Joaquin Phoenix is the Puppet Master

We were just talking to a friend about how we were starting to suspect that Joaquin Phoenix’s recently announced “rap career” was a big fat joke and now Entertainment Weekly has proof.

The magazine says Phoenix’s new career is all part of an elaborate hoax.

The two-time Oscar nominee recently announced he was turning his back on acting to follow his musical dreams. To launch his new endeavor, he took the stage in Vegas for a retched three-song debut as a rapper at a nightclub that made K-Fed look like TuPac by comparison.

During his performance, cameras were rolling all over the club, orchestrated by Joaquin’s brother-in-law Casey Affleck, who said he was directing a documentary.

Now sources as speaking up and saying this whole thing is an “art project.”

“It’s a put-on,” one source admits. “[Phoenix] is going to pretend to have a meltdown and change careers, and Casey is going to film it. It’s an art project for him. He’s going full out. He probably has told his reps that he’s quit acting. Joaquin is very smart. This is very conscious. He has a huge degree of control.”

If that’s true, this has been the best acting Joaquin’s done since Parenthood.

—Sasha Perl-Raver