Bale incident comes into sharper focus

The last thing we want is to fan the flames on this, but since yesterday’s story broke with so few hard facts, it’s useful to see the story refined and clarified with any new info at all. Most importantly, the language of the complaint and possible eventual charges hinged on the word “assault,” which seems on the surface to be brutal — especially to Americans accustomed to doing our assaulting in more aggressive terms. This piece from The Daily Mail peers a little too deeply into touchy “personal life” territory, but it does seem to confirm a significant factor that came to light yesterday: the “assault” appears to have been done verbally, and the “lashing out” we kept hearing whipped up on cable news was apparently more of a tongue-lashing.

The source said: ‘Christian was stressed, but he didn’t lay a finger on anyone. Instead, he flew off the handle and cussed his mother. He just got very loud because his mother was saying some very outrageous things about him, and his wife.’

While the headline hyenas here had a field day, we’ve tried to defuse the inflammatory language, counteract the tabloid vultures, and tamp down the rush to judgment. Trying to put a lid on the worst assertions, we keep in mind that the timing couldn’t have been worse — Bale’s “moment of glory,” in Sasha’s words, ruined by circumstances already pressurized and made worse by the media feeding frenzy.