Actor Christian Bale claimed this week that former Vice President Dick Cheney sent him an insulting message for how he portrayed Cheney in the Oscar-nominated movie “Vice” — an allegation that a source has now denied.
Speaking with Yahoo! Entertainment, Bale claimed that a woman associated with his son’s school met with Cheney at a party and asked that a blunt message be delivered to the actor.
“Strangely enough it was through my son’s school,” Bale said. “One of the moms was at a party that [Cheney] was at, and she said, ‘Oh, I’m going to be seeing Christian tomorrow, you have anything to say to him?’ And he said, ‘Tell him he’s a d***.'”
Bale originally thought Cheney was doing a pun on his own name, but that was not the case, according to the woman that delivered the message.
“I went, ‘Oh, at least he’s got a sense of humor,'” Bale said. “And she said, ‘No, there was no humor to it whatsoever.'”
A source close to Dick Cheney told Fox News that no such an encounter ever took place.
“Dick Cheney never has and never would send a message to Bale. Totally untrue,” the source said.
If Cheney did indeed deliver such a message to Christian Bale, the former vice president would not exactly be out of line, considering that the actor literally compared him to Satan when accepting the award for Best Actor at the Golden Globes.
“And for all the competition, I will be cornering the market on charisma-free a**holes,” Bale said to the tune of audience laughter. “What do you think, Mitch McConnell next? That could be good, couldn’t it? Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration on how to play this role.”
Bale’s hat-tip to the bringer of all evil raised the eyebrows of some and the accolades of others. The Church of Satan, which bills itself as an atheist organization cosplaying as Satanists to troll backward-thinking Christians, praised the former “Batman” star on social media for being an embodiment of their values.
“To us, Satan is a symbol of pride, liberty and individualism, and it serves as an external metaphorical projection of our highest personal potential,” said the organization on Twitter. “As Mr. Bale’s own talent and skill won him the award, this is fitting. Hail Christian! Hail Satan!”
However, as noted by The Daily Wire’s Hank Berrien at the time, Christian Bale’s view of Cheney flip-flopped throughout the promotion of the movie “Vice” depending on his audience. At one point, Bale even hailed the former vice president as a solid family man.
“He was a wonderful family man — he’s a great dad, he’s an avid reader, he has a brain like a vice and he constantly reads history,” Bale said on Fox News. “He was very laid-back. He would have been very happy to be a lineman in Wyoming if he hadn’t met Lynne, who said to him, ‘No, that doesn’t cut it. You need some ambition.’ What would have been if they hadn’t met?”