A Little More Mid-Afternoon Mood-Lightening Frivolity

Separated at Birth?

Similarities are being noticed between Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka and a certain recently-acquited Hollywood freak. And lest you think I'm making all of this up just because of my own prejudices, I'll have you know that no less a Blog Eminence than Laurence Simon his own self is the one who brought it to my notice:

"It's very scary," laughs Houston-based blogger Laurence Simon.

Like other moviegoers, Simon made the Depp-Jackson-Wonka connection almost instantly when he saw the Chocolate Factory trailer. An offhanded remark last month on his blog, This Blog Is Full of Crap (IsFullofCrap.com), about how much he wasn't looking forward to Burton's film led one commentator to crack, "What's the problem...? Don't have the stomach for Michael Jackson and the Chocolate Factory?"

[Insert sound of sniggering here.]

Yips! to Ith.

BTW, for those of you interested, I've now read the original Roald Dahl novel to the Llama-ettes, who thoroughly enjoyed it. We're starting in on Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, which doesn't seem half as good, at least from the early chapters. The whole "Spaceship U.S.A." bit with the cardboard paranoid Amuricans had me tapping my foot with some impatience. I hope Dahl gets over this kick quickly, but experience suggests that I shouldn't let this hope get too high.

UPDATE: Rechecking the comments to my previous post, I see that Fausta scooped the lot of us on the whole Depp/Jackson thing. Well done.

UPDATE DEUX: In a story related to today's events, Evil Glenn reports that the Gloved One stands ready to whip out his support for the Brits. N'yung-chuk! Oooh, Hooo!