Writer: David Letterman Faked Interview With Joaquin Phoenix

By PopEater Staff Posted Sep 20th 2010 11:34AM

Joaquin Phoenix wasn't the only person to dupe 'Late Show' viewers during his infamous appearance last year. No, it now appears David Letterman was in on the ruse the entire time.

The Hollywood Reporter dug up an interview from last year with one of Letterman's writers, Bill Scheft, claiming Letterman was in on the bearded Phoenix joke all along, and faked the famous interview on live television.

"Dave knew about it and Dave loved it because he could play along," Scheft said in the interview with independent newspaper Nuvo that was dug up on Friday after Affleck called off the act.

In an interview with the New York Times, director of the Phoenix mockumentary "I'm Still Here" Casey Affleck said no one knew about the joke, except for his agent, of course. Scheft says otherwise.

"It was great television," Scheft added. "But I will take credit for the line, 'I think I owe Farah Fawcett an apology.' That line was mine. I gave that to him during the break."

According to Scheft, he's been trying to tell people it was fake the whole time, but no one wanted to believe him.

"I've told people that [everyone was in one the joke], and not only don't people believe me, they tell me that I'm wrong and that [Phoenix] is a schizophrenic and he needs help, and he's going to end up like his brother [River, overdosed in 1993]," Scheft insisted. "I said no. I saw the segment notes. It's an act. I saw Ben Affleck's brother taping the whole thing."

Phoenix returns to the scene of the prank on Wednesday, September 22.

Tags: david letterman, Im Still Here, joaquin phoenix, late show with david letterman

Comments

(12)

Monday 20 September

By LORI

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DAVID LETTERMAN IS A FAKE, LIAR AND CHEATER!!! CRAP INTERVIEWER AND NOT FUNNY. HE NEEDS TO GO AWAY!!! UGLY LITTLE NASTY MAN!!!

By Apostate

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At this point,I could care less if CBS honcho Leslie Moonves knew it was staged;I'm sick of hearing about it. Time to move on to something more relevant.

By Donna

But Lori,, how do you really feel about David Letterman?

By OfAlaska

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It blows me away that Letterman made his female staffers 'service' him or lose their jobs, and HE'S STILL ON TV! He's a mean egomaniac who has to provide his own stilted laugh track for his jokes like a donkey braying, and an A-hole!

By DCRangerfan

...kinda reminds ya of Bill O'Rielly, huh?

By kryptogal

No one has ever accused Letterman of forcing staffers to "service" him or threaten their jobs if they didn't. All that has been alleged is that he had consenting relationships with adult females who worked at the Late Show.

By drewziggy

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LOVE EM BOTH, quit hating you jealous pigs

By rose

Joaquin Phoenix will be reappearing on Wednedsay night letterman show... not a re run but a new show, There is one thing i find extremely odd about david Letterman: when he strolls out onto the stage, check out his little ballet slippers and white sox. i dont know why he wears them every night ... maybe he practices his ballet before the show starts... in his Tu-Tu.

He wears loafers, not ballet slippers. I took ballet lessons for years, and Letterman's shoes don't look anything like ballet slippers.

By anon

Oh, please, this it's Hollywood! Everything is faked...the industry is built on scripts, lies, hypocrites, false personas that sell, branding, etc. and truth is carefully covered up with smoke and mirrors and very highly paid laywers and PR teams. To call out two of them in one situation is inane and hilarious.

By bsti

Aren't they over thinking this one just a weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee little bit?

By Yasmin

Whatever it was funny

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