To say that Bale “lost his cool” would be an understatement, since the screech in question goes on…and on…and on. Clearly, this is a fellow you will want to give an extremely wide berth should you ever actually come in contact with him — whether he’s wearing the cowl or not.

Alas, Bale is just the latest is a long line of celebrities caught in the act of less than savory behavior. In honor of this latest “performance,” Time looked back on some other embarrassing moments famous folks would like to forget.

The envelope, please:

– Bill O’Reilly

– Michael Richards

– Lily Tomlin and David O. Russell

– Alec Baldwin

– Casey Kasem

– Alex Trebek

– Britney Spears

– Kanye West

– Tyra Banks

Ready to see what made these moments so memorable? Check out some background, and video links, at Time.

Advertisement

Favorite Movie: The Dark Knight

Favorite Comedy Movie: 27 Dresses

Favorite Movie Drama: The Secret Life of Bees

Favorite Family Movie: WALL-E

Favorite Independent Movie: The Secret Life of Bees

Favorite Action Movie: The Dark Knight

Favorite Cast: The Dark Knight

Favorite On-Screen Matchup: Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Favorite Male Movie Star: Will Smith

Favorite Female Movie Star: Reese Witherspoon

Favorite Male Action Star: Will Smith

Favorite Female Action Star: Angelina Jolie

Favorite Leading Man: Brad Pitt

Favorite Leading Lady: Kate Hudson

Favorite Super Hero: Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman

Favorite TV Drama: House

Favorite TV Comedy: Two and a Half Men

Favorite New TV Drama: The Mentalist

Favorite New TV Comedy: Gary Unmarried

Favorite Animated Comedy: The Simpsons

Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show: Heroes

Favorite Competition/Reality Show: Dancing with the Stars

Favorite Game Show: Deal Or No Deal

Favorite Male TV Star: Hugh Laurie

Favorite Female TV Star: Christina Applegate

Favorite Talk Show Host: Ellen DeGeneres

Favorite Scene-Stealing Guest Star: Robin Williams on Law & Order: SVU

Favorite TV Drama Diva: Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Favorite Male Singer: Chris Brown

Favorite Female Singer: Carrie Underwood

Favorite Group: Rascal Flatts

Favorite Combined Forces: “No Air” by Jordin Sparks featuring Chris Brown

Favorite Hip-Hop Song: “Low” by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain

Favorite Rock Song: “All Summer Long” by Kid Rock

Favorite Country Song: “Last Name” by Carrie Underwood

Favorite R&B Song: “No One” by Alicia Keys

Favorite Pop Song: “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry

Favorite Song from a Sound Track: “Mamma Mia!” by Meryl Streep from Mamma Mia!

Favorite Funny Male Star: Adam Sandler

Favorite Funny Female Star: Tina Fey

Favorite User Generated Video: Barack Roll

Favorite Online Sensation: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
Advertisement

More than 200,000 votes were tabulated. Readers also were allowed to add a comment explaining why that individual was worthy of recognition.

Here are the Top 10:

  1. Barack Obama
  2. Steve Jobs
  3. Michael Phelps
  4. Robert Downey, Jr.
  5. Stephen Colbert
  6. Gordon Ramsay
  7. Christian Bale
  8. Rob Kay
  9. Cristiano Ronaldo
10. John McCain

To see the full list, and find out what readers had to say about each, visit AskMen.com. You can also see the 2007 list and the 2006 version to find out whose stock is rising or falling.

Child actors have dominated movies since the first cameras started rolling. Most disappeared when puberty reared its ugly head, but their youthful images remain frozen in the memories their famous roles created.

Moviefone recently picked its top 25 child stars of all time. Here’s a sampling from their list:

25. Kirsten Dunst

24. Lindsay Lohan

23. Sean Astin

22. Keisha Castle-Hughes

21. Natalie Wood

20. Christian Bale

19. Abigail Breslin

18. Elijah Wood

17. Jodie Foster

16. Hayley Mills

15. Freddie Highmore

14. Freddie Bartholomew

13. Anna Paquin

12. Christina Ricci

11. Tatum O’Neal

To catch the rest, and see a slideshow, visit Moviefone.

Advertisement

— Christian Bale: The best to date, partly on his own merits and partly thanks to Christopher Nolan’s highbrow take on the material. ‘Nuff said.

— Michael Keaton: A serious actor who embraced his dark side to make the most of director Tim Burton’s heavily stylized vision. In 1989’s Batman and the deliberately nastier sequel Batman Returns, the two made the world safe for an eventual flood of superhero films. It’s not their fault what happened to the cinematic Dark Knight in the Nineties.

— Adam West: While the version of Batman who briefly dominated TVs in the Sixties barely resembles the version held dear by comic book fans (for whom Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns is a holy text), let it not be said that Adam West did not fully inhabit the Pop-Art crimefighter he was hired to play. Basically a muscular Boy Scout with an arsenal of Bat-branded gizmos, this “Biff!”-”Bang!”-”Pow!” hero was laughable but struck a cultural chord.

— Val Kilmer: His time under the cowl was brief, and it’s still hard to believe that an actor known for spiky blond hair was ever cast as tall-dark-and-you-know Bruce Wayne. Then again, given the incredibly garish tone of the ironically titled Batman Forever, a blond Bats was barely odd enough to register.

— George Clooney: The film he starred in, Batman & Robin, was horrible — bad enough to kill the franchise for nearly a decade, make director Joel Schumacher persona non grata among comics fans, and earn a place in the camp canon for its too-frequent anatomical close-ups. Still, the famously suave Clooney was an obvious choice for the role of playboy Bruce Wayne, and physically he’s a better match for the role than many of the others who have played the part.

— The Cartoon Crew: Over the years, plenty of mostly anonymous actors have played Batman in cartoons. Whatever nostalgia thirtysomethings might have for the SuperFriends, though, they’d probably be reluctant to claim that the cardboard Caped Crusader who starred in any of those Saturday-morning ‘toons was worth writing home about.

— Lewis Wilson and Robert Lowery: Nobody’s saying it’s your fault, fellas — you didn’t run the studios or set the budget, as far as we know — but the string of 1940’s black-and-white serials here and here you starred in were so hokey they make Flash Gordon  look like The Matrix. Non-obsessive fans who haven’t tracked these down on DVD can see the gloriously amateurish costumes in reviews here and here, where they can easily imagine the kind of cheap cliffhanger adventures you and the Boy Wonder had.

— Honorable Mention: Jim Broadbent?! Yes, the brilliant actor known for playing frumpy, tweed-clad Englishmen recently popped up in a short British spoof as a washed-up Dark Knight lamenting his lost product endorsements and downgraded Batmobile. You can currently watch it online (in parts one and two) and compare Broadbent’s Bat-suit to those of the ’40s.

 
Advertisement

Just what is a superhero, anyway? It’s a generic term for crimefighters, often but not always of comic book/graphic novel origin, blessed with super powers (Superman, et.al.), outlandish gadgets (James Bond) or just plain survival instincts (Indiana Jones). A sampling of such power players and their impersonators:

Hancock, which opens today, may be the ultimate test of Will Smith’s box-office muscle. It’s tracking through the roof, but practically all buzz has been negative. The first week should be huge, and if continues to show “legs,” Smith may really be “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” He plays a slovenly, reluctant superhero. In such antics as Independence Day, Men in Black and I, Robot, his superheroics were less reluctant.
 
Batman has had a colorful host of interpreters. Most of the spin for The Dark Knight (July 18) revolves around Heath Ledger’s Joker, but Christian Bale’s Caped Crusader has also drawn praise. Hey, this is the same guy who played both American Psycho and Laurie in Little Women. He also sang and danced his way through a couple of minor Disney musicals and won Steven Spielberg’s praise as the child star of Empire of the Sun. What’s more, his late father was married to Gloria Steinem. An interesting profile.
 
This generation’s original Batman, onetime Beetlejuice Michael Keaton survives as a solid B-list actor, while George Clooney fizzled as Batman but remains on the A-list. As for Val Kilmer, he’s probably growling and howling on some movie set.

 Iron Man/Tony Stark has been a career milestone for talented Robert Downey Jr., whose flippant attitude always seemed to hide a conflicted inner spirit. All pop-psycho babble aside, the parallels between Downey and Stark are undeniable and work in the movie’s behalf.