Actor checks his e-mail only (gasp!) once a month

JOAQUIN PHOENIX, one of the finest actors of his generation, has always marched to a different drummer. But it still came as a bit of surprise to hear him tell us in a recent intervie w that he checks his e-mail only once a month. In this day and age, that's a sh ocker to most people who virtually sleep with their BlackBerry. But this is pro bably why Joaquin has stayed refreshingly different from his colleagues. The actor, who stars in the drama, "Reservation Road," admitted in a talk at th e Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York: "I'm pretty computer illiterate. I do e-ma il but only occasionally, like once a month. But of course, the Internet is a g reat tool for research. I don't know what actors did 15 years ago. I don't know if I could go to a library and spend that much time researching. Iâm very fort unate to be in this time as an actor because we have the Internet as a great re search tool." Joaquin revealed that he's "not a big reader" in general. "I read scripts and o n whatever research I have to do," he explained. "I have this problem -- I supp ose it's why I'm an actor. When I start reading a book, I end up just going off on these fantasies where I take the character somewhere completely different. I have to go back three pages because I was inventing this other fantasy. I get stimulated by a book but reading doesn't let me focus on staying with the book . I just start wanting to invent other things."