I was browsing the interweb this morning when I came across another of those fascinating little snippets about Johnny Depp that make me say ‘Awww …. ! See? There IS hope for the human race!’ And maybe a few other, less publishable things.

Seems he was asked to record a message for a young girl who was in a coma following a car crash and - of course - he did so. It may be apocryphal, but I see no reason to doubt it. It seems like absolutely the kind of thing he would do. This is a man who not only made a very generous donation to Great Ormond Street hospital after his daughter Lily-Rose was treated there for a life-threatening E-coli infection, but had his Jack Sparrow costume flown over for the occasion and stayed for several hours reading to the kids on the wards after he’d handed the cheque over.

You can read a little bit about both stories here.

Johnny does his bit

Now see, here’s where it neatly links in to the name of this blog. It’s inspiring, that’s what it is. When I hear about someone of his status doing things like that just because he is asked, and because he can - and doing it very quietly without any media hype - it makes me want to be a better person. OK, no-one is going to randomly ask me to record a voicemail message for a coma victim unless they think they’ll wake up just to ask ‘who the hell is that??’, but next time I’m asked to spare a little time for someone, I’m more likely to say yes.

And of course, after the last piece on this blog, it was nice to find something a little more uplifting to write about.

*The picture above is one that I took at the London premiere of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Despite the time constraints he spent quite some time with this lucky young lady.