Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Is Mickey Rourke Self-Destructing?



Hollywood redemption stories are one-in-a-million propositions while the bright and shiny flameouts are a daily occurrence in the celebrity blogosphere game. Mickey Rourke has self-destructed before our very eyes already. It is a tragic thing to behold someone so talented fall so hard and wholly without grace. Last time he destroyed his looks with plastic surgery and amateur boxing; last time he destroyed his career on ill-advised and ill-chosen straight-to-VHS projects; last time he destroyed his marriage through brute Chimpanzee violence.

But Rourke shook off the accumulation of loserdust in The Wrestler. There he finally found a project to reveal the subtle tonal shadings of his melancholy American tough-guy persona. Now, given another chance at the brass ring, the hero of our story appears -- once again -- to be blowing it. At best, a Best Actor Oscar is an uphill battle. At best. Clint Eastwood, Sean Penn, Leo DiCaprio and -- a favorite for the sympathy Academy vote -- Heath Ledger stand in his way, all having put forth strong performances this year. The Best Actor category is, in fine, tighter than Jennifer Aniston's ass (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment). And it doesn't help that Rourke's already uphill campaign for the Oscar, which would fix him back in the Hollywood A-List firmament once and for all time, involves fucking ghetto-trash talking. Charmed, I'm sure. From TheDailyBeast:

"Whistleblower has learned from several entertainment industry sources that Mickey Rourke — whose extraordinary comeback performance in The Wrestler is garnering him early praise as a shoo-in for a best actor Oscar nomination—is trash talking his likely toughest competitor, Sean Penn, whose acting in Milk has earned rave reviews.

"After his December 23 appearance on David Letterman, Rourke told someone backstage that he was surprised that so many people seemed to think that Penn was his Oscar competition since 'I’m not even sure he’ll get a nomination.'

"On December 28, a Los Angeles entertainment honcho shared a text message with me that Rourke had sent him: 'Look seans an old friend of mine and i didnt 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]

"'It’s a shame,' says one veteran Hollywood lawyer. 'Mickey should be looking at this as a once in a career chance for a fresh start. But dumping on Penn is not going to win him any friends. It’s not the way to get Oscar votes.'"


Get your shit together, baby. We would love to see you win a well-deserved Oscar, bro.

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