  Contrary to common belief, (electro)vacuum Brans-Dicke gravity does not
reduce to general relativity for large Brans-Dicke coupling $\omega$, a problem
which has never been fully solved. Two new approaches, independent from each
other, shed light on this issue producing the same result: in the limit $\omega
\rightarrow \infty $ an (electro)vacuum Brans-Dicke spacetime reduces to a
solution of the Einstein equations sourced, not by (electro)vacuum, but by a
minimally coupled scalar field. The latter is shown to coincide with the
Einstein frame scalar field. The first method employs a direct analysis of the
Einstein frame, while the second (complementary and independent) method uses an
imperfect fluid representation of Brans-Dicke gravity together with a little
known 1-parameter symmetry group of this theory.
