Pajiba

The best part is when he just flat out punks McG .

He can yell at me all he wants, as long as we cuddle after.

I like Christian Bale but what he did was highly inappropriate. Everyones job sucks, that doesn't excuse anything. I work at a place where I am regularly chewed out by meth heads and alcohlics, but I never lose my temper in public. Yes he works hard and gets tense but I am guessing the DP works just as hard. Either hold your shit together in public or don't go out. Talent is not an excuse. Also if Kelly Clarkson , or someone of that ilk, pulled this people would be screaming diva up one side of the street and down the other.

Clea Shay,

That may sound good, but I could see it going something like this:

CS - Clea Shay
CB - Christian Bale

CS: Performing oral sex
CB: Pushes her head back and screams, "Fuck, what the fuck is it with you?! You don't use your God-damned teeth during a blowjob!"
CS: "I thought you might like it a little"
CB: "No, fuck no! It's fucking distracting! I'm thinking the whole time you're going to bite my dick off!"
CS: "What if I just rub it against the front of my teeth a little?"
CB: "What don't you fucking understand?! Think for one fucking second! No fucking teeth!"
CS: "Do you want me to put my finger in your asshole?"
CB: Gets up and starts putting his clothes on. "Seriously, you and me are done."

In the long run, I really just don't care about this story, Bale is a great actor and I'll always look forward to his movies.

But I did think he was being a fucking asshole. I can't get behind anyone treating someone with such disdain and disrespect. The DP made a mistake. Fine. You can act annoyed, you can call him out for it in private, but don't humiliate the guy.

I just don't like it when anyone acts like that. I have never, and would never, treat someone like that. I can't stand when people are mean. That makes me sound like a meek little 5 year old, but fuck it. He could have handled his anger better.

While I would never lambast someone like that for making a mistake or showing disrespect, we should remember that we are hearing three minutes of a process that takes, what, months? It is totally possible that the DP had been engaging in rampant fucktardery for weeks.

Speaking from my own experience, having to redo a bunch of work because of someone elses mistakes is hugely frustrating, as I'm sure we all know.

I've learned to tolerate this. One of the greatest actors ever, Marlon Brando, was also a supreme douche. I know he's dead, but he was still an asshole of legendary proportions. Not too surprised by this though, after all, Bale's the god damn batman. (No, I'll never let that go!)

I didn't hear a media outrage over Patti Lupone stopping a performance of the Gypsy revival to berate an audience member for taking three pictures during the show. Certainly not enough for Matt Lauer to get nasty on the Today show. Doesn't seem that different to me (ok, she didn't curse, but she was even nastier, imo).

And I've said much worse to fuck-ups during rehearsals before. Much worse. Some people just don't get it if you speak to them nicely about their mistakes. Some won't stop fucking around on set until someone gets hurt or they are humiliated. Kindness doesn't always work.

And we don't know if Bale or someone else tried to stop him before, either. The clip is missing context, and that's key. It's not like the I Heart Huckabees video where we see the lead up, the snap, and the fallout. This is just the snap.

No, kamil, you aren't alone.

Look, I'm no saint. I've got an insane temper (looong fuse with a giant bomb at the end) and have been know to throw a fit every now and again.

And yes, I once went ape shit at work. If someone had recorded the few minutes where I ranted and raved, out of context of the situation and before I apologized for my freakout, I sure as shit would have sounded like a psychotic bitchface.

In this incident, I will throw no stones.

Bale's an actor. We pay money to see him entertain us, not necessarily to be a paragon of virtue and the nicest guy on the block.

Hell I'm thinking of bringing this little audio into the bedroom to spice things up.

I too have an insane temper, I am able to keep it in check though 95% of the time.

Upset, no. Surprised, no. Funny, yes!

Thanks Dustin, and those who made the excellent point about context. This is pretty much the Baldwin thing all over again. I get that it was out of line, but the guy is just that: a guy. He isn't perfect. It is possible for him to lose it. As Mike R. said, as long as it isn't a constant thing, and he makes amends with the guy, then what is the problem?

As I said before: if you have a problem with him being that serious about his work, then don't complain when your next childhood memory is raped six ways to Sunday by Miley Cyrus.

I still say, regardless of how inappropriate it was, IT WAS FUCKING FUNNY.

A little context: this happened over the summer, just a few days after the situation with his mother and sister following the release of TDK, so Bale was already stirred-up, and it wasn't the first time the DP had interrupted a scene.

Okay, I finally gave in and listened to the tirade. I laughed my ass off. I'm pretty sure I've screamed some similar threats and annoyances at Mr. McGee for leaving socks in the middle of the living room floor or farting in my general direction after repeatedly being implored to NOT DO THAT, so I understand. I do generally go back to Mr. McGee and apologize, citing stress, exhaustion, PMS, or whatever, so hopefully Bale does the same with the dipshit DP. I don't think anyone else needs or deserves an apology from Bale, though. Unless that apology comes with (insert euphemism for cock here). Then he can apologize to me for hours.

Of course then he went home and was promptly accused of attacking his family, correct? Perhaps he should talk to Phelps, mellow out a little.

I thought the same thing, Farthammer. I'm a huge fan of Bale's, but that was just rude. People fuck up, it happens. Having a screaming row like that is just inappropriate. But if this happened to someone like Heigl, we'd be roasting her in a minute. It's just easier to make excuses for CB.

Substitute Katherine Heigle with Bale in this situation, and then tell me what the reaction would be?

You mean instead of how she passive-aggressively waited until everyone was feeling all good about their work and getting acclaim, THEN shit on them? Probably the same as we did before.

While you are all so eager to say the DP screwed up, you don't want to give the same benefit of a doubt to Bale and his outburst. Nobody said what he did was acceptable, just understandable.

I'd still jump him. Repeatedly.

I think it's funny how all the news reports call the DP "a crew member." I mean sure, he's not "the talent," but it's not like he's some freakin' dolly grip or something - he's the DP, the Cinematographer. It's not like he doesn't know what he's doing. He's the guy that makes the Director's vision come true, and on the credits comes right after Original Music. Maybe Christian Bale was being all weird and no one knew he was actually "doing his thang." I agree with the above poster - where was the Director when all this was happening and I also agree with another above poster who says this story's zzzzzzzzzzzz.

There are generally two variables at play in regards to the people you have to work with: niceness and competence. This leads to four basic permutations, ideal types if you will:

1. Nice and competent: the best of all possible worlds, the one you want to work with. Becomes non-existent at the very extreme levels of competence, because genius is generally linked with being an ass. That's a whole other article to write. Oh and fuck you.

2. Nice and incompetent: the absolute worst type to deal with because they're incompetent and in calling them on it, you constantly have to feel like a dick.

3. Asshole and incompetent: the absolutely easiest type to deal with because you just fire them, or sabotage them gleefully and guilt-free until someone else fires them.

4. Asshole and competent: the guy is a dick but he gets the job done. As the competence curve gets higher and higher, the level of assholeness you can tolerate goes higher in proportion. Obviously nice/competent would be preferable, but a competent asshole is infinitely easier to deal with than an incompetent nice guy on a day to day basis.

Pffffffft.

I still haven't gotten advice on my use of a semi-colon. Apparently the punctuation/grammar nazis are "working" today.

A four-minute rant? On the set of the damn Terminator in a scene with Bryce Dallas fucking Howard? I mean, come on. I can see a swift blow-up (followed by a swifter apology), but something that goes on that long is beyond the pale. It sounds like it happened a couple of times, but it's highly UNprofessional to devote four minutes to deriding a colleague publicly for his alleged lack of professionalism. That kind of thing should be privately and reasonably addressed.

"because genius is generally linked with being an ass"

Meh - a bullshit excuse. There's plenty of actors, authors, poets, politicians, musicians who are brilliant and NOT assholes. I was just reading a piece in the New Yorker, for example, about John Updike and how gracious and lovely he was to work with. Bale is talented and I do enjoy watching him, but he's clearly a temperamental pain-in-the-ass to deal with.

"Dude was being a supreme asshole. But most of us have been supreme assholes at some point or another"

True, but then again why does this site berate Katherine Heigel (or whatever her name is) for doing essentially the same thing to her writers?

True, but then again why does this site berate Katherine Heigel (or whatever her name is) for doing essentially the same thing to her writers?

The question has been asked and answered three times already. Pick a new argument.

Is it terribly wrong that while I was listening to the (highly groove-able) Remix of Abuse all I could think was: "Ugh he's so hot it should be illegal"?
I know I should care more about the content and the fact that he's possibly a bad bad man, but it's hard for me to concentrate when he's that damn pretty.
I'll go and join some kind of support group now shall I?

Rowles you are a fucking hypocrite, and so is that magic negro out of Atlanta you've got writing for you. All you motherfuckers that are going to give Bale and that DOPE SMOKING swimmer a free pass are also hypocrites. Let a black man show his ass on a movie set and lets see how forgiven you motherfuckers are. Let a black man get caught SMOKING DOPE and lets see how forgiven you sons of bitches are. You motherfuckers disgust me.

"Disgust" is Pookanese for "complete".

Let's put it this way - if your co-worker, who earns $20000 a year (probably what Bale makes in a week) and puts up with the soulless grind and asshole bosses day in day out for 20 years were to snap like that - they'd be fired.

Really? Let's ignore the bad analogy for now.

Are you honestly saying that, if a regular guy was dicked around at his job, and then told them off, he wouldn't a) be ready to walk off anyway, and b) somehow be RIGHT in his assessment, regardless of how he delivered it? Yes, there would be retaliation, but that doesn't make his point any less valid. But you are arguing that, by virtue of the form it took, his problem should be invalidated. That somehow his being an asshole diminished the assholery of those he rail against.

Now let's put the flawed analogy back in. You honestly want to compared a regular guy, who is easily replaceable anyway (especially in this economy), to an actor who just came off of one of the biggest blockbusters of the decade, whose very presence probably entailed heavy negotiations and a not-so-easy-to-swallow paycheck, and who is going to have to be the face of the project for the next year or so?

Yes, Bale was being an asshole. And if you feel like that is enough reason to write him off, then have a nice day. Me? I know I can be twice as dickish on a bad day, so I am willing to give the guy a chance at least. Besides, if all it took to turn me off of someone was them saying something wildly inappropriate and threatening, I wouldn't be here at Pajiba, now would I?

Let a black man show his ass on a movie set and lets see how forgiven you motherfuckers are. Let a black man get caught SMOKING DOPE and lets see how forgiven you sons of bitches are.

Are you promoting a film or something? Do we have another actor in our midst? Huzzah! Although you may want to reign in the ass-showing. It isn't that well appreciated, it seems.

And as long as that black man ain't smoking dope in a fat suit and/or dress, I couldn't care less.

I don't think that words means what you think it means.

His words never mean what he thinks they mean.

My point is that a white athlete can get photographed smoking dope and whole world yawns, a white actor can berate, belittle, and curse out some poor slob and you motherfuckers thinks its cute. That is my point magic negro, and if you didn't have your head so far up Rowles's ass you would be able to comprehend what the fuck is going on. You motherfuckers can focus on me using the wrong words all you want to, but that doesn't change the fact that we have a double standard here.

When I attack actors for not taking their jobs seriously, I'm doing it because they take roles in films like Hotel for Dogs, Scary Movie.

Here we go with the flawed comparisons again.

A multi-million dollar film trying to resuscitate a franchise when the majority of your target audience thinks it will fail is JUST LIKE a kids film about dogs or a wankoff parody film. Totally similar, because they all have lights, and cameras, and actors. So of course, the stresses are the same, the demands are the same, the people are the same.

TOTALLY THE SAME.

Here we go with the flawed comparisons again.

A multi-million dollar film trying to resuscitate a franchise when the majority of your target audience thinks it will fail is JUST LIKE a kids film about dogs or a wankoff parody film. Totally similar, because they all have lights, and cameras, and actors. So of course, the stresses are the same, the demands are the same, the people are the same.

TOTALLY THE SAME.

In what world is that totally the same? And how was that an a analogy? It was a clarification, yes. WTF?

My point is that a white athlete can get photographed smoking dope and whole world yawns, a white actor can berate, belittle, and curse out some poor slob and you motherfuckers thinks its cute.

I though it was funny, not cute.

And black athletes have gotten away with worse than fucking weed. Please, give one name, one singular name of a black athlete who smoked weed and got blasted for it on this site. JUST ONE. PLEASE.

As far as you ad hominem "magic negro" remark, I simply take that to mean you are just talking out of your ass. Again. But if anyone wants to jump in and applaud THIS time, feel free.

Aw, jeez. Just pretend I did that tag right, okay?

Don't worry, I will.

In what world is that totally the same? And how was that an a analogy? It was a clarification, yes. WTF?

1) I should have added the /sarcasm.

2) In fact, that was kinda the point of my post anyway.

3) It read like you were arguing that, because those actors were in less-serious movies, that they should have been more serious about taking them. Yet you say that an actor in a more serious movie should be less serious about being in it. Basically, that the actor's dedication to the project should be inversely proportional to the quality of the film itself. I did not agree with that.

Making movies is a stressful business.

When you think you've just delivered the best performance of the day or a scene just worked perfectly that hasn't worked on any other take that day and some fucking... When somebody screws that up, you get a bit miffed.

I've been there.

People should move on. I seriously doubt Bale would be wasting any more emotional energy on this little snafu if it wasn't for the fact that there are now a hundred B-grade and C to fucking F-grade celebrities now whining "well, I would never do something so unprofessional!"

Fuck off. Matt Lauer can eat it!

Sure V, I'll admit I'm talking out of my ass again, as soon as you admit that don't have a good goddamn reason for excusing Bale's behavior. But if it were Heigle that went psycho on a motherfucker you'd be on here talking shit as you usually do. See V, I know I'm an asshole and I don't pretend to be something different. But you my friend, you think your fart don't stink.

I would just like to say thank-you to Julian for clarifying the use of a semi-colon.

Please don't hit me.

Whatever with this asshole. You're an actor; if you can pretend the camera doesn't exist, you can pretend the DP's not there. Anybody else at any other job would be promptly shown the door for this behavior, and I'm not buying any excuses for this prick.

P.S., Bale -- it's TERMINATOR 4. Get a fucking grip.

Is it weird that I could listen to Bale say "fuck" all day?

Calm down V, you should know me by now. I appreciate your passion, but lets not get all carried away. Now, can you please tell me what exactly I said to get you all upset?

I kinda said this before but...hell - I'll go one further...

You know what makes me want to scream? All the f*cking morons of the world who can't do their jobs properly! ARRRGH! It's like 80% of the people out there cannot function - whether it's serving coffee, selling paint or being a got-damned CEO. ARRRGGGH!

I've been on set with has-been d-listers going insane for some reason or another, and I've also seen some pretty damn talented people suffer the mistakes of every yahoo-day dreaming fool wrecking their shit.

The pressure on that set is something we thankfully don't have to deal with - too much riding on his ability to make believe convincingly. It is REALLY HARD TO DO WELL, just like anything else. Ulcer level stress to revive a franchise, believe it.

He gets a pass from me and maybe just because very few folks think there's much value in what he does or how he does it, but then again we've all congregated here on a film site. Strange, huh?

Nobody would be surprised if some idiot threw a beachball at a gymnast during her floor routine and she got pissed off about it. Especially if years of work and high expectations were attached to her performance. Context is important.

So in conclusion, if the guy can't do his job properly, he shouldn't be there.

Dude, I once had a law professor who, first year, actually carried a whip and cracked it to punctuate his lecture. If he called on someone, and they didn't know the answer, he'd hand them a Burger King job application and tell them to get the fuck out of his class. Of course, by the second year of law school, he was my favorite professor. Weird.

Maybe Christian Bale should have been a law professor - they're harsh by trade!

Calm down V, you should know me by now. I appreciate your passion, but lets not get all carried away. Now, can you please tell me what exactly I said to get you all upset?

Screw that. It's not like you even care anyway. It may be a joke to you, but it ain't funny to me. So screw that. Go play your little games with someone else.

I think people are just saying he showed his ass. Not that he should be burned at the stake, or blacklisted from films. Just, he acted like a douche.

Actually, people ARE saying he should have been fired from the film, or that they won't see any more of his work because of this. If that isn't being blacklisted, it is certainly close.

I am going to say this again: nobody is saying he was right to yell at the guy. Just that it was understandable.

or better yet:

do we really have to assume that he is a "bad" person just because he got very, very angry one day and said things he shouldn't have, something that I myself and many people I know are also guilty of, and still, I don't hate them (or me) and think that they're bad people.

That is the whole point I am making.

Don't know whether this is to be trusted or not, but it sounds about right: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39984

Sorry, Sparkle. Disagree. The fact that's entertainment doesn't mean there's not enormous pressure and money riding on it, and the fact that it isn't saving the world or saving somebody's life doesn't make it not hard to do. I'm not saying it's as important as, er, neonatologist work. I'm just saying that because your job is "just acting" doesn't mean they don't take it seriously. I'm an actor, and I take it very seriously. It's my life's work. Damn right I wanna do it well.

Again... the fact that it doesn't save anyone's life doesn't make it easy. And really, I have to say, being good at this job does not equate to being closed off. Rather the opposite. We don't expect surgeons (who save lives) or typists (who don't) to do their job with someone tapping in their ear or whistling.

And no, I disagree too that the quiet word with the director is the way to go. Do you have any idea how much preparation-- by everyone involved, really-- goes into getting a shot ready? It's ASSUMED that people in the business know enough not to interfere with a scene. Whether I'm a stage hand or the leading man, I don't screw around when someone else is working.

That is an amazing song. I really like the lyrics, too. Exactly what I need for bingo night.

Victor, that was surreal, until I remembered that it was a sound file that started all this. I really thought you had wandered in from the set of Blue Velvet. =)

The guy's still a dick. Every workplace -- I'm sure even a film set has ways to deal with incompetents. If the dude was that bad then the director fucked up in not getting rid of him sooner.

And as for this Vermillion person that thinks he's so clever, my point stands. This shit aint life and death. It is nothing that cant be handled in a more dignified and professional manner. I assume that you do consider your craft to be a profession, right? If CB had just got pissed off, cussed the guy out and then moved on, I could see it. But dude went on a five minute public tirade because the guy was in his eyeline. Get the fuck outta here. Thats just prime dickery right there.

And Karstark, I confess to being otherwise indifferent about CB, and I respect your opinion of him and his work. But this makes twice now that this guy has been outed for aggressive and unreasonable behavior and twice now that it has been somebody else's fault. I'm just saying . . . I smell the next Russell Crowe.

Oh, and btw Vermillion, I dont play with children so no I dont want to play "this game" or any other game with you.

Hey, you are the one throwing around the racism/sexism accusations, claiming to be offended as a black woman. I simply brought up examples of the contrary.

And no, it isn't a game. People are ready to bite the man's head off because.....he bit another man's head off. Does that make much sense? If Bale should have been more forgiving of the DP, why can't I or anyone else be forgiving of Bale, especially without it being some sort of slight against women or black people?

And as I said before, a hell of a lot worse is said on these comment sections everyday on seemingly trivial matters. It doesn't mean the commenters are themselves homicidal maniacs. They just get out of hand whne they are passionate about something. But somehow, it is okay when it is anonymous and distant, but the same cannot be said for an actual confrontation?

I really am sorry I missed all this discussion. Interesting.

And, as much as it pains me to say this, I'd say I have to agree with Pookie in this debate.

I think it is totally inappropriate to act like such a jackass. I don't care who you are, it's just not cool (or it's uncool, as Jen Aniston would say). I don't happen to know any celebrities, but I do know a lot of self-important assholes in the field of law (partners, law professors) that think it's okay to treat others like complete crap because of what they've accomplished or because they think they're the smartest person to ever grace the earth with their presence. I've also known self-important assholes that teach junior high math, are cheerleading coaches or student body presidents, or are merely high school basketball players. You start with the premise that accomplishments or talents give you license to shit on those less accomplished or talented, it soon becomes a very slippery slope.

On the other hand, I've met incredibly intelligent, successful, and wealthy people who are kind and down to earth and make it a point to never lord their power or success over anyone. People who would never dream of attacking someone the way Bale did in that clip. It is possible. You don't HAVE to be a jerk because you're accomplished (or even extraordinarily gifted).

Yes, the rant itself is kind of funny, and if it were a tv show or movie and not reality, it would probably be hilarious. But I don't know how people can say it's okay or even understandable for Bale to act that way.

I've been super pissed and stressed before. I'm a woman, and once a month my hormones are a-raging. But I've NEVER talked to anyone like that - not a customer service rep, not a sales clerk, nobody. I'm not always syrupy and I've gotten tense and pissy, but I've never given myself permission to just unload on someone. It doesn't take that much self-control to avoid crossing that line.

I dumped a fairly serious boyfriend because he unleashed a rant like that on some lady who (blatantly and purposely) cut in front of us in the security check line at the airport. She was wrong, but so was his dick-ish tirade. That's how much I promote a basic level of respect and self-control in the way people treat others.

And I think y'all are full of shit if you say that ANY actress wouldn't be berated on this site and every other for behaving in this matter, and called a diva and a bitch and everything else.

So, in sum, I completely and totally disagree with the idea that accomplishments give you an excuse to act like a tantrum-throwing adolescent, or to be excessively cruel like Bale.

Also think it's totally fair to let this affect my opinion of Bale in general. Today, actors aren't just faces on a screen. We see inside their personal lives and how successful they are is in part a result of how much the public likes them (or at least their off-screen persona and reputation). Take Heigel, for instance. I initially thought of her as the cute girl on GA, and kind of liked her. Now? Can't stand her because she's a self-important ass. She's not the worst actress ever, and she's a cute gal. But the personality ruins it. So I don't think I'll like Bale as much anymore - - which sucks because I was a pretty big fan.

TT_Marie: Exactly. Those kinds of rants aren't a lapse - they are indicative of troubling personality traits. And as to the law professors, some of the best professors I had had a talent for building up students and leading them to the best answer in a productive, respectful way. They made very complicated, intimidating material seem easy because they themselves were so secure in their own abilities - they had no need to tear down some law student. I have a similar situation at work. I work with two partners, both very accomplished. One is generous, gives credit where credit is due, takes associate development seriously, and treats staff with respect. The other is a diva - self-congratulatory, narcissistic, truly vicious when the mood strikes him and cheap as shit, to boot. Both are respected and both get results, but the weaker, less secure partner can't cede credit or control to anybody. As far as I'm concerned, the in-control partner without a temper is simply better at her job for having the additional skill of maintaining grace under fire.

And as for the idea that acting is "just playing dressup"? All I can say is, try it sometime.

Okay, I can't believe how invested I am in this. The Lily Tomlin "meltdown" illustrates precisely the gender dynamic my compatriots and I are talking about. Go back and watch the clip. She's remembered as the one who has the tirade when it was the DIRECTOR who called her a bitch, a cunt, threw shit at her, and pretty much threw himself on the damn floor. I thought she was pretty reasonable under the circumstances. She held her own against an utter lunatic and it went down in the annals as a "rant".

I loved your Sharif story, though. That's how the true pros who have self-confidence do it.

Okay, I can't believe how invested I am in this. The Lily Tomlin "meltdown" illustrates precisely the gender dynamic my compatriots and I are talking about. Go back and watch the clip. She's remembered as the one who has the tirade when it was the DIRECTOR who called her a bitch, a cunt, threw shit at her, and pretty much threw himself on the damn floor.

Weren't there TWO infamous clips from that movie, one with the director going off on the entire cast and storming off, and another with Tomlin cursing people out while Hoffman was stuck in the car with her?

And most folks I read commenting on it thought the director WAS being a petulant child, while Tomlin was generally excused because of the stress she was under.

I am going to say this one last time: NOBODY IS SAYING BALE WAS RIGHT FOR YELLING. This seems to be the constant assumption being made here: that sympathy is somehow an excusing of the offense. All anyone is saying is that it ain't just cut-and-dried douchebaggery. If you manage to keep your temper every single time something gets to you, congratulations. You have managed to become more than human. Some of us just have not gotten there yet, and it would be even more hypocritical to knock him for something we still do, okay?

RE Lily Tomlin screaming: my recollection of that incident was that the consensus was, the big asshole at that set was the director, not Tomlin. I don't remember any "OMG, Lily Tomlin is such a bitch, she screamed on the set" controversy.

Actually, I really DON'T remember any Lily Tomlin rant. Although I'm googling it now. If anyone cares to fill me in on it, I'd appreciate that.

Dude,

I am a bona fide raging BITCH and even I would never scream on someone at work. I can make my husband cower by just one word but I would NEVER EVER EVER lose my cool like that at work because its just not professional. I dont think you have to be superhuman to achieve that. I would guess that most of us (actors included) manage to get through their professional lives without having a 5 minute meltdown on one of their colleagues. Maybe I just live in la la land but that shit just dont seem regular to me. I'm sticking with "dude's a nutjob".

I am a bona fide raging BITCH and even I would never scream on someone at work. I can make my husband cower by just one word but I would NEVER EVER EVER lose my cool like that at work because its just not professional.

So because you can stifle your anger to take it out on your loved ones, instead of the people who most probably are the source of the anger, it somehow makes you better off to judge that someone is mentally ill. And all for a paycheck. Congeniality for sale. A mercenary of nice.

Oh wait, I'm sorry. That's me oversimplifying your work and home relationships into a trite little phrase using only a limited exposure to you. That isn't fair or reasonable of me at all.

I'm sticking with "dude's a nutjob".

And that is fine. That is your feeling on the matter, and I can disagree without being disagreeable. Unless you call me a "magic negro".

My thing is this attitude that because some of us are willing to let it go (basically the very thing you argue he should have done), that is somehow gives approval to his actions. All I am saying is "I get it", and that's it. I don't have enough knowledge of the man to say if he is crazy or not.

Well, not really at least not in this thread. From what I understand it's because she once bad mouthed her writers, which I agree is a shitty thing to do. But so was Bale's tirade. They are both assholes. They are both primadonnas with huge egos. But to defend one while attacking the other is hypocritical. It's fanboy-ish.

Three key differences:

1) She badmouthed the writers AFTER getting nominated for an award for the very show those writers worked on, and made it quite clear that SHE was the one determining their work was shabby. Not the other cast members, not the crew, not the awards committee, HER.

2) She released her statement to the press. This wasn't an overheard fight accidentally recorded and leaked, but a fully calculated snubbing of the writers in public.

3) She did similar things on both Knocked Up (her most successful movie yet) and Roswell (her previous TV show). So she has a pattern as well.

Can you honestly say he has demonstrated similar actions? From one five minute tape and a crapload of innuendo?

Sparkle: Same here. On my worst day, I have never blown up at a secretary, paralegal, DHL guy, whatever. It's part of my job to be an adult. I really hate when people lack self-control. It's a weakness.

Everyone else has the option to put up with me unless of course they are my subordinate or someone lower in the pecking order than me in the workplace, which would just make abusing them pure dickery.

But this wasn't some poor schmuck who couldn't help but take it. It was the freaking DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY, a position explained several times here.

You keep saying that it was a case of abuse of the pecking order, but it wasn't. Just because one guy's name in on a poster instead of the other doesn't mean he is necessarily higher in the pecking order.