Tribeca Lightning Round: Mickey Rourke Now Sleeping with Birds

As the blur of the last few days at Tribeca finally comes into a little sharper focus this morning, it's time to take inventory of some of the news and notions Movieline has seen and heard as the the festival reaches its halfway point. Among them: Mickey Rourke's surprise red-carpet visit; the first bidding war in Tribeca history; and Kate Hudson, filmmaker.

· Mickey Rourke appeared out of nowhere on Sunday evening to celebrate the premiere of City Island, a generally well-done dramedy starring Andy Garcia as a Bronx prison guard with a family full of secrets. "I don't know much about it," he told a crush of press, including Movieline. "I'm just here to see Andy. Two hundred years ago I was his baseball coach -- little leagues. He's a dear old friend." Rourke also revealed the key to bouncing back from the death of his beloved chihuahua Loki. "I didn't want to replace her," he said. "So what I did was, I really like cockatoos, and there's an organization in Utah that takes in abandoned animals. So I got a cockatoo named Sonny that's been passed around six different homes, and he's really cool. I just like to relax with my pets. Sonny's a bird, and I've only had him for about a week, and he's already sleeping in bed with me!" Be careful, Sonny -- that doesn't always work out for the best.

· Tribeca always yields a few buzz titles, but rarely if ever has it hosted a premiere generating the kind of industry interest enjoyed by The Eclipse. Conor McPherson's ghostly drama is reportedly the subject of the festival's inaugural bidding war, with Lionsgate, Magnolia and Roadside Attractions all looking to close a deal by fest's end.

· Roadside execs were also spotted at last weekend's world premiere of The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, where director Julien Nitzberg welcomed them and the rest of the audience with the heads-up, "This movie sucks; you can say 'fuck you' to me later" and thanked Johnny Knoxville for allowing him to "fuck up the cinematic arts one more time." Don't be so hard on yourself, Julien, seriously.

· At his own Tribeca premiere for the fan favorite Black Dynamite, Michael Jai White confirmed the rumor that his body stopped growing by the time he was 14. "Unless you count this way," he told Movieline, spacing his index fingers apart horizontally. Rascal!

· Another potential specialty pick-up might be Vegas: Based on a True Story; The Wrap has an eye on that and talked with director and Tribeca veteran Amir Naderi.

· Kate Hudson is one of four Tribeca filmmakers with work currently featured on YouTube; her directorial debut Cutlass features Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Virginia Madsen, Kurt Russell and Chevy Chase in the touching story about the parental satisfaction that comes with buying one's kids expensive stuff. Watch it with your parents today:

Additional reporting by Tara House