Romance rumor du jour: Johnny Depp once again cozying up to Amber Heard?

We always figured Johnny Depp's wooing technique involved whisking the object of his desire to his private Caribbean island, breaking out his Capt. Jack costume and making her weak in the knees with double-entendres of the "plunder" and "shiver me timbers" variety.

But he apparently relies on a more typical Hollywood approach. The New York Post spied the megastar, 49, "getting cozy" with his "Rum Diary" co-star Amber Heard, 26, at AV Nightclub in Los Angeles earlier this week.

The pair, who were linked as Depp's 14-year relationship with Vanessa Paradis hit the skids last summer, "sat close" in a roped-off section of a patio, where they supposedly looked "flirty" as they chitchatted for several hours.

Back in July, Us Weekly reported they were "100 percent dating," and said that Heard had parted ways with her photographer girlfriend of four years, Tasya van Ree. Word was, a smitten Depp had even bought the Texas native a horse.

But then the rumor mill suddenly quieted down, with nary a peep until earlier this month, when the London Sun claimed the pining actor had started sending the starlet self-penned poems and roses in an effort to return to her good graces.

"He missed her so much over the summer," asserted a source. "They both love literature, and the way he tried to win her back totally worked."

Heard, who was snapped with van Ree in September, has called Depp a "beautiful specimen of a human being," while he's gushed, "When I first saw Amber, it was like seeing an old-time movie star. It was like I was seeing Lauren Bacall."

As for Paradis, her acting career has switched into high gear with a role in Woody Allen's latest, but she remains tight-lipped about Depp.

"I don't sell my private life, and nobody knows the truth or has done a proper journalist's work on that situation," she tells The Daily Beast. "Nowadays, people speculate, but nobody knows! I have my children [Jack and Lily-Rose] to protect. There are children involved, so it's really no one's business but the family."

Meanwhile, click on for more pics of Johnny and Amber ...