• Tina Fey was "frosty" and "awkward" with John McCain on the Saturday Night Live set. Which is weird because McCain has been so polished and friendly in all his other televised appearances. [Scoop]

Click to viewBoomp3.com Pausing slightly during a whirlwind shopping expedition, Mickey Rourke and beloved dog Loki decided to experience Rome in all of its glory and splendor. "It’s a beautiful city," Rourke said. "Just ripe with culture and history; I mean it’s just a real work of art. Something to savoir and behold.” When asked for comment, Loki said she preferred the majesty of Venice and itss various canals. Loki added, “It’s easier to get away with certain things on the street.” [Photo Credit: INF Daily] *A Call To The Bullpen is a work of fiction. Although the pictures we use are most certainly real, Defamer does not purport that any of the incidents or quotations you see in this piece actually happened. Lighten up, people ... it's a joke.

We've now seen and heard enough of The Wrestler—the Darren Aronofsky-helmed, Mickey Rourke comeback vehicle—to predict with some confidence that come the big night, the hard-knocked star with the lived-in face will have Oscar in a full nelson and begging for mercy. But for those who just can't wait until the Golden Lion-winner's December 19th release date to live for a precious few hours in aging wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson lace-up boots, we offer now a preview scene from the film: In it, The Ram attempts to apologize to his estranged daughter, played by Evan Rachel Wood, in a one-sided, seaside soul-baring that reminded us of Jack Nicholson's Five Easy Pieces peace-making monologue with his mute father.

After slogging through The Fountain, a strenuous mindfuck dirge about death and time travel and Ponce de León (sort of?), and watching its resounding failure at the box office, it was easy to think that the film's writer/director/envisioner Darren Aronofsky might never be trusted with a film again. And certainly the exciting director of Pi and Requiem for a Dream's next effort, The Wrestler, is significantly scaled back from the tens-of-millions of dollars fountain of youth blunderbuss, but it's proving to be bigger than the previous film could have hoped for. An early-career Aronofsky comeback! The Wrestler, which stars Mickey Rourke in what is said to be a career-reviving performance (though, didn't they say that about Sin City too?), was a huge hit at the Toronto and Venice film festivals, and has found both domestic and foreign distributors. This all lines up nicely with Aronofsky's next film, a high profile picture for Paramount called The Fighter, starring little-known actors named Brad Pitt and Mark Wahlberg. So maybe he's been forced to genre himself up a bit (I mean, was Requiem for a Dream genre? Arm-Sever Cinema?), but he's back in the ring (har) after one terrifically nasty KO. Plus he's married to Rachel Weisz, one of the most beguiling and enchanting actresses working today, so he's got that going for him too.

After picking up its hardware in Venice and a distribution deal in Toronto, Mickey Rourke's comeback The Wrestler screened for the first time in the United States this morning in New York. We crashed the joint, and we can confirm that everything you've heard about Rourke's Oscar future is essentially on the nose: He'll nab a Best Actor nomination for his performance as Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a 40-something pro wrestler on the downswing with pretty everything in his life including his relationship with his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood), his hang-ups with a stripper (Marisa Tomei) and his own tormented perspective on aging. That said, it's sort of a marvel of accessibility and not nearly the downer we expected from feel-bad master Darren Aronofsky; after the nihilist pageantry of last year's There Will Be Blood, the Academy will eat this up come February. Moreover, the voters he hasn't alienated over the years will crawl over each other to be a part of Rourke's comeback story. Fox Searchlight is packaging it as we speak, and Rourke himself was candidly — maybe too candidly — selling its prototype at a press conference following today's screening."I mean, if I knew it would take me 15 years to get back in the saddle and work again because of the way I handled things, I really would have handled things differently," he told the crowd. "I just didn't have the tools. I'm doing things differently this time around — understanding what it is to be a professional, be responsible and to be consistent. Those are things that weren't in my vocabulary back then. Change for me didn't come easy; I didn't wanna change until I lost everything until I realized that you better change, or, you know, blow your fucking brains out. Either you change and go on with life, or you're just a piece of shit. "Everything I felt was that I would be weak — that it was a weakness to change, for the armor that I put on my whole life. I was too proud to change, because my strength at the time was a weakness. I'm all right with it now, and yeah, it took me 15, 16, 17 years out of the game. But it's really nice, because I get to come back and work with these people here." He gestured to his left, where Aronofsky, Tomei and co-producer Scott Franklin were seated alongside him at the dais. They're probably short-listers, too, along with screenwriter Robert Siegel, likely the first Onion alumnus to be considered for an Academy Award. Really, that's the story we can't wait to write, but we'll take this in the meantime.

It's a busy week for Amy Poehler. Last Saturday, she helped SNL score its highest ratings in years and then announced yesterday that she's planning to leave the show in November. Today she celebrates her birthday: She's 37. Also celebrating: Marc Anthony is 40 (although he held his big birthday blowout on Sunday at the Bowery Hotel.) Lauren Bacall is 84. Magician David Copperfield is 52. Nick Jonas is 16. Actress Alexis Bledel is 27. Mickey Rourke is 52. The artist Christopher Wool turns 53 today. Fortune's managing editor Andy Serwer is 49. Harvard professor and author Henry Louis Gates is 58. Televangelist Robert Schuller is 82. And blue's legend B.B. King is 83.

Even though The Wrestler hasn’t even come out yet, isn’t it about time we started discussing what Darren Aronofsky’s gonna do next? Rumors have circulated that he’ll be helming the Robocop reboot, but according to a recent interview with /Film, the director has set his sights on far nobler pursuits—namely a huge religious epic about the story of Noah.

Our office's crystal ball usually tends to function best on Fridays — and even then, as we handicap new releases in our Defamer Attractions column, it can be a tad hinky. But after a few weeks of painstaking inquiry, we think we now have a handle on some of the fall movie slate's biggest revelations to come. Will Brad Pitt backward-age his way to Oscar immortality? Is Twilight really the best investment for your vampire-movie dollars? Can Beverly Hills Chihuahua live up to its exceptional promise? Follow the jump for answers to those and a few of the season's other pressing questions. Feel free to scan your own tea leaves as well; our own oracle shuddered and crapped out the minute we asked about Australia, so any and all input is welcome. Onward!1. Brad Pitt will win an Academy Award. We know the post-Toronto establishment has all but engraved Mickey Rourke's name on this year's Best Actor Oscar (hell, even Rourke has engraved his name on this year's Best Actor Oscar), but taking both The Wrestler (release date TBD) and Pitt's epic The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (12/25) sight unseen, we'll take the aging-backward-on-other-people's-bodies gimmick over the gritty indie comeback 10 times out of 10. Not that it won't be close: Brad Grey will spend more on his old pal's campaign than Fox Searchlight is probably ready to drop on Rourke's, but Rourke will be the more accessible nominee to the media. Look for dark horse Sean Penn (Milk) to split the field late; Focus Features won't settle for another 0-fer in '08. 2. W. (10/17) will tip the election to the GOP. Opening less than three weeks before Election Day, the film will be too muddled to move the Democrats yet irreverent enough to galvanize the Republican base against Hollywood one more time before voting. Oliver Stone will be recognized as the new Ralph Nader. 3. You're going to miss Don LaFontaine a lot more than you think. Otherwise execrable trailers like this one for The Haunting of Molly Hartley (10/31) acquired bittersweet relevance overnight: 4. The Weinstein Company will muscle its way back to prominence. Harvey had a relatively hemorrhage-free summer, closed out by his $16 million-grossing (and counting) Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Meanwhile, Zack and Miri Make a Porno (10/31) left Toronto with goodwill to spare, the LA immigrant saga Crossing Over (10/24) has Harrison Ford, Sean Penn and others channeling Crash, and the company bumped up The Reader for Kate Winslet Oscar consideration. (NB: The Rourke Factor also reportedly inspired Harvey to finally slot his long-shelved Killshot on Nov. 7.) The Weinsteins being the Weinsteins, of course, the operation could crash at any time, but at least the ensuing conflagration promises Hindenberg levels of spectacle. That's our Harvey. 5. Owen Wilson will emerge from, return to hiding after explaining the trailer to Marley & Me (12/25). That is all.

After The Wrestler's more-than-well-received premiere last week in Venice, where star Mickey Rourke was forewarned that Oscar would likely forbid his puppy onstage next February, word out of Toronto confirms that Darren Aronofsky's drama was picked up over the weekend by the awards-season whizzes at Fox Searchlight. The sale went down for about $4 million and all but assures Rourke of a Best Actor nomination if not a win, similar to the arc following Searchlight's push on Forest Whitaker's behalf for The Last King of Scotland. So early congrats to him. But there's still work to do, as we've discovered after the jump.The critical accolades to date suggest the campaign will only expand from there, perhaps starting with revisions to the publicity stills currently circulating in the trades. After all, we know Oscar voters love a comeback story, but rarely against the backdrop of slogans invoking the sucking of "a fat dick." Don't take our word for it, though; see above where The Hollywood Reporter got burned, Variety drew the line, and where a better tomorrow begins today with a little bit of Photoshop and a whole lot of love.

While slappies like Viggo Mortensen hedge their Oscar '08 futures with something close to a film per month, we much prefer the bombast of all-or-nothing awards-season power hitters like Daniel Day-Lewis and Mickey Rourke. Yes, we wrote Mickey Rourke — he of the inflated face, reckless scooter piloting, and now of the acclaimed Darren Aronofsky film The Wrestler, a stirring Venice Film Festival success that Variety pumped as featuring "a galvanizing, humorous, deeply moving portrait that instantly takes its place among the great, iconic screen performances":

Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter is apparently handing out Waverly Inn tables to anyone, as though he doesn't mind his "hot" restaurant showing up so much on has-beens portal DListed.com. Guido and Jesus freak Stephen Baldwin was just spotted coming out of the restaurant without the help of a bouncer. He followed in the footsteps of Michael Lohan, the desperate estranged father of Lindsay, and actor and drunken scooter jockey Mickey Rourke. Sure, it would be easy to blame Carter's new executive assistant for the influx of lesser celebrities, but an eventual decline for Waverly has probably been in the cards since the beginning. Maybe the naysaying food critics were right:

PrivacyWatch celebrity sightings are submitted by our readers, and are posted several times a week, so send them in often—the fate of the universe relies upon it! Submit yours to tips[AT]defamer.com (please put "sighting" or "PrivacyWatch" in the subject line so we don't lose them) and tell everyone about how the sound of Mickey Rourke's loud snoring prevented you from getting any work done at the Santa Monica Public Library.

· Even though the WGA strike might wipe out a significant portion of this so-far underwhelming Fall season, there's still some good news for TV: most shows have produced enough episodes that the Academy may not have to cancel the Emmys, an awards show that rivals the average picket line in thrills-per-minute even in years when it's not hampered by labor strife. [Variety]
· E! further fortifies its lineup of strike-proof programming by picking up a second season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, a show they can easily spin off into separate series following each member of the Hollywood's bustiest, semifamous family should the need for even more mindless schedule-filler arise. [THR]

• Ellen DeGeneres is taking some flak for breaking the WGA strike by going ahead and taping her show, albeit sans monologue. Also maybe she's sort of mean. [Page Six]
  

While his smirking mugshot, featuring low-grade Noltian hair and a short Van Dyke, isn't likely to send our commenters into a lather the way Shia LaBeouf's did, there's still something unmistakably titillating about Mickey Rourke's DUI booking photo. Perhaps it was the circumstances around the arrest, which could only have been more adorable had the actor been stopped winding through Miami streets early this morning on a miniature clown bicycle:

Photographer Sante d'Orazio has a reputation for doing the sexy picture thing, not to mention the actual sex-the-models thing. His new book, Katlick School, goes right for the groin of a particular fetish — the sexual awakening of a nubile girl in Catholic school uniform. Fulfilling the barely repressed urges of generations of Catholic school boys, the book has aroused adult Catholics in quite a different fashion, though none bothered to show up to protest the book's launch last night at the Gramercy Park Hotel. For this occasion, our week long Party Crash scrambling resulted in headliner photog Nikola Tamindzic getting able backup from lenswoman Our Pal Kate. The end result is a doubleplusgood collection of photos. You can look at a complete gallery of the whole shebang; or, you can sift through Nikola's photos; or, spend time with Kate's collection (full gallery here). Plus, check out an exclusive! gallery! of preview pics from the book over at Fleshbot. Warning: hidden somewhere in all these is a make-out scene involving Mickey Rourke and Val Kilmer. Go fetch! And after the jump, Kate gives up the narrative lowdown.

"MICKEY Rourke," reports the Post, "says calling somebody a 'fag' is OK in his book." Apparently, it's OK in the Post's book as well, because they repeat the word three more times. All, to be sure, in the context of Rourke's quotes. Interestingly, they choose to "bleep" out what we're assuming is either "jerk" or "fuck," and they resort to spelling out "ass." (In another Page Six item, "pissed" or "pooped" gets the "p—-" treatment.). Still, "fag" is just fine, so long as someone else is saying it. No word yet on "cocksucker," but maybe Betty White will do an interview soon.

So, our campaign against the Meatpacking District has borne fruit, but is it the fruit of knowledge or the fruit of the poisonous tree? Two recent events leave us in a bit of a quandary.

A reader writes, in response to Jared Paul Stern's Post column ("Tips for flacks") yesterday:
1. Never, ever, fuck with Alec Baldwin or Tim Robbins, they are really big guys and won't hesitate to punch your lights out or throw a drink on you.
2. Just because you wear a fedora and eat dinner at Elaine's, it doesn t make you a journalist and I ll answer your stupid questions about my clients drug habits however I damn please.
3. Being friends with Mickey Rourke doesn't make you cool. [Ed. notePage Six columnist Richard Johnson and Mickey Roarke have a history of very publicly threatening to kick each other's asses. They're not friends. But you're right; being friends with Mickey Roarke doesn't make anyone cool. UPDATE: Nevermind. I'm told that A.J. Benza is friends with Roarke.]
4. If you are or were gay, just admit it and don't write a book about it.
5. I've seen your kid doing crank at a party in the East Village, you shouldn t talk about other people's kids.
6. Relax, Graydon gave you that money as a pay-off, he doesn't actually expect you to contribute a story to the magazine.