comment #1

redmond says ...

From The Sun:
"A source said: 'It was a very difficult situation but it would have been wrong to have wrecked the premiere over a complaint which we don’t yet know is founded in truth.'"

In England you're "arrested" whenever you go into a police station, even voluntarily, to simply answer questions. Word is the assault was "verbal" and he's estranged from his mother. Maybe she and his sister came looking for a handout, or maybe Bale's wound a little too tight. Who knows? Definitely weird to hear Batman smacked around his mom. Wait.. he IS Dick Cheney!

comment #2

dukedog says ...

Yeah, my bullshit detector went off when I read this, too.

comment #3

Balthazar says ...

Police take extra time to file charges against celebrities precisely BECAUSE they don't want to muck it up and file charges that they cannot earn a conviction on. They take extra care to make sure the witnesses are solid, the facts and evidence add up, etc. And it probably goes through three extra layers of bureaucracy to make sure everyone has the stomach for it. They wait because they know the scrutiny of their actions will be intense.

comment #4

corey3rd says ...

Verbal Assault? How bad is Bale's breath?

comment #5

Bingo says ...

If your son assaulted you, his mother - can you imagine such a horrible thing? - it might take a you a day or more to decide that you wanted to report it to the police. You certainly wouldn't do it casually. They obviously back went to their home in the south of England, considered what to do and finally decided to report it to the police. Seems perfectly sane and logical to me.

Have you ever met Christian Bale? I have, and he's one of the most tightly wound human beings I've ever come across. Not counting Russell Crowe.

comment #6

Adonis says ...

If Bale smacked around his mom... well, frankly the legend of Chris Nolan would grow to unfathomable levels.

comment #7

VoiceOfReason says ...

Michael Keaton is way too much of a class act to engage in shenanigans like momsmackin.' Val Kilmer on the other hand...

comment #8

redmond says ...

Bingo, they reported it immediately and the cops sat on it. Not the other way around. Also, it's coming out the assault was verbal which apparently you can get arrested for in England. So obviously his mom and sister decided to trash him in the press because he said some things they didn't like. Probably "Hey, get the hell out of my hotel room. Batman hates writing checks."

comment #9

mitchtaylor says ...

Maybe Captain Hammer can save them.

comment #10

BlueRaymondBabbit says ...

What redmond said. I don't think this is a tough one to figure out: Biggest opening weekend of all time + sunday night family visit at the hotel + money talk + movie star tells mom and sis they aren't getting a new house, car, loan, etc (and screams at them to leave). I bet the cops, after hearing the complaint and seeing the "assaulted" family members up close, knew exactly what was going on -- and figured yanking Bale out of his premiere would be rude. Great timing, though. Batman forever.

comment #11

Bingo says ...

Redmond, that's incorrect. According to the Guardian:

"The 34-year-old actor is alleged to have lashed out at mother Jenny, 61, and sister Sharon, 40, in his suite at Park Lane's Dorchester Hotel on Sunday.

The two women, who live in Dorset, went to a Hampshire police station yesterday to make their allegations formally.

Officers at Scotland Yard were then passed the complaint and Bale voluntarily attended a police station this morning."

In other words the alleged assault was not reported immediately to London police, but later to local police in Hampshire, after they had returned home from London. As I said!

comment #12

lazarus says ...

And in the most ironic twist of all, Bale's stepmother is Gloria Steinem.

comment #13

corey3rd says ...

whatever happened to keeping all this stuff within the family? If he had beaten them up, sure then bust his ass. If he put them in the hospital. Bust his ass. But if it was merely a Eugene O'Neal play in a hotel room, then keep it quiet.

If he didn't touch them in anger, than this is merely a nasty moment of turning the world against him. Although being a wife beater hasn't kept Tommy Lee from appearing on the Planet Green network.

comment #14

D.Z. says ...

redmond: "Word is the assault was "verbal" and he's estranged from his mother."

Well, knowing that the U.K. is run by the thought police, I wouldn't be surprised.

comment #15

MilkMan says ...

I verbally assaulted my mom one time and she didn't call the police. She came home from work and I was sitting in front of the computer, looking at pictiures of Kinzie Kenner, and listening to my new Trail of Dead cd (my mom refused to buy me an iPod until I got a job). My mom asked me if I would please wait until she was asleep before I started looking at porn, and for some reason I snapped. Blame it on the Effexor. I smashed my jewel box against the side of the desk, picked up a shard of plastic from the floor, and held it up to my neck. I said I'm going to kill myself. My mom said go ahead. I said You're a horrible mother. I said Now I know why I chose to live with my dad instead of you when you guys got divorced. I called her a cunt, a whore, and fat. She told me to calm down. She said I'm not suprised no one will give you a job. I said Oh yeah, well at least I didn't get an abortion. After I said that she kind of got upset, went into the kitchen and took a sip of mineral water. I went to my room, grabbed my television, and carried it downstairs. I threatened to throw the television at her. She said go ahead, so I did. Being as out of shape as I was, and seeing as how I was wearing a pair of Wallabees (those shoes are this close to being classified as platforms if you ask me), I had a hard time getting my balance, so I only was able to throw the television a couple of feet, way short of where my mom was standing. That made me cry. My mom asked me if I was done. I said I think so. She took me out for pancakes and to Barnes and Noble. I said You're the best mom ever. She kissed me on the forehead. Later that night we got into bed and snuggled.

comment #16

Stephe96 says ...

Maybe Aaron Eckardt actually assaulted them and Bale is simply taking the fall. No? Anyone...?

comment #17

redmond says ...

Okay, it happened Sunday night. They went Monday morning. I don't think they sat on it very long debating the great travesty of all. Because chances are their wasn't one and this was a malicious smear attempt. He's out now with no formal charges.

I'm not saying Christian Bale can't be an asshole when he doesn't want to be, but it looks like he got railroaded on this one.

comment #18

York "Budd" Durden says ...

Word, milkman, my brother. Been there.

comment #19

Chase Kahn says ...

What if they were Joker's thugs...

comment #20

Gaydos says ...

I'm waiting to see what David Edelstein has to say about this.

comment #21

Strangeways says ...

uh, who the fuck calls the police because of a VERBAL, family spat, HOURS after it happens? It sounds a little opportunistic and/or vengeful on the part of the mom and sister.

If everyone who ever had a family spat went to the police, we'd all be in the local precinct for questioning at one time or the other...

comment #22

Jeremy King says ...

Apparantly lawmakers in England have never heard the phrase "Sticks and stones etc..."

Verbal assault is not a crime. Yelling at one's stupid/ignorant/lecherous family members is oftentimes a necessity.

comment #23

DavidF says ...

I can tell no one here is a lawyer and neither am I but...assault is, by definition verbal. And it is a crime.

If I say, "I'm going to kill you!" and you believe me, you can have me charged with assault.
If I actually hit you, that's battery.

Hence the popular phrase, assault and battery.

Hence, there is nothing odd about the verbal assault though clearly there are questions about the timeframe and the fact it took place family members...

comment #24

Call me Kenneth says ...

Who cares what happened!? It's makes for great headlines: http://tinyurl.com/6yw2an

comment #25

Count Thread says ...

And the prize goes to Milkman for describing Danny's typical day.

Except replace "Kinzie Kenner" with "tentacle porn".

comment #26

Higgy Hackford says ...

MilkMan? Dang, dawg.

comment #27

MilkMan says ...

Sorry, Higgy. I know that sometimes I shouldn't share. I tend to be a little too associative sometimes.

comment #28

MilkMan says ...

Or maybe disassociative would be a better word to use.

comment #29

silver says ...

From what we know so far, if this incident is in any way indicative of the past behavior of those women towards Bale, I can 100% understand why he would have estranged himself from them.

comment #30

D.Z. says ...

Count: My typical day involves realizing that people who make personal attacks on me on message boards probably live more unproductive lives than I do.

comment #31

Breedlove says ...

Hey Stephe96, am I correct in assuming your side-splitting joke is a reference to an important plot twist that happens 2 hours into the movie? Good one. It came out 4 days ago, not everyone has seen it yet.

comment #32

bmcintire says ...

Wow. TDK made another $24M yesterday. Even at another (expected) 15% drop, this thing will crack $200M by end of day tomorrow.

comment #33

Scott Mendelson says ...

For what it's worth, my first thoughts when the 'story' broke-

"Gosh, I hope he doesn't go to jail. He could lose 60 pounds and become dangerously underweight or gain 60 pounds of pure muscle'.

comment #34

Scott Mendelson says ...

For what it's worth, my first thoughts when the 'story' broke-

"Gosh, I hope he doesn't go to jail. He could lose 60 pounds and become dangerously underweight or gain 60 pounds of pure muscle'.

My second thought: (spoiler)...

"Gosh, Batman's been on the lam for only four days and the cops already caught him. Pathetic."

comment #35

Scott Mendelson says ...

sorry for the double post, I accidentally hit 'send' then tried to stop it.

comment #36

GLee2112 says ...

Maybe he's still mad his parents abandoned him to the Japanese during WW2.

comment #37

Craptastic says ...

I hope he's able to make "Bale".

comment #38

dinovelvet says ...

I dunno, we're all quick to defend Bale here, but maybe there's something to it, I tend to think where there's smoke there's fire with this kind of thing. How much does anyone know about Bale the person? Zip, zilch, nada. He's kept his private life VERY private, maybe there's good reason. Let's at least for a second acknowledge the possibility that maybe he is a complete nutter. Does a completely sane person drop 100 pounds and put his health on the line just for a role in an obscure B-movie? Food for thought. Pun slightly intended. Still, either way I suspect we'll never really know what any of this is all about, it'll all be kept hush-hush.

comment #39

hatchling says ...

First, a geography lesson... Hampshire is over an hour's drive south of London. The mother and sister live in Dorset, over in the SW of UK, some distance away from Hampshire.

So... why go to Hampshire and not London where the alleged assault occurred? or why not go home and report it the locals?

Frankly, I think there's the whiff of an opportunistic extortion attempt in the air, liberally seasoned with possible pounds and pence.

If there were evidence of assault, such as witnesses, bruises and other physical evidence, don't ya'll think the police might have been a bit more pro-active? I doubt Batman would have been at his premier, and sat for interviews.

comment #40

frankbooth says ...

I remember reading an interview with Oldman and Freeman after Begins came out, in which they were poking fun at Bale for beign so intense. It mosty came across as good-natured ribbing, but there may also have been some genuine irritation at what these old pros saw as his too-serious attitude.

So yeah, I could see where he might be a "difficult" personality.

comment #41

nemo says ...

"... So obviously his mom and sister decided to trash him in the press because he said some things they didn't like. Probably "Hey, get the hell out of my hotel room. Batman hates writing checks." ... "

"... I don't think this is a tough one to figure out: Biggest opening weekend of all time + sunday night family visit at the hotel + money talk + movie star tells mom and sis they aren't getting a new house, car, loan, etc (and screams at them to leave). ..."

"... merely a Eugene O'Neal play in a hotel room ..."

"... a malicious smear attempt ..."

"... whiff of an opportunistic extortion attempt in the air ..."

These all sound right. I have couple of back-stabbing relatives of my own who would be happy to attach themselves like self-pitying leeches to anyone who managed to attain any financial success in life. My mother is one of them. You're wise to keep your hand on your wallet, your guard up, and your back to the wall when she's around.

comment #42

Stephe96 says ...

BreedLove,

Actually, you're right. My apologies. If there's anyway to delete that post, I hope it can be done. (But you have to give me a bit of a pass; it seems like everyone on the planet has already seen "The Dark Knight" multiple times!)

comment #43

D.Z. says ...

dino: "He's kept his private life VERY private, maybe there's good reason. Let's at least for a second acknowledge the possibility that maybe he is a complete nutter. Does a completely sane person drop 100 pounds and put his health on the line just for a role in an obscure B-movie?"

You sure you're not thinking of Ledger?

comment #44

frankbooth says ...

What role did Ledger drop 100 lbs for, D.Z.?

comment #45

TalkingPie says ...

d.z.: "My typical day involves realizing that people who make personal attacks on me on message boards probably live more unproductive lives than I do."

Judging by your ubiquitousness on this site, I doubt that anyone lives a more unproductive life than you.

comment #46

MilkMan says ...

When people push D.Z., pull.

comment #47

ch2bluelemon says ...

Apparently, insider sources claim that both Christian Bale's mother plus sister were lashing out at his wife (whom seems to never get along with them), so he got overly emotiional and smacked mom for her verbal assault to "his wife's defense".