Batman Arrested Over ‘Attack on His Mother’

By Lindsay McIntosh

ON MONDAY, Christian Bale was a superhero. Through hoards of cheering fans, he swaggered up the red carpet to the European premiere of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, in which he plays the brooding, crime-fighting protagonist.

Yesterday, however, the crime-fighter became the accused, when he was arrested at Belgravia Police Station in central London on suspicion of assaulting two family members.

His mother and one of his three sisters claimed that he attacked them in his suite in the Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, on Sunday.

They made their complaint the following day, but police reportedly refrained from approaching Bale immediately to allow him to attend the premiere of The Dark Knight.

The audience at the Odeon West End in Leicester Square that night were transfixed by the big-screen action, oblivious to the real- life family drama playing out at the same time.

While some onlookers claimed that the 34-year-old star remained stony-faced throughout his public appearance, such posturing is not unusual for the method actor, who transformed his physique to play the leads in American Psycho and The Machinist.

However, it has since emerged that his downcast demeanour may have been because his mother Jenny, a former clown and dancer, and his sister Sharon, a computer expert, who live in Dorset, went to a Hampshire police station to accuse him of assault.

The file was passed on to the Metropolitan Police.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said early yesterday afternoon: “We can confirm we received an allegation from another force. A 34-year- old man attended a central London police station this morning by appointment in connection with an alleged assault.

“He was arrested and taken into custody.”

Bale was freed after being held for about four hours.

Scotland Yard said the actor was released on bail to a date in September pending further inquiries.

The Dark Knight has already met with critical and commercial success – but there has been tragedy as well.

In January the actor Heath Ledger, 28, who played the Joker, died from an accidental drugs overdose. Also, a special-effects technician was killed last September in an accident involving a stunt car.

However, the movie has already beaten American box office records, raking in dollars 158.4 million (GBP 79.3 million) in its opening weekend in the United States. Meanwhile, Ledger has been tipped for a posthumous Oscar for his performance as Batman’s nemesis.

PROFILE

CHRISTIAN Bale was born on 30 January, 1974, in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.

The youngest of four children, his English parents are the late entrepreneur, commercial pilot and talent manager David Bale and circus clown and performer Jenny James.

The family travelled extensively with his mother’s work and in 1976, when Bale was two, his family settled for four years in Bournemouth, where he attended Bournemouth School and played rugby union.

He has described his childhood as “interesting” – featuring a first kiss with a Polish acrobat named Barta.

The thespian gene ran deep in his family – he is a distant relative of actress Lillie Langtry – and his first foray before the cameras was in 1982, with an advert for fabric softener Lenor.

He appeared in a Pac-Man cereal advert playing a child rock star a year later and in 1984 made his stage debut in The Nerd, opposite Rowan Atkinson.

Film roles have included Empire of the Sun, American Psycho and The Machinist.

He is married to Sandra “Sibi” Blazic, a former model, make-up artist and personal assistant to actress Winona Ryder. The couple, who live in Los Angeles, have a three-year-old daughter, Emmeline.

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