Has the flash pot fifteen minutes glare of Christian Bale’s “Terminator Salvation” apoplectic freakout subsided yet? Not quite, but getting there. Probably by the end of this weeks news cycles something else will have flared up like a bad case of hemorrhoids that will have the blog herd (including us) rushing elsewhere.
Inside Edition via Defamer has a bit to add to the tale having spoken to Bale’s former and candid assistant Harrison Cheung.
“He’s got a very bad temper….I think he can be extremely hot-headed…you know, he’s over 6-1 and he could be very intimidating… Christian is a very prickly professional… He was always very deep in thought and he didn’t wanna be disturbed. And if he heard any unusual noises or if someone asked him to move around too many times, you could tell he was getting irritated. The big “Do Not Disturb” sign was on his forehead.”
When asked if Cheung thought these comments would be thought of as betrayal by Bale, the former assistant naively said, nope.
“I’ve been loyal to Christian for a long time,” he noted. “And when he and I worked together I kept that trust. I no longer work with him so it’s a different situation now.”Mmm, yeah, no, no matter what Ali MacGraw says, love does mean having to say sorry. Consider yourself off his Christmas card list there, buddy.
Meanwhile, any cultural phenomenon that receives its fifteen minutes gets a T-shirt, right? (Get yours today! – via /film) Of course, so the inevitable Bale-fiasco-centric tee has arrived. Expect this to be the first of many, but we warn you: before you LOL and go out and buy yourself one, sporting one of these in six months might be as funny as carrying a Tamagotchi around your wrist and announcing aloud that it’s “time for a feeding.”
How about one that asks, “Where were you when the day the movies died?”
There’s lots more remixes too including the “He’s Just Not That Into You” one… shrug. BTW, Patrick Goldstein’s whole take on the Bale-gate fiasco is pretty sage. His message is basically: It’s no shocker when principle actors (or sports figures, or anyone in the public eye, really) — already treated as delicate stars — indulge in bad diva-like behavior, but that doesn’t mean its excusable.
“Obviously some people handle the pressure better than others–the Web isn’t full of tapes of Tom Hanks or Ron Howard blowing their stacks. Everyone has a different boiling point. Is it really inexcusable to have a on-set meltdown? Probably, but we’re such voyeurs now that we never step back to look at the bigger frame: Did the DP on “Terminator” really mess up a take? Did Bale apologize afterward? Was everything back to normal five minutes later? We’ll never know. Today we’ve been trained to simply enjoy the titillation of the moment.”