Actor Johnny Depp took the road that's becoming familiar for marginal celebrities desperate to garner headlines.  At a film fest in Glastonbury, he trashed Donald Trump and idly asked the question, "When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?"

Telegraph:

In a year that he would like to forget, which included his acrimonious divorce to Amber Heard, Johnny Depp made an appearance at the new Cinemageddon stage at Glastonbury

Introducing his 2004 film The Libertine, about a 17th-century poet who notoriously drank himself to an early death, the 54-year-old chose to discuss American politics.

"I think [Donald] Trump needs help," he said. "There are a lot of dark places he could go." 

He added: "I'm not insinuating anything – by the way this will be in the press and it will be horrible – but when was the last time an actor assassinated a president?"

Responding to loud cheers, Depp said: "Don't worry, I'm not an actor, I lie for a living."

Well, there is that.  But Depp's career has been on the downward slope toward oblivion for years, and the aforementioned messy divorce from Amber Heard – where the actress filed a restraining order against him – coupled with reports of bizarre behavior on the set of the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean film, gives the impression that Depp is in crisis.

Depp, like other celebrities seeking attention, knows that the quickest way to gain tons of media exposure is to advocate the assassination of the president of the United States.  His "qualifiers" notwithstanding, Depp knew that the assembled press would eat up his John Wilkes Booth reference and blast it all over the world.

It's pathetic.  Johnny Depp's descent will not be stopped by his gaining cheap headlines or calculated P.R. moves.  They used to say there's no such thing as bad publicity as long as they spell your name correctly.  Only in the Hollywood cocoon is that still true.