There's a reason that sign on the wall in the guitar shop in "Wayne's World" says "No 'Stairway to Heaven' " — because unless you're going to face-meltingly smash it, you just don't mess with the best.
Clearly, Billy Bob Thornton has not gotten this memo. The actor, best known for writing and directing the 1996 Oscar-winner "Sling Blade" — in which he played the creepy mentally impaired Karl Childers — tried to snatch the crazy-talk-show-appearance crown from reigning king Joaquin Phoenix on Wednesday morning when he appeared on a Canadian radio show.
Offended that the genial interviewer dared to mention his 20-plus-year, critically acclaimed, Oscar-winning career, Thornton shut down and flat-out refused to play ball, offering up bizarre non-sequitur answers about baseball and building monster-movie models and, at one point, comparing himself to Tom Petty.
You can read all about the details here, but the most pressing question in all of this is: Who wins in a Billy Bob vs. Joaquin crazy-off?
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By Rya Backer
If you didn't see Joaquin Phoenix on "Letterman" last night, chances are you've read about it — it clearly ranks with one of the late-night king's all-time most awkward interviews.
Whether or not Joaquin is really that despondent and detached — or just the most media-savvy man in showbiz — is open to debate, but that's not the point. At times like this, we can reflect on some of Letterman's interviews that have gone terribly wrong ... Read more...
By Melanie Wolfson
There's a lot going on in the world that doesn't necessarily get addressed in our Newsroom blog. Here's a look at some top stories making headlines today.
The progress of certain "American Idol" contestants — we're looking at you, Bikini Girl, and not for the reasons you might hope — has some wondering why they're making it to Hollywood.
Joaquin Phoenix literally threw away — as in crumpled them up and threw them over his shoulder — any hopes celebrity DJ/ former Fall Out Boy tour manager Dan Suh had of being his DJ. Check out Dan's response!
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While debate continues to rage about the validity of actor Joaquin Phoenix's rap career — is he keeping it real or simply fronting? (I am extremely white, BTW) — there's one dude out there who refuses to believe this is anything less than legit ... so much so that he's actively looking to work with Phoenix.
His name is Dan Suh, the former tour manager for Fall Out Boy who now earns a living as a jet-setting superstar DJ. Fans of FOB might recognize him as "Korean Tom Cruise," a handle Pete Wentz stuck him with a few years back. And he would like very much to be Joaquin Phoenix's DJ.
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Upon hearing that actor-turned-rapper Joaquin Phoenix now has a MySpace page featuring alleged "demos," I instantly had two (fairly obvious) questions:
1) Is this for real?
2) Are the songs any good?
So, first things first: I am about 85 percent sure that the page is a hoax — even though there are photos of a portly, heavily bearded man rapping in a booth on it. From the (very) little I've heard of Phoenix's "rapping," the voice on the songs just doesn't sound like him. It sounds like some crusty white backpacker kid from Florida (I should know, I grew up there). And upon further examination — lo and behold! — it appears that the songs are the work of a pair of DJs (Heart Collapse and LeStereo), one of whom is most definitely from the Sunshine State, both of whom are white and sort of hairy. Read more...
