Joaquin Into Obscurity

Who knew being a famous Hollywood actor was such a crappy job?

I'll tell you who knew: Joaquin Phoenix.

He knew that the only avenue a talented white actor had to express himself ran through the mean streets of hip-hop. He's out to prove that (Marky) Mark Wahlberg had it ass-backwards: you become a respected Oscar-nominated actor and THEN throw it all away to become a hip-hop singer.

And after watching Phoenix on the ever-hip, never-hop David Letterman Late Show, he's going to succeed.

In the words of Yahoo OMG.com writer, Doug Larrimore, "rather than simply walking away from his career, he is instead trying to kill it." Not just kill it, but do it in a way that assures us that the next time we see Mr.Phoenix on screen, it'll be on one of those VH-1 reality shows that you tune into to see Once Upon a Timers who aren't top-of-the-mind anymore, desperately trying to suck the last of their 15 minutes from the teet of the Fame Goddess.

After his performance in Gladiator (I seem to be the only one who appreciated his genuinely creepy take on the character), I looked forward to seeing what he could do. He proved me right in Walk the Line. Unlike Jamie Fox in Ray, Phoenix sang AND played the guitar on screen, which he previously didn't know how to do (come on guys, Ray II with Fox letting loose for real). Phoenix got so into character, I went and downloaded everything I could find on Johnny Cash--and I HATE country music! But thanks to his performance and his brilliance, I am now a big Cash fan.

Once his supremely gifted brother River Phoenix tragically went down, you'd think he'd appreciate the spotlight he no longer needed to share. Had River lived, Joaquin would've been the Beau to River's Jeff Bridges. The Mike to River's Kevin Bacon.

But there is a bright spot in his new career choice: that J-Fee Nix/Flava Flav Duets album is looking more like a possibility everyday.

The Dark Snub

It's no secret that I'm a Batman and The Dark Knight fanatic . My one and only tattoo is the Bat symbol and I saw TDK 6 times in the theaters (beating out my record with Pulp Fiction) and then another 15 times since then.

But I'm not as upset over the multitude of Oscar snubs as I should be. Basically because the only nomination that I passionately cared about was announced: Heath Ledger for Best Supporting Actor.

Christopher Nolan is one of the most unique storytellers of our generation. He was neglected with a Best Director nom in 2002 (though Ron Howard still would've won for A Beautiful Mind) for his direction of the unbelievably complex Memento. But as all awards are, the Oscars are purely subjective, seen through many artistic prisms. The fact that TDK was THE most talked about, raved and watched movie of the year makes it a head scratcher why it's not among the Best Picture nominations. But I'm not broken up.

That's because the biggest piece of the adulation pie is and should be reserved for the late Heath Ledger. As I called Jamie Fox's Best Actor win the first time I saw Ray, I'm not only predicting it for Mr. Ledger, I invested my emotional support in it, usually only reserved for electing a Savior President or (in my case) every game the Lakers play.

EVERY showing of The Dark Knight that I attended ended with audience members cheering, not just applauding, but cheering when Heath Ledger's name came on in the final credits. And I was one of them. Every time. Not because he was cool. Not because I'm a Bat-fan. It's because I knew I just witnessed one of the greatest performances I will ever see. And I'll never see him do it again.

Yes, The Dark Knight trails only Titanic as the second highest grossing movie of all time. Yes, it got robbed like Terry Benedict in Ocean's Eleven. But if not for Heath Ledger as The Joker, we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

Calm Down, America

I'm as happy as anyone that Bush has finally been given the pink slip. Hopefully he'll get caught in his weedwacker while clearing brush in Austin and justice will be served.

But treating President Obama like the second coming is setting him up to fail...in our own eyes.

It's like assuming just because the Lakers had traded for Karl Malone and Gary Payton, the NBA championship would just be handed to them. It didn't happen and the Laker faithful were bummed out for the next 8 years. It was actually all Payton's fault. But I digress.

It's true that GWB screwed this world up in such unprecedented ways that there's no POSSIBLE way to damage it any more. Given that, it's going to take time. Give the man some space, some realistic expectations and expect that he's going to make mistakes.

And if all goes well, we may never see an old, privileged, white man in the White House again. Next up...Can anyone say Presidente' George Lopez?