Johnny Depp

Wild things happen when you shake booty with Julia Roberts. Not only do you turn into the "scorned" Lyle Lovett's nemesis, but you gain at least three notches on the American fame-o-meter. Last May, Ethan Hawke's name became checkout-line wallpaper after the "grunge hunk" was seen sipping champagne with the "pretty woman" at Lola's in Manhattan. The friendly business meal became Mr. Hawke's wake-up call to the world of tabloid caricature.Thanks to that overblown night with Ms. Roberts and a much-hyped Generation X movie called "Reality Bites," the spring of 1994 was a breakthrough season for the actor, 24. Now, like it or not, Mr. Hawke has been fingered as a generational icon, a latter-day Johnny Depp who has successfully segued from Teen Beatdom to Rolling Stone cool.

The criminal charge for which actor Charles "Roc" Dutton had been jailed was incorrectly reported in the Nov. 27 Today section. He was jailed on a manslaughter charge.The Sun regrets the errors.No limos for Roc."I always take a rent-a-car," he says, "and the first thing, I head to Greenmount Avenue to hang out. 'Hey, Roc,' they call, the guys, they come over, we hang together. It's just like it was, only it's always a bittersweet moment."That's Charles S. Dutton, formerly of Baltimore, Md., on the Baltimore drill: What he does when he returns from his life as award-winning Broadway, TV and movie star to the streets of the town that spawned him, imprisoned him and ultimately liberated him.Now he sits in a Washington restaurant, an imposing man in a double-breasted suit, starched shirt, power tie, gold watch, and waiters scurry nervously to please his whims, though of course he's far too decent to have whims.

Questions to ponder: Why do outsiders sometimes make the best movies about the inside?Why do foreigners understand America so much better than Americans? What do they do in small towns, anyway? And, finally, "What's Eating Gilbert Grape"?The only clear answer available is to the last one: The old things are eating at Gilbert, the largely obsolete things -- duty, loyalty, love and the pain of all of them. For the Swedish director Lasse ("My Life As a Dog") Hallstrom's "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" is the rarest of all movie events, a fundamental celebration of virtue.

In the fairy-tale film "Edward Scissorhands," Johnny Depp plays a man whose inventor dies before he can finish building his humanoid. Edward has everything he needs to lead a full life -- except real hands.Edward's hands are sharp metal shears that are capable of both great harm and great creativity. He lives alone in a hilltop mansion until one day he is rescued by an Avon lady and taken to suburbia. There, he displays his sculpting talent on shrubbery, dogs and, finally, on the neighborhood women's hair.

THE O'S ZONE: Rock singer and avid Orioles fan Joan Jett is one of the participants in the Orioles Fantasy Camp 1991, which gets into full swing next Sunday in Sarasota, Fla.About 100 fans will play with such pros as Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson, former manager Earl Weaver and former O's such as Boog Powell and Al "the Bee" Bumbry.We hear Miss Jett is a left-handed hitter who's said to have a lot of pop in her bat. Probably good on base as well.OUR HALL OF FAMER spy Jim Palmer reports from sunny Florida that some people will do just about anything for a, er, bagel.

* ''Edward Sissorhands'' A fairy tale about a young man whose creator, a mad inventor, never got around to giving him human hands. Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder and Dianne Wiest star.* ''Havana'' Robert Redford is a gambler who becomes involved with the wife of a Cuban revolutionary. Lena Olin co-stars.

An article in Sunday's Arts and Entertainment section about holiday films incorrectly implied that Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder are married. In fact, they are engaged.The Sun regrets the error.It began Wednesday, of course, when "Three Men and a Little Lady," "Dances With Wolves," "The Nutcracker Prince" and "Predator 2" opened. But it goes on -- the Christmas movie season, the most intense period of filmgoing of the year. Hollywood may make more money over the summer, but the weeks ahead remain the most hotly contested campaigns of the year and have a great deal to do with the financial stability of the studios.

'Edward Scissorhands'Starring Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder.Directed by Tim Burton.Released by Twentieth Century Fox.Rated PG-13.** 1/2 If you have scissors for hands, shoelaces are out. So is typing, the piano, and, presumably, foreplay. On the other hand, there's money to be made in topiary, hair and pet grooming.It's exactly this kind of attention to practical detail, at the expense of larger issues, that gives Tim Burton's "Edward Scissorhands" its Zeitgeist of craziness. Is it ever wacky, or what?

"How far should I go?" Winona Ryder asked Richard Benjamin, director of "Mermaids.""You're 15, crazy about him, thinking outrageous thoughts . . . ," he suggested, letting the film roll as Ryder fell onto her love interest (Michael Schoeffling) and -- behind his back but in plain view of the camera -- gave the actor's jacket a surreptitious lick.That touch is one of the more inspired in the film, a coming-of-age drama in which Ryder plays the religious daughter of a promiscuous mom (Cher)

It's silly statuette time once again, and chances are that Sweeney Todd, which picked up a recent Golden Globe award for best film musical, will be heavily nominated for the Academy Awards. While I applaud director Tim Burton for having come up with a fresh approach, I question the wisdom of stripping Stephen Sondheim's 1979 musical masterpiece of elements that audiences have relished for nearly three decades. The music, the scathingly witty dialogue - in the film, it all takes a back seat to the Grand Guignol-style plot.

Public Enemies *** 1/2 ( 3 1/2 STARS ) Public Enemies provides a welcome shock to the system. This tough-minded, visually electric movie about Depression bank robber John Dillinger ( Johnny Depp) takes audiences into the center of the action in its opening minutes. It keeps them there as it expands into a bristling chronicle of a country in flux. Depp goes all the way with the role of a wry, wily Midwesterner. He really nails this character - the scion of an age of speed who says he wants "everything" and wants it "right now."

Public Enemies provides a welcome shock to the system. This tough-minded, visually electric movie about Great Depression bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) takes audiences into the center of the action in its opening minutes. It keeps them there as it expands into a bristling chronicle of a country in flux. Without ever telling viewers what to think or how to feel, it raises more questions about the corruption of crime and crime fighting than any expose or thesis. And if it sometimes registers too coolly, by the end it rouses more bruised feelings than any four-hankie weepie.

It's silly statuette time once again, and chances are that Sweeney Todd, which picked up a recent Golden Globe award for best film musical, will be heavily nominated for the Academy Awards. While I applaud director Tim Burton for having come up with a fresh approach, I question the wisdom of stripping Stephen Sondheim's 1979 musical masterpiece of elements that audiences have relished for nearly three decades. The music, the scathingly witty dialogue - in the film, it all takes a back seat to the Grand Guignol-style plot.

Had a fab chat recently with Nancy Reagan, my own personal favorite first lady of the many I have known. The most "real," the most "human" of them all, with no political agenda, she was in town for the fundraiser Mayor Mike Bloomberg tossed for the Reagan Library at his eastside townhouse last week. The last time I'd seen Mrs. Reagan was at her husband's funeral in Washington and then my heart ached for her. She was grieving, exhausted and seemed very frail. But now she has bounced back.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End proves to be a box-office hit. What, in your opinion, makes this movie so spellbinding, particulary since it is about three hours long? WHAT YOU SAY Time has no meaning for these films. The special effects, the story lines, the characters and, of course, Johnny Depp spellbind you until the end of the feature. As far as the time goes, I could have sat there for two more hours. The movies go so fast you don't realize the time. Kathy Riley, Baltimore I love Johnny Depp.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is a movie made at wits' end. There are four or five authentic laughs in the whole 170-minute extravaganza. Here's what reviewers are not supposed to give away: How and why Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), a new Chinese pirate from Singapore, Sao Feng (Chow-Yun Fat), Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and trade magnate Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) betray each other.

"Killin's, burnin's, lootin's, but larceny above all else." -- Capt. Ned Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard (Blackbeard the Pirate, 1952) TAKE AWAY THE MURDERIN', the thievin' and the keelhaulin', and you might call Capt. Fletcher T. Moone a modern-day Ned Teach. It was 21 years ago this summer that Moone -- by day, a Kensington finance specialist named Brad Howard -- gathered a passel o' mates, formed a maritime music combo called the Pyrates Royale, and started playin' private parties all around the Chesapeake.

Two people who've made great careers out of Baltimore's dark side - best-selling mystery novelist Laura Lippman and Wire creator David Simon - chose a third for their preacher when they tied the knot. The Rev. John Waters presided. It wasn't the first time that the director, who stars as The Groom Reaper in a Court TV show about marriages gone murderously wrong, has officiated at a wedding. "I've done it 13 times, and only one couple's been divorced," Waters said. Pretty good track record, considering that so many marriages end in divorce - and that Waters got into the wedding biz for one that never even happened.

All summer, pundits have been trying to drive a wedge between "critics" and "audiences." Audiences go to the movies to have a good time. Critics go to furrow their brows and think esoteric thoughts. As A.O. Scott said from the bully pulpit of The New York Times, "We take entertainment very seriously, which is to say that we don't go to the movies for fun." That line should be as shocking to critics as it is damning to readers. How can you "take entertainment very seriously" and not go to the movies "for fun"?

Nothing exceeds like excess in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, delighted audiences because it's a genuine shiver-me-timbers sea frolic, not merely the movie based on a beloved Disneyland ride. The second movie, Dead Man's Chest, is everything you feared the first would be: a theme-park spectacle lasting 2 1/2 hours. It doesn't just make you seasick - the action on land is equally overblown, repetitive and clumsy.