Bale in Heathrow Airport

"Finishing up his Dark Knight publicity tour of Europe, Christian Bale was spotted with his daughter Emmeline flying out of London’s Heathrow International Airport earlier today (July 25).

The Batman stud sported a black t-shirt, cargo pants, and a pair of black Adidas sneakers as he boarded the plane with his little one, headed for Tokyo, Japan.
As previously reported by Gossip Girls, Bale ran into some legal trouble earlier this week when his mother and sister reported to London police that he had assaulted them in the Dorchester Hotel". Source: www.celebrity-gossip.net

Superheroes and Villains

"Heath Ledger is getting a fond tribute from his collaborators on "The Dark Knight."

The end credits of the "Batman Begins" sequel include a farewell note to Ledger, who died in January from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs; and to special-effects technician Conway Wickliffe, who was killed last September in a stunt-car accident.

"In memory of our friends Heath Ledger & Conway Wickliffe," reads the tribute included in the credits, which went up Thursday on the Warner Bros. publicity Web site.

Ledger plays the villainous Joker in "The Dark Knight," who begins a reign of terror on Gotham City that pits him against conflicted hero Batman (Christian Bale).

The movie reteams Bale with director Christopher Nolan and returning co-stars Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman. Joining the cast are Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Beginning months before Ledger's death, his frenetic performance and demented-clown makeup have been a cornerstone of the marketing campaign for the film".
Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com




"The season began with “Iron Man” back in May, which anticipated “The Dark Knight” in striking many reviewers as a pleasant surprise and hordes of moviegoers as a must-see. The July Fourth weekend belonged to “Hancock,” which played with the superhero archetype by making him a grouchy, slovenly drunk rather than a brilliant scientist, a dashing billionaire or some combination of the two. In that case, the reviews were mixed, but the money flowed in anyway. Even the lackluster “Incredible Hulk,” back in June, managed a reasonably robust opening, as did “Hellboy II,” a somewhat more esoteric comic-book movie.The commercial strength of the superhero genre is hardly news of course. Ever since Tobey Maguire was bitten by a spider back in 2002, this decade has been something of a golden age for large-scale action movies featuring guys in high-tech bodysuits battling garishly costumed, ruthless criminal masterminds. I don’t want to start any fights with devout fans or besotted critics. I’m willing to grant that “The Dark Knight” is as good as a movie of its kind can be. But that may be damning with faint praise. There is no doubt that Batman, a staple of American popular culture for nearly 70 years, provided Mr. Nolan (and his brother and screenwriting partner Jonathan), with a platform for his artistic ambitions. You can’t set out to make a psychological thriller, or even an urban crime melodrama, and expect to command anything like the $185 million budget Mr. Nolan had at his disposal in “The Dark Knight.” And that money, in addition to paying for some dazzling set pieces and action sequences, allowed Mr. Nolan and his team to create a seamless and evocative visual atmosphere, a Gotham nightscape often experienced from the air.

But to paraphrase something the Joker says to Batman, “The Dark Knight” has rules, and they are the conventions that no movie of this kind can escape. The climax must be a fight with the villain, during which the symbiosis of good guy and bad guy, implicit throughout, must be articulated. The end must point forward to a sequel, and an aura of moral consequence must be sustained even as the killings, explosions and chases multiply. The allegorical stakes in a superhero are raised — it’s not just good guys fighting bad guys, but Righteousness against Evil, Order against Chaos — precisely to authorize a more intense level of violence".
Source: www.nytimes.com

"Curious about how he perceived these macabre figures, I asked him to teach me which ones were the heroes and which were the bad guys. Handing him the plastic stack, the six-year-old looked at the first one, paused, and having difficulty deciding, raised his little head and asked, "I don't know. Hero or bad guy?" He repeated this with every guy until we got to good ol' Batman. This time, he confidently informed me, "Batman's a hero, but he's a bad guy too." Those words stuck with me the rest of the day -- We also discussed and were saddened by the "graying" of the superhero from its original black and white parameters as well as its continuing descent from role model to complicated or damaged antihero. Currently, in the world of comics, that image has been embraced thoroughly, with heroes who are beyond corruption practically non-existent -- even Superman killed. And now with The Dark Knight, we get such an incredible, boundary-breaking piece of pulp whose twisted philosophy is so convincing and noir so effective that, en masse, we most likely will see comic books and their relative movie and TV franchises adopt an even darker tone.

So did this knight have to be so dark? In order to create such a magnificent film, yes. But I have to say, I was concerned for all the under-ten kids at the two showings I attended. No, my generation wasn't prone to dropping anvils on people's heads after growing up on Looney Tunes. Still, the bat's out of the bag and it will be interesting to see the cultural ramifications of this new level of dark chic".
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Deeply personal Bale

BARCELONA, Spain — Batman star Christian Bale asked for privacy Thursday in his first comments since allegations he assaulted his mother and sister at a London hotel, saying the incident was personal.

The Welsh-born actor brushed off questions about the alleged family dispute, saying he preferred to focus on the blockbuster movie "The Dark Knight," which had its premiere in Spain on Wednesday.

"It's a deeply personal matter," Bale told The Associated Press at a news conference at a luxury hotel in Barcelona. "I would ask you to respect my privacy in the matter."

The 34-year-old actor spent four hours talking to British police Tuesday following allegations he assaulted his mother and one of his three sisters in his suite at London's Dorchester Hotel two days earlier. He was released on bail, but not charged.

Bale has said through his lawyers that the assault allegations were false.
British media reported that Bale's mother and sister told police he assaulted them at the hotel a day before attending the European premiere of "The Dark Knight." The Sun newspaper said the complaint was filed by sister Sharon Bale and mother Jenny Bale.

The drama unfolded even as the movie broke records and was met with critical acclaim. It set a box-office record with $158.4 million during its opening weekend in the U.S. last week, and is expected to do well in Europe.

The film, which stars Bale as Batman and the late Heath Ledger as the superhero's nemesis The Joker, opened in Barcelona at a glittery premiere Wednesday night. Thousands of fans lined the red carpet for a peek at the stars.
Bale paid tribute to Ledger, calling his depiction of The Joker one of the film's triumphs.

"It was an iconic portrayal of The Joker," Bale said, adding Ledger's character had embodied "an agent of chaos."

Bale said he tried to add an edge to his portrayal of Batman as well, inspired by the superhero's complex and mysterious character.

"The bat is not an angelic creature," he said, smiling.

The movie is expected to do well in Spain thanks in part to the publicity that Bale's reported arrest and Ledger's untimely death in January had spawned, press reports said.

Bale first made a splash as the child star of Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" in 1987. His screen credits also include "American Psycho," "The Machinist" and "Batman Begins". Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Michael Welch in "Twilight"

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MTV: "Had you read Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" books?

Welch: I had not read the books; I was completely unaware of the franchise before auditioning, which is a good thing. If I had known exactly how big this project was, it would have put a lot of pressure on me. ... When I was told I got the job, I started looking into it, and the moment that it was mentioned that they were making the "Twilight" film, there were 50,000 posts on IMDb.com within 48 hours! That was my first taste of how big this could potentially be.

MTV: So you went out and bought the books then?

Welch: I've read the first book, but I haven't read the other books yet. There's a possibility that there's gonna be more movies, depending on if people show up and see this one, so I didn't want to get ahead of myself.

MTV: You've encountered some enthusiastic fanbases before, having worked on "Stargate SG-1," "Joan of Arcadia," "The X-Files" and "Star Trek: Insurrection." How do the Twilighters compare?

Welch: I actually think the Twilighters are very similar to "Stargate" fans, just a very fun group of people. They're very serious about these characters and about this story but still understand that it's a story, and you're supposed to have fun with it. [The Twilighters] are a great group of people. I've been having so much fun with them. I've been keeping in touch with the online community, doing various blogs and things. They're fun to play with. MTV: IMDb has a thing called "Starmeter" that ranks the career heat of every actor in Hollywood, from Johnny Depp to Tom Hanks. You're currently the 13th most popular actor in Hollywood?

Welch: Yeah, and I hit #6 at one point, which is ridiculous.

MTV: How do you feel when you walk into an audition and the casting director is thinking, "This guy's hotter than Will Smith!"

Welch: I will say that, at the time, eight of the top 10 were people from "Twilight." [Laughs.] So it's not me, it's this crazy thing that I'm a part of. I'm sure people within the industry, when they look at that, they notice that kind of thing.

MTV: Yeah, Taylor Lautner had a few days where he was #1.

Welch: That's my point. [Laughs.] God, this business is just so crazy. ... If I'm a part of something that makes me in-ish right now, that's great, man".

Source: www.mtv.com
Watch "Twilight" footage in www.moviesonline.ca

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MICHAEL WELCH!!

Voting on Tuesdays

"My friend Jacob Soboroff is executive director of this nonpartisan organization called WhyTuesday.org. It's a Website. So we're making a documentary together about why we vote on Tuesday."

It's all about America's agrarian roots, see? November is the end of harvest, Dunst explained, and the Tuesday vote allowed Sabbath-observing country folk enough time to horse-and-buggy it to the polling stations before Wednesday market. Worked all right back then, apparently. But today, "it's not a holiday, and we're one of the lowest democratic countries in voter turnout," Dunst explained. Lest her doc turns out to be dutifully evenhanded, we demanded to know Dunst's personal opinion on the matter: "I would keep it the same day, just make it a holiday."
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ILLEANA DOUGLAS!