Over the weekend, a fundraiser for actor Mickey Rourke surfaced on GoFundMe, less than a month after the city of Los Angeles reportedly issued an eviction notice to him for over $59,100 in unpaid rent. The campaign was set up by Liya-Joelle Jones, the assistant to Rourke’s manager, per The Hollywood Reporter, and asked fans for “immediate housing-related expenses” to help him avoid eviction. “Mickey is going through a very difficult time right now, and it’s been incredibly touching to see how many people care about him and want to help,” Jones added in a statement to THR at the time. As of Tuesday morning, the campaign — called “Help Mickey Rourke Stay in His Home” — has raised more than $100,000 in donations.
But now, Rourke is denying he gave his approval for the fundraiser. In a video posted to his Instagram page Monday, Rourke claimed he had no prior knowledge the GoFundMe was being set up and called it “embarrassing.” “If I needed money I wouldn’t ask for no fucking charity,” Rourke said. “I’d rather stick a gun up my ass and pull the trigger.” The actor said he would be speaking to his lawyer about the matter and urged fans not to “give any money, and if you gave money, get it back.” “I would never ask strangers or fans for nickels — it’s not my style,” he said.
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Rourke’s manager, Kimberly Hines, told THR on Tuesday that the fundraiser was legitimate and solely meant to benefit Rourke. She suggested her team had cleared the idea with Rourke, but that he may not have fully understood how it would work. “We said, ‘Mickey, there’s some people that want to help you out.’ He’s like, ‘Okay, great,’” Hines said. “I don’t think he understood, and now it’s taken on this media frenzy, and he flipped out.” Hines said Rourke has now been evicted from his home and relocated to a hotel in West Hollywood on Tuesday.
This is not the first time Rourke’s finances have made headlines. His decades-long career took a problematic turn last year when the U.K.’s Celebrity Big Brother issued him a warning for using a homophobic slur while competing on the reality show. The show later announced that Rourke had been asked to leave the show owing to “unacceptable behavior.” That April, TMZ claimed Rourke had only signed up for the show to help pay off debts and was exploring legal action against producers for allegedly withholding contractual funds by booting him the day before he became eligible to receive his payout. Sounds like that hasn’t exactly panned out, but he has gotten over 1,600 donations on GoFundMe. Something tells me he’ll be just fine.
