This is kinda late to throw in, but he WAS a drug addict. His girlfriend left him over it.

I try to stop, I do, but each response is more baffling than the last and it brings me back again, it's painful to be a victim of such effective trolling.
Do you know how many people have won oscars after they've died?? One. I hardly think the "sympathy vote" comes into play very often. I really don't give a s**t about the oscars, it's a sham. But for someone who hasn't even seen the performance to say
is just ignorant trolling. You have no knowledge of the history of posthumous oscars, and no knowledge of Ledger's performance as the Joker, and you're still persistently arguing that he's going to take it from someone who deserves it more because he's dead.

Something tells me this really isn't about Heath Ledger...

And back to the topic--

Alleged assault could mean anything from hitting someone in the head with a hammer to yelling at them and scaring them, so let's just calm down. When we know what happened then we'll decide if he's being pampered by the law.

The fact that there has only been 1 posthumous Oscar doesn't mean that dying doesn't give one extra votes. The situation may not rise that often, but it is a fact that dying can gain one sympathy votes.

Also you can't take away the fact that a role as iconic and over the top as The Joker is a practical lock for being nominated.

You say I'm a troll and that I'm ignorant because I posited the idea that perhaps an actor with a better performance will miss out on an Oscar win because of Heath's death since I haven't seen the movie.

Are you equally trolling and ignorant because you are saying that all the other actors who were in movies that you haven't seen either and in movies that aren't even out yet were less deserving of an Oscar? No, of course you aren't trolling, but then neither am I.

It is the exact same thing, even worse actually. My point is that dying gets you extra votes. You are saying that he deserves the award without seeing even a small percentage of his competition.

I haven't seen Dark Knight, but I have seen Candy, Brokeback Mountain, A Knight's Tale, Monster's Ball, The Patriot, and 10 Things I hate About You. I have never been overly impressed with Heath's ability as an actor, and if he wasn't dead and 2many still made a similar comment about him, I seriously doubt that the argument would have carried over like it has. And this kinda proves the point 2many was making in the first place. Like "Oh, I can't believe you would say something like that about him!"

I repeat that I haven't seen the new Batman, but I've seen enough of his more recent career works to know that him being expected to win a popularity-driven award simply for being dead is disgusting.

You are right there and I upvote you for being correct and moving the thread back to topic.

Actually if I am not mistaken, isn't assault a threat, frightening, or similar?

If someone is actually hit or otherwise hurt then it is battery.

Now you're just making s**t up. I never said anyone else didn't deserve it, I never even said he did, but I certainly didn't say that he didn't, I saw the movie.

This is exhausting.

And let's not forget that the allegations could also be a big fat lie told by ungrateful/spiteful/evil/drunk family members (no, I don't have issues, why do you ask?).

I've seen the performance, and he did/does deserve the oscar, because it was a brilliant performance. All in all, he was a good actor, looking through all the different movies and things. But that's not the topic at hand.

Christian Bale got arrested for assault. If he really did do it, or if it's just bs, either way it's going to tarnish his image a bit. He'll likely have to pay some fine and apologize.

Yeah man all you said was that he was getting pity votes. You must have missed the part where you called him less deserving (your opinion based on what?), drug addicted (this is relevant how?), mediocre (based on what other than your opinion?), made a reference to his death transforming him into something of greater renown (sorry but he was already of some renown and lots of hype was building about his Joker role before he even died), and lastly you implied that all he had going for him was that he was cute.

Thats quite a laundry list of implications and put downs. And while you have the right to your opinion you have to know as well as anyone that when you put it out there people have the right to disagree with you. And though I wasn't one of the ones who downvoted you, I knew they were coming because you were just plain rude about the whole thing.

As for Christian Bale I've been a huge fan of his for quite some time, ever since I first watched Newsies. I never did, however, look into his personal life so I don't know if this is out of character for him or what.

But assault on a family member? So weird, especially since its his mom and sister, I was under the impression most domestic abuse was toward spouses, children, and the elderly.

So yeah when more details come out I'll know what to think, mostly because I'm hoping this is an overreaction, mostly because I like being entertained by this guy, kind of sad but whatever.

I've seen all those movies as well. I was one of the people who whined and b***hed when they cast him for this role because I felt he was going to ruin it. I hated the idea of Ledger being The Joker. I watched the film and ate my words. His performance is amazing. It's a shame he had to die because with this performance he showed that he was more than a pretty face.

The only thing that I will say in this thread is that you should all watch the film... don't want to pay? Fine. Watch the bootleg and you'll want to go watch it at the theater anyways.
It's a brilliant film with an actor who worked his ass off to the point of exhaustion to prove everyone (myself included) how wrong they were to presume he was just a mediocre pretty faced actor.

I do believe he deserves an Oscar for it. Alive or dead, Ledger proved me wrong. I have no doubt he will do the same if you watch the film.

I don't believe anyone deserves the Oscar until all possible nominations are in. I made the comment based on the fact that his previous performances make it unlikely that, out of nowhere, he found it inside himself to shine with brilliance that I had never seen before the movie. Who knows.... maybe he'll blow my mind; maybe, out of nowhere, he improved so drastically that he deserves the award even when all nominees haven't even been chosen yet. Maybe he turned into the next Chuck Norris.

Or maybe, just maybe, this entire scenario is a little too outlandish to be making such assumptions.

Another news article with a little more information on the family background.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebri...

Wow, his origin story would make a movie in itself.

Upvoted coldbladed for mention of the movie Newsies, perhaps the greatest bit of cinematography EVER. Now that film deserved an Oscar.

I'm with cb, I'm hoping this might be a bit of an overreaction on the part of Bale's sis and mom. From what I've read, the "assault" in question was primarily verbal but apparently Bale brushed past his mother during the argument and bumped shoulders, thereby escalating it to physical.

And yes, verbal assault in Britain is a crime that actually has two degrees. It's a more serious crime if you assault verbally with "intent to cause alarm".

I've never seen where anyone's said he's going to be flat-out awarded an Oscar without any other nominees chosen. I've read plenty of chatter about him getting a nominee, and personally think it would be rather well-deserved.

And yes, I was one of many who was rather underwhelmed by the choice of Ledger being cast as the Joker. Along with my love of Newsies I had a healthy fascination with A Knight's Tale and despite all my blathering that they might be the greatest stories put to film, I am very aware of the fact that both movies are chiefly eyecandy crap featuring pretty boys in tight pants who rise above their stations and save the day. The shining with the brilliance and all that you mentioned above seems unlikely, yes, but by god, I think he did it. His performance is so good that you utterly forget he's Heath Ledger.

This was a response to a plimate mentioning that they believe Heath already deserves the award. It's directly above where you quoted me, actually.