Looking at Mickey Rourke and the Oscars
For the first time since, well, I really can’t remember when, I had some interest in the Academy Awards. As far as pleasurable experiences go, I typically rank watching the pretentious awards show somewhere between undergoing a root canal and listening to a Christy Hemme promo.
The Oscars, however, definitely had my attention last night – well at least the final 15 minutes when the major awards were handed out. Obviously, I was curious to see if The Wrestler star Mickey Rourke went over in the Best Actor category. To my disappointment, he jobbed to Sean Penn.
I’m actually a big Penn fan, and while I did not see Milk, I have no doubt that Penn is a worthy winner. I just hope that the stuffy Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences didn’t hold it against Rourke because he said that he would be participating in WrestleMania 25.
Rourke’s co-star, Marisa Tomei, did not win Best Supporting Actress either. However, it was a good night for Necro Bucher, the hardcore independent wrestler who has a memorably gory scene in The Wrestler. I wasn’t watching the awards show at the time, but I read online that Butcher was acknowledged during a skit with Seth Rogan and James Franco. If I was in charge in TNA, I’d sign Necro immediately and have him work a series of weapons matches against Abyss.
But I digress.
Now that the Oscars are over, the real drama begins. It’s expected that Rourke will be in attendance at WrestleMania on April 5 in Houston, but the question remains as to what his role will be on the pay-per-view extravaganza. Speculation has ranged from him just being a spectator to accompanying Chris Jericho’s opponent to the ring to actually wrestling Jericho.
In a perfect WWE Universe, Rourke would have won the Oscar and then punctuated his acceptance speech by shouting, “Now, I’m going to WrestleMania! And if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences isn’t down with that, I’ve got two words for ya: Ram Jam!”
Then at a swanky after-party, Jericho, with a WWE cameraman in tow, crashes the gala and cuts a promo on Rourke, which leads to a pull-apart brawl. During the fracas, Jericho delivers a worked punch to Tomei, later claiming that she spit on him. To top it off, Jericho absconds with Rourke’s Oscar statuette and takes it to Raw the next night after having it melted down into a toiler paper holder.
The amount of publicity for WWE, not to mention the level outrage from the academy, would have been off the charts.
Comments
WWE should give Rourke a belated Slammy Award to keep the angle moving! This would really burn up Jericho as it would kinda devalue his own Slammy.
Speaking of Slammys, how long are Miz n Morrison going to keep carrying theirs around?
Posted by: Big Dave | February 23, 2009 5:48 AM
Rourke will be on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno Monday night after Raw. Could be a late night.
Posted by: Mr. Eli | February 23, 2009 7:19 AM
Ya know during the Monday Night wars something like you said with Jericho would have happen. But now I don't know.
Posted by: John | February 23, 2009 10:21 AM
The reason I wanted to watch the awards in the first place was to see Mickey Rourke WIN the best actor award and well his deserved Oscar. Instead...we got a bore, Sean Penn with his anti-American anti-family political slurs and "milk." What a waste of an Oscar...Sean Penn.
Posted by: NoPenn | February 23, 2009 10:57 AM
I like where this is going.
In all seriousness, it's not too surprising Mickey didn't win. His nomination had the smack of Travolta for Pulp Fiction, or Burt Reynolds for Boogie Nights: a polite nod to welcome them back into the fold after being on the outs, but not an indication that they're actually welcome. Also, your typical Academy voter skews older, and either a) wouldn't be bothered to watch a grim indie movie called "The Wrestler" or b) is still angry at Mickey Rourke for "Another 9 1/2 Weeks." Never mind that "Milk" is an Important Movie about Issues That Matter, especially right now in California in the aftermath of Prop 8. Also.
Posted by: King of Pants | February 23, 2009 11:07 AM
Rourke would be great at wrestlemania (better with the oscar he deserved!) but he still would be a great asset, but he did say on Friday NIght With Jonathon Ross that he was told not to wrestle by doctors and its time for him to listen, even though he wanted to...hopefuly just lying before the oscars but maybe he cant wrestle for medical reasons
Posted by: stan | February 23, 2009 11:07 AM
Mickey should've won the Oscar!!!! He is awesome...Great to see you again!!!
Posted by: DEB | February 23, 2009 11:44 AM
Hollywood is too political and conservative to have actually given it to Mic--but f LOVE his sweet, sexy, commando, hand-in the pants style and the fact that he was man enough to kiss Aronofsky right on his mouth! We hoped against hope-come on..Hollywood didn't do itTHIS time, but he will be back. And as Jackman said--to Mickey, they were on a" 7 second delay but if you win, we go to 20 minutes." Ha Ha Ha Mic rocked da threads- "Jean Paul Gaultier" and "a lock of Loki's hair," just like the Victorians used to do. What a romantic. Besides--Oscar Schmoscar. "The Wrestler" won the coveted "Golden Lion" award in Venice AND "Independent Spirit Award." Those come from much broader communities, you know, the whole world, not just LA--and they gave a huge nod to the film and Mic. However, I did think Sean Penn was the shiz for mentioning Mickey and his comeback at the podium. Class act from a class actor to one awesome guy who all of us are rooting for. We love ya Mic!!!
Posted by: winchinchala | February 23, 2009 12:21 PM
Kev,
Your post -Oscars storyline for Rourke and JEricho and Co. is way better than anything actually likely to happen I fear!
Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: AMC | February 23, 2009 12:50 PM
The Oscar folks got to feel socially aware by giving it to Sean. It would have taken real courage for them to give it to Rourke, especially for a film I wager most never saw. Oh well. Your scenario was quite cool though.
Posted by: Walter Hollman | February 23, 2009 12:56 PM
You obviously have never seen a Necro Butcher match. Two words, blood bath. The man does nothing but blade and participate in gratuitous weapons matches and brawls. He's like New Jack minus the high flying moves and goofy tactics. I've seen multiple matches of his with nothing but weapons shots and punching. The only good reason I can think of TNA bringing him in at all is to do a one-off feud with Abyss, and even then he's not going to be any different than any of Abyss' other enemies. Everyone who steps into the ring with that man ends up blading, taking a thumb tack bump, or both. It'd be cheaper to take one of the talented wrestlers already on the TNA roster and stick them in a feud with Abyss, and more entertaining.
RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: I know what Necro matches are like. The reason that I think it would be good for TNA to sign him and have him face Abyss is because of the publicity it could bring to TNA and how it could help Abyss get over to a larger degree.
Posted by: Mr. E. | February 23, 2009 1:58 PM
Kevin you have a vivid imagination . As a kid you probably could have kept yourself entertained with a pile of dirt and a stick .
Seriously , it would have been great to see Rourke win best actor . I've gotten turned off as far watching the awards over the years as I just cannot stand actors and actresses use their acceptance speech time as a chance to express their political and religious views .
Maybe if Jesse Ventura was president , that would give them something to talk about !
Posted by: the artist formerly known as jack in hebron | February 23, 2009 2:56 PM
Nopenn: "Sean Penn with his anti-American anti-family political slurs"
Wow, I imagine you must have been pretty disappointed when John Cena was not even nominated for his great and so patriotic "The Marine"...
Posted by: Anonymous | February 23, 2009 4:25 PM
I am a huge movie fan - far more than I am a wrestling fan - and I did believe that Mickey Rourke had the best performance this year. Sean Penn was good and the movie was important (it's hard to believe that 30 years later we've devolved in California back to where gay marriage would get shot down by a bunch of brainless bigots).
However, Milk was not as good a film as The Wrestler and Sean Penn's performance was not as good as Mickey Rourke's. The Oscar, as some have already posted, was purely political so that the academy could feel good about recognizing Milk without giving it the Best Picture nod (which would've been completely absurd given the mediocrity of Milk as a film overall).
I'm also very disappointed because this is the second time that Sean Penn has won an oscar against someone else who was a) more deserving, and b) not likely to get another oscar-worthy role in a movie. Sean Penn is one of those "oscar caliber" actors who will have many oscar worthy roles dropped in his lap, but his 2 oscar nods against Bill Murray and Mickey Rourke are very unfortunate because neither of those actors are likely to get another chance.
Shame...
Nonetheless I think the acceptance speeches from Sean Penn and the kid who got the screenplay nod for Milk were worth hearing if only to bring some extra national awareness to such a ridiculous civil rights violation that's infecting the country
Posted by: Jeremy Hale | February 23, 2009 5:24 PM
Am I the only person who was not that impressed by "The Wrestler". Rourke was fine in a fine movie, not great in a great movie.
Posted by: Martin | February 26, 2009 9:51 AM