Gambon's Royal Joke On Johnny Depp 10/2/08

Sir Michael Gambon once tricked Johnny Depp into thinking he was friends with British monarch Queen Elizabeth II - telling the actor he regularly went to her home for a cup of tea.

The pair was working together on 1999 movie Sleepy Hollow in the grounds of a stately home near Windsor, England, when the Queen and Harry Herbert, the 17th Earl of Pembroke - who is also a film director - rode past on horses.

And Depp assumed that because Gambon knew the Earl, he must know the Royal as well.

Gambon recalls, "Harry shouts, 'Hello Mike' and I replied 'Hello Harry, how are you, mate?' and 'Hello ma'am' and the Queen nods to me.

"Afterwards Depp asked: 'Was that the Queen?' (I replied) 'Of course it was the Queen.' Mouth open, Depp replied: 'You know the Queen?'

"'Yeah, she's one of my best friends,' I ribbed him, 'I'm always nipping into her house for a cup of tea.'"