Johnny Depp has just been announced as ‘guest of honour’ at Glastonbury, and people aren’t happy

Usually surprise acts at Glastonbury are one of the best parts of the weekend, the cherry on top of an uber-expensive weekend of debauchery, music and mud. And today that was partially true, when the festival announced that Liam Gallagher would be playing a surprise Saturday set on the Other Stage.

Oh but they added that Johnny Depp would be there as a “guest of honour”. Remember Johnny Depp? He was in all those pirate films, he played Edward Scissorhands. He used to be married to Amber Heard. You may remember her from these pictures.

Anyway Johnny Depp will appear at the site’s new drive-in movie area Cineramageddon introducing his personal choice of films followed by a discussion with the area’s curator Julien Temple. Neat!

The news comes one year after Glastonbury announced their first “female only” space, and illustrates how quickly and readily we’re willing to forget any murkiness in a celebrity’s past, just to think of them at their shiniest, uncontroversial best.

It’s important to remember that Depp’s domestic abuse allegations and divorce case were settled with Amber Heard out of court, with their lawyers calling the relationship “passionate and volatile”. Since then though, the impact of the shocking pictures of Heard’s bruised face haven’t really done much to hinder Depp’s continued success. The announcement of him as Glasto “guest of honour” adds him to a long list of celebrities – including Chris Brown, Casey Affleck and Donald Trump – whose careers have remained totally untouched despite allegations of abuse and harassment of women.

Honestly, if you’re going to Glastonbury to watch films introduced by Johnny Depp rather than doing literally anything else available to you at the festival, you’re doing something wrong. Give it a miss, you can go get your tarots read in Healing Fields instead.

@rosielanners