Comments threads are fun!
So. Christian Bale. Arrested for assaulting his mother and sister. That, my friends, is class. Or not, really. However this ends up playing out it can't at all be a good thing when the female side of your family has you arrested. Bale's denying it, of course, but what else would you expect him to do?
I'm taking all this with a grain of salt. From what we gathered, these "assault allegations" amounted to nothing more than shouting and maybe a push, and those charges were cleared in a matter of hours. However, we still don't know what actually happened. All I know is I will truly be disheartened if Christian Bale reall did "assault" them.
I'm sorry, Todd, I'm not trying to be unnecessarily contrary. I respect that your experience with the homeless shelters have made you sensitive to these issues; but, that being said, I've worked my entire adult life with the criminal justice system, most recently with the California Court of Appeals. I, too, know what's involved in getting arrested but also know how many millions of variant details can undermine the circumstances of an arrest.
I'm not saying Bale's not guilty. It's just that my work with the courts, and especially the middle courts, have made me sensitive to denying the accused due rights and fair discretion.
Terrible as this is going to sound, I think family members are actually the only people I've ever done something to that might be construed as an 'assault'.
:-S
All I know is that Bale is an intensely dedicated and headstrong individual, and an easy target. Don't forget that this took place in the UK, where press sources are very unreliable. I have no clue as to the actual events, including the reason why the police showed up, the timing of the alleged assault charge by his mother and sister (before, during or after the police visit).
I have family working in the police force and man... you have no idea how even easily verifiable facts are misquoted, misconstrued or misplaced when such a news item appears.
The article I saw the family affair quote in also pointed out that he'd moved out of his mother's house as a teenager, and lived with his father. Sounds like a long standing conflict.
And estranged family members coming to see you as your new movie breaks box office records does sound like the sort of situation that could get ugly fast.
this is definitely going to spawn some urban legends ... "The Dark Knight is jinxed!"
Yeah, well I am the justice system and I know that I shouldn't finish this joke lest either Michael or Todd assault me with sticks...on fire? COVERED IN BEES?!
"how many people do you know whose own mother and sister have had them arrested on trumped up charges?"
It will surprise you many do that.
to complete the gossip circle of life, TMZ is reporting that Bale flipped out on the set of T4 a few days before this and threatened to kick a cinematographer's ass in front of hundreds of people
I should point out that the term assault does not mean the same thing in the UK as it does in the US. What he's "charged" with is shouting at his mother and sister.
If he was charged with doing some physical damage he would have been charged with battery.
Stop it, guys, stop it! Just because he took the fall for Harvey doesn't mean we can start blaming him for everything.
So long as he wore the suit when he threw down with them!
Wow, this news item is unfortunate. Seriously, posting celebrity gossip involving highly unsubstantiated allegations and drawing conclusions from them? On Twitch? Come on.
Furthermore, actual facts are in no way required to get police involved in something. It simply involves a phone call. I could call the police right now and allege all kinds of baseless things and they'd have to look into my charges. Maybe they should be allowed to figure it out on their without cross-continental backseat driving.
[I would also note that the police have explained that the situation didn't warrant immediate action and they didn't seek Bale out until after he'd dealt with all the Dark Knight publicity events.]
But hey, way to assume the man's guilty and a dick without any actual evidence. Nancy Grace would be proud.
i was once charged with battery. AA size.
Yeah. News reports from non-tabloid sources all said he went to the police station voluntarily. Christian Bale hates media scrutiny, I doubt he would want to stretch this issue longer than it already is.
lol, I also expected better from twitch. And i will always continue to expect the best because i know that is what twith provides. A little road bump here or there is no matter to me.
unnecessary article. and yeah, this happened in THE UK, not USA. so assault != physical violence. until then, WHO CARES. I'm interested in movies, not the private life of the actors. low point on twitch.
Personally I think Todd Brown should at least admit he was wrong. Talk about bad reporting. C'mon, have the guts to admit when you are wrong!
It should be noted that Bale doesn't actually have anything to do with his biological mother, nor that side of the family, and that he stayed with his father when his parents divorced. Word is that his mother has been trying to sponge off him since he became famous, but that's something that Bale doesn't talk about.
The story that's coming out of the hotel now is that his estranged mother and sister showed up at the hotel, drunk and belligerent, and started a scene in the lobby. They exchanged words, and then left. The next day, they called the police, and pressed charges.
It should also be noted that Bale wasn't arrested. He surrendered himself, and no charges were laid.
Twitch is still my top book mark under movie news.
I visit Twitch to avoid this crap, little disappointed.
For all of you who think Todd should take this article down, or think he is arrogantly non-responsive, please note that he probably has limited access to the site today.
Some very good statements were made and it's not like Todd is an ass, so he'll probably respond in due time.
As for whether or not Twitch should post something like this, that's completely Todd's decision. I was a bit surprised to see it here, but we all write about what interests us in movie-land and this story apparently struck a nerve with him.
And I'd like to add that only at Twitch would we get such an intelligent discussion going over such a "paparazzi" subject. Mr. Bale was well defended, and no one resorted to namecalling.
...well, apart from Todd, who called him Kind of a Dick. Hm.
Incidentally, speaking about paparazzi makes you wonder why those guys exist in the first place. But now I know: this 'scoop' was the best-read article on the site today.
Go figure...
Have to admit I was a little surprised to see this headline on Twitch. Sounds like you are jumping the gun a bit even if you add "apparently".
As already stated this happened in the UK so obviously the lawful terms used will be different from in the US. Also worth noting this story is the product of the British media. If you regularly read the news articles among the tabloids you will understand their mindset. Enough said on that I feel.
Also seems odd since this has come about during the biggest film premier opening of his career. The more rotten aspects of one's close friends and family have a tendency to come to light when there is a great deal of publicity and money surrounding the situation.
I'm sure he is innocent given the man he seems to be and so intelligent but if he is guilty of some sort of physical attack it will be disappointing.
I'm reluctant to villainize Christian Bale based on this one incident. It's not like this is the latest in a string of incidents, such as Russell Crowe throwing a phone at a hotel worker. There have also never been any reports of spousal abuse, and he's known his wife for 14 years and been married to her for eight and they have a three year old. I think someone would have seen something in that time if her were a violent person. I've been following this story since yesterday, and the definitive account, from what I can tell, is that the man has not actually been charged with a crime, which is why the London police force refused to name him. I'm also wary of these allegations because the police received the report on Sunday night and didn't even ask Bale to give his own account until Tuesday. He was at the police station for four hours, and he's being allowed to leave the country on Thursday. To me that doesn't sound like he's been involved in anything too serious. I also get the feeling that his family kind of sucks. His parents divorced when he was in his mid-teens, and I think his dad and sister, Louise (not the one pressing charges), pretty much raised him after that (I'm infering this from information from various sources). And since his visit to the police station has been splattered all over the news, it's come out that he lost his temper on the set of T4 last Friday. Well, I've had whole weekends where I was pissed at the world too. My main concern is that his mom and sister are rather like my dad's mom and sister as I can see them filing assault charges for shoving and spitting. I just have to believe it was nothing worse than that as I thuroughly believe the London police would have made an example of him had he truly 'assaulted' them. Final verdict, in my opinion, let's wait until September to start villainizing one of the greatest heroes to grace the modern screen.
The web monkey is humoured by those lambasting Todd and Twitch because of a "useless", "gossip mill" post that they can't stop talking about.
next.
This explains why he got along with Russel Crowe on the set of the movie 3:10 to Yuma. When he said in an interview we have a lot in common, people overlooked that statement.
"mother and sister calling the cops on you - regardless of whether you were provoked or not - makes you kind of a dick in my book."
If the mom and sister called the cops when Bale didn't do anything wrong (shouting at your family members isn't exactly a crime, every family fights, especially estranged ones such as this), doesn't that make them the dicks? It seems like you're sympathizing with them just because they're females.
And I suspect you're sympathizing with Christian Bale simply because he's Christian Bale and you like his movies. I never said he was a criminal, I said it seemed as though he behaved like a dick.
Yeah, I have to admit that's true, can't deny that :P
"Where will it eeeeeeend? Where will it end?
Where will it eeeeeeeend? WHERE WILL IT END?!"
-Ian Curtis-
Why should it end? I would be surprised if Todd hadn't expected this post to generate some opinionated discussion. Nothing wrong with that.
The fact that the posts have been considered and thoughtfully worded speaks a lot about the people who visit Twitch every day.
I say let it roll on. It continues to make for a very entertaining read...
Hey Rhythm ... I think part of the difference there was that everybody already knew Edison was a dick. That wasn't news. He's been a cocky, irresponsible prat from the day he arrived on the scene. He was an idiot, absolutely - and so were all the girls who allowed him to take those shots - but the surprising bit to me in the whole story - and thus the bit of news worth commenting on - was that he actually manned up about it and took it on the chin. That was a surprise.
nah, Edison is an un-mannish dick. remember, it took him a long while before he owned up to it. and then he made a public non-apology on video. and then he attempted to copyright those pictures! that's extremely dickishly dicky dick.
"It’s wrong to say Bale is 100 percent innocent. Obviously he must’ve done something."
I wouldn't even go that far. He might have done something, he could have done something, but I can't say that he [i]must[/i] have done something. That's the sort of thinking that almost got me carted off to jail because my roommate and I were yelling at each other over the electric bill.
As for Edison trying to copyright them - not remotely dickish [i]at all[/i] though it might seem it on the surface. Without copyright on the pictures he has no legal grounds to stop their distribution. It's not like someone stole his property. He still had the pictures, so he hadn't actually lost anything. We're off in intellectual property la-la land now. Only through exercising his copyright on those photos could he hope to even slow down their distribution. Call him a dick about a thousand other things, and I'm right there with you, but copyrighting the pictures was the right and responsible thing to do under those circumstances.
Rhythm X - I meant that he must have done "something", along the lines of "obviously something happened that pissed his mother and sister off" But I agree with you, it was probably some argument that involved Mommie Dearest and her daughter trying to ride off Bale's recent paycheck for TDK.
It's unbelievable that people still view such situations as completely black and white, though. Just because she is his mother doesn't mean that she isn't capable of saying or doing something so atrocious as to hack her son off like that.
I think it was martin lawrence who said something along the lines of, while you are failing, you have no family, but once your a success you have cousins you have never heard of, uncles and aunties etc etc.
But who in their entire life hasn't yelled at a relative? Some people will say they haven't but what else would you expect them to say.
But still, Todd i respect you more for changing the headline and responding thoughtfully to our comments. A lesser admin/blogger would have just deleted everything.
Twitch is still NUMBER 1.