Maybe It's All An Elaborate Hoax

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I still think Joaquin Phoenix is spending too much time huffing paint chips, but whatever. Rumors are now circulating that Phoenix's career change to a rap artist/psycho-hippy could all be an elaborate hoax.

Either Phoenix is perpetrating an elaborate Andy Kaufman-style hoax (with an assist from his friend and brother-in-law Casey Affleck, who's ostensibly shooting a documentary about his career transition), 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 is going to film it,'" says one source who recently worked with Phoenix.