Because no one in the CC office wants to believe that Christian Bale is the type of guy who would flip out at his sister and mother randomly, we’ve been following this story every step of the way (I mean, it’s a matter of possibly kicking him out of our fantasises forever…it’s important). Here’s what we’ve learned this morning:

1) His mother used to be a clown. Legitimately.

2) He may or may not have a short temper (which may be due to the fact that he plays tortured dudes all the time)

3) His sis allegedly asked him for a loan of 100,000 pounds (roughly $200,200), and he said no

4) His mom allegedly insulted his wife, and Bale went all “Oh no you DIDN’T!” on her ass

5) Bale’s family “never wanted to ruin his night” but felt they needed to “teach him a lesson”

Aside from saying what he had for breakfast the day of the blow up, reporters are doing their best to dig through Bale’s past and find some deep, dark poison in his soul or something. Our hypothesis? The guy has a bad temper, has been stressed out for a while, had a giant fight with the fam, and because he’s a celebrity that “row” turned into some kind of Battlestar Galactica implosion in the media.

So yeah, Beautiful Bale isn’t out of our fantasies yet…we just may reconsider challenging him to a rousing game of Battleship…because that sh*t gets heated.

Strong women are hard to find – at least, they are in movies and TV. The roles offered to women in mainstream entertainment tend to fall into an alarmingly narrow range: victim, wet dream, and killer bitch, with a long-suffering wife or girlfriend thrown occasionally into the mix. These parts are not only far from aspirational, they have little or nothing to do with the realities of the women who watch them.

Now, here’s the good news. Though they’re not easy to come by, great female characters do exist: tough, smart, funny, complicated women, who give normal girls something to shoot for, or at least allow us to indulge in some quality couch time without sacrificing our souls to the dark altar of the Chick Flick.

Here, a roundup of recent favorites.

4. Veronica Mars, Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars – the sharp, sarcastic teen detective at the center of the WB’s much-beloved (and cancelled) series by the same name – triumphed over her show’s painfully cute premise to become one of the best female characters in recent years, due in large part to a fantastic performance by Kristin Bell. The writing didn’t hurt, either; Veronica worked several startlingly dark cases, including her own date rape, but she was never portrayed as a victim, and the show’s witty, self-aware dialogue kept it from dissolving into melodrama. Read More »