Charges? What Charges?

I knew it would end up this way. In fact, I think I even wrote about it. The news came down the wire a little while ago that the British police have dropped the assault charges against Dark Knight star, Christian Bale. As you may remember, Bale was taken into police custody in late July, right after The Dark Knight's London premiere, for allegedly assaulting his mother and sister. Rumors were rampant as to what happened in that hotel room. His sister asked for money and his mom insulted his wife, he had a melt down over the stress of promoting the film and the loss of Heath Ledger, he pushed his mother out of his way as he tried to call security to get them out of his hotel room. All kinds of things were being speculated and nothing was getting cleared up by Bale, who remained quiet about what went down in his hotel room beyond denying the allegations. Now, almost a month later, the British authorities have dropped the charges. Here's the scoop:
Christian Bale will not be charged over claims of assault following a July 20 London disagreement with his mother and sister, PEOPLE has confirmed. Prosecutors at England's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have reviewed the case and determined it is not in the public interest nor is there sufficient evidence to gain a conviction. "On the advice of the CPS we shall be taking no further action," a Metropolitan Police spokesman tells PEOPLE. "We will not be commenting further." (Source)
I had a feeling that the charges would eventually be dropped against Christian Bale, though I thought the ordeal might get dragged out a bit longer than this. After all, his mother and sister haven't quite had their full 15 minutes of fame. But the British legal system obviously has no patience for fame grabbers and went ahead and dropped the charges. Way to go British legal system!
Other than this news, there's not too much going on in the entertainment world.

Well, at least not much that I really want to write about. There's the usual lawsuits and rumored breakups. Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer have either broken up or are about to breakup or taking a break or she dumped him or he dumped her and their both heartbroken or only one of them is heartbroken or something. Whatever it is, they aren't happy. Or maybe they're blissfully in love and laughing their butts off at all the media speculation. Considering she rarely talks about her personal life to the media and he's been unusually close lipped about this relationship, its possible we'll never get an actual confirmation on the status of the relationship. I'm trying to decide if I care.

Another couple that may or may not be together is Paris Hilton and Benji Madden of Good Charlotte (I love that everyone has to write what band he's from but they never have to identify anything she's done.) There were rumors swirling earlier in the week that Paris was totally over Benji and had moved on to the guy who created My Space. While I would totally believe this story if it had been reported by People or heck, even Star, it was first written up on a tech website called Techcrunch.com. Seriously? A tech website is reporting on Paris Hilton's love life? The story turned out to be untrue and Paris is as in love as ever. No word on how Benji's feeling. Probably exhausted.

So that's about all I've got for you today. Things are clicking along here at the Vine. If you're a local, don't forget to register for the new Vine Loyal Listener Club to get the Songs of the Summer. When you hear the song of the day, be caller 9 at 257-VINE and you get to go to the Vine VIP party, which is always fun, and have a chance to win some pretty awesome prices including a trip to Mexico. Check it all out at KVYN.com as part of the 99 Days of Summer.






Later!

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!