After a spirited go-around at the 42d Cannes Film Festival, actor Mickey Rourke has denied that he has ever given money to the Irish Republican Army.
Rourke was denounced by British lawmakers after a Friday news conference to promote his latest movie, Francesco, in which he plays St. Francis of Assisi. Asked at the event whether he ever donated money to religious causes, Rourke replied, "Yes I have, to causes in Northern Ireland. Yes, to Joe Doherty, who is a prisoner in New York City."
Doherty, 33, was convicted of murdering a British Army captain and sentenced to life in prison in 1981. He escaped from prison, but was captured by the FBI in 1983 and jailed in New York.
Rourke, who also has starred in Angel Heart, Barfly and The Pope of Greenwich Village, issued a statement yesterday through a spokesman saying he had been involved only in humanitarian aid in Northern Ireland, never with the Irish Republican Army.
If people in England "choose to use this as a platform to persecute me as an Irish-Catholic American, then that is their indulgence," he said.
TRIPLE BILLING
Speaking of Cannes, three Pecks have made it to the film festival to promote their new movies. Patriarch Gregory Peck is there for the premiere of The Old Gringo, an adaption of the Carlos Fuentes novel, that also stars Jane Fonda and Jimmy Smits. His son, Anthony Peck, is the star of a Spanish film, The River That Was, and daughter Cecilia Peck appears in Torn Apart, an American-Israeli production.
A VP WATCH
A pair of former stockbrokers have decided that, as vice president, Dan
Quayle should, in a manner of speaking, have some time on his hands. The result is the Quayle watch, but don't expect to be able to mark the VP's time in office with it. The numbers on the $30 wristwatch are scrambled, which Richard Ongstad, a partner in the venture, says is intended as a reflection on the vice president. The timepiece is being marketed through the Krazy Time Co., which they created especially for the Quayle watch. They said their first 250 watches were sold in a single day.
While Quayle was watching time go by, his wife, Marilyn, spent the weekend in their home state to check out the qualifying for the Indianapolis 500. Marilyn Quayle, honored as Woman of the Year by the Indiana Republican Mayors Association, rode in a pace car around the 2 1/2-mile oval and was given a guided tour of the Gasoline Alley garage area by 1969 Indy winner Mario Andretti. She will be back with her husband and their three children for the race on Sunday.
NEW ROLE FOR CLOSE
Glenn Close's next cinematic liaison will be as the wife of Claus von Bulow in the movie Reversal of Fortune. She will play Martha "Sunny" von Bulow, the society millionaire who has been hospitalized since 1980 in an irreversible coma. The movie is based on a book by Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz, who helped clear Claus von Bulow of charges that he intentionally
sent his wife into the coma with insulin injections. Claus von Bulow will be played by British actor Jeremy Irons and Dershowitz by Ron Silver. Filming on the movie is to begin Aug. 1 in New York, with outside shots filmed at Clarendon Court, the Newport, R.I., mansion where the von Bulows lived.
CLASS CLOWN
Comic Jay Leno was made an honorary member of the University of Nevada- Reno's class of '89 after zipping off one-liners to about 1,000 seniors during a graduation lunch last week. To an art major, Leno quipped: "Art?! So you want to live at home with your parents when you get out." To a psychology major, he said: "Oh - so when you're out of a job, you'll know why." Leno, a frequent Tonight Show host who does commercials for Dorito's tortilla chips, was given a silver buckle, a school tie, a plaque making him an honorary member of the Class of '89 and a bag of tortilla chips.
DAVID KEITH CHARGED
Actor David Keith, who played former Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North in the two-part CBS telemovie Guts and Glory, was charged with suspicion of drunken driving early yesterday after he was involved in a car wreck on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. Keith, 35, was booked on the felony charge after a breath test showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.19 percent (anything over 0.10 is illegal in California). His bail was set at $2,500. Keith's 1988 Ford Mustang hit a BMW making a U-turn, authorities said. A passenger in the BMW suffered neck injuries but neither Keith nor his female passenger was injured.
