All they want is a seat in the courtroom
to watch the waning days of the defama-
tion trial between Depp and his ex-wife
Amber Heard. Fans travel to Northern
Virginia from around the world, eager to
try to land a seat in the courtroom. Only
100 spectators are allowed in each day,
first-come, first-served, but many more
show up to try to get a place in line,
leading to confusion, shouting matches,
online shaming and at least one physical
altercation captured on video. Among
them, they have tried honor systems,
SEE LINE ON C3BY EMILY YAHR
In the darkest of night, Johnny Depp is
nowhere near the Fairfax County Court-
house. But his fans are here, in legion, on
the grassy lawns or hiding in the parking
garage, waiting for the clock to strike 1
a.m., so they can get a spot on a very
important stretch of sidewalk. It gets
tense. There is a “Lord of the Flies” vibe,
or maybe “The Hunger Games.” (“Thun-
derdome,” one participant calls it, refer-
encing the Mad Max movie: Two men
enter, one man leaves.)KLMNO
Style
FRIDAY, MAY 27 , 2022. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/STYLE EZ RE C
Top Gun: Maverick
36 years later, Tom
Cruise still makes a
pretty great flyboy in
this rollicking, stylish
sequel. 14The Bob’s Burgers
Movie
Fans of the animated
TV series will find the
same zany appeal in
the film version. 22We Feed People
An absorbing
documentary from
Ron Howard follows
chef José Andrés, a
man on a mission. 23MOVIES IN WEEKENDDeGeneres Show’s” 19 seasons as a sym-
bol of gay progress. “Twenty years ago,
when we were trying to sell this show,”
she said, “no one thought this would
work. Not because it was a dif-
ferent kind of show, but because
I was different.”
She continued, “Twenty-five
years ago, they canceled my sitcom be-
cause they didn’t want a lesbian to be in
prime time once a week. And I said, ‘Okay,
I’ll be in daytime every day, how ’bout
that?’” The audience exploded in ap-plause. DeGeneres then hosted friend
and guest Jennifer Aniston, who ap-
peared on the show’s first episode, as well
as singers Pink and Billie Eilish. She
closed the hour with another
queer-friendly message: “If
someone is brave enough to tell
you who they are, be brave
enough to support them, even if you don’t
understand. They’re showing you who
they are, and that is the biggest gift
anybody can ever give you. And by open-
ing your heart and your mind, you’reCRITIC’S
NOTEBOOKBY INKOO KANGThough she officially bade farewell
Thursday afternoon, it feels as if Ellen
DeGeneres left the air a year or two ago.
Such was the mutedness of the talk-show
host’s valedictory run — most likely the
result of a 2020 exposé that alleged a
“toxic” workplace behind the scenes of a
series that encouraged fans to “be kind.”
Nonetheless, the deposed Queen of
Nice hit a triumphant note in her final
opening monologue, framing “The Ellen
going to be that much more compassion-
ate. And compassion is what makes the
world a better place.”
In one of the many celebrity “inter-
views” of the past week in which the rich
and famous dropped by to praise DeGe-
neres, Oprah Winfrey assured her prote-
gee in daytime TV, “You are going to be
missed.” But the comedian, host, sitcom
star and film actor has been in the
spotlight for so long — making her
Johnny Carson debut 36 years ago, her
squeaky-clean stage persona alreadyhoned — that it’s worth wondering which
DeGeneres we’ll remember most.
She’ll always be a gay pioneer twice
over. It took courage to publicly come
out in 1997 — on “The Oprah Winfrey
Show,” in fact — shortly after which she
lost her sitcom. On “Ellen,” her character
came out, as well — to a therapist, played
by Winfrey.
It was a fearless move amid the ram-
pant homophobia of the late 1990s: The
same year that DeGeneres was forced off
SEE NOTEBOOK ON C2‘Ellen’ says goodbye. Which version of her will we miss?BY SONIA RAOBritish prosecutors authorized charg-
es against actor Kevin Spacey on Thurs-
day, with several counts of sexual assault
stemming from incidents alleged to have
taken place in London and Gloucester-
shire between March 2005 and April
2013.
Rosemary Ainslie, head of the Crown
Prosecution Service’s Special Crime Divi-
sion, stated in a news release that the CPS
authorized criminal charges for four
counts of sexual assault against three
men, as well as another count of “causing
a person to engage in penetrative sexual
activity without consent.” The charges
facing Spacey, 62, follow an investigation
conducted by the Metropolitan Police.
Spacey can be formally charged only
upon arrest in England or Wales. A CPS
spokesman did not respond to The Wash-
ington Post’s request for comment on
whether the actor would be extradited.
Spacey was first accused of sexual
misconduct in October 2017 by actor
Anthony Rapp, who told BuzzFeed News
that Spacey made a sexual advance
toward him at a party in 1986, when
Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. After
SEE SPACEY ON C2
Spacey may be
prosecuted on
sexual-assault
charges in U.K.
BY DAVID BETANCOURTObi-Wan Kenobi is one of the most
well-known characters in the Star Wars
universe, right up there with Darth
Vader, not to mention Baby Yoda and his
Mandalorian babysitter.
The Padawan prodigy who would
grow into a Jedi Master is, more than
anything, faithful to a fault. In the
prequels (played by Ewan McGregor), he
adheres to the promise he made to his
dying master to train a boy who deep
down he knew was trouble and who
eventually becomes Darth Vader. He is
also the quintessential Jedi, never drift-
ing from the code, always heroic, humor-
ous and honest.
In the animated “Star Wars: The Clone
Wars” (voiced by James Arnold Taylor),
which takes place between Episodes II
and III, we see the human behind the
Jedi, someone who has loved and lost
but has learned to not be defined by his
emotions. And in the original movies
(played by Alec Guinness), he is an old,
wise warrior, years removed from the
Jedi Knight at war he once was.
Never boring despite always playing
things by the book, Obi-Wan is the stuff
of Star Wars legend in his triumphs and
his mistakes. He put even more of the
“star” in Star Wars when the Notorious
B.I.G. said in his 1997 hit “Hypnotize,”
“hit ’em with the force like Obi,” and that
was two years before the prequels, and
two decades after his first appearance.
As his “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series pre-
mieres on Disney Plus on Friday,
McGregor now finds himself in a new
deep-space reality that he probably
would have never imagined after his
three Star Wars films were maligned by
critics. Those prequels have wowed a
younger wave of fans who are now old
SEE OBI-WAN ON C2
Always loyal,
ol’ Obi-Wan
still brings
the hope
The line starts (and ends) hereThey came, they camped, they communed — all for a chance to see the Depp-Heard trial dramaBRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGESSome people wait
in line overnight
to get a pass to
enter the court in
the final week of
the defamation
trial of Johnny
Depp and Amber
Heart i n Fairfax.
Above, people in
line on Monday.