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Both Rourke and Penn have been tipped for Academy Award nominations for their roles as a fading wrestler and gay politician in The Wrestler and Milk respectively.
Website The Daily Beast allegedly obtained a text message from Rourke criticising Penn's portrayal of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office.
Rourke's message supposedly read: "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]
A publicist for Rourke denied the existence of the message, saying: "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."
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