A ROLLING STONE GATHERS NO MOSS ON SET.

Byline: - Glenn Whipp

What happens when a real pirate shows up on the set of your pirate movie?

"Pirates" director Gore Verbinski found out when Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards arrived at the Palmdale airport hangar where "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" was wrapping up a very long shoot.

"We had finally finished shooting on water where nothing stays where you put it," Verbinski says. "Then Keith arrives, and he doesn't stay where you put him. At one point, he told me, 'If you want me to stand still, mate, you've got the wrong guy.' "

Richards, of course, was the right guy, given that Johnny Depp modeled pirate Jack Sparrow's outlaw swagger on Richards' rock 'n' roll life. There had long been talk about Richards making a cameo as Capt. Jack's father in one of the "Pirates" sequels, and Depp finally convinced his hero to put in a couple of days' work.

Not that Richards really worked in the traditional sense.

"It made us feel like very good boys to have this Tasmanian devil whirl into the set and whirl out again two days later," says Geoffrey Rush.

"He literally has a waltz going on in his head," Verbinski says. "Johnny can turn it on and off, that meandering, sea-legs thing. But that's Keith all the time.

"You set a frame and he's there for half a beat, and then you've got his nose in the frame," Verbinski continues. "Somebody's wheeling the dolly and he'd say, 'Hello dolly.' He's just this lizard monk creature, sharp as a tack, but existing in an alternate universe."

Before Richards arrived, Verbinski called a guitar maker, who crafted a special guitar for Richards to play in a scene.

"And Keith stole it," Verbinski says, laughing. "We never saw it again."

So when Richards made news earlier this year for saying he snorted his father's ashes with a bit of cocaine (Richards' reps now say the comment was intended as a joke), Verbinski was unfazed. He says Disney "put its foot in its mouth" by even bothering to react to it.

"It's just Keith, you know," Verbinski says. "I don't know if he snorted his dad or not. That's between him and his father. I just love that he is Jack Sparrow. The myth arrives three days before the character does. He's gonna outlive us all."

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The irreppressible Keith Richards has a cameo as Capt. Jack's dad.