Did Mickey Rourke Put A Guy In A Coma?



(image via Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin/NYTimes)


The more that Mickey Rourke talks to journalists touting his uniquely Hollywood story of redemption and the new film which may or may not have Oscar buzz, the more untrue his True Hollywood Story becomes ...

According to the upcoming December 2008 issue of Maxim, Rourke almost put a man in a coma. The man was a dealer who, according to Rourke, raped his ex wife Carre Otis. Rourke told Maxim that Times Square priest Father Pete Colapietro talked him out of "committing two mortal sins," namely killing the man and committing suicide.

But in the New York Times Sunday magazine this weekend, the story gets more colorful, taking it a step further. From The NYTimes Sunday magazine:

"Mickey Rourke is, after all, an actor. The roles he has played and the life he has lived have so blurred one into another in his mind’s eye that even he doesn’t seem to know when he’s acting or when he’s being real. He has spent his entire adult life playing not fictional characters but an idealized delusional fantasy of himself.

"So what? The police stopped him from protesting at a pet store in Miami Beach. He has been a rescuer of abused dogs because he saw in their abuse the kind of abuse he says he suffered at the hands of his stepfather. He told me he beat up his wife’s heroin supplier and put him in a coma."

Do actors have a higher propensity for lies than the average mortal because they deal with make-believe reality?

So, what is it? Did Mickey Rourke put a man in a coma or is he a liar?

Perhaps, on second thought, "liar" is too harsh (though accurate). In a story in Entertainment Weekly, Chris Nashawaty caught Rourke in a fib when discussing something the actor said with his director Darren Aronofsky. From EW:

"It's then that Rourke hints at another conversation he had with Aronofsky before they started shooting, in which the director promised that if he worked harder than he ever had, he'd get nominated for an Oscar. 'That's a made-up story,' laughs Aronofsky. 'I told Mickey if he did his work, then people would recognize it. I think Mickey interpreted it however he interpreted it.'"

The world according to Mickey Rourke.