She still looks like a luscious Lolita, all angular cheekbones and big eyes.

She is now 33, but has always said she wanted to be a mother, and there's nothing that makes her happier than carrying a child.

Which brings us back to that block of wood and the paparazzi. Depp doesn't even attempt to look contrite.

"I told them: 'I know the photograph you want and you're not going to get it! I don't want to be a novelty tonight.'

"They were rude and said: 'We are going to get the picture!"

"Vanessa got in the car and they were trying to pull the door open.

"There was a block of wood on the ground, so I grabbed it and smacked the hand of the guy who was trying to open the car door."

Johnny was born in Owensboro, Kentucky and had a peripatetic childhood.

The family moved to Florida and shifted more than a dozen times between motels and homes.

His high school career was colourful - he was once suspended for mooning at his gym teacher - and he dropped out at 15.

"I felt completely and utterly confused by everything that was going on around me," he admits.

"I always wanted to know why, and it really annoyed the teachers."

That year, his parents split up.

"I was pretty much ready to leave myself and did so not long after that.

"So on the one hand it was a release, and on the other it was a radical change for Mom and she got very ill.

"There was never any time for me, as a kid, to feel bad at the parents splitting up because the kid had to go straight to the mom and look after her and make sure she was OK.

"There was never any time for mourning the loss of family."

Now he has found the family he missed for so long.

He still has a base in the South of France, but has bought his mother a house next door to his Hollywood Hills home. Whatever was lost is now complete.

Depp says when growing up he used to love the Pirates Of The Caribbean ride at Disney World in Florida.

Now he enjoys taking his kids on it, too.

Meanwhile, in each Pirates film, his character has become more arch, more over the top.

At World's End features spectacular swashbuckling scenes - and a Captain Jack who is more comedic, and nimble, than ever.

A bit like the man himself. Somehow Captain Jack and Johnny Depp seem set to continue to evolve together, and perhaps they are not ready to let go of each other yet.