Joaquin PhoenixAs you've probably already heard, it turns out that spaced-out, mentally-unstable shaman-rapper-thing Joaquin Phoenix was doing back in 2009 was a massive hoax -- all for the purpose of a fake documentary titled "I'm Still Here," which his brother-in-law Casey Affleck was shooting.

Our friends at FilmDrunk have a clip of Phoenix apologizing to David Letterman for appearing on his show last year in his faux persona without letting Letterman in on what he was doing. (Of course, no apology was necessary -- that was some classic television.)

But it does beg the question: What does Phoenix do to reestablish his career? "I'm Still Here" has completely flopped at the box office, and now Phoenix has gone from a respected Oscar nominee to the guy who spent a year acting like a weirdo for a movie that nobody ended up seeing.

Will you be willing to embrace Phoenix in his next "straight" role? Or will anything he attaches himself to now become suspect?

Can Joaquin Phoenix still be taken seriously as an actor?
Sure -- he was just having some fun, but now he's back858 (75.1%)
Nope -- he violated the unwritten contract between artist and audience285 (24.9%)