Live from CineVegas: You Don't Know Jack, Because That's Not Him

The Twitters were abuzz a few nights ago, when the CineVegas Film Festival hosted an event at the Sapphire Gentlemen's Club and people saw Jack Nicholson there. It seemed reasonable. Nicholson's old pal Dennis Hopper is the fest's honorary chair, so it was plausible that Jack would be in town. No one had a problem believing he'd turn up at a strip club, either.

But it wasn't him. It was a guy who looks a lot like him, a guy whose shtick seems to be dressing and grooming himself to look like Nicholson and hanging around CineVegas. He's been everywhere: at festival headquarters, at the post-screening parties, in the theater lobby, everywhere. He really does bear a striking resemblance to Nicholson, at least until you look closely. Then you realize the suit is kind of shabby, the hair is unkempt, and the general air is that of Homeless Guy, not Jack Nicholson. Who knew the line between Nicholson and Hobo was so thin?

Turns out his name is Norman Deesing, an actor who appears in a CineVegas documentary called Youth Knows No Pain, about plastic surgery. When he's not dressing up as Nicholson, he looks only vaguely like him, and doesn't resemble a bum at all. Again, it's alarming to realize that you could see the real Nicholson and mistake him for a vagrant. Do you suppose that ever happens to Jack? Like maybe he shows up at the VIP entrance for a Lakers game, and the security guard says, "Hey, buddy, the free scraps of food are around back, in the alley. Oh! I beg your pardon, Mr. Nicholson!"

There have been real celebrity sightings at CineVegas, too. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was at the screening of 500 Days of Summer (second time I've seen it, and I still Joseph Gordon-LOVE IT!), and at the party afterward. Scott Caan was at the world premiere of Mercy, which he wrote and stars in, and so was his dad, James (and not just for moral support -- he plays Scott's dad in the movie, too). In real life, Scott Caan favors the same style of clothing as his movie characters, i.e., one size too small. Is this something short people do to seem bigger? Does it work? Please advise.

(In the picture, Fake Jack Nicholson is with the real Adam Donaghey, who's a producer on the CineVegas short film My Mom Smokes Weed. Many thanks to Adam for letting us use the pic.)