Its a Sad, Sad Day

Well, I'm totally bummed out right now. There has just been a plethora of depressing entertainment news today. I could go into huge amounts of detail, but that would take a long time and make me sad all at once, so I'll just go over the two most depressing stories (at least, the most depressing to me) and be done with it.

First off, the very sad news that Estelle Getty has passed away at the age of 84. Most people know her as Sophia on The Golden Girls. Here's the official announcement:
Getty's longtime manager, Alan Siegel, told PEOPLE on Tuesday: "As of 5:35 this morning, surrounded by her family in her Hollywood Hills home, Estelle Getty passed away peacefully in her sleep of natural causes. Her family and close friends thank everyone for being so loving and supportive of Estelle in her last few years." For many years, Getty had suffered with Lewy's Body Dementia, which has been described as a type of Alzheimer's disease. (Source People Online)
Very sad new indeed. I used to watch The Golden Girls every Saturday night when I was little and have watched the show in repeats ever since. While I probably haven't seen every episode, I've seen a good many and always loved the character of Sophia. Estelle will be missed.

The next sad news story broke earlier than the death of Estelle Getty, but I figured that she deserved to be honored first. This morning it was reported that The Dark Knight star Christian Bale was arrested in London for assault on his sister and mother. Here are the details:

Batman star Christian Bale has been arrested in London after turning himself in to a police station to undergo questioning on allegations that he assaulted his mother and sister. The incident allegedly took place in the box-office champ's Dorchester Hotel room in London on Sunday, the day before the blockbuster film's European premiere. It's unclear what exactly went down, but the Welsh-born Bale's 61-year-old mother, Jenny, and 40-year-old sister, Sharon, reportedly went to a Hampshire police station to make the allegation. The local cops subsequently turned the case over to London's Metropolitan Police. Although his family lodged the charges prior to Monday night's premiere, police waited until today to question Bale to allow the event to go on without headline-grabbing interruption. (Source EOnline)

Bale has since been released from police custody and has released the following statement via his lawyer:

"Mr. Bale, who denies the allegation, cooperated throughout, gave his account
in full of the events in question, and has left the station without any charge being made against him by the police," the actor's lawyers at the high-powered London firm Schillings said in a statement. "At this time, there will be no further comment by Mr. Bale." (source EOnline)

There's still a lot of information missing from this story and, more than likely, the public will never know what really went down between Christian and his family, who have apparently been estranged for quite some time. TMZ has had a lot of "sources" come to them with different conjectures of what went on in that hotel room and has also clarified that an assault charge in England can also mean a verbal assault, not just a physical one, however, it appears to have been a minor physical assault. Here's what they've got:

Sources directly connected to the Christian Bale case tell TMZ there was physical contact between Christian and his mom, but it amounted to next to nothing. We're told Bale pushed his mom out of the way during the altercation. She was not hurt and did not fall down. There's a division of opinion on whether the contact was a "push" or a "brush." (Source TMZ.com)

Still others are saying that the mom and the sister showed up at his hotel room all drunk and obnoxious and demanding money and the "brush" or "push" came about when Bale was trying to either leave the room or get them ejected from the hotel. Like I said, its all speculation, but I've always liked Christian Bale as an actor and would be truly disappointed if these allegations turned out to be more serious than a simple light push that cause no injury. I would be really sad if the actor, who's career I've followed since Newsies (I don't care what anyone says, I love that movie!), turned out to be a mom beater. But somehow I don't believe that is the case.

So yeah, that's pretty much how the day has gone. One sad, disturbing story after another. At least we've managed to have some fun here at the station. The boss is gone, so we're keeping a tally of how many times he calls between now and Friday to check his voice mail. Yeah, we're childish like that here at Wine Country Broadcasting, but I say its good for company morale;)

Later!