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Like an abusive boyfriend who apologizes for a blackened eye on a too-mouthy girlfriend with an expensive steak dinner (hey, he never meant to hurt you, baby), fashionable fauxteur Michael Bay keeps his cast and crew from leaving him by making sure that when he loses his temper, there is plenty of delicious food nearby to comfort the freshly tyrannized. Some disgruntled, yet well-fed, background actors on Bay's Transformers set are engaged in a "basic human dignity vs. 'Hey, is that an In N Out truck? Sweet!'" debate over Bay on the Background Beat message board:

· "Word of caution: The direct has a SHORT temper. He is constantly raising his voice to the crew and has fired a few background already. So if you work this one, stay sharp!"

· "True to his reputation Michael Bay is a complete asshole. He yelled at me within 15 minutes on the set which according to the crew is par for the course. I'd like to see Dreamworks drop him just because he's a jerk."

· "Let him be a jerk for the two seconds he yells at you. For all the great overtime and food I got on this film I could care less about personalities. There are plenty of places on that huge stage to escape."

· "I had an awesome time working on this film, even though we hardly worked at all, lol. For lunch, the catering company held a Luau complete with kalua pig, coconut rice, etc... Even brought in hula dancers! The food was incredible! A couple hours later, an In-N-Out truck pulls up, YUM! Four hours of overtime, Not a bad day!"

That last comment made us briefly suspect that someone has taught Bay the time-honored trick of anonymously defending oneself on internet message boards. But then we realized that if the director was going to bother engaging in some image-fluffing, he probably would've bragged about the fully stocked brothel trailer he had brought in to apologize to the grip he slapped for ruining a great take with a badly timed sneeze.