The Lone Ranger executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer dined with a party of eight at El Farol recently. The film has been in the news lately for having a bloated $250 million budget, and for the mixed reactions the Native American community has had over Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Tonto (here in New Mexico, the Navajo Nation welcomed the production with open arms, and the Comanche tribe adopted Depp, but that enthusiasm isn’t universal). On the subject of Bruckheimer and Depp … Pirates of the Caribbean 5 and 6? Really?

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Johnny Depp was also spotted in Santa Fe, dining at Jambo Cafe on Cerrillos Road. The actor is reportedly staying at a private residence in town.

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And yet another Lone Ranger-related sighting. A cheerful William Fichtner was recently seen enjoying a family dinner at the Cowgirl.

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Alexis Bledel, of Gilmore Girls and Mad Men fame, was in New Mexico to meet with 30 young female volunteers with the Obama campaign. In the series finale of Gilmore Girls, her character, Rory, gets a job as a reporter covering Obama on the road. Possibly a nod to her real-life political leanings, or was it life that imitated dramedy? Bledel also joined the volunteers to celebrate the commander in chief’s birthday.

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The New York Times Book Review featured commentary on John Brandon’s novel A Million Heavens, set in a small town outside of Albuquerque. The Times said the book is for the reader “who’s inhaled the gateway drugs of Hogwarts and Katniss, and is ready for more adult pleasures.” It’s a metaphysical novel about a wolf, a child who falls into a coma after playing “16 seconds of miraculous music” at his first piano lesson, a dead singer possibly trapped in limbo and other characters in alternating narratives. If all that sounds confusing, consider that all this complexity is confined to just 272 pages. The reviewer praises Brandon’s realistic descriptions but derides the book as tapping “a bit too deeply into New Mexico’s mystical, new-agey chakra.” La Mitotera would ponder what this means, but she’s already running late for her drum circle and Sanskrit lesson.

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Newcomer Melissa McCurley, who plays Lydia’s secretary in eight episodes of this season’s Breaking Bad, was shopping at Tutto in Santa Fe. The actress was shopping for her niece, who taught her aunt how to knit.

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Lionsgate has been announcing one casting for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire per week — until this week, when it announced four. Actor Woody Harrelson says the movie starts filming in September, so either the studio is cutting it very close, or most of the casting is already done and has been kept under wraps. Smart money says they announce who gets to play Finnick Odair last (smart money is also on Sam Claflin being a shoe-in, if you buy into the persistent rumor). Check http://tinyurl.com/88hcg5v for the latest.

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Rock ’n’ roll legend Neil Young was recently seen celebrating his anniversary with his wife at Restaurant Martin.

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The next movie project coming to New Mexico is 2 Guns, which will film later this month in and around Santa Fe and Albuquerque. The movie, starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, also features Paula Patton, Fred Ward and Edward James Olmos.

Send your sightings to elmitote@sfnewmexican.com. Follow El Mitote on Twitter @sfmitote.