johnny Depp: “The extent of Depp’s addiction to oxycodone and other substances was made crystal clear in a text one of his nurses who had commented on Black Mass. ‘I was high as a motherfucker when I made that film,’ Depp told the nurse with a digital laugh. ‘[But] it’s not like I took the pills to get high…I took the pills to get normal.”

Bill Murray doesn’t suffer fools, and I love that about him. When he’s not being funny he can be rather brusque and dismissive. Especially with clueless or insipid journalists. Which is why, in a certain light, he’s long been one of my personal heroes.

Friendo: “God only knows what that’s about. The alleged ‘Bill Murray did or said something inappropriate on the Aziz Ansari film’ thing.”

HE: “He doesn’t crap around or play the game. I’ve seen him in action. The inference is that he acted inappropriately in a sexual way. But I’ll bet money that whatever he did or said, it wasn’t that bad. And that the complainer is a Millennial woman. And that her beef was about Murray being insensitive on some level.”

Friendo: “I’ll bet it isn’t sexual but, as you imply, some kind of sarcastic or angry response by him. Somebody was offended by something he said, and so they complained.”

HE: “Murray’s been in this racket for 40-plus years without significant incident, and suddenly he’s going to… what, inappropriately hit on someone? I can’t wrap my head around that. Why do you think it’s non-sexual? Just curious.”

Friendo: “He’s not that guy…not the lunging horndog. He’s just annoyed and irritated with everyone.”

HE: “Who suspends a movie in mid-production over something that might seem offensive in a certain context, but which isn’t all that serious?”

Minutes after hearing of the sad passing of 90 year-old Robert Morse, I was watching his Tony Award–winning, one-man-band performance as Truman Capote in Tru (‘89).

Written by Jay Presson Allen, the whole show is on YouTube, broken up into nine segments. I’ve only watched two, but it’s obvious Morse’s Tony was well deserved.

Quick — what was Gore Vidal’s alleged response when asked about Capote’s slow, haphazard, Montgomery Clift-styled suicide of ‘84?

…in WeHo Gelson’s parking lot — Tuesday, 4.20, 7:25 pm. The driver was irritated when I asked for the model year. At first he tried stonewalling. Calmly and matter-of-factly, I said “just tell me the year…please.” Snooty-cakes fumed behind his rolled-up window…his expression said “my God, will you leave me the fuck alone?”

“Please.”

“Nine-nuh-mee-mee-mee.” (muffled)

“What?”

“Nineteen sixty–three!”

Hugs and condolences for fans and friends of the late Catherine Spaak, the actress-singer who passed on 4.17 at age 77. You’ll forgive me for very briefly confusing Spaak with Camilla Sparv, the 78 year-old, still-with-us Swedish actress who was briefly married to Robert Evans and costarred with Robert Redford in Michael Ritchie’s Downhill Racer (‘71).

Classy European ladies, three-syllable first names starting with C, one-syllable last names starting with S….sorry.

Today the N.Y. Times admitted to a serious pronoun error. Ezra Miller is miffed but willing to forgive.

“We’re all accustomed to Piers Morgan being a tart, adversarial figure,” I wrote two days ago (4.18). And of course, several voices came out of the HE woodwork to slime the guy. (Not that he doesn’t have stuff to answer for.) The Morgan–Trump interview in question won’t air until 4.25, but his tarty, adversarial questioning has led to an angry walk–out.

I know this is an old-fashioned thing to say, but I like to watch movies that have moderately good-looking people in the lead roles. True, audiences are more accepting these days of average-looking types, and this, I think, is a sign of social maturity. The general assumption is that if your main characters are too drop-dead beautiful or ax-blade handsome, then the film is probably mediocre on some level. I subscribe to that formula also. And I have no problems with Seth Rogen in a lead role…he’s obviously not Cary Grant or Brad Pitt, but I like him. On the other hand there’s a reason why guys like Danny McBride, Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch aren’t regarded as leading-man types. It’s the same reason why Johnny Depp lost his marquee mojo when he…uhm, bulked up.

Continuing a chat covered in yesterday’s “Maher Complaints & Retorts.” As noted yesterday, Darryl Ponicsan is the creator of Badass Badusky, Mule and Larry Meadows — the Jack Nicholson, Otis Young and Randy Quaid characters from Hal Ashby‘s The Last Detail. (DP wrote the book — Robert Towne wrote the screenplay.) His solo and shared screenwriting credits include Cinderella Liberty, Nuts, Random Hearts and Last Flag Flying.