There’s A Big Market For Mickey Rourke Figures

It took four years away from his life, not to mention the years it took out of his life.

But after 11 bouts, actor/would-be boxer Mickey Rourke claims to have gone 8-0-2 in the ring (apparently the 11th fight was a DQ). So what was the damage?

A broken hand, broken cheekbone, broken nose and ribs. Plus, he once went a whole week without his memory.

And what were the benefits?

“I ended up making about $1.25 million,” Rourke said. Of course, the important thing was that the fight game helped him feel good about himself.

“I felt like a man again,” he said. “I felt so emasculated in the movie business.” Seems only fitting that, having retired from the ring, his next film would be an action yarn titled “Recoil.”

Loose talk

Model Jerry Hall, wife of rock star Mick Jagger, on feminist economics (on cable channel VH1): “One thing even a model has to get used to when she marries a rock star is working for free. Once Mick and I did a rock ‘n’ roll film in Brazil. I didn’t get paid for it, but I did get pregnant!”

He would have been the perfect choice for ‘Speed 2’

Tom Cruise turns 35 today.

So they picked up Don Imus and Howard Stern instead?

So why did a Bedford, Pa., radio station drop Rush Limbaugh and decline to pick up G. Gordon Liddy? “Limbaugh and Liddy are controversial with some people, and not everyone in Bedford County is a conservative,” explained spokesman John Cessna.

And in your free time, you’re doing the funky chicken

Lisa McRee, 35, who has been hired to replace Joan Lunden, explains what it’s like co-hosting “Good Morning America.” “You’re doing John Major one minute and John Travolta the next,” McRee said.

When it comes to his own movies, he spares no expense

Joseph Farah, editor/publisher of the conservative newsletter Dispatches, hates “The Lost World.” “Predictably,” writes Farah, “the worst character in the film - and the one whose horrible death evokes cheers from audiences - is, of course, the capitalist… If Steven Spielberg really feels this way about the free market, why doesn’t he give all of the money he makes from his movies to Mother Teresa?”

Seems like Mickey Rourke could say the same thing

R&B singer Erykah Badu, 26, told Vibe magazine that her trademark headgear and slinky gowns aren’t marketing gimmicks. “What I wear,” she said, “represents what I’m striving to be every day.”

He don’t love him, yeah, yeah, yeah

He’s still a big fan of Little Richard, Larry Williams and Buddy Holly, says George Harrison. But not Michael Bolton. “I like music that is not ego music,” the ex-Beatle said. “Real music doesn’t make you think of cash registers. It should transport you to somewhere nice.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 photos

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Dan Webster