Let’s stop encouraging Joaquin Phoenix’s miscreant behavior — the only thing real about this rap act is the beard.
During a March 12 hip-hop performance at the LIV nightclub in Miami, the former actor attempted to reprise his shock-and-awe campaign when he confronted a cantankerous and heckling audience member and had to be dragged back onstage by security.
Casey Affleck and a camera crew were on hand to witness and record, just as they were during Phoenix’s infamous David Letterman appearance.
“It was beyond weird, and totally part of the documentary,” says one source who helped accommodate Phoenix and Affleck’s crew. “The guy who seemed to have no clue was the one in the audience who got picked on.”
An acquaintance of Phoenix’s says that it’s totally escaped the former actor that “it was funny when it was called Andy Kaufman, but now it’s just uncomfortable, and strange.”
Phoenix’s rep didn’t respond to questions about the supposed documentary, or when/if the actor would return to the craft.
Matt Damon thinks the Academy gets it wrongMatt Damon did a brave thing: the Oscar winner went out on a limb and said that the Academy doesn’t necessarily get their Oscar picks right.
“I think that the best way to judge movies is, like, 10 years after they're released. I think they should actually do the awards that way. I think they should have done the Academy Awards this year for movies from 1998,” Damon told Parade.com. (Some contenders under that scenario: “Life is Beautiful,” “Elizabeth,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Shakespeare in Love.”)
Damon went on to say, ”I think it's better to look at a movie and then step back and look at it again. I don't think that the awards necessarily get it right. I think they get it wrong more often than they get it right.”
You Twitter, I deliver: Taylor Swift, ‘Friday Night Lights’
It warms my heart to see that some of you Twitterers care about the fate of “Friday Night Lights.”
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Celebrity Sightings
While NBC isn’t confirming rumors that the show will sign a two-year agreement with the network and Direct TV as rumored, one character won’t be back to cheer on the Panthers, at least full time. Minka Kelly (Lyla Garrity) was cast in The CW’s “Body Politic,” where she’ll play a Washington Post reporter. Kelly might return for a multi-episode arc on “FNL” though, if the show is renewed.
And for those of you who were trying to score Taylor Swift tickets: sorry, I’m of no help.
But don’t be too hard on yourselves. One of the big concert-ticket myths is the idea that when tickets go on sale, seats for the entire venue are available. In reality, a good percentage of the tix are already been snatched up by big ticket brokers, which makes the task of scoring seats the old-fashioned way all the more difficult.
Weekend box officeWhen you put two R-rated new releases up against a G-rated film that stars an actor who appeals to adults and kids, bet on the G-rated film, which in this case is “Race to Witch Mountain.”
The Dwayne Johnson film could hit some big numbers: Johnson’s last big surprise success was with “The Game Plan,” which opened to $23 million in 2007. Combine all of that with Johnson’s totally respectable “Saturday Night Live” hosting gig, and “Witch Mountain” should knock “Watchmen” off the number one spot, and definitely beat “The Last House on the Left and "Miss March,” too.
Courtney Hazlett delivers the Scoop Monday through Friday on msnbc.com. Follow Scoop on Twitter: @ courtneyatmsnbc.