Gwen Stefani was decked out as Cinderella for a party at Kate Hudson’s house over the weekend. She looks like a little girl playing dress up, complete with heavily applied blue eyeshadow, bright pink blush and pink lips. I have to give her credit for taking the look as far as she did, with stacks of necklaces, an updo with a tiara and a feather purse. She really went all out and she’s not hanging out of that outfit too much either. Bitch loves her makeup though, and she put it on with a trowel here.

Here’s Zooey Deschanel barely trying. At first I thought she was Duchess Kate in that outfit, but her hair is all teased out and she’s carrying that fake martini. Radar is claiming she’s “dressed as a woman from the 60s.” Hopefully she had someone specific in mind. This looks like one of those “group costumes” where everyone dresses up around some loosely formed theme and it’s hard to tell exactly who they’re supposed to be unless you see all of them together. They look like they’re having a bachelorette party. (Update: Thanks to those of you who pointed out that they’re supposed to be Valley of The Dolls characters!)

Nicky Hilton was little Red Riding Hood. That was boring when Kim Kardashian did it last year. This is how you do Red Riding Hood.

David Spade is… a cowboy who fell in some manure?

Casey Affleck was a hunter. At least he dressed up.

Topher Grace either didn’t bother or has a really weak ass costume.

Jessica Alba was a sexy witch. Such a mom costume. Throw on a hat and a wig. It looks like she has a veil with some spiders on it, and she probably tried harder than I’m giving her credit for.

Gwen Stefani owns them all and she knows it. I wonder who her friend is in the hair band costume.

Photo credit: Fame Pictures

Joaquin Phoenix went on David Letterman last night for the first time since his disheveled mumbling appearance in February, 2009. A clean-shaved and initially arrogant-looking Phoenix explained that he cooked up the scheme with Casey Affleck to stage a public breakdown and film it as “we wanted to do a film that explored celebrity and explored the relationship between the media and the consumers and the celebrities themselves.” Letterman wanted to make it clear that he had no idea that it was a stunt when Joaquin was on the last time. Joaquin offered a half-assed apology while maintaining that Letterman should have known something was up. “You’ve interviewed many many people and I assume that you would kind of know the difference between a character and a real person, but I apologize. I hope I didn’t offend you in any way.”

Dave then ribbed Joaquin about the fact that they used a full five minutes from his disastrous interview with him in the film without licensing it at all. He said his lawyers contacted the lawyers for the film and were told that it was “fair use” as it was a documentary. Now that it’s known that the film isn’t a documentary, “you owe me a million dollars,” Dave quipped. He seemed genuinely annoyed that Joaquin duped him and got so much publicity and footage out of it. Joaquin said “We’ll work it out, but can we talk about it privately?”

“We’ll go to one of your screenings,” Dave deadpanned.

I got the feeling that Joaquin was eating crow in an attempt to sell the film, but that his heart just wasn’t in it. Casey admitted a few days ago that the movie was a hoax and that he went broke personally financing it. It’s been a royal flop and has only taken in $259,000 since it was released two weeks ago, and now these two must be desperate. Maybe Dave let Joaquin on again so the film could earn enough money to pay him the licensing fees he thinks he’s owed. Fat chance with that.

Casey Affleck was on Leno earlier this week and he admitted that “neither Joaquin or I talked to Dave” ahead of that interview in February. He said “I told [Paul] Schaffer, but he’s not going to tell anybody.” He also said that no one called to ask how Joaquin was doing back when many people assumed his “Bye Good” act was legitimate. “You know, I never got calls. It’s weird… afterward, the movie comes out, the critics like to say ‘this is crazy, this is disturbing, this is sick.’ But while it’s happening, people were happy just to mock him and make fun of him.” It’s not like Casey was bitching about it, though, as Leno asked him specifically if anyone was concerned back when we thought Joaquin was crazy.

Casey said that he truly thought that everyone who watched the movie would realize that it was a put on by the end. It looks like no one is seeing it, hence the confusion.

Here’s Casey’s interview with Leno. In the second video below there’s a clip from the film at the point when there’s 1:00 left. Diddy seems so nice to me.

Joaquin on 2/11/09 and 3/8/10. Credit: Fame Pictures

Last week, maybe, Casey Affleck came out and admitted that yes, I’m Still Here was a big fat “hoax”. It surprised no one. Sure, I guess I had a vague interest in knowing whether Joaquin Phoenix actually snorted coke, f-cked hookers and got crapped on for real, or whether it was all the magic of Hollywood. But my interest was more of a ten second “I wonder…” thought rather than a “That looks and sounds like an epic exploration of sanity and hipster inside jokes, I must see it!” Anyway, it’s all fake, down to the vintagey shots that are supposed to be of Joaquin as a kid – Casey Affleck (the director) just hired actors to play those parts. Which would have made a good movie actually – who do you cast as a young River Phoenix? Anyway, Casey just gave an interview to the Telegraph and he’s trying to play on our heartstrings. You see, this “art” film was financed by Casey, and he almost went broke doing it, so now we have to see it!

Casey Affleck has admitted that I’m Still Here, his hoax documentary about Joaquin Phoenix, was a “planned, staged and scripted work of fiction” that nearly bankrupted him.

The film charting Phoenix’s supposed mental breakdown – complete with drugs, prostitutes, a terrible beard and a bizarre appearance on the David Letterman Show – was revealed last week as a fake. Affleck said the project was an essay on celebrity culture.

“It was pretty much all within the realm of possibility: people use prostitutes, people use drugs, especially in Hollywood. We didn’t take it so far that it wasn’t believable,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “For me, the film was Dante’s Inferno. Here was a guy midway through his life – Joaquin’s 35 years old – and he just goes down farther and farther into this more and more hideous place until he gets as low as he can possibly go. But then he breaks through to the other side and has some sort of redemptive experience – that was the movie, that was my guiding light. Also, this was a movie about a man having a movie made about him.”

Affleck spent two years making the film. “Having something at stake is a great motivator and once this thing became public for me that was very helpful because there was no question: I had to see it through, no matter how long it took. I went broke. I hadn’t worked for more than a year, and I was pouring money into the movie. I had to stop for a month to do The Killer Inside Me. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to finish the film – I was out of money. There was a lot at stake financially and, if we had left [the hoax] there, it would have been very damaging to Joaquin’s career.”

Unfortunately for Affleck, US audiences have not flocked to see the film. I’m Still Here took just $96,658 in its opening weekend. Meanwhile The Town, directed by his brother Ben and released in the same week, has topped the box office.

Asked why he had come clean about the hoax now, Affleck said: “Because I haven’t been able to talk about it for two years, and I wanted people to know this was a planned, staged and scripted work of fiction. I didn’t want to have anyone get the wrong idea about Joaquin or anybody else in the film. I wanted people to see the movie for what it really is. My intention was never to fool anybody. There’s a big difference between fooling someone and asking them to think.”

[From The Telegraph]

Douche. If you blow your savings on a film based on an inside “joke” that isn’t actually funny, then I do pity you and your stupidity, but I still won’t see your goddamn movie. It just seems like Casey and Joaquin made a film about how it sucks so hard to be movie stars and have everyone want to work with you and give you roles in movies and want you to promote your films and fulfill your contract. Woe is the rich, successful, entitled white man! He has the angst. Pity him. What makes it worse is that I actually believe that Joaquin is actually a f-cked up person with a lot of issues, and if he actually participated in a film where he spoke honestly and dealt directly with his drug/alcohol problems (I’m assuming), or the psychological ramifications of his brother’s death – right before his eyes – well, I would totally watch that. It’s a pity Casey didn’t make THAT movie.

Header: Casey on Sept. 6, 2010. Credit: WENN.

Casey Affleck did promotional duties for his new documentary on Joaquin Pheonix’s lost year, I’m Still Here, with an appearance in Venice for the premiere last night. The film reportedly has some very graphic scenes, and distribution has not been without controversy. Casey has been sued by sexual harassment by two different female collaborators, both of whom allege that he accosted them for sex, became hostile when he refused, and ultimately owed them money when they left the project. Joaquin wasn’t there for the premiere, but Casey claimed he was in Venice at least. Casey gave reporters his take on the film and insisted that it’s not a put on, although he claims to leave that up for viewers to decide:

On Monday in Venice, where his film was screened out of competition at the Film Festival, Affleck said he’s leaving the answer up to the audience.

“Elliptically, I would say … I sincerely don’t want to influence people’s interpretation,” Affleck told reporters. “I can tell you there is no hoax. It makes me think of ‘Candid Camera’ or something.”

The film is full of dark, sometimes graphic scenes about the Academy Award-nominated Phoenix, whose decision to go for a music career and concurrent decline was fodder for late-night comics.

In one scene, Phoenix banters about the irony of his life being depicted in film, when he is trying to get away from the industry. The film follows Phoenix to his last acting and press events, where he grumbles that he “hates” acting.

“I think everyone at some point in their life hates their jobs and the people they are around,” he says in opening scenes to explain why he wants to change his life despite his talent and enormous success, which includes an Oscar nomination for playing Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line.”

What follows are scenes depicting his negative downturn. There’s drug use, graphic language, the search for online sex, a meeting with a prostitute and other hard core scenes, such as of Phoenix attacking a spectator at his own concert.

Throughout the film, Phoenix gains weight and lets his hair and beard grow long and unkempt.

“I know that he is someone that doesn’t shy away from letting me see all the different aspects of his personality and if he was willing to do it and I was willing to do it I owed it to him to make it as unflinching look at him as I possibly could,” said Affleck, who recently starred in the film “The Killer Inside Me…”

Hoax or no hoax, Phoenix gives an all-out performance, which begs the question he asked himself at the beginning of the documentary: Is the actor playing a role or is a role playing the actor?

While the actor’s narcissism is central to the project, the film stands as a portrait of an artist trying to break out of the jail of the same celebrity culture upon which he is dependent.

“When I watched the movie, I am not repulsed by him and I feel for him and I understand him better than I did at beginning of the movie. I have a lot of love for him,” Affleck said.

[AP via Huffington Post]

I really bought Joaquin’s “act” or non-act on Letterman, but now that he’s “recovered” and is back to his old smug ass attractive self I’m thinking this whole thing was a dumb media experiment that these two tried to cash in on. I’m interested to read what the critics say about this film once it’s out. It comes out in limited release in the US this weekend. I won’t be seeing it given the disturbing advance details, but I love reading reviews, especially negative ones, and these could be scathing.

Here’s Casey in Venice yesterday. Doesn’t he look thrilled to be there? Credit: WENN.com

For the first sexual harassment lawsuit against Casey Affleck, filed by a woman who claims to be an uncredited producer on the Joaquin Phoenix documentary, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and consider that it could be a case of professional differences. The woman claimed that Affleck failed to pay her the $50,000 fee they verbally agreed on, and it’s possible the sexual harassment allegations were thrown in there for leverage. There were also stipulations that the lawsuit was filed for publicity ahead of the film. After all, the whole construct of the “documentary” (Hollywood star goes crazy and embarks on an ill advised rap career) seemed like a put on. Given how well Joaquin has since “recovered,” it’s up to question whether his breakdown was legitimate or some kind of stupid social experiment, especially considering that a film was made out of it.

Now another lawsuit has been filed against Casey by a female collaborator on the film who also claims to have been accosted for sex, subjected to verbal abuse and ultimately gone without pay. The whole scenario sounds just like the last woman alleged in her lawsuit and like a pattern of disgusting behavior by Casey. Here’s more, including the allegation that Casey crawled drunk into bed with her. She left the project the next day, only to return when another woman was hired and to be subjected to the same ongoing harassment (allegedly):

According to the new Gorka lawsuit, when production on “I’m Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix” began in New York in mid-December, she was the only woman on the team. Phoenix and Affleck, who is married to Phoenix’s sister, decided that the crew would stay at Phoenix’s apartment instead of at a hotel. Phoenix allegedly told Gorka she could sleep in his bedroom and he would sleep on the couch.

“During the middle of the night, [Gorka] awoke to find Affleck lying in the bed next to her,” the lawsuit alleges. “Unbeknownst to [Gorka], Affleck had entered the bedroom while she was asleep and crawled into the bed. When she woke up, Affleck was curled up next to her in the bed wearing only his underwear and a t-shirt. He had his arm around her, was caressing her back, his face was within inches of hers and his breath reeked of alcohol.”

Gorka says she was shocked because she didn’t know how long Affleck had been there or where she had been touched. She says she immediately told him to get out of bed. “Affleck responded by asking ‘Why?,’” according to the lawsuit. “[Gorka] said ‘because you are married and because you are my boss.’ Affleck, undeterred, asked if [Gorka] ‘was sure.’ [Gorka] said she was sure and insisted that he leave the room. He left and slammed the door in anger.”

According to the complaint, Gorka confronted Affleck the morning after the incident, then got on a plane for Los Angeles, consulted with her agent and left the project. Unable to find work, however, she says she returned several weeks later once a female producer, White, had joined the project and assured her she would be present.

But the lawsuit says the abuse continued. “[Gorka] was berated and verbally attacked by Affleck after she refused his sexual advances in New York, and was criticized constantly for refusing to be submissive in response to his rants and derisive comments,” the complaint says.

Gorka says she ultimately left the project again, after which Affleck allegedly refused to honor their oral agreement that she would be paid a $300 per-day fee and a deferred $700-a-day fee when the film sold to a distributor (Magnolia bought the film in July and plans to release it in the fall). She says she’s also been stripped of her “director of photography” credit…

Reached for comment, Gorka attorney Brian Procel says the decision to file the lawsuit was not easy for his client.

“In her 16 years of working in the entertainment industry she has never accused anyone of sexual harassment,” Procel says. “Ms. Gorka knows there will be repercussions, and that she will be exposed to attacks mounted by Affleck’s high-paid publicists and ‘bulldog’ attorneys. She ultimately decided that the truth needs to come out. We look forward to our day in court.”

The Gorka complaint alleges causes of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress, constructive discharge in violation of public policy, breach of oral contract, negligent infliction of emotional distress, unjust enrichment and negligence.

Gorka is represented by Procel, Skip Miller and Mira Hashmall at L.A.’s Miller Barondess firm, which also represents White. Defendants are Affleck and Flemmy Prods.

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

I like how the lawyer explains that his client will be similarly attacked by Casey’s people and that she filed the lawsuit despite that. It all sounds so seedy and typical, and while I don’t know much about Casey I never had the impression he was like that. I wonder what he’s telling his wife and if he’s trying to portray it as a case of sour grapes. For the first incident that might be believable, but now that another co-worker is suing him it’s not looking good.

Casey Affleck has been sued for sexual harassment by a female producer named Amanda White, who worked on Casey’s documentary, I’m Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix. White claims that Casey habitually demeaned her, spoke in graphic detail about sex, said and texted rude things and invited her to spend the night with him in a hotel, and after she refused, he got aggressive and grabby, and then he didn’t pay her. Casey is married to Joaquin’s sister, Summer, and they have two sons together, Indiana (who is six years old) and Atticus (who will be three years old in November).

Maybe Casey Affleck is looking to quit acting for a while, too. One of the producers on the “Joaquin Phoenix tries hip-hop” documentary the actor’s been working on has sued Affleck for $2 million, claiming he refused to pay her after she refused to spend the night in a hotel with him.

Affleck—who denies all—is married to Phoenix’s little sister, Summer, and they have two sons.

In the lawsuit filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Amanda White alleges that she endured “uninvited and unwelcome sexual advances in the workplace” throughout the making of I’m Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix, which, incidentally, just recently found a distributor.

“Affleck repeatedly referred to women as ‘cows’; he discussed his sexual exploits and those of other celebrities that he allegedly witnessed; and asked [White], after learning her age, ‘Isn’t it about time you get pregnant?’” the suit states.

White also claims that, while shooting in Costa Rica, she was unable to go to her hotel room one night because Phoenix and Affleck were in there with two women. While filming at the Palazzo in Las Vegas, White continues, Affleck hired prostitutes to be on set, but none of that footage ended up in the movie. She believes that Affleck employed the hookers “for his personal gratification,” subjecting her and cinematographer Magdalena Gorka to the scene “for reasons having nothing to do with the purpose of the project.”

Finally, White claims, when the production moved to San Francisco, Affleck tried to get her to share a hotel room with him. When she refused, the suit states, he “became hostile and aggressive” and “violently grabbed her arm in an effort to intimidate her into staying.” After being slighted, he sent her “abusive” text messages.

Ultimately, Affleck refused to give White the $50,000 they had agreed on for her work on the film and, after she repeatedly complained and got nothing, she quit.

In response to the suit, attorney Michael J. Plonsker said in a statement to E! News on behalf of Affleck and codefendant Flemmy Productions that White’s claims are “preposterous and without merit.”

“Ms. White was terminated from the production over a year ago,” Plonsker said. “She and her lawyers believe that this maliciously and erroneously filed complaint will cause the producers to succumb to her outrageous and baseless demands. She is mistaken. The complaint will be vigorously defended and cross-claims will be filed against her.”

White is asking for at least $2 million in damages to cover sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to prevent harassment/retaliation, constructive discharge in violation of public policy, breach of oral contract, unjust enrichment, and negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

[From E! News]

It’s so oddly specific, I tend to think there might be something there. Plus, I’ve always believed Casey is a strange dude, and maybe this answers some questions? Of course we don’t know who is telling the truth, and it’s a bold move for Casey to counter-sue, especially if White does have any proof of her allegations. Maybe we can find a way to blame Joaquin and his f-cked up performance art.

Header: Casey on January 30, 2008. Credit: WENN.

Kate Hudson has a very long and extensive interview in The Telegraph today. She’s promoting The Killer Inside Me, that Michael Winterbottom-directed film costarring Jessica Alba and Casey Affleck. In the interview she talks about getting spanked – on camera – by Casey Affleck, which was the highlight of the piece for me. She also talks about body image, but she doesn’t confirm or deny the not-so-alleged boob job. The full Telegraph interview is here, and here are some highlights:

On the violence of The Killer Inside Me, and empathy: “I was shocked too. But I don’t like watching myself on the big screen at the best of times. I hardly recognised myself in this one. I’d gained a little weigh. I wasn’t working out… because right before then I had been working out a lot and had become super muscular, which I didn’t like either. It wouldn’t have been right for that part, I wanted to look plainer. Not glamorous. Small town. There is something kind of masochistic about her. She wasn’t easy to empathise with.” Empathy is one of Hudson’s favourite words. And something she reckons she is good at, as I discover when I ask if she is ‘an empath’? “Empath? That’s a proper word? Someone who can empathise?’ I nod. ‘I love that! As I entered my thirties I realised I was an empath. A noun.”

On her death scene in The Killer Inside Me: “Yes, but you prepare for a movie like this in the same way you would any movie. I’ve never seen anyone die but I did nearly choke to death once, when I was 12, on a fireball that blocked my windpipe. And there was another time when I was winded after falling off a horse. You know, struggling for breath. So I tried to draw on those experiences to make my death scene look convincing.”

On being spanked by Casey Affleck for the film: “Ha! There were a couple in there when I thought: God, Casey! He got a bit of power behind it. It was definitely real. I think it depends on your sense of humour where you draw your boundaries. After about the 20th spank we all started to laugh because you become quite comfortable with the idea and it becomes about the technical side of things. I’ve known Casey for so long that you can’t help but laugh every now and then.”

On body image: “I’m pretty comfortable with my body. I’m imperfect. The imperfections are there. People are going to see them, but I take the view you only live once and, hey, I’m getting spanked today! And I’m working with Michael Winterbottom, who is an amazing director. Not sure, but the older I get the more I am OK with it. When I was younger I felt I had to apologise for being so happy, for not seeing things in a negative way.”

On letting her son see some films: “I normally take him on the set with me, but not for that one. ‘Mummy is going to be naked on the bed, smoking and getting spanked in the next scene, honey!’ I guess it will be weird for him when he does eventually watch it. I had to watch my dad die in films. I was 13 when I saw Backdraft and I was bawling.”

What her mom and step dad taught her about sex: “My brothers might feel differently about it but, for me, I felt my parents laid it out for us pretty well. We always had a good perspective about sex. When you grow up with parents in showbiz who are loud and funny and the life of the party, you get pretty relaxed about that stuff.”

On the cries of nepotism: “Well, for a while I felt I had to apologise for it, at the beginning of my career. I didn’t want to talk about it. Cameron Crowe [the director of her first film] was asked by the press if he knew my parents when he cast me. He said: “So what, it’s like Goldie and Kurt turned up demanding I cast their daughter? It doesn’t work like that.”’

On dating other actors: “I think when you have one person in a relationship who is an actor and the other isn’t that can be difficult, because the one who isn’t wonders whether the one who is, is acting. But when you have two people who are actors that doesn’t happen so much because they both understand about creative space. You know where it begins and ends. You know acting is not normality, that you have to be a little dysfunctional to be an actor. You know you could be laughing one minute and then crying the next, because a director has asked you to cry. That’s not normal behaviour.”

On the paparazzi and media focus on her personal life: “I can disappear, though. There is a way not to draw attention to yourself. If I want to draw attention to myself, put on heels and a tight dress and do my hair up, then I can. But I can also tone it down. For me I’d go crazy if I couldn’t go out and walk in the streets. I learnt some of that from my mum. She is so recognisable. She’s just so Goldie! When I was a girl I would get embarrassed and say: “Mum, put a hat on or something.” I hate it [when the paparazzi stalk me]. It’s so invasive. I went through a phase where it really affected me. You know, there might be a picture of you with your butt hanging out of your dress and you think what has that got to do with my work? But it’s not just the long lens, it’s what they say to you up close, the most horrible things, in front of my son. There have been days when I have been in three different tabloids, writing about me being in three different relationships, with people I haven’t even met. It’s that bad!”

[From The Telegraph]

Most of you know that I have a strange affection for Kate – I don’t think she’s God’s gift or anything, but she doesn’t bother me at all, and I appreciate that she never tries to play the poor, pitiful victim of whatever is going on in her life. Usually. But this is the first time I’ve read an interview with her where she seems like she’s trying to be all “I didn’t ask for this”. Kate, you sat front and center for all of your boyfriend’s Yankees games. You change boyfriends like I change underwear (every day). Don’t start with the whole “it’s so bad” crap. Sure, I understand the complaints about people saying sh-t to your son. That sucks, and you have every right to say so. But enough with the bitching about how your love life gets played out in the press – YOU DID IT TO YOURSELF.

Late last week, Lainey ran an opinion piece in which she said that she thought that Joaquin Phoenix’s big meltdown last year was some kind of Sacha Baron-Cohen type experiment. The news recently came out that Casey Affleck is shopping around a documentary of Phoenix’s brief “retirement” from film and descent into an ill-advised rap career. That doesn’t prove that it was all a scam, just that Phoenix’s behavior is suspect in light of the film. Another large blog linked to Lainey’s story with the title “Joaquin admits it was all a hoax.” The thing is, that was just Lainey’s opinion and she was clear about that, and neither Joaquin nor his brother-in-law Casey (who is married to Joaquin’s sister, Summer) have admitted to anything. I like how Lainey explained her position on the matter and she has some very good points. However I think the verdict is still out on Phoenix’s intent and it’s unknown whether he was pulling some massive stunt, whether he really had some kind of breakdown he (seemingly) recovered from, or if the truth is somewhere in between.

According to people who have watched the film, it’s hard to tell if it was all a joke. There are some shocking moments that don’t look staged, but no one seems to know. As many of you have pointed out, Joaquin is an actor and he could have easily been pulling the mangy beard over our eyes for months. Warning on this story, there are some disturbing details that I’ll let you read for yourself if you’re interested. One I don’t mind repeating is the claim that there’s “more male frontal nudity than you’d find in some gay porn films“:

It’s far from the Joaquin Phoenix you’re used to seeing onscreen: snorting cocaine, ordering call girls, having oral sex with a publicist, treating his assistants abusively and rapping badly. And not, apparently, playing a role — or was he?

Even after seeing the documentary “I’m Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix” in a private screening earlier this week, film buyers still aren’t sure of its genuineness. Was the “Walk the Line” and “Gladiator” star, who said more than a year ago that he was quitting acting to become a musician, playing a sophisticated prank, or did he really ditch his Oscar-nominated career to become a disheveled rapper?

Agents at William Morris Endeavor, the sellers of the Casey Affleck-directed film, have started showing the movie to potential distributors, and while some were apparently interested in bidding for “I’m Still Here’s” distribution rights, the shoppers left the screening perhaps even more mystified by Phoenix’s behavior than when they walked in.
Several buyers said the film overflowed with Hollywood debauchery, including more male frontal nudity than you’d find in some gay porn films and a stomach-turning sequence in which someone feuding with Phoenix defecates on the actor while he’s asleep.

The documentary — or is it a mockumentary? — also includes Phoenix’s infamous appearance on “The Late Show With David Letterman,” in which the bearded and bloated actor barely spoke, leaving Letterman bewildered if not infuriated and people wondering about Phoenix’s mental health.

The buyers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Phoenix comes off unsympathetically and shows very little talent for music in the movie, directed by his brother-in-law (Affleck is married to Summer Phoenix). Sales agent WME declined to comment.

In some scenes in the film, the 35-year-old Phoenix is trying to get Sean “Diddy” Combs to produce Phoenix’s rap album, but the hip-hop impresario is not terribly interested. Another sequence shows Ben Stiller approaching Phoenix about starring in writer-director Noah Baumbach’s “Greenberg,” but Phoenix is barely interested.

Two buyers who saw the movie were unsure if Phoenix had turned out an elaborate piece of performance art, where the joke was really on the audience. While they were debating the film’s commercial prospects, the buyers did agree on one thing: They’d never seen anything like it.

[From The LA Times]

So if someone poops on Joaquin while he’s sleeping, why didn’t Casey stop them instead of filming it? It’s just all suspect, but I suppose I won’t know for sure until the film comes out – if even then. Will this be a straight-to-DVD or an NC 17 film in limited release? Are distributors going to demand major edits before it’s released? I’m curious, and I’ll definitely watch it. I may cover my eyes at parts, though.

I know a lot of people believed that Joaquin Phoenix was putting us on when he embarked on that strange rap career, complete with crazy hair, a overgrown beard, incoherent mumbling, and no skill at rapping whatsoever. I was pretty convinced that it was real though. It all started in November, 2008, when an unkempt Joaquin was doing the press tour for Two Lovers and announced his retirement from acting. He even showed up on the red carpet with the words “Bye” and “Good” written on his hands in the wrong order. Around January of last year it came out that Joaquin’s friend, Casey Affleck, was going to make a documentary of Joaquin’s music career and that he was supposedly serious about his rapping.

Then in February of 2009, Phoenix had an interview on Letterman that went down in history as one of the worst ever. He just sat there and barely said anything, at one point sticking his chewing gum under Letterman’s desk. It was incredibly convincing and I thought that Phoenix was either on drugs, suffering from mental illness, or a little of both. People pointed out that he’s an actor, though, and that this whole thing could be performance art. If it was all a hoax, the guy had many people, including former costar Gwyneth Paltrow, and his last director, convinced.

For a while Phoenix disappeared from public and I even got concerned about him and wondered if he was ok . In August there was a sighting of a still-wacky Phoenix at a clothing store in LA, but that was the only news we heard about him in months.

Then, in January of this year, Phoenix made a clean cut and completely sober-looking appearance in a charity video. He seemed back to his old self again and it was kind of amazing after all we’d seen of him over the past year. So was it all an Andy Kaufman-esque elaborate scheme? Was Phoenix genuinely mentally ill and/or on drugs and did he finally get some medical intervention or detox? All these questions might be answered with the upcoming release of Casey’s documentary, or they might not. Casey is shopping the film around now and there’s real interest in it. Sellers are working to keep the story as secret as possible:

Casey Affleck has completed that much-talked about and long-awaited mockumentary he directed about his brother-in-law Joaquin Phoenix’s eccentric metamorphosis from actor to hip-hop musician (or so we’ve been led to believe). I’m told that the film made its debut in a private lunchtime screening at WME headquarters last week for buyers — including Harvey Weinstein — who were sworn to secrecy. WME is selling the film, and it may only take a couple of days to reach a deal. I hear the agency and the distributors intend to keep the mock’s content under wraps for as long as they can for maximum shock value. (So it won’t be part WME Global’s sales push at the Cannes Film Festival.) Presumably, the film answers Hollywood’s bewilderment about whether Joachin was serious about quitting acting — or whether he was just, well, acting. His long months of bizarre behavior culminated in his semi-mute interview with David Letterman that was as surreal as anything Andy Kaufman ever did. And, his musical debut at the Las Vegas night club LAVO where he claimed to be a homeless rapper, jumped around the stage, and fell off.

[From Deadline]

Whatever happened to Joaquin, I’m just glad he’s ok now and that this all has a happy ending. I’m also incredibly interested in seeing this documentary. It could be fascinating. Even with the news of this film, I don’t think that it was all an act and believe that Joaquin had some serious issues at the time. Casey just seemed too flustered to me in the brief red carpet interview where he confirmed Joaquin’s retirement. Maybe these guys planned it all out though and were able to pull a huge hoax on the media. Or maybe they tried to play it off as a hoax and got sucked into the game. I hope we find out.

One of the photo agencies we use has a picture of scruffy Joaquin Phoenix on their homepage. Whenever I see it I wonder where the hell he is and if he’s ok. Joaquin, you probably remember, decided to scrap the whole Hollywood star thing in favor of a rap career that rivals K-Fed’s career change in the “most ill-conceived foray into rap” category. He also seems to be on just about the same talent level as K-Fed without the bling-enhanced uncalled-for bravado.

We haven’t heard anything from Joaquin in over two months. Usually no news is good news, but in this case it’s worrying. Causing even more alarm is the fact that Joaquin’s buddy, his brother-in-law Casey Affleck, is asking for user-submitted footage of Joaquin for the documentary he’s making on his transition from movies to music. Does this mean that Casey has lost touch with Joaquin and that he’s no longer helping out with this film? Casey seemed to be about the only thing holding Joaquin together.

Attention amateur concert videographers and collectors of trainwreck footage: Casey Affleck wants your handiwork for his upcoming film on actor-turned-rapper Joaquin Phoenix. And he’s serious about it.

Perhaps in a knowing nod to the, uh, overwhelming amount of amateur Joaquin footage floating around on YouTube (most of it catastrophic in nature), Affleck — who, along with a film crew, has been with his brother-in-law Phoenix throughout his bizarre ride through the world of hip hop — has started JoaqDoc.com, a Web site that allows users to upload their own videos of Phoenix rapping on — and subsequently off — stage.

Of course, whether or not your footage ends up on Affleck’s film seems to be entirely up to him … but he wants you to be very clear — via some rather impressive (and lengthy) legalese in the site’s “Terms and Conditions” section — that once you upload it, you might as well kiss it goodbye for all eternity:

“By posting any content, images, photos, video, sounds, profiles, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, ‘Content’) on the Website, you hereby grant to Flemmy [Affleck's production company], a non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, worldwide license (with the right to sublicensees) to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, publicly display, store, reproduce, transmit, and distribute such Content in any and all media and by any means now known or hereafter devised that Flemmy, in its sole discretion, shall deem appropriate.”

Dang, man … who thought footage of a bearded dude in Grandma shades tumbling off a stage would warrant such wordy legal wrangling? Still, if you’re not frightened away by all that, you can upload your Joaq clips right now. Just don’t blame us when Phoenix and Affleck show up to claim your first-born son. Making films is serious business, baby!

[From MTV]

This isn’t funny at all and I’m really concerned for this guy’s health and well being. Some people said that Joaquin’s whole in-the-toilet image and rejection of his career were some kind of elaborate stunt, but I never got that impression. It looked to me like he had serious drug and/or mental health issues. Joaquin had to do press for his last film, Two Lovers, which resulted in his disastrous appearance on David Letterman. Maybe he realized he needed to give up his plans for a rap career and withdraw from the public in order to focus on his sobriety. That would explain why Casey doesn’t have enough footage for his film. The alternative, that he’s just too disturbed to perform or even bother to contact Casey, is too scary to consider. Please get help Joaquin! We lost your brother, we don’t want to lose you too.

Joaquin Phoenix is shown on 3/11/09 before a performance. Credit: Johnny Louis/WENN.com