Christian Bale's Verbal Attack Draws Today's Attention
Christian Bale
Holy F-bomb, Batman!
Dark Knight star Christian Bale is catching heat for a four-minute, expletive-riddled tirade against a crew member on the set of Terminator Salvation.
The clip, which first surfaced on TMZ.com (Warning: link contains explicit language) features Bale yelling at director of photography Shane Hurlbut after he walked through a scene the actor was shooting. The incident reportedly occurred last July, around the same time Bale was arrested in London in connection with assault allegations from his mother and sister. He was never formally charged.
Though Bruce Franklin, an assistant director and associate producer on the Terminator film, told E! News that Bale's behavior toward Hurlburt was uncharacteristic for the star ("It was just a moment and it passed"), the court of public opinion is making its own rulings.
On Tuesday's Today, Matt Lauer, Meredith Viera, and the show's crew gathered on-set to listen to excerpts from the clip and share their opinions.
"What would happen to the four of us if we were to say to you, or treat you in the way Christian Bale treated a member of his movie crew?" Lauer asked. The anchors then gave their crew flowers and showed a clip of a hair stylist walking into frame while on-air, eliciting only a friendly reaction from Ann Curry.
What do you think of Bale's blow-up? Will he have trouble getting hired again, as Viera suggests?