Taking Names

Depp is sexiest man

Time to walk the plank, Hugh Jackman! Johnny Depp is reclaiming the throne as People’s Sexiest Man Alive, the magazine’s Web site reported Wednesday.

“The Pirates of the Caribbean” star previously earned the title in 2003. He joins Brad Pitt and George Clooney in the two-timers’ club.

Mr. Depp, 46, has been in a relationship since 1998 with French singer Vanessa Paradis, 37, with whom he has two children, Lily-Rose, 10, and Jack, 7.

Other honorees on this year’s list include actors Ryan Reynolds, Bradley Cooper, Gilles Marini, the men of “Glee,” and “American Idol” finalist Adam Lambert.

Another op’nin’

There will be a new Kander and Ebb musical - off-Broadway.

Vineyard artistic director Doug Aibel says “The Scottsboro Boys” will have its world premiere March 10 at the small nonprofit theater. Previews begin Feb. 12, Associated Press reports.

“The Scottsboro Boys” concerns the infamous case from the 1930s in which a group of black youths were unjustly accused of attacking two white women. No word on casting yet, but Tony winner Susan Stroman (“The Producers,” “Contact”) will direct. The book is by David Thompson.

Composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb have been responsible for some of Broadway’s most memorable shows, including “Cabaret,” “Chicago” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” The score for “The Scottsboro Boys” was written before Ebb died in 2004.

Mercer honored

Jeepers creepers! Savannah’s got a Johnny Mercer statue for tourists’ peepers.

The Savannah-born songwriter was honored in his hometown Wednesday with the unveiling of his life-size likeness cast in bronze, Associated Press reports. About 150 onlookers turned out to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the celebrated lyricist and four-time Oscar winner who gave a poetic grace and a slangy tang to songs such as “Moon River,” “Jeepers Creepers,” “Accentuate the Positive” and “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.”

The statue in historic Savannah’s Ellis Square gives Mercer an honor ordinarily reserved for the 18th-century founders and Revolutionary War heroes of Georgia’s oldest city.

The songwriter’s grandson, Jim Corwin of Los Angeles, said Mercer likely would have been embarrassed by all the fuss.

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