Both men are early favorites for Best Actor wins at the Oscars — Rourke for his comeback performance in The Wrestler, and Penn for his gay-for-pay role in Milk. So it was not without some rivalry bitterness that Mickey Rourke wrote the following text message to a friend in the entertainment world:

“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”

The recipient of the text message clearly hates Mickey Rourke, because he forwarded it on to The Daily Beast. Considering Mickey Rourke’s troubled history with the f-bomb, as reported by Towleroad, his accusations of homophobia are a wee bit confusing.

Let’s just chalk up the whole thing to bad sportsmanship amid rampant Oscar buzz. A week before sending his rather opinionated text message, Rourke reportedly told someone that he was surprised at all the Oscar buzz surrounding Sean Penn. “I’m not even sure he’ll get a nomination,” he said, according to The Beast. This is the first time an actor has so openly dissed an Oscar rival.

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Rourke Trashes Penn (The Daily Beast)
Mickey Rourke Slams Sean Penn’s Acting, Calls Him Homophobic (Towleroad)