Culture, Media & Creative Industries @ Kings

On Wednesday afternoon, CMCI lecturer Harvey G. Cohen appeared on BBC Radio Wales to comment upon the recent release of a recording of movie star Christian “The Dark Knight” Bale cursing out his director of photography on the set of his new film “Terminator Salvation” for almost four minutes, using the f-word an average of every 6 seconds. Cohen discussed some examples of tantrum-like behaviour of movie stars and directors in the past (such as Katherine Hepburn, James Mason and Otto Preminger) to give the sordid Bale recording some historical context. “What I didn’t have time to say in the broadcast is that Bale is in some ways just plain unlucky because movie stars in past decades probably went on similar crazed rants, but they weren’t preserved for posterity,” according to Cohen. “However, today, on a major studio movie set, cameras and tape recorders are always rolling to capture behind-the-scenes material for DVD special features, so it seems that today’s film idols have to be more circumspect in their diva behavior than the stars of previous generations.”

You can listen to the BBC Radio Wales broadcast at this link for the next 6 days (the segment lasts from 38.30-44.30): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00h9ddn

You can hear the full Christian Bale rant at this address (beware: very offensive language and verbal abuse):