I think it came through TMZ which is a fox site? I don't think it's a Fox movie and I really can't imagine that Bale would want that sort of press.
Frankly if I was an actor and a DP walked through my set I'd scream too, but I scream a lot.
MrDunc
· 10 months ago
I think your spot on with the idea of the lines between fact and fiction blurring. We will most likely see this increasing as companies become more media savvy.
RichardM
· 10 months ago
who's paying you?
Dangerdj
· 10 months ago
Totally agree that this will become a standard (ab)use of social media. Whether it was intentional or not, Hollywood will now be using this sort of thing frequently. The rant itself reminds me of a Monty Python skit. I can picture John Cleese doing the same rant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju3h7yk4Hcg
Stephen
· 10 months ago
It's actually pretty implausible, if only for the small fact that it was highly damaging to his name, and to his "brand" if you will.
Otherwise, the *concept* of a fake outburst is surely plausible, but I'm not sure even Hollywood is that cynical that it would put out a big star's filthy rant and expect it to be accepted as a positive for his film.
chris
· 10 months ago
That's the story out here in LA. Stay in the news any way possible. Of course it's a game. I'm only frustrated with the general public who follow this crap. I love Christian Bale, but I only need to see him on the silver screen. Everything else...EVERYTHING else is a publicity stunt.
Gail A
· 10 months ago
I thought of this immediately when I heard of the rant. I'm glad you mentioned it too!
Mark
· 10 months ago
Celebrities are constantly trying to "game" the media to promote themselves. We have all heard about sex tapes or videos of comics fighting with a heckler released with the intent to create interest in the leaker. One could also point to the controversial releases by Madonna in the early 90s as another example (or her recent alleged affair with A-Rod to promote her latest tour).
In the past, I have worked on several websites for entertainers where the individual said or did something controversial which increased traffic x10. To my knowledge, all of those incidents were completely organic. However, it made me realize the power of such statements.
On the flip side, with all the increased traffic or interest due to a controversial statement, it never resulted in a direct increase of revenue, only awareness of the individual (which sometime was negative awareness). I'm not doubting the power of a well crafted viral strategy to promote an individual and how awareness over time will generate revenue (see Paris Hilton).
It could be possible that the movie studio recorded the interaction and leaked it to promote the film, but not the actor. Does he directly benefit from the films profit? If I was Christian Bale and I found out the leak came from the studio with the intent to promote the film, I would expect a real reaction similar to the one on the tape from his manager / agent.
Tarla Cummings
· 10 months ago
Remember the bridal hair freak out video from a year or two ago? That was the moment I became a true skeptic of "reality" online. For my sake, I do hope this one is fake, because Bale was in my top 5 :)
Jake E.
· 10 months ago
I thought the same thing -- Why is this being "leaked" the month before the film opens, when it happened last summer? Do you know the nondisclosure agreements that sound guys have to sign and the blacklisting that will occur to any Hollywood sound guy that leaks audio from a major movie set? Or even an editor.
While I don't think it's fake, I'm thinking there are producers or marketing people involved playing on Bale's "bad boy" image.
Jason Moffatt
· 10 months ago
I didn't even know who this dude was until this morning when my lady forwarded me that video. I don't have long enough attention span for movies.
He sure sounded like a douchebag in that audio. Definitely not a good first impression for me.
PG
· 10 months ago
I absolutely think it's possible and I believe you or going to see more celebrities and their people involved in this kind of manipulation ...If you think about it celebrities watch their every move being used for profit by cretins like TMZ and Perez Hilton..It would makes sense for them to figure out a way to profit from it as well..
DiPi
· 10 months ago
The one and only thing i can say is that you are so right with that ..something doesn’t feel right... And if so, should i ask myself if Hollywood is looking to get as similar as possible with Lehmans Brothers way to think? Well we know where all this ends...
Honestly, this is really quite a stretch, even for a mashable article. Hollywood isn't that smart.
Chris Duncan
· 10 months ago
If you think Christian Bale purposely went on a jackass rant to get press... then do you think Jessica Simpson got fat for the same reason? She certainly got a lot of buzz.
mark
· 10 months ago
First, we have to remember that we, as the general public, do not know what happened that day. And we have ALL been interrupted while concentrating on something very intently and might have used the F word in frustration. However, to have 3 minute rant about professionalism, shout obsenities at the top of you lungs and have to be pulled away from the situation by the director, there is ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE for that behavior. I do not care that they are temperamental artists, they were shooting foe hours or it was hot that day, for him to tell him off in such a manner is deplorable. The DP saw a problem and was doing his job, if he made a mistake no one should repremand him except for his superiors on the set and certainly not to that extent.
Don Wood
· 10 months ago
This is waaaay over the edge, IMO. Is it true that episodes have been faked for publicity in the past, sure. But they are rare and almost always involve a C-lister trying to claw their way up to the B-list. Usually a reality TV participant trying to draw another 15 minutes out of us.
I find the idea that Bale-who never seems to be actively courting the pubic eye (I don't remember even seeing him interviewed for either Batman), and who was recently accused of flipping out and assaulting his OWN MOTHER AND SISTER in London-would agree to stage this for some extra media hype preposterous and a bit on the Cheap Click Bait side. It worked on me...
Peter Hodge
· 10 months ago
Truth is just a matter of opinion. That line was obviously crossed when the US elected George Bush for a second time.
I hardly see how Bale flipping out would do anything other then encourage discussion and hype whether there was a movie involved or not.
It is obvious weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were a hoax for a purpose. The US public and congress fell for that. So why not fall for this, if it is fake? either way does it matter. This 'episode' was a success for Bales publicity if it was real or a hoax..... just like George Bush's evidence for going into Iraq, the method worked, even if it was all lies.
its all just a means to an ends, even if he is just crying out for help in a mentally Ill kind of way, and I am sure in a month we will be reading a report about how much "buzz" the christian bale saga caused for the movie.... or how he spent 6 weeks getting therapy at some celebrity resort after the movie before the premier...
whether it is method or madness, it has worked....
so now some one please patriotically abuse me for my negative opinion of George bush, it would make my day :)
mustinguet
· 10 months ago
Hodgekins Disorder, above, is nitwitted, as are all the moronic noobs who cannot recall history: Saddam attacked both his own Kurds and the Iranians with WMD--does anyone not blighted in the grey matter really think he then became a virgin? He then decided to never again delight his two freaksons and himself with the evils of fiendistry and murder/death by WMD?
How can people persist in blindness, when there are media that disseminate the news hourly and minute by minute--of course even the newspeople are perversely demented often, in the msm, insofar as the Bush presidency is concerned. But, ladies, intelligent people have got to hammer you in the brain where intel is concerned. You simply do not see faithfully in the direction of light. You prefer stygian hatred to reality-based truth. The damn WMD were not located in toto in Saddam's milieu after the war began, cause he wanted to blindside Hans Blix and the inspectors--but that does not mean they were not wholesale shipped out to Syria, say, which is what his own generals aver, time and again; or Saudia, which is also big enough to choke a wad of these WMD.
Dumba$$es who dislike Bush--and yet love the turpitudinous ineptitude and corrupt new guy, who cannot even select a few good or honest folk to help him in his flippy floppy hopeless and changeless revision of the bubba 'bidness...' Bambam is more stoopid in reality and in acts than dear Mr Bush ever could be. Bambi cannot even stop his fag habit! He may still be tripping with coke and dope so far as we know. But he is not a patch on Bush insofar as protecting us goes. This stealth mus is nothing to brag about--and delightfully, every day of his new admin is a lesson in how he falls, falls, falls from the lofty perch where his euphorics have stashed him--only for him to lose big--all my grad students have told me how disappointed they are--already! in this moral foreigner born in Kenya and pretending to american citizenry, with not a single decent ally or friend--but the dorks on Pollyama Row never pay heed to Pfleger, Wright, Blago, Ayers, Rezko, Dorhn, Farrakhan and all the lesser hairy types who inhabited this ungood man's entire molecule-thin resume. How humiliating to be governed by a man as totally unacceptable as this drink o'water with a wide smile and nothing at all else. How embarrassing to see how the men and women he chooses --and sticks by!-- are all flunked flunkies who fail to pay taxes, admit error, acknowledge cheating, pay parking bills, or recall past bills due. How awful to have a man as ignorant of intel as Panetta is of the CIA. How terrible for us, for the next dreadful and frightening 4 years under this skinnya$$ socialist/marxite boob.
Peter Hodge
· 10 months ago
Nice work good to see there are still some people who are not afraid to voice their views. Even when they are totally off the point and full of fascism and bigotry.
Zaq W
· 10 months ago
Stan,
Not sure about Bale, but where I think you might be right is in the case of Joaquin Phoenix's venture into becoming a rapper. He retires from film. Odd. Then he announces he wants to become a pro rapper. Either he's lost his mind, possible, or this is a character for an upcoming movie release. He looks more like a character than himself. He gets noticed via phone videos uploaded to the web. It feels like a stealth promotion in my book. Or he's bonged his head really badly.
Don't think this was gamed, just opportunistic in the best of ways.
Adam
· 10 months ago
No, but social media is doing something else: giving you a place to write. You're now inventing Roswell-esque fantasy scenarios with which to fill it. You actually think these people are capable of putting even one single solitary potential dollar at risk by putting one of the biggest cash cows in their stable up for the world to see screaming like a three year old?? Besides, I don't think it's naive at all to think they lack the savvy to pull it off (I don't think it would be smart to do, though). They are, we must remember after all, in the process of making 'Terminator F'ING FOUR!!' when this was recorded!!
[didn't mean to steal your word Christian, but if you feel hostile about it, a note of caution to you that applies to your interactions w/people whose check doesn't depend upon the licking of your @ss: you ever talk to me or any other self-respecting man like that, you'll be counting your teeth on the ground for it before you get the first iteration of your favorite word all the way out of that big 'ol yapper... if you question this, please contact me for a meeting place and I'll be happy to show you how it works in a place you obviously don't know much about called "reality"... just know that off set not everyone believes in the actuality of your being a bad-@ss, having super-powers, possessing a personality, etc. Quite the opposite in fact!]
Sorry, that needed to be said I think, don't you agree? Anyway, if these jerk offs cannot even come up with something more original than Terminator 4, I ask you, what in the hell gives you faith that they'd be able to come up with something as wildly entertaining as that rant?? No way!! I haven't seen or heard anything that good come out of Hollywood.... let me see... ever! Period!
Further, has that d-bag ever sounded more convincing than in that audio??? Isn't that maybe one of the subconscious reasons we find it so shocking, because it's not half-@ssed acting which is ALL that he puts out. Even in his VERY FINEST moments, he'd NEVER get around that enormity of an ego to push that kind of honesty out through his plastic widdle face. I.E., you can rest assured it's not fake because the acting is so good that it absolutely rules out the possibility that it IS acting. Really, think about it... you ever been that convinced of his d!ck status... even when he was playing one with all his pretentious little might??
I hope, though, that one day, maybe, we could somehow get that kind of creativity to replace the regurgitated feces factory that is Hollywood, then maybe we wouldn't all be subjected to a 3rd or 4rth (in this case) gen copy of the same damn movie with the exception that it's way worse than the one before it, which was worse than the previous... etc. That'd be awesome!
A
P.S.> Having worked on a film set myself for several months, I can tell you, this episode furthers my belief that almost everyone above the line on a given high-dollar production like that is in need of serious medication, therapy, couples counseling, a prison term, a straight jacket, a valium, or all of the above. It's because they all have too much time on their hands with which to be basically adult children with as a career, doing a "job" which is no job at all! If they all dropped of the face of the earth tomorrow, I sure as hell wouldn't miss them in the sense of crying over that loss of the 99.9% poo content they've been shoveling out for the past two, three decades. Even if it didn't suck and was great, their jobs are still ridiculous and spending so much time in a sub-culture of society like that where everyone who's not your boss is your sycophant, just creates a very, very cult-like atmosphere in which situations like these are TOTALLY THE NORM! I was not surprised at all about this, with the exception of being DELIGHTED at it's leaking... speaking of which, the DP and the sound guys are usually chummy on sets with a lot of exceptions of course. This further supports the idea that Hurlbut, and no one else was the source for the impetus of this being outed. Nobody could live with themselves after a verbal gutting like that, without getting some sort of recrimination. If Bale is consumed enough with himself as to disallow the DP to check one of his OWN BLEEDING LIGHTS if it means going through his SACRED EYELINE (not in view of the camera, btw, in case anyone is unaware, Hurlbut simply walked into a position that he could be SEEN by Bale from,... Bale, not Hurlbut, broke the take, ruined the scene, wasted the film, then unbelievably gave a speech on "professionalism" to a group of people who he harassed while talking too (in their workplaces) who are technically all his bosses!!! Both he and Whoopi and whoever else defends adults getting license to be infants, should realize that is exactly what they appear to be to people who actually work and live responsibly outside their psychotic nightmare world of sociopathy as lifestyle mentality... We don't care what you crazy people do, but trust us, it's better out here in the land of the sane... come back to the light!! (Not you Bale. Way too far gone. Give TC a call and maybe look into getting some "auditing" or something.... that'd be a really good fit for you actually... maybe they'd keep you busy enough to work off all that extra energy that your channeling into your effete, not-very-lady-like tantrums... calm down buddy! You're gonna crack that shinny polymer shell you call a face!)
Adam
· 10 months ago
Sorry!... forgot to finish my pre-parenthetical half-sentence:
if he's that self-consumed and that big of a pansy to attack someone who is obviously not allowed to confront him with anything at all other than an apology, then Hurlbut is likely very aware of a principle that governs the situation of a spoiled bully's piss-pants-party pretty well: a bully is scared to do anything like that in front of a potential challenge, and the prospect of doing that in front of his fans would be effectively doing it in front of his own boss... a man who'd attack a man who is incapable, for whatever reason, of defending himself, well that man, the attacker, is by definition then, a GIGANTIC P-WORD (LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU BALE, WHICH, BTW, IS F'ING DISTRACTING!!! WHAT DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND???). And everyone knows a giant p-word would never do anything aggressive in the presence of a more powerful entity, especially their boss, which makes Hurlbut's getting the tape online brilliant in the sense that Bale is probably crying underneath his race car shaped bed in his Mommy's house right now, (not so great though, Hurlbut, to let a guy talk to you like that, job be damned. You know those two really tiny little round things right under your... well, at the top of your thighs? You probably should go ahead and turn those in as you're not using them anyway).
Pedro Sttau
· 10 months ago
I would say its a bit too far fetched. There would be plenty of other smarter ways to use Social Media. I frankly don't believe that there is no such thing as bad press.
Stephanie Smirnov
· 10 months ago
Of course Hollywood has figured out the power of gaming social media. If corporate America (e.g. packaged goods manufacturers) could figure it out (and they have, I work with lots of them on executing branded social media campaigns) then surely the entertainment industry can do it. BUT...don't think it's the case here, anyone who has ever dealt with the image gate-keepers that surround celebrities knows, NOT all publicity is good publicity nad they protect their clients like lionesses protecting hapless cubs (lions have cubs, right?. I can't imagine Bale's handlers thinking this was a good idea (especially with the mom-sister scandal in the not-to-distant past.)
Bonnie
· 10 months ago
I wonder if anyone's gone back and looked at all the past "scandals" to see what percentage happened just before the subject of said scandal had something to promote.
As for damaging Bale's reputation, I'm not so sure. Especially if, as noted in the article, it might be "revealed" as "fake" pulled off by someone not connected to Bale. Besides, remember Alec Baldwin's incredible rant on his daughter's answering machine? That didn't prevent him from becoming a huge hit on "30 Rock." Robert Downey Jr. has had scandals in the past; he's more popular than ever now. There are many more examples, I'm sure.
If the studios are/were not smart enough to think this up, you've now given them the idea. :-) I agree this kind of crap will become much more common.
KateNonymous
· 10 months ago
It's possible, but Bale has a temper. Remember the incident with his mom and sister last year? I think we now know what that may have sounded like to people nearby.
Shelley
· 10 months ago
This is bad PR for Christian Bale. I don't think it will make anyone want to see Terminator more. Further, a studio would never be able to get the go ahead to release this- they value their relationships too much with their talent, even if their talent can be jerks. I think it was it was probably discussed, but in the end it was some grip or camera guy that caught it on tape and released it.
Thomas Detko
· 10 months ago
Nothing smells fishy. Whats most important are the lessons on being a first mover when something like this happens. Its opportunity and you sieze it. The first Bale remix on Youtube had 850 thousand hits in under 24 hours, and the "composer" had his "follow me on Twitter" and "my new album comes out soon" in bright bold letters. As Torey mentioned, it was well timed. If the studios jumped on it as well and leveraged the fallout for the publicity, then good for them.
Its all about opportunity, not some secret plan. In fact, I bet that kind of stuff happens on every set, all they needed to do was listen to the audio dailys. Now if the idea was to release some select moments of those to the public, then thats another thing...
beige
· 10 months ago
I don't know....looks like the audio has been edited, it focused so much on the "F" word...my, I could hardly understand the other words Bale was saying...the guy is realllllly mad and sounded very tired too., but I still like him, I don't care if he rants or curses, I love his acting! Something not many people in Hollywood know how to do. "ACT"
bert
· 2 months ago
I like how every single popular movie/video/music, ANYTHING has a conspiracy theory. Next thing you know, Titanic has a conspiracy movie. What really got me laughing was The Dark Knight conspiracy theory. What an age we're living in!
All Comments
Frankly if I was an actor and a DP walked through my set I'd scream too, but I scream a lot.
Otherwise, the *concept* of a fake outburst is surely plausible, but I'm not sure even Hollywood is that cynical that it would put out a big star's filthy rant and expect it to be accepted as a positive for his film.
In the past, I have worked on several websites for entertainers where the individual said or did something controversial which increased traffic x10. To my knowledge, all of those incidents were completely organic. However, it made me realize the power of such statements.
On the flip side, with all the increased traffic or interest due to a controversial statement, it never resulted in a direct increase of revenue, only awareness of the individual (which sometime was negative awareness). I'm not doubting the power of a well crafted viral strategy to promote an individual and how awareness over time will generate revenue (see Paris Hilton).
It could be possible that the movie studio recorded the interaction and leaked it to promote the film, but not the actor. Does he directly benefit from the films profit? If I was Christian Bale and I found out the leak came from the studio with the intent to promote the film, I would expect a real reaction similar to the one on the tape from his manager / agent.
While I don't think it's fake, I'm thinking there are producers or marketing people involved playing on Bale's "bad boy" image.
He sure sounded like a douchebag in that audio. Definitely not a good first impression for me.
http://www.dukecityfix.com/forum/topics/1233957...
Sincerely doubt it was concocted in some grand marketing scheme, but I'm sure the studio doesn't mind the pub.
http://www.tmz.com/2008/07/22/christian-went-ba...
Honestly, this is really quite a stretch, even for a mashable article. Hollywood isn't that smart.
I find the idea that Bale-who never seems to be actively courting the pubic eye (I don't remember even seeing him interviewed for either Batman), and who was recently accused of flipping out and assaulting his OWN MOTHER AND SISTER in London-would agree to stage this for some extra media hype preposterous and a bit on the Cheap Click Bait side.
It worked on me...
I hardly see how Bale flipping out would do anything other then encourage discussion and hype whether there was a movie involved or not.
It is obvious weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were a hoax for a purpose. The US public and congress fell for that. So why not fall for this, if it is fake? either way does it matter. This 'episode' was a success for Bales publicity if it was real or a hoax..... just like George Bush's evidence for going into Iraq, the method worked, even if it was all lies.
its all just a means to an ends, even if he is just crying out for help in a mentally Ill kind of way, and I am sure in a month we will be reading a report about how much "buzz" the christian bale saga caused for the movie.... or how he spent 6 weeks getting therapy at some celebrity resort after the movie before the premier...
whether it is method or madness, it has worked....
so now some one please patriotically abuse me for my negative opinion of George bush, it would make my day :)
How can people persist in blindness, when there are media that disseminate the news hourly and minute by minute--of course even the newspeople are perversely demented often, in the msm, insofar as the Bush presidency is concerned. But, ladies, intelligent people have got to hammer you in the brain where intel is concerned. You simply do not see faithfully in the direction of light. You prefer stygian hatred to reality-based truth. The damn WMD were not located in toto in Saddam's milieu after the war began, cause he wanted to blindside Hans Blix and the inspectors--but that does not mean they were not wholesale shipped out to Syria, say, which is what his own generals aver, time and again; or Saudia, which is also big enough to choke a wad of these WMD.
Dumba$$es who dislike Bush--and yet love the turpitudinous ineptitude and corrupt new guy, who cannot even select a few good or honest folk to help him in his flippy floppy hopeless and changeless revision of the bubba 'bidness...' Bambam is more stoopid in reality and in acts than dear Mr Bush ever could be. Bambi cannot even stop his fag habit! He may still be tripping with coke and dope so far as we know. But he is not a patch on Bush insofar as protecting us goes. This stealth mus is nothing to brag about--and delightfully, every day of his new admin is a lesson in how he falls, falls, falls from the lofty perch where his euphorics have stashed him--only for him to lose big--all my grad students have told me how disappointed they are--already! in this moral foreigner born in Kenya and pretending to american citizenry, with not a single decent ally or friend--but the dorks on Pollyama Row never pay heed to Pfleger, Wright, Blago, Ayers, Rezko, Dorhn, Farrakhan and all the lesser hairy types who inhabited this ungood man's entire molecule-thin resume. How humiliating to be governed by a man as totally unacceptable as this drink o'water with a wide smile and nothing at all else. How embarrassing to see how the men and women he chooses --and sticks by!-- are all flunked flunkies who fail to pay taxes, admit error, acknowledge cheating, pay parking bills, or recall past bills due. How awful to have a man as ignorant of intel as Panetta is of the CIA. How terrible for us, for the next dreadful and frightening 4 years under this skinnya$$ socialist/marxite boob.
Not sure about Bale, but where I think you might be right is in the case of Joaquin Phoenix's venture into becoming a rapper. He retires from film. Odd. Then he announces he wants to become a pro rapper. Either he's lost his mind, possible, or this is a character for an upcoming movie release. He looks more like a character than himself. He gets noticed via phone videos uploaded to the web. It feels like a stealth promotion in my book. Or he's bonged his head really badly.
One eyebrow raised.
Don't think this was gamed, just opportunistic in the best of ways.
[didn't mean to steal your word Christian, but if you feel hostile about it, a note of caution to you that applies to your interactions w/people whose check doesn't depend upon the licking of your @ss: you ever talk to me or any other self-respecting man like that, you'll be counting your teeth on the ground for it before you get the first iteration of your favorite word all the way out of that big 'ol yapper... if you question this, please contact me for a meeting place and I'll be happy to show you how it works in a place you obviously don't know much about called "reality"... just know that off set not everyone believes in the actuality of your being a bad-@ss, having super-powers, possessing a personality, etc. Quite the opposite in fact!]
Sorry, that needed to be said I think, don't you agree? Anyway, if these jerk offs cannot even come up with something more original than Terminator 4, I ask you, what in the hell gives you faith that they'd be able to come up with something as wildly entertaining as that rant?? No way!! I haven't seen or heard anything that good come out of Hollywood.... let me see... ever! Period!
Further, has that d-bag ever sounded more convincing than in that audio??? Isn't that maybe one of the subconscious reasons we find it so shocking, because it's not half-@ssed acting which is ALL that he puts out. Even in his VERY FINEST moments, he'd NEVER get around that enormity of an ego to push that kind of honesty out through his plastic widdle face. I.E., you can rest assured it's not fake because the acting is so good that it absolutely rules out the possibility that it IS acting. Really, think about it... you ever been that convinced of his d!ck status... even when he was playing one with all his pretentious little might??
I hope, though, that one day, maybe, we could somehow get that kind of creativity to replace the regurgitated feces factory that is Hollywood, then maybe we wouldn't all be subjected to a 3rd or 4rth (in this case) gen copy of the same damn movie with the exception that it's way worse than the one before it, which was worse than the previous... etc. That'd be awesome!
A
P.S.> Having worked on a film set myself for several months, I can tell you, this episode furthers my belief that almost everyone above the line on a given high-dollar production like that is in need of serious medication, therapy, couples counseling, a prison term, a straight jacket, a valium, or all of the above. It's because they all have too much time on their hands with which to be basically adult children with as a career, doing a "job" which is no job at all! If they all dropped of the face of the earth tomorrow, I sure as hell wouldn't miss them in the sense of crying over that loss of the 99.9% poo content they've been shoveling out for the past two, three decades. Even if it didn't suck and was great, their jobs are still ridiculous and spending so much time in a sub-culture of society like that where everyone who's not your boss is your sycophant, just creates a very, very cult-like atmosphere in which situations like these are TOTALLY THE NORM! I was not surprised at all about this, with the exception of being DELIGHTED at it's leaking... speaking of which, the DP and the sound guys are usually chummy on sets with a lot of exceptions of course. This further supports the idea that Hurlbut, and no one else was the source for the impetus of this being outed. Nobody could live with themselves after a verbal gutting like that, without getting some sort of recrimination. If Bale is consumed enough with himself as to disallow the DP to check one of his OWN BLEEDING LIGHTS if it means going through his SACRED EYELINE (not in view of the camera, btw, in case anyone is unaware, Hurlbut simply walked into a position that he could be SEEN by Bale from,... Bale, not Hurlbut, broke the take, ruined the scene, wasted the film, then unbelievably gave a speech on "professionalism" to a group of people who he harassed while talking too (in their workplaces) who are technically all his bosses!!! Both he and Whoopi and whoever else defends adults getting license to be infants, should realize that is exactly what they appear to be to people who actually work and live responsibly outside their psychotic nightmare world of sociopathy as lifestyle mentality... We don't care what you crazy people do, but trust us, it's better out here in the land of the sane... come back to the light!! (Not you Bale. Way too far gone. Give TC a call and maybe look into getting some "auditing" or something.... that'd be a really good fit for you actually... maybe they'd keep you busy enough to work off all that extra energy that your channeling into your effete, not-very-lady-like tantrums... calm down buddy! You're gonna crack that shinny polymer shell you call a face!)
if he's that self-consumed and that big of a pansy to attack someone who is obviously not allowed to confront him with anything at all other than an apology, then Hurlbut is likely very aware of a principle that governs the situation of a spoiled bully's piss-pants-party pretty well: a bully is scared to do anything like that in front of a potential challenge, and the prospect of doing that in front of his fans would be effectively doing it in front of his own boss... a man who'd attack a man who is incapable, for whatever reason, of defending himself, well that man, the attacker, is by definition then, a GIGANTIC P-WORD (LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU BALE, WHICH, BTW, IS F'ING DISTRACTING!!! WHAT DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND???). And everyone knows a giant p-word would never do anything aggressive in the presence of a more powerful entity, especially their boss, which makes Hurlbut's getting the tape online brilliant in the sense that Bale is probably crying underneath his race car shaped bed in his Mommy's house right now, (not so great though, Hurlbut, to let a guy talk to you like that, job be damned. You know those two really tiny little round things right under your... well, at the top of your thighs? You probably should go ahead and turn those in as you're not using them anyway).
As for damaging Bale's reputation, I'm not so sure. Especially if, as noted in the article, it might be "revealed" as "fake" pulled off by someone not connected to Bale. Besides, remember Alec Baldwin's incredible rant on his daughter's answering machine? That didn't prevent him from becoming a huge hit on "30 Rock." Robert Downey Jr. has had scandals in the past; he's more popular than ever now. There are many more examples, I'm sure.
If the studios are/were not smart enough to think this up, you've now given them the idea. :-) I agree this kind of crap will become much more common.
Its all about opportunity, not some secret plan. In fact, I bet that kind of stuff happens on every set, all they needed to do was listen to the audio dailys. Now if the idea was to release some select moments of those to the public, then thats another thing...