Johnny Depp is 'hat person of the year'

Washington - Johnny Depp has been crowned "hat person of the year", beating out other celebrity hat-wearers including singer Gwen Stefani and Australian actor Hugh Jackman, the US Headwear Association said on Tuesday.

Nearly four in 10 visitors to the Headwear Association's website voted in the annual poll for Pirates of the Caribbean star Depp and his wide-brimmed fedoras, helping him to roundly beat Stefani and Jackman who garnered 17% and 16% of votes cast, respectively.

Fittingly, Depp played the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. He takes over from last year's "hat person of the year", fellow actor Brad Pitt, who helped made the newsboy's cap fashionable.

In fourth place behind Depp this year was US pop singer Justin Timberlake, with 13%, followed by Almost Famous actress Kate Hudson who got 9% of the vote, and Nicole Ritchie, with 7%.

Many of the celebrities on this year's hat podium favour fedoras like Depp's, and, indeed, the wide-brimmed hat is making a comeback, according to the 103-year-old Headwear Association.

"Wider-brimmed fedoras were seen on the Paris, Milan and New York runways" in recent international fashion weeks, the Headwear Association says.