Mickey Rourke Thinks Sean Penn Is 'Pretending'

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There is nothing like a little friendly competition to bring out the bitter rivalries in old colleagues.  Both Mickey Rourke's new film, The Wrestler, and 48-year-old Sean Penn's current release, Milk, have generated tons of Best Actor Oscar buzz.

The 52-year-old Rourke is on something of a comeback cloud with the acclaim he's received for portraying a washed-up wrestler with daughter problems in director Darren Aronofsky's dark and beautiful study of flawed nobility. Perhaps this comeback cloud is composed of gasses that have gone to Mickey's head.

The Daily Beast claims to have obtained a text message from Mickey to "a Los Angeles entertainment honcho."  The message seems to indicate that Rourke feels he has no real competition for the Academy Award, especially not from Penn's portrayal of assassinated San Francisco elected official Harvey Milk.

 “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]

There are no deductions for misspellings in Oscar campaigning, but bad sportsmanship might influence voting negatively. Naturally, Rourke's publicist was quick to deny that her client would be so uncouth.

“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.”

The publicist insisted that Rourke is ”completely unaware of the text.”

It wouldn't be the first time Mickey Rourke had engaged in rash and irrational outburst.

But, really, who can hold Mick's impetuous impulses against him?