Joaquin Phoenix – Man On The Moon?

Photography by Seth Browarnik; Video - Spencer Strayer on August 19th, 2010 in Celebrity, Nightlife

Miami Beach, FL – March 10, 2009 – It was a cool Spring night in Miami Beach, but Wednesday night at LIV at Fontainebleau was getting hotter every week. The Dirty Hairy party reminded me of old school South Beach days – crazy, unpredictable, and fun. You never knew who could show up. World Red Eye had the full exclusive inside (aside from Casey Affleck’s camera crew taking footage for the film), and we captured “rapper” Joaquin Phoenix taking the stage.

It was the eve of his new movie trailer release, “I’m Still Here”, where he was fronting this new hip hop persona, and no one was sure if this was real or an act. That night at LIV, where Hollywood smoke and mirrors seemed to also be present, there was no one in the crowd that was sure if what was going on was real or orchestrated, including actor, Willem Dafoe (wearing the now infamous Joaquin Phoenix beard), and singer Cee-Lo Green. I was there that night, and even though I turned away at the last second (as you can see in the video Spencer shot), I could have SWORN I saw someone in the crowd motion to the actor, which seemed to have prompted him to start the commotion. His shit talking saying “ I got a million dollars in the bank, what the fuck do you got ?” was wild. His stunt landed him all over every major news network, from CNN to The Today Show, and every single tabloid all over the world.

This was not Phoenix & Affleck’s first time at LIV. They were at the Miami hot spot just months before on December 29, 2008 at a pre-New Years party. The two were on the way to Costa Rica and stopped in Miami for the night, perhaps to film a scene for the movie with Hip Hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. The actor partied with Brett Rater & got on stage with Jamie Foxx and got on the mic. (Look for the second half of this post towards the bottom)

Weeks before his March antics, on a Letterman appearance, Dave apologized to the crowd saying how sorry he was that Joaquin couldn’t be there that night. Are he and Casey Affleck poised to be the Blues Brother 2010? Is Joaquin The Andy Kaufman of our generation? Guess we’ll have to wait and see. You be the judge .

Look at the bottom of the post for all EXCLUSIVE video from inside LIV for this wild stunt, as well as the official movie trailer.