Joaquin Phoenix announced last week he was quitting acting to pursue his love of music. On Saturday Joaquin appeared at the Che premiere with Bye! and Good written on his knuckles, then according to PageSix, he appeared at a reading looking wasted:

Friends of Joaquin Phoenix are worried about the star, who has had a very public battle with drink and drugs. The two-time Oscar nominee ("Walk the Line" and "Gladiator") showed up to a tribute to Paul Newman last week in San Francisco and "was out of it," said one attendee. Other actors were performing scenes and readings, but Phoenix just got up and walked out. "He wobbled back in a bit later, but it was odd," said our source. "He was slurring his words and was unsteady on his feet." Phoenix gave a weird interview to "Extra" in which he said he was retiring from acting. A rep for Phoenix said, "He’s fine. He just wants to focus on music, and he’ll be at the screening of his film ’Two Lovers’ on Saturday night in LA, and he’s directed a number of music videos over the past couple of years."

Maybe playing Johnny Cash, who also suffered from addiction, wasn’t such a good idea for Joaquin.

Joaquin Phoenix (33) said he had to miss the premiere of his movie Two Lovers at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday due to the flu. Phoenix never even went to Cannes at all. He had to instead be admitted to the hospital to be hydrated with IV fluids. His rep, Susan Patricola, said:

"Joaquin has the stomach flu. He had his dog boarded, his tux in hand but couldn’t even sit on the plane. He did go to the hospital to get hydrated, hoping he could get on the plane, but he didn’t stay there. He was so sick, and so sorry he couldn’t be there with everyone."

The Two Lovers director, James Gray, said:

"He wanted to come. I said ’No, go to the doctor and see what he says.’ Sadly he followed my advice and they put him in the hospital."

It’s a good thing Phoenix took Gray’s advice. We don’t need anymore celebrities working themselves to death.

Joaquin Phoenix is making an album with Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess. No released date is set. Burgess says:

"Once he [Joaquin] learned guitar, he found that he had quite a lot of demons inside himself that he wanted to expel through music."

Burgess says that Joaquin is such a perfectionist he’s unsure if the album will ever get released. This is a good thing, because so many bad albums have been released by mediocre actors over the years, and it didn’t help their careers, but instead made them look even more desperate. Joaquin needs to keep his award winning status intact.

Joaquín Rafael Phoenix turns 32 years old today.

Joaquin Phoenix was at the Opening of Waist Down Skirts by Miuccia Prada the other day. I don’t get a chance to write many articles about Joaquin because he just doesn’t make many news headlines, but any chance I get I like to post something about him. Joaquin seems like a great guy, and a great actor. He’s one of my favorites. I have 2 more pictures of Joaquin in the gallery after the jump…

Read More →