It certainly seemed that way last night at Hollywood hotspot Bardot, where the decidedly scruffy actor turned up with brother-in-law Casey Affleck and his own personal camera crew.

Despite a strict no-photography policy, Phoenix had footage rolling for the duration of the spot’s Monday night party, where Ryan Gosling jumped on the turntables for clubgoers like DJ AM and Lance Bass.

“It was definitely strange,” an onlooker tells Celebuzz of Phoenix. “It was as if he was in character. Very Andy Kaufman-esque.”

This isn’t the first time Joaquin has been spotted with the crew, either. Phoenix was with them just before Halloween, when he appeared at a Paul Newman charity event, he announced to TV’s Extra that his current film Two Lovers “will be my last performance as an actor…I’m not doing films anymore.”

Except, perhaps, the one he’s shooting all over Hollywood.

“It’s about his transition to music,” one insider tells us of Phoenix’s future goals to rock rather than act.

Perhaps old habits die hard, then, as he seems to be recording a lot of living in the process.

Reps for the actor tell Celebuzz they have no idea what the crew is for, but once they do, we “and the rest of the world will know.”

The stars had aligned to raise funds for Paul Newman‘s charity the Painted Turtle, a camp for children with life-threatening illnesses that he established in 1999.

The event, spearheaded by Julia Roberts, was attended by Bruce Willis, Jack Nicholson, Tom Hanks, Warren Beatty, Danny Devito and boy-snogging Hugo Chavez pal Sean Penn, reports the Daily Mail.

The event also served as a posthumous tribute to Newman, who died of lung cancer in September. The outpouring of emotion was profuse.

“This is the first time we are doing this without Paul,” noted Danny Glover. “There is a void there, without a doubt.”

Hanks remembered Newman as a gracious actor willing to share the screen along with his sense of charity.

“He sort of taught us all how to be in the business and live up to the responsibilities and pull our weight,” said the actor, who starred with Newman in 2002′s The Road to Perdition. “He was a guy, quite frankly, who should have won the Nobel Peace Prize.”

The evening was marked by a 90-minute reading of The World of Nick Adams, A.E. Hotchner‘s adaptation of several early works by Ernest Hemingway. Devito, Willis and Nicholson all participated in the reading.

Roberts will be joined by Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Warren Beatty, Annette Benning, Billy Crystal and Danny Glover at a charity stage reading of The World of Nick Adams.

The play adapts several Ernest Hemingway short stories. The reading will be held in San Francisco on October 27, and will benefit the Painted Turtle, which is one of the many summer camps started for terminally-ill children by Newman.

Newman—the iconic star of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Hud and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid—passed away on Friday after a battle with cancer at his home in Westport, Connecticut. He was 83.

The 83-year-old actor’s resume is studded with iconic roles from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to Hud, The Hustler and Cool Hand Luke.

He had been fighting a dignified and semi-public battle with cancer for several months.

Newman most recently dazzled moviegoers with an Oscar-nominated performance opposite Tom Hanks in 2003′s Road to Perdition.

The revered performer, philanthropist and race-car enthusiast passed away Friday at his farmhouse outside Westport, Connecticut. He was in the company of loving friends and family.

A graduate of the Yale Drama School and a veteran of the New York Actors Studio, Paul Newman appeared in more than 80 films. The Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid actor was nominated for ten Academy Awards. He won for The Color of Money in 1987.

His Newman’s Own food empire donated more than $250 million to charity’s selected by him.  The actor is survived by his wife of 50 years, actress Joanne Woodward.

The Daily Mail reports that that 76-year-old acting icon Elizabeth Taylor has been put on a life-support machine. Taylor was diagnosed with pneumonia last week and subsequently developed congestive heart failure.

Meanwhile, the Mail also reports that Paul Newman, who is believed to be suffering from cancer, is confined to a wheelchair.  The 83-year-old Newman, who retired from acting last year, is rumored to be receiving treatment for lung cancer at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Best of luck to both show-business greats. Because the way show business is going these days, there won’t be any replacing them.

Okay, the guy is 92—we’ll cut him some slack. But he was quite clear of mind when he told the AP, “I know it’s a form of cancer,” that it was in the “lung area” and that “he’s battling…doing all the right stuff. Paul is a fighter.” The AP, for its part, stands by the story.

Somewhere in the tony enclaves of Connecticut, there is trouble in Friendville…

Seeming to confirm rumors that acting legend Paul Newman has cancer, writer A.E. Hotchner—a longtime friend and neighbor of Newman’s who co-founded the Newman’s Own salad-dressing company with him—has revealed to the Associated Press that Newman told him about his condition 18 months ago, according to Us Magazine.

Speculation about Newman’s health mounted after several pictures of the 83-year-old actor looking gaunt at a children’s benefit appeared on Martha Stewart‘s blog.

The Academy Award honoree’s cancellation of several appearances further fueled rumors.

While various news outlets have reported that Newman was diagnosed at Manhattan’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the actor’s camp has remained tight-lipped on his condition. On Tuesday, his rep released a one-line statement: “Newman says he’s doing nicely.”

Hotchner’s revelation would seem to shed light on Newman’s retirement from acting in May 2007.

Last July, the actor told Good Morning America, “I’m not able to work anymore as an actor at the level I would want to. You start to lose your memory, your confidence, your invention. So that’s pretty much a closed book for me…I’ve been doing it for 50 years. That’s enough.”