A Rourke profile published over the weekend shared many of the same details he'd shared with previous interviewers — the rough childhood, the boxing background — along with newer anecdotes about his downsized roles along the way. And while skeptics have been rumored to refute Rourke's claim to have ever been an amateur prizefighter in the Golden Gloves circuit, NYT reporter Pat Jordan coaxed a more explicit denial from legendary boxing trainer Angelo Dundee and Rourke's stepfather Eugene Addis — the latter of whom said he got Rourke boxing lessons in Miami despite the young man's refusal to fight in the ring. (Of course, Rourke did get in the ring years later, with less-than-auspicious results.)

Addis also said that his family never lived in the tough Liberty City neighborhood of Miami where Rourke says he earned his earliest hard knocks, adding that he never abused Rourke or his brother growing up, as the actor claims. Even Tony Scott gets a chance to square the record, challenging Rourke's tale of a great, lost scene between him and Denzel Washington in Man of Fire:

"I can’t remember any scene like that that was cut,” he said. Then he said he met Rourke years ago, when they were both in their motorcycle days, "when Rourke was always trying to poach my women. Rourke’s got a real dangerous side to him.” That’s why Scott cast him in Man on Fire and later as a bounty hunter in the 2005 movie Domino. “I always try to cast actors to be on film what they are in real life,” Scott said.

If you say so, Tony, but a woman-poaching, epithet-spewing, myth-perpatuating Oscar front-runner who can't find his chihuahua? Sounds complex! Better leave this one to Ridley.

• His Fists Are Up and His Guard Is Down [NYT Magazine]

Here's a once-prim Beverly Hills girl, daughter of a pediatrician and school teacher, who builds a world-class brothel, goes to jail, gets hooked on crystal meth — and then moves to Pahrump, Nevada to start yet another prostitution ring, this one designed for rich women who want to hire guys to service them.

Bizarre? Definitely, and that's why Sheila Nevins bought the rights to her "life story" and why the talented team of Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato decided to make a doc about her. To be sure, half way [sic] into the project Heidi decided to end her cooperation. "She's really Jekyll and Heidi," says Bailey. "Her personality changes hour by hour."

In the end, Nevins herself had to step in to grab an interview, at which we'll have a look this week during our coverage of the Los Angeles Film Festival. It was probably the exotic-bird "fetish" that put us over the top, or maybe Fleiss's allusions to the "three years in lesbian hell" that was her imprisonment. Either way, here's hoping Bart isn't pulling yet another of his banal corporate whitewashes on us — we do tend to enjoy a good "opera," especially those spotlighting B-list crank addiction. Oh, the drama.

[Photo Credit: LAFF]

• The Rise & Fall of Heidi Fleiss [PeterBart.com]