Joaquin Phoenix Returns to Letterman’s Couch

So Joaquin Phoenix, clean-shaven and presumably not acting, returned to the scene of his infamous non-interview on The Late Show, and it was OK, I suppose. Letterman claimed to not have been in on the joke, despite evidence to the contrary. There were half-apologies and more jokes about how weird he was acting and, you know, that sort of thing. But I can’t help feeling unsatisfied with the whole thing. It’s like the VMAs this year and their obsession with Kanye vs. Taylor: it was all insular and manufactured and self-referential and in the end signified nothing, so who cares?

Joaquin Phoenix Returns to Letterman’s Couch