Ellen DeGeneres leads Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow and Paul Bettany in revealing game of Never Have I Ever

Gone are the days of talk shows past when the likes of Michael Parkinson got celebrities to open up about childhood trauma, their sex lives and most mortifying moments. These days it’s all casual chit-chat and self-promotion.

But, luckily Ellen DeGeneres has hit upon a winning formula for getting to the heart of what we viewers want to know about our Hollywood heroes: the party game Never Have I Ever, favourite of teenagers and drunk students alike.

During The Ellen Show the former Oscars host exposed more about the Mortdecai cast than their publicists were probably comfortable with.

Armed with placards stating “I have” and “I have never” Paul Bettany, Johnny Depp and Gwyneth Paltrow admitted to a series of surprising things.

Questions included whether they’d been arrested (Bettany and Depp had), joined the Mile High club (Depp and Paltrow said yes) and if they’d pretended a baby was cute when it was ugly (all three were guilty of the latter).

With barely a word passing their lips (bar Bettany’s exclamation of “Oh, come on!”) the trio nodded their admissions with red faces and shrugs of embarrassment.

David Koepp’s Mortdecai, a caper comedy in which Depp stars as art dealer and rogue Charlie Mortdecai , is in UK cinemas now.