Mickey Rourke, who recently staged a resurrection of sorts in a comeback movie called The Wrestler, has been dissing his bud Sean Penn - at least so it is alleged on Tina Brown's new website, The Daily Beast.
Both Rourke and Penn are likely to end up as Oscar nominees for best male actor this year, and it seems Rourke has been attempting to undermine Penn with a few low blows. He allegedly described Penn's performance in Milk as "average."
Penn played Harvey Milk in the movie - the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in the US.
According to the Gerald Posner article in Daily Beast, "a Los Angeles entertainment honcho" shared a Rourke text message which included the following disparaging remarks: “Look Sean's an old friend of mine and I didn't buy his performance at all—thought he did an average pretend acting like he was gay besides hes one of the most homophobic people i kno" [sic]
More bad mouthing allegedly took place after Rourke's interview with David Letterman. Persons backstage claimed they overheard Rourke say that Penn wasn't even a sure thing for a nomination this year.
Even without evidence of trash talk, it would be fair to say that this does in fact sound a lot like Mickey Rourke who is known for shooting his mouth off - a trait his friends and admirers describe as 'speaking his mind.'
In the 90's Rourke disappeared off the radar on a Quixotic boxing adventure that had more to do with his macho man fantasies than actual talent. His boxing 'career' went nowhere, unless you consider minor opponents the real deal. World Boxing magazine questioned Rourke's ring talents with the headline - "Mickey Rourke: Acting like a Boxer... or Boxing Like an Actor."
Back in the days when he frequented Fifth Street Gym, the trainer said ‘I can’t get Mickey into the ring to fight.' When he did eventually get into a real fight, the hard man of Hollywood walked out of the ring.
Whereas Rourke owes his re-emergence to The Wrestler, Sean Penn has consistently been turning in solid performances. He received an Oscar for Mystic River. He also turned his hand to directing. Three of his movies - The Crossing Guard (1995), The Pledge (2001) and Into the Wild (2007) - were well received by the critics.
Penn took a political stand during the Bush years when many of his fellow actors were happy to take a back seat. He went to bat in support of civil liberties and took a stand against Bush administration policies in Iraq. Moreover he did so at some risk to his own reputation
As for the "homophobic" slur aimed at Penn - Rourke is the last one who should be going there. When he got upset about comments made by a writer, he asked a paprazzo to "tell that faggot who wrote all that shit in the paper I'd like to break his fucking legs"
But then name calling isn't exactly out of character. Mickey spreads it around. He called Tom Cruise "a cunt"... Nicole Kidman "an ice cube" ... Michael Cimino "crazy" and Samuel Goldwyn Jnr "a liar."
Mickey Rourke's publicist denies there is any feud going on with Sean Penn: "There is no Oscar feud between Mickey and Sean. They have known each other and been friends for a very long time. Mickey attended the New York premiere of Milk to support Sean and only has the greatest respect for him."
Okay then ...
Penn played Harvey Milk in the movie - the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in the US.
According to the Gerald Posner article in Daily Beast, "a Los Angeles entertainment honcho" shared a Rourke text message which included the following disparaging remarks: “Look Sean's an old friend of mine and I didn't buy his performance at all—thought he did an average pretend acting like he was gay besides hes one of the most homophobic people i kno" [sic]
Rourke' people deny the ex-pugilist has been engaging in mean spirited put-downs and Penn isn't taking the bait - at least in public.
More bad mouthing allegedly took place after Rourke's interview with David Letterman. Persons backstage claimed they overheard Rourke say that Penn wasn't even a sure thing for a nomination this year.
Even without evidence of trash talk, it would be fair to say that this does in fact sound a lot like Mickey Rourke who is known for shooting his mouth off - a trait his friends and admirers describe as 'speaking his mind.'
In the 90's Rourke disappeared off the radar on a Quixotic boxing adventure that had more to do with his macho man fantasies than actual talent. His boxing 'career' went nowhere, unless you consider minor opponents the real deal. World Boxing magazine questioned Rourke's ring talents with the headline - "Mickey Rourke: Acting like a Boxer... or Boxing Like an Actor."
Boxing and the myths surrounding it have been central to Rourke's warped sense of manhood - even to the point of making up a sham history, or so it is alleged. His stepfather disputed Rourke's claim that he (Mickey) had been a boxer in his youth. A New York Times reporter was unable to come up with any records that proved Rourke took part in the Golden Gloves program, as the actor claimed. That would seem to support the suspicions of boxing trainer Angelo Dundee who said: "I don't think Mickey ever had an amateur fight."
Back in the days when he frequented Fifth Street Gym, the trainer said ‘I can’t get Mickey into the ring to fight.' When he did eventually get into a real fight, the hard man of Hollywood walked out of the ring.
Whereas Rourke owes his re-emergence to The Wrestler, Sean Penn has consistently been turning in solid performances. He received an Oscar for Mystic River. He also turned his hand to directing. Three of his movies - The Crossing Guard (1995), The Pledge (2001) and Into the Wild (2007) - were well received by the critics.
Penn took a political stand during the Bush years when many of his fellow actors were happy to take a back seat. He went to bat in support of civil liberties and took a stand against Bush administration policies in Iraq. Moreover he did so at some risk to his own reputation
As for the "homophobic" slur aimed at Penn - Rourke is the last one who should be going there. When he got upset about comments made by a writer, he asked a paprazzo to "tell that faggot who wrote all that shit in the paper I'd like to break his fucking legs"
But then name calling isn't exactly out of character. Mickey spreads it around. He called Tom Cruise "a cunt"... Nicole Kidman "an ice cube" ... Michael Cimino "crazy" and Samuel Goldwyn Jnr "a liar."
Mickey Rourke's publicist denies there is any feud going on with Sean Penn: "There is no Oscar feud between Mickey and Sean. They have known each other and been friends for a very long time. Mickey attended the New York premiere of Milk to support Sean and only has the greatest respect for him."
Okay then ...
