joaquin and diddy

The must-read Entertainment Weekly blog reports:

“Two people close to Joaquin Phoenix tell EW that the actor’s recent attempt to reinvent himself as a rapper is not what it appears to be.

Ever since the actor announced he was ditching his career in movies to try to make it as a rap artist, speculation has flown wildly about what, exactly, the two-time Oscar nominee might be thinking. Following his widely panned three-song debut as a rapper at a Las Vegas nightclub on Jan. 16 — a shambling performance that concluded with the actor falling off the stage — two competing theories emerged: Either Phoenix is perpetrating an elaborate Andy Kaufman-style hoax…or he’s truly lost his marbles. The truth, it seems, is closer to the former. “He said, ‘It’s a put-on. I’m going to pretend to have a meltdown and change careers, and Casey [Affleck] is going to film it,‘” says one source who recently worked with Phoenix.”

“It’s an art project for him,” says a source. “He’s going full out. He probably has told his reps that he’s quit acting. Joaquin is very smart. This is very conscious. He has a huge degree of control.”

I think Joaquin should be more appreciative of the acting talent that he was blessed with and the options he has been afforded because of that talent. Fake dismissing that blessing, and instead mocking hip hop should backfire on him. Plus, Joaquin has never been funny or satirical, like Ben Stiller or Sacha Baron-Cohen. If anything he’s borderline Crispin Glover-creepy.