What? WHAT?

[cleolinda]

Did Batman Beat Up His Mother and Sister? "Update: Christian Bale was arrested earlier today on allegations of assault. No Batman. Bad Batman. Not when you do $158 million on opening weekend, Batman!"

ETA: Three comments in, and already we have a winner. (Slight TDK spoiler.)

ETA 2: Note: "assault," not "battery," which is actually the less violent of the two. Could be generally threatening or yelly behavior, does not necessarily indicate hitting someone.

Comments

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Dave just emailed me this, and as soon as I saw your entry title I KNEW this was what it was about. That's exactly what I said: WHAT?

It just...I just can't see him doing this! Why would he? It can't be true...can it?

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

I mean he emailed me an article from CNN about it.

Also: whoa, I am the first commenter! That never happens.

[phanatic.livejournal.com]

Of course he didn't. Aaron Eckhart did, Christian Bale's just taking the rap.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

WINNER!

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

I saw a link to that at a tabloid earlier but as it was a British tabloid I wasn't sure whether to give it any credence.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

I thought the same thing as the winning comment. Not nearly soon enough, of course.

With his luck (my earlier thoughts (http://captainsblog.livejournal.com/535568.html) re. the Superman Batman curse), he'll wind up at the Old Bailey before the same judge who got the DaVinci Code case (http://digg.com/security/Judge_Creates_Own_Da_Vinci_Code_) a few years back, and he'll decide his sentence by flipping a two-headed coin.

[reannon.livejournal.com]

Okay, they better define "assault" really fast. Because technically, you don't even have to lay a hand on someone to assault them. No, seriously. Raise your fist at someone and you've assaulted them, whether or not you actually do it. (See me clinging to hope?)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

No, it's "assault" as opposed to "battery," so it's entirely possible he, like, threw a phone Russell Crowe-style or something. It doesn't mean he necessarily hit someone.

[dachelle.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen TDK yet (this weekend!) so I can't read the winning comment. Boo. It's just so...yeah, WHAT? Not news I would have expected.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Talk about the WORST timing in the world. And I don't even think he was in England that long as they were just reporting about him being in LA the other day. UGH! Why couldn't he have just been accused of beating up a photographer like a normal celebrity?

[bigeyedrabbit.livejournal.com]

Aw, fuck. ARE ALL ACTORS THOROUGHGOING BASTARDS?

[triplethreat310.livejournal.com]

I've been reading about this on ONTD for about an hour and decided to come over here to get back my sanity.

I honestly... don't even know. I hope there isn't going to be a TDK curse now :/

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh God, ONTD must be blowing up right now.

[mercat.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I am going to be soooo sad if this turns out to be something awful and not just weird press. =( He seems like he's a pretty not-crazy actor...

[ygrane.livejournal.com]

Assault means 'threat of injury', Battery means 'beating people up'. Most people get those confused.

The fact that he's charged with assault and not battery probably means that he yelled at them a lot in family dispute. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but it happens a lot in many families. And, frankly, famous families air their family disputes in public a lot for the attention. It's kinda sick.

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

I'm no legal ace but I'd gotten the impression from the article on Yahoo! that he hadn't actually been charged when he was arrested...? Is that even possible?

[meredithsg.livejournal.com]

I'm holding out hope because it is an issue of assault not battery, and we don't know what the family situation is. For all we know he could have been responding to an action on their part. They police weren't called to the scene despite it allegedly happening in a public space, there was a complaint filed after the fact.

[quasar360.livejournal.com]

Aww, man! I was really hoping that this was some tabloid garbage blown out of proportion when I heard it on the radio this morning (the morning radio DJs around here are not known for picking credible sources for their celebrity "news")

[gwynnywonk.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a case of "WOO CRAZY FAMILY" meets "Dude just made a buttload of money, let's get a piece of the pie" to me. Or maybe that's just me being hopeful.

Why on earth would they REPORT this is my problem? Unless they really wanted to do some damage to his reputation, they wouldn't have, right? It took two days for them to ask him to show up voluntarily, and I imagine that if it was a case of ABH rather than common assault then they would've acted sooner.

I really hope he just used the Batvoice on them and it made them crap their pants in fear. "OMG THESE WERE NEW YOU ARE SO PAYING FOR THIS"

[gwynnywonk.livejournal.com]

Also, EVERYTHING IS ASSAULT IN ENGLAND NOW WTF

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1036728/Photographing-thugs-assault-police-tell-householder-snapping-proof-anti-social-behaviour.html

[triplethreat310.livejournal.com]

he's been released: http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/25976963.html

[clovecigarettes.livejournal.com]

Would it make anybody feel better if I said I live in the UK and I've been charged with assault? I was minding a yarn shop and some crabby old lady and her husband wanted a refund, which the store didn't do, and the lady went apeshit and called the cops and said I 'struck' her. While she was waiting for the police to show up, she bought some yarn, too. I had to pay a £50 fine (I would pay another £50 to beat her up for real, she was mean and scary).

What I'm sayin' is, it's not hard to get charged with assault, although I didn't get arrested or taken to a police station or anything. (Just questioned.)

[sucrelefey.livejournal.com]

So in the UK assault happens at the drop of a hat and therefore is meaningless?

[edda.livejournal.com]

I am currently cooking up this theory that it was somehow rigged by Scientology. Katie Holmes was mad because she got replaced and then, after a long chain of weirdness, Christian gets in trouble.

I don't know either, but it's helping me cling to sanity.

Or what phanatic said. That works, too.

[sucrelefey.livejournal.com]

Is this why SF is down?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Is it? I just got back to my desk.

[aboxofscraps.livejournal.com]

I study UK law so, re: assault, the definition is to put someone under the impression that they will suffer a battery. So he couldn't have hit them since then he would have been charged for assault and battery.

I always thought Bale seemed like a normal upright guy with a nice family. :( I hope this isn't true. I love himmm.

[not-tragedi.livejournal.com]

Unrelated question: Where do I find your divinely funny Twilight icons? I really love them!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Aww, bless. Most of them live here. (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v118/cleoicons/twilight/)

[bohotremere.livejournal.com]

The only thing I can think is that I, too, have long thought that Christian Bale is made of awesome and win, especially with how he has spoken of the Batman film with regards to Heath Ledger's death.

These particular charges don't make him a jerk to me. They prove he's human...and at this point, more than likely bordering on exhausted from press junkets. Tired and cranky can make even Batman lose his cool, I'd bet.

At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

[edda.livejournal.com]

I actually think that's the best explanation so far. Although as of now, he's denying it (http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20213954,00.html), so who knows.

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

You may have already seen this (http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/25984921.html).

[clodia-risa.livejournal.com]

On the one hand, plausible, on the other hand, until the source is interviewed by real people and not just confessing to his daughter who is confessing to the internet, I hold a bucket of salt in my hand.

[princessstarr.livejournal.com]

Well. That's a bit out of the blue and surprising. (First thoughts? "BAD BALE. Go sit in the Batcave corner.")

OT, but "yelly behavior" makes me think of a lemon drop cursing someone out. *shrugs*

[duncanatrix.livejournal.com]

For your next linkspam, if you want to share:

Viacom claims indie filmmaker's original animation is copyright infringement (http://consumerist.com/5027824/viacom-fraudulently-claims-ownership-of-indie-filmmakers-youtube-clips). This girl posted her senior animation project on YouTube and Viacom, apparently not satisfied to remove anything at all associated with them, has moved on to work that they have NOTHING TO DO WITH. Go corporations!

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

I will have to Nth the general sentiment of WHAT that's going around here. Also, I had no idea until today that in the Uk you can be arrested before or without being charged.

A couple of people on Jezebel are saying that it was apparently verbal assault? Jeez, I really wish there more solid details one way or the other at this point, 'cause I'm trying hard not to speculate too much right now.