We've now had several days to absorb Christian Bale's tirade—an egomaniacal eruption from the depths of Mt. Methodia the likes of which we haven't seen since Russell Crowe's phone-flinging lobby escapades.

It quickly inspired parodies, imitators, dance-remixes, plus at least one undergraduate academic essay, handed in just minutes ago at an exclusive liberal arts college in rural Massachusetts, entitled Ooooh Goood: Foucault's Theory of Discipline and Punish as it Pertains to the Christian Bale 'Terminator Salvation' Tantrum of the Century.

Of course this wasn't the first we'd heard of Bale's legendary temper—we'd just never had any hard evidence. The most notable incident previous to this was his arrest following a heated squabble with his sister and mother (a former circus clown, leading us to dub her Momzo) at a London hotel shortly before The Dark Knight's UK premiere.

The details were sketchy. At first the story was that the two had filed physical assault charges, later downgraded to "Class 5 verbal assault" charges. (Class 1 is the most severe.) In his only statement on the matter, Bale told a Spanish press conference that it was "a deeply personal matter...I would ask you to respect my privacy..."

Now his mother has spoken out about the leaked audio:

Jenny Bale, 61, told the Telegraph that she understood Bale's anger at the time but that the foul-mouthed tirade at cinematographer Shane Hurlbut on the set of the new Terminator film was "upsetting" for her to hear.

Speaking from her home in Bournemouth, Dorset, Mrs Bale said: "I haven't spoken to Christian about it, but I have listened to most of it and he was clearly very angry. He is a perfectionist and if you are doing an intense scene and someone is spoiling a shot, it takes time to get it back.

"It sounds as if a lighting engineer got in the shot so I can understand his anger but not the length of the tirade.

"It happened in July when he was filming the Terminator and was before the incident with him and myself at the Batman premiere with all the publicity.

"People might now realise that that is his temper, they might understand a bit more. I wish he hadn't carried this on so long or so fiercely, it was upsetting to hear him."

Indeed, as entertaining as it was to listen to from a safe distance, it did shed new light for us upon the Momzo affair—leading us to wonder if any mother, regardless of how naggy, really deserves to be sprayed in spittle as her purple-faced son barks, "YOUR DEMANDS FOR HANDOUTS ARE FUCKING DISTRACTING ME FROM MY BOWTIE-FASHIONING DUTIES. WE'RE FUCKING DONE FAMILIALY, MUM. I WANT YOU OFF MY FUCKING BIRTH CERTIFICATE. DO I WALK INTO YOUR CLOWN PARTIES AND TRASH YOUR FUCKING PIES? I'M GONNA FUCKING FLOWER-SQUIRT YOUR ASS..." for four mortifying minutes.