Last night The Wrestler premiered in LA and we’ve been talking since TIFF about the Oscar buzz, about his performance, and right now, Mickey Rourke appears to be the leader. Based on performance, absolutely they say he deserves it. He is outstanding. But as you know, as illustrated by the fact that a lesser movie called Crash managed to outvote Brokeback Mountain, it’s all about the voters. And Mickey Rourke is not a popular guy, even if the industry loves a comeback.

He’s actually rather despised, from studio executives, to assistants on set, Mickey has managed to alienate them all. Rumour has it he allegedly decided to take liberties with the daughter of a producer who wouldn’t give him a job, supposedly ejaculated all over the cat of a makeup artist who wouldn’t go out with him, and commonly refuses to call members of the crew by their real names, referring to them literally, no exaggeration, as “Get the f-ck out of my face”.

Lovely man.

So the question is… will they actually, could they actually, bring themselves to mark off his name? Can they separate the asshole from the actor? Should they?

Photos from Bauergriffinonline.com