I was SO thrilled to hear earlier today about Michelle's (and Helena's) possible casting. I hadn't heard Michelle's name mentioned at all previously, but as soon as I heard the name today, I thought it was a perfect choice. A lot of the names that have been bandied about by fans have been awesome, highly respected actresses who I definitely could've really seen playing Liz... 15 or 20 years ago. That is to say, many of fan's choices have frankly been too old. I think that Michelle is just the right age, and she is very beautiful and has a strong presence. And I love that she's worked with Burton before and thus is part of his "family", so to speak.
As for Helena, I'm not surprised, LOL. Perhaps she was just not confirming it until the time was right, but I dunno, it seems possible that it just hadn't been decided for sure. She DOES get other acting jobs besides in Burton's movies
At any rate, after seeing The King's Speech and rewatching Sweeney Todd recently, I can definitely see her as Julia.
As for Depp's remarks about staying close to Frid, maybe it's just me but I wasn't taking that to be 100% literal- more that he wants to achieve the same sort of tone with the character than doing an outright impersonation or anything. I know (and fear!) that DS diehards will be dissecting his performance and I only hope that he does justice to the character, and I am feeling pretty good about that!!
And yeah, they can easily stick a wig on Jackie or otherwise tweak his look for the film. I can't quite remember but I'm pretty sure he had hair for Watchmen (when he wasn't wearing a mask) and Shutter Island, too. BTW I loved him in Human Target and watched the show mainly for him (okay, a little also for Chi McBride, who I loved from Pushing Daisies), but I confess that I stopped watching this year when they changed the format of the show so much.