ACTOR SLAMMED FOR ANTI-GAY SLUR

Academy Award nominated actor Mickey Rourke has been slammed for his use of an anti-gay slur in a recent diatribe caught on tape.

The video clip, posted on the TMZ website, shows Rourke ranting to the paparazzi on a New York City street, apparently after exiting a building.

“You can’t say faggot in LA. You can say bitch, you can say punk, but you can’t say faggot,” the 57 year old actor says.

“Even though when I used to play football I’d say, ‘don’t be a faggot – catch the ball.’ It had nothing to do with being gay… It had to do with catching the ball. Punk-ass, faggot – it’s the same thing. You understand?”

Jarrett Barrios, president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) responded by saying that “Rourke is showing himself to be painfully ignorant of how this vulgar, abusive slur feeds a climate of anti-gay hatred, intolerance and violence.”

He added: “This is a slur that, regardless of what Mickey Rourke has convinced himself that it means, is often the last word that gay people, and gay youth in particular, hear before they’re bullied, harassed or assaulted.”

According to The Sun, Rourke has refused to apologise, saying: “I don’t really give a fuck. Life’s too short. I have more gay friends than any 50 straight people I know, so I don’t really give a shit. I meant what I said.”