Johnny Depp has signed the highest men’s fragrance deal in history after Dior reportedly offered him a $20 million US dollar three-year deal to continue fronting its Dior Sauvage fragrance. That works out at $29.9 million Aussie dollars!
The deal represents a change in fortunes for Depp who was famously dropped from Warner Bro’s Fantastic Beasts (a Harry Potter spinoff) after a 2018 The Sun article labeled him as a “wife beater”.
Not everyone was happy, however. US publication Jezebel pointed out that the move was in contradiction to the supposed values of the “feminist” brand Dior.
“Considering the extensive, disturbing allegations of rape and intimate partner violence against Depp by his ex-wife Amber Heard, the $20 million deal between Depp and Dior Sauvage stands in pretty sharp contrast with feminist posturing from other parts of the fashion house,” writer Kylie Cheung wrote.
Cheung has a point considering that, despite largely winning his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard, Depp lost the UK defamation case against The Sun.
During that trial, the judge decided that there was enough evidence to characterize Depp as a “wife-beater”.
The $20 million US dollar fragrance deal means that Depp is likely the highest-paid male fragrance model in history. The amount is double the $12 million US dollar deal Dior has in place with Twilight actor Robert Pattinson and more than double the $7 million US dollar deal Chanel has in place with Angelina Jolie’s ex Brad Pitt.
Dior is famously a feminist brand, and creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri has made feminist messaging an important part of the brand in recent years. She rolled out “We Should All Be Feminist” T-shirts in 2016 and has had phrases such as “Patriarchy Kills Love” and “Women Raise the Uprising” on runway shows.
Last year she spoke to The Guardian about dismantling the male gaze in fashion.
Meanwhile, across the pond from the US, things are less rosy for Amber Heard. The actress has literally and figuratively left Hollywood and now resides in Spain with her young daughter.
