Special Coverage The Photo IssueThe Must List2008 Fall TV2008 Fall Movies2008 Fall Music

''Have you seen the papers?'' As a bodyguard in Mickey Rourke's hotel room speaks into the phone, his voice is low and anxious. ''It's a disaster. Mickey's in a mood. We may not even be able to go.'' It's 10:40 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 2, the height of Fashion Week in New York, and a gray stretch limo is idling outside the Plaza hotel, waiting to ferry Rourke to the Ralph Lauren show. Inside Rourke's 4,000-per-night suite, however, the tension is thick. For good reason. ''Don't let him near me!'' the front page of the Daily News shrieks over a huge photo of Rourke's estranged wife Carré Otis, a model at this week's shows, and an inset of a menacing-looking Rourke. In the story, Otis claims Rourke is shadowing her and she's afraid of him.

But as if on cue, Manhattan's most stylish "stalker" appears. Wearing an Armani jacket, Versace leather pants, and Di Fabrizio boots, Rourke slithers downstairs and into the limo. He barely says hello. ''Yo, Kenny, where's my tape?'' he barks to the driver. As Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" flows from the speakers, Rourke lights a Marlboro and stares grimly out the window at Fifth Avenue. ''Who's behind that story?'' he asks his publicist, Richard Pollmann, who after knowing Rourke for six years is now more confidant than employee. ''I don't think it was Carré,'' says Rourke. ''Do you think it was Carré? I think it's that f---in' designer boyfriend of hers.''

At Bryant Park, security guards hustle Rourke to the front row after making sure Otis isn't in the Lauren show. Supermodels Kate Moss and Carla Bruni are strutting on the runway, but Rourke removes his Versace sunglasses only when a lesser-known, flame-haired model twirls before him. After he goes backstage to meet Ralph Lauren, Rourke eyes the half-naked models. ''Did you see that redhead'' he asks a woman standing next to him. ''Go find her for me.'' But the redhead is gone, and Rourke's buddy ''Pinky'' Francis, 27, the guy he calls his ''cornerman,'' suggests they leave. "Lead the way, Pink," says Rourke. The group moves through the tent to the limo. Just as the doors shut, Otis, of all people, saunters past. The limo begins to move forward. Rourke springs up from his seat. ''Stop the f---in' car!'' he bellows. Francis and the publicist freeze. ''Man, I just want to look at her,'' Rourke says, nearly choking. ''I haven't seen her in six months.'' Otis vanishes into the crowd. Rourke slumps in the far corner of the limo. The publicist nervously hands him a bottle of Evian, but it slips from Rourke's grasp and crashes on the floor. Nobody speaks as the driver heads up Sixth Avenue. Then Rourke stirs. ''It's that boyfriend of hers,'' he mutters. ''Just wait, payback's a motherf---er. What goes around comes around — whether you like it or not.''

The same, of course, could also be said about Mickey Rourke. After an eight-year hiatus from major movies, with detours into boxing, alleged wife beating, and a reported suicide threat that have made him little more than a gossip-column punchline, Rourke has moved to New York to jump-start his once- promising career. He's recently finished two low-budget films, Bullet, with Tupac Shakur, and Falltime, with Stephen Baldwin. ''I've been on the bench since 9 1/2 Weeks,'' says Rourke, who says he's 38, although reports have him as old as 43. ''But I put myself there. I thought my talent would transcend my outspokenness. I was wrong. I'm willing to give them 100 percent this time. I just want a second chance at Hollywood.''

Rourke's idea of a career makeover, however, is a little unusual. Fashion Week, which occurred just after he wrapped Bullet, was nearly upstaged by Rourke Week — a tabloid blowout right out of a bad Mickey Rourke movie. With several tattooed buddies, two Brooklyn "bodyguards," and Pollmann (who also handles alleged Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss and sometime O.J. Simpson girlfriend Paula Barbieri) in tow, Rourke took a major bite out of the Big Apple. See Carré bar Mickey from the fashion shows! See Mickey trash his hotel room! See Mickey mysteriously reunite with Carré! By week's end, Rourke's antics begged the question: Does Rourke deserve a second chance at Hollywood? More to the point, does Hollywood even want him back?

The answers are surprising and may attest to the enduring power of Rourke's work in films like Body Heat, Diner, Barfly, and The Pope of Greenwich Village. ''He comes with an inflated reputation about how difficult he is,'' says Julien Temple (Earth Girls Are Easy), who directed him in Bullet. ''I was shocked at how un-starlike he was. It may be different when he does some nonsense like Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, but he was just amazing with me.'' Paul Warner, who directed Falltime, says he worried about Rourke's reputation but ''hoped any craziness would pay off creatively.'' Instead, Warner says Rourke ''was almost too deferential. I was trying to get him to be more aggressive.''

Mickey Rourke deferential? Just ask his Barfly co-star Faye Dunaway. ''Mickey was very kind to me,'' she says. "He was a real gentleman and gave me a chance when I needed a break.'' But for every Rourke fan (young hotshot directors like Quentin Tarantino and Rob Weiss have said they want to work with him), there's an enemy; Alan Parker, who directed him in Angel Heart, has been quoted as saying that working with Rourke was a ''nightmare.'' Rourke often seems to revel in his contradictions. This is, after all, a guy who will tell you he's ''just like the common man,'' but when a magazine sends a town car to pick him up for a photo session, he demands a stretch limo. And even though he's beginning to sound as if he knows his tough-guy pose and penchant for headlines may be costing him his career, he still can't help it. ''I've alienated lots of people," admits Rourke.''People think I do drugs, that I punch people out (both of which he denies). They think I have horns coming out of my head. Where I came from I had to be fast and fight. I don't want to be hard or intense. It's just become a shield.''


Page 1 of 3