You know Jared Leto as the thin-as-a-rail heroin chic pretty boy from Fight Club and Requiem for a Dream but did you know that he gained over 60 pounds last year? He plumped up to play Mark David Chapman (John Lennon’s murderer) for the upcoming film Chapter 27.

Leto binged on pizza, pasta and ice cream but his sick trick was to suck down nuked pints of chocolate Häagen Daz mixed with olive oil and soy sauce. Due to the tremendously quick weight gain, Leto developed gout in his left foot. Mere months later (seven weeks to be exact), Leto lost all that weight by fasting on the new celebrity darling diet (Beyonce even tried it) of lemon, cayenne pepper and water. Although nose candy could’ve helped out a little.

The cryptic title Chapter 27 refers to the 26 chapters in J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, a novel Chapman held deep affinity for; in his mind he became its lead character Holden Caulfield, bent on ridding the world of phonies. Some speculate that the title also refers to Lennon’s obsession with numerology, particularly how the number 9 and its multiples kept reappearing in his life.

I’m not sure if they’re going to get into the whole religious aspect of the murder and Chapman’s mind. He was a born-again bible thumper who sang along with his prayer group with their appended version of Lennon’s Imagine with “Imagine John Lennon is dead”. Like so many Beatles fans, Chapman turned his back on Lennon when he said the Fab Four was “more popular than Jesus”, which was actually more a social commentary on false idol worship than blasphemy. Unlike most Beatles fans, Chapman prayed to the Devil and heard voices in his head he called the “Little People”. In fact, when he met John Lennon, Yoko and little Sean, he was so overcome with their generosity that he decided against his assassination plans, but it was the “Little People” who urged him to finish the deed.

I can totally understand why some are rallying against this film, forming boycott websites. Besides the overall premise and possible glorification of Lennon’s killer, negative points include disrespectfully hiring an actor named Mark Chapman to play John Lennon and casting Lindsay Lohan to play a girl who befriends the portly fiend; her name is Jude. Auugh.

Here’s some food for thought: