Nancy, you've made many good points about blooper/skit fans and serious fans- thanks for your thoughtful post. While waiting for the film, a number of folks from the Depp forums who were previously unfamiliar with DS have started watching via Netflix or Youtube, and many have expressed newfound respect for the show. So regardless of how the film comes out, I think there are a lot of folks out there who have open minds and are interested in exploring the original series for what it was.
As far as Vanity Fair- I saw some scans a few days ago and just found it yesterday at Barnes & Noble (I'm in the DC area, so it may not have hit smaller cities yet). There is really no talk about DS, I'm afraid- it is just mentioned as a current project, and the long hours Johnny was spending on the set (and going out drinking and gambling with the VF interviewer on a work night, much to the chagrin of some fans).
Hopefully there will be some DS mentions in the Larry King interview, ditto the upcoming Rum Diary premiere and several college screenings for that film, and ditto any other Rum Diary press or interviews that come up (we haven't heard yet about a Rolling Stone interview, but since The Rum Diary's author, Hunter S. Thompson, was a major fixture in the Rolling Stone community for many years, it stands to reason that they will do one). However, since The Rum Diary was an especially personal project for Johnny, and since Hunter was such a close personal friend, there may be more emphasis on it and less on other projects than usual (though I hope he will indeed touch upon DS, since of course DS was a personal project for him too!) We'll see what the next couple of weeks bring!
And thanks MB for the tip on the Pfeiffer interview!