By Rob McLaren

OSCAR-NOMINATED actor Johnny Depp will go to the Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood tomorrow knowing that he is already a star in the eyes of Angus and Dundee Tourist Board.

Depp has been sent a golden Peter Pan statuette as a thank you from the tourist board for helping to put Kirriemuir on the international map with his performance as Kirriemuir-born author J. M. Barrie in Finding Neverland. Since the release of the film, which also stars Kate Winslet, Dustin Hoffman and Julie Christie, enquiries about the author’s Angus home have multiplied.

Depp’s golden Peter Pan is modelled on the Academy Awards statue and has been airmailed to the actor with a good luck message for the Oscar ceremony. But it’s likely to be the only golden statue Depp picks up this weekend, as UK bookmakers have stopped taking bets on Jamie Foxx to win the best actor Oscar for his performance as Ray Charles in Ray.

Colin Smith, chief executive of the Angus and Dundee Tourist Board, said, “Who would have thought that Johnny Depp would play a part in generating tourism in the Kirriemuir area?”

He added, “The town, the birthplace of J. M. Barrie and indeed the wider Angus area has a lot to thank Mr Depp for.

“His role in the film Finding Neverland has led to a much enhanced interest in the life and work of J. M. Barrie, with many visitors wanting to trace his roots back to his birthplace.

“Angus and Dundee Tourist Board extends an invitation to Mr Depp and his family to come to Kirriemuir and see the spiritual home of Peter Pan for themselves.

“Who knows, if he wins the Oscar he may become a Freeman of Kirriemuir.”

J. M. Barrie’s two-storey house in the town is open to the public. Inside, visitors can view the recreated kitchen and bedroom upstairs, take a look at Barrie’s writing desk or find out more about his life in the small museum in the third of the upper floor rooms.

The adjacent house, number 11, contains an exhibition, The Genius of J. M. Barrie, which tells of the author’s literary and theatrical works.

The outdoor washroom has been preserved, and was said to have been Barrie’s first theatre and the inspiration for the Wendy House in Peter Pan.

There is also a much loved—and much photographed—statue of Peter Pan in the garden of the house, as well as one in the centre of the town.