Joaquin Phoenix by Mimi C. at en.wikipedia

The reason for the hoax was “the disintegration of celebrity, without the clutter of preconceived notions,” Casey Affleck shamelessly told The New York Times yesterday, admitting that his documentary I’m Still Here (that fooled no one) is, in fact a mockumentary.  ”It’s a terrific performance, Affleck told The Times of Phoenix with a straight face, “the performance of his career.”

Joaquin Phoenix’s Andy (post-funny school of comedy) Kaufman, neo-gorilla-theater celebra-thing is apparently and gratefully over.  It began on The Late Show where Phoenix’s idiotic character prompted Dave Letterman to thank him for his appearance and telling him “too bad you couldn’t have been here tonight with us.”  Phoenix will be on Letterman’s show again next week to pull out some of the nails he had hammered into that coffin.

Reason for admitting to the staged deception now? Poor press at the recent Venice Film Festival and the disastrous first week boxoffice might have something to do with it.