Casey Affleck will track the musical career of Joaquin Phoenix behind the lens of a camera.

Affleck is directing a documentary feature on Phoenix, his friend and fellow actor who last spring decided to swap the thespian business for a musical one.

Phoenix is embarking on a new path as a rapper, with an album to be produced by Sean Combs. He is scheduled to make his first public performance Friday at a Las Vegas club, which will officially kick off Affleck's shoot.

Ok, first of all, we know that's inaccurate: Phoenix debuted his new career at the Funkmosphere in Culver City almost two months ago, and Affleck was taping him at the time (we've got pictures!). Second of all, Diddy? No. This is a ruse, Hollywood! Even worse: it's a mockumentary! The only thing more played out than that genre is...well, actors releasing albums.

• Casey Affleck helming Joaquin Phoenix doc [THR]

· Heart's Nancy Wilson has taken umbrage at the use of their band's song "Barracuda" to introduce Palin at the RNC (Palin earned the nickname "Barracuda" during her high school basketball days). "I think it's completely unfair to be so misrepresented," she said to EW. "I feel completely fucked over."

· Diddy has much warmer feelings toward the vice presidential candidate, though they're expressed in equally blue terms. "You did your thing," he said on his Diddy Blog after watching Palin's RNC speech. "You gave a speech that pretty much shut me the fuck up."

· "The idea that people who voted for Hillary, who tend to be Democrats, would change and vote for McCain because of Sarah Palin seems to me bizarre," said actress Annette Bening while on promotional duties for The Women. "I find that an odd idea because of course Sarah Palin's politics are to the right of McCain's. She's incredibly conservative and I think it's fair to say she's more conservative than John McCain. So whether she will rally more conservative people to get out there and vote, I don't know. But most of the people I know that were interested in voting for Hillary are voting for Obama."

· Project Runway judge Nina Garcia thinks Palin could use a makeover. ""She has promise," Garcia told Us. "She just needs to lose those glasses. Get them lasered or something."

· Frequent VH1 talking head Simon Doonan disagreed, positing that you can take the glasses away from the moosehunter, but you can't take the moosehunter away from the glasses shop. “Oh, she is so LensCrafters I just don’t even know where to begin," he told New York. "People keep saying to me, ‘She’s Miss Congeniality.’ I’m seeing more LensCrafters."

"Who could have sex the longest," he told us in a soft voice and with a straight face, while looking into our eyes.

Was that a pick-up line? We weren't sure, but we tingled anyway. "I think that's an event I can do well in. And probably who could stay up the longest." Dirty! "Just so you know, that's supposed to be funny," he added as an afterthought. "Even though I am serious." But who would be his competitors? "Whoever's up for the challenge."

Upon learning of Diddy's idea, NBC head Jeff Zucker immediately dispatched on-air talent Bob Costas and Mary Cirillo to make it a reality. Can Diddy surpass Michael Phelps' title as the most decorated Olympian of all time, or will his LAT-inspired strategy get him disqualified?

[Photo Credit: AP]

• Diddy Could Be a Sex Olympian [New York]

Hard to fathom but, just ten years ago, the diva known 'round the world was known simply as that hot big-bottomed girl with a shimmy-shaking breakthrough music video in heavy rotation on MTV (remember, in those days, MTV still played videos). But she hadn't quite let go of her penchants for ass-enhancing spandex onesies, nor her not-so-subtle habit of posing with said ass front and center. Few can forget her appearance as Diddy's arm candy at the 2000 MTV Music Awards, with her skin-tight white jeans, taut belly and bandana proving she's so real, from the block, and down with her peeps. For a few more minutes that is, considering no one from the block (any block) would be down with perhaps the most famous fashion faux-pas of the decade, the paper thin maniacally patterned green-ish disaster Lopez wagged tongues with just a few months later. One overly tight yellow polyester skirt and tacky pair of knee-high hooker booties later, and Lopez figured it out (finally): with a, ahem, imperfect eye for style well-proven, ensemble eyesores may appear on Max and Emme in the future, but thankfully, we'll only have to endure them once.

[Photo credits: Wireimage]

• JENNIFER LOPEZ TWINS NEVER EAR THE SAME DESIGNER CLOTHES TWICE [Daily Mirror]

According to the NY Daily News, Cameron "Sex Is The Best!" Diaz and Puff "Sex Is The Easiest Thing To Get" Daddy have been playing fuck buddies ever since March when they had an intimate dinner (translation: they ate in the same restaurant), and last month they (No! Way!) hugged at a Walk of Fame ceremony (translation: um, they hugged.) But things have allegedly gotten interesting ever since last month when the private room escapade occurred in New York, and last Friday at Prince's house, when "Diddy was bringing his lips toward hers when he realized someone was approaching. Smiling, they closed the theater's door and locked it. We heard them giggling inside." Translation? See, there's this movie? Called What Happens In Vegas? And Cameron's in it? Oh and also? There's this new show on MTV? Called Making The Rock Band? And Diddy is the producer? Translation executed.

• CAMERON DIAZ AND DIDDY A TOUCHY TOPIC [NYDN]

Tabloid wars! When it comes to covering the stunt relationship between “bored” John Mayer and “clingy” Jennifer Aniston, two New York gossip columns have found themselves at odds over how well-behaved Mayer was over the weekend. The NY Post claims Mayer was dancing on tables at a local bar one night, while the NY Daily News covers his performance at a Foxwoods gig alongside Alicia Keys and Diddy the night afterwards. But one paper paints Mayer as an altar boy turning down “eager hot blonds” for the sake of monogamy, and the other makes Mayer sound like a vulgar womanizer. So which to believe?

As the NYP reports, "John 'The Player' Mayer was...'dancing on a table and chugging vodka straight from the bottle' at about 3 a.m. Saturday," all while The Cling drowned her sorrows over dinner with her bodyguards (and maybe a friend or two) in Philadelphia. But the NYDN chimes in today claiming "the notorious tomcat resisted two hot blonds who looked eager to get up to his suite...and turned in early" while playing at the casino the next evening. Before we decide which nickname to stick to when describing Mayer ('The Player' or 'Tomcat'...such a toughie!), we have to figure out if he even warrants that bad boy reputation anymore. Even if the guy was spotted drinking (!) and dancing (!), what is so horrific about that anyway? We're much more alarmed to hear that his gag routine on the casino's red carpet included rubbing his nose on reporters' mics and pretending to shave with them. Not being funny is far worse than being a cad.

• JOHN MAYER REFUSES TO DOUBLE DOWN [NYDN]
• SEPARATE CITIES [NYP]

1. John Cougar Mellencamp: After releasing his breakthrough album, American Fool in 1982, John added Cougar (his original surname) to his public persona. Although he'd won a grammy with the simpler name, Scarecrow went on to receive enormous commercial success post-name change. But during the late 80s and early 90s, John went through a "dark period," which showed on later albums. Was the Cougar too vicious for John's happy-go-lucky attitude?

2. Sean "Diddy" Combs: First he was Biggie's producer Sean Combs, then he was a rapper in his own right as Puff Daddy, and after the 1999 J. Lo court drama, tried to reinvent himself as P. Diddy, only to drop the "P." during a formal announcement on The Today Show in 2005. While all this reinvention kept Combs in the press, we've never been able to figure out why all these monkers are appealing; all we unfortunately envision when we hear any number of them is the unnecessary image of Combs sitting on the john. Are we alone?

3. Prince: Perhaps the most infamous name (symbol?) alteration in history, Prince decided in 1993 that he would only be referred to in print as that unpronounceable symbol incorporating "the male and female signs along with the alchemy symbol for soapstone." Despite the bold move, talk show hosts and anyone with the unfortunate task of having to introduce him at award shows found the move troubling, and a mini-backlash ensued. Inevitably, Prince Rogers Nelson (his real name!) wisely reverted back to his original stage name in 2000.

4: Muhammed Ali: The name Cassius Clay brings up images of the greatest fighter in history, swinging like a butterfly, stingin' like a bee. But after achieving massive success as a boxer, Clay took up with Malcolm X and and the Nation of Islam, confusing the masses by taking a Muslim name and devoting his private life to serving the Prophet. Just before the change, Clay had shocked the world by defeating undefeated Sonny Liston in 1945 at just 22. But his devotion to Islam ultimately sent him to prison, and after learning he'd gotten Parkinson's, the whimsical vocalist and arguably greatest boxer in history, was tragically remembered more for his mysterious choices later in life, rather than his achievements in the ring.

5: Rebecca Romijn and Courteney Cox: On a lighter note, these two actresses officially changed their stage names to reflect their new marraiges: Rebecca Romijn-Stamos and Courteney Cox Arquette, respectively. While feminism is certainly all about choice, and there's nothing wrong with theirs, Bex and Court's original monikers were so alliteration-happy, we were bummed when they insisted on reflecting their hubby's boring-by-comparison last names on screen. And look what good it did Romijn, who's back to her old (way better) title? And Cox; why mess with such an excellent, boner-triggering name like that by reminding fans that she married a guy with a Salvadore Dali mustache?

6. Clay Aiken: While Claymaniacs will be delighted to know (as though they don't already) that Clay's original name still incorporated "Clay," his birth name didn't quite sound as musical as the one he chose when auditioning for Idol: Clayton Holmes Grissom. We hardly think adopting Aiken is the source of Claymania, but his new moniker does sound a bit similar to "achin," which is what we suspect the majority of Claymaniacs fantasize about feeling during their naughtiest Clay sex dreams.

[Photo Credit: Getty]

• MILEY CYRUS OFFICIALLY CHANGING NAME [AOL]

While not quite as steamy as a potential Brady/Bundchen bangfest, The NY Post is reporting that Sienna Miller and Diddy were also caught getting frisky in the basement on the secret perv cam. Which begs the question: if you got your hands on one of these candid camera moments, which one would you rather watch? Yes, Tom is hunky, but Gisele's all lanky and bony. And yes, Sienna seems like the kinky type, but we've seen Diddy pee on YouTube. On second thought, if you could pick from any Hollywood couple, whose uninhibited horizontal moves would you most likely snap up faster than the speed of light? Leave your submissions in the comments!

• CELEB ANTICS ON THE MENU? [Page Six]