“I was stunned and mad to learn that we have more foster kids in Los Angeles than anywhere else in the country,” Christian Bale, the beloved Batman actor, shared. This drove him to want to keep brothers and sisters in foster care together, and he plans to build a ’village’ to make it happen. He also talked about what made him decide to take on such a big project.
Bale recently showed off plans for a new ’village’ in California.
Christian Bale, known for his roles in movies like American Psycho and the Batmanseries, has been working on an idea since his daughter was born in 2005. Now, he’s taking action.
His vision includes building 12 foster homes, two studio flats for kids transitioning to independent living, and a 7,000 square foot community center. Bale wants to keep siblings in foster care together, ideally living under the same roof. So, he’s leading the charge to create a special complex that will make this possible.
It’s set to be the first of its kind in the state.
Construction is currently ongoing on the project, which is estimated to cost $22 million and is expected to be completed by 2025. The village will be located next to a park in Palmdale, a city situated 60 miles north of Los Angeles.
Christian Bale, aged 50, who co-founded Together California, the organization driving the development, described the village as “something absolutely new, totally transformative, and something completely needed.”
He expressed a deep desire to change the sad reality by launching the village project.
Christian Bale spoke passionately about the heartbreaking experience of children losing their families and being separated from their siblings. He hoped this initiative would raise awareness in the community about the challenges these children face and encouraged people in California and Los Angeles to come together to support them.
“Imagine the absolute pain and the trauma of losing your parents or being torn from your parents, and then losing your brothers and sisters on top of that,” he explains.
Bale said he learned about helping others and taking action from his dad, David.
Bale added that growing up their home was always open to those in need, “We were always having other people coming and living in our house who didn’t have homes, etc. That’s just the guy that he was.”
The actor revealed that his drive to help children in need was ignited after the birth of his daughter, Emmeline, in 2005. Bale admitted that he found himself deeply pondering what life would be like for his daughter if he wasn’t around.
Bale shared that he was “mad” to find out that Los Angeles has the highest number of foster children in the country. He admitted feeling frustrated with himself for not knowing about this earlier, prompting him to decide to focus on addressing the issue. He and his wife resolved to do everything they could to make a difference.
Christian Bale’s kindness towards those who need help is really amazing. Whether he’s standing up for foster children in Los Angeles or doing other good deeds, Bale’s commitment to making the world better shows us the power of caring. Before you go, why not read another touching story? It’s about a woman who adopted her husband’s ex-wife’s baby so he wouldn’t have to grow up in foster care like she did.
Preview photo credit Collin Xavier/Image Press Agency ABACA/Abaca/East News, ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo
YOU WON’T BELIEVE HOW ‘GREASE’ STAR STOCKARD CHANNING LOOKS AT 80
After all these years, I don’t think there’s ever been a Rizzo as charming or relatable as Stockard Channing.
Channing was a talented actress, and her singing in *Grease* was amazing. But now, at 80 years old, she looks almost unrecognizable.
The first movie I ever saw Stockard Channing in was called *The Big Bus*, and I thought it was really funny. Back then, I never could have guessed that she would go on to have such an amazing career.
Today, Stockard Channing is best known for playing Betty Rizzo in *Grease*. *Grease* is a 1978 musical romantic comedy film based on a musical from 1971 with the same name. Many people, including me, think Channing was the best Rizzo out of everyone who has ever played the role.
A lot of people also know Channing from the TV show *The West Wing*, where she played First Lady Abbey Bartlet. Her acting was praised, especially her natural chemistry with Martin Sheen, who played President Josiah Bartlet.
“It just worked,” she said in an interview with *Entertainment Weekly* in 2020.
“We had this chemistry from the beginning. I don’t know what it was, but we had it and it didn’t go away. It was a happy accident.”
Starring as Betty Rizzo
Let’s take a closer look at the highlight of Stockard Channing’s career. To be honest, she hasn’t been in any major movies since Grease, even though she has kept acting in films and on Broadway.
Channing, who has been nominated for 13 Emmy Awards and seven Tony Awards, seems completely okay with being best known for playing the “bad girl” Betty Rizzo, one of the Pink Ladies in Grease.
But is that really all there is to her story?
Back in 1973, Channing had a small breakthrough when she starred in the TV movie The Girl Most Likely to…. It was a dark comedy about revenge.
“A lot of people talk about the G-word [Grease] and all of that, but back in the day, I had just as many people stop me on the street because of that one movie,” she said. “Because it’s about revenge, and people would sit in their living rooms and think, ‘Oh, I’m the only person watching this’ or ‘this person understands me.’ I’m not kidding. It was a million years ago, and then it was the highest-rated movie of the week. Revenge always works.”
Channing says she has only watched Grease twice.
“I used to be grumpy about Grease because I thought it was a kids’ movie or something. But now it’s kind of amazing. I’m very proud of it,” she told The Times in 2019.
The actress, who was born in Manhattan, was 33 years old when she played Rizzo, and playing a high school teenager wasn’t easy for her.
“I was much older than Rizzo in real life, but I couldn’t think about that. I had to imagine what I felt like when I was her age, or even younger. I thought about the complexity of being a teenager, with all the hormones, feelings, and issues around sexuality. Being older helped me show Rizzo’s sense of isolation,” Channing told Broadway World.
Channing, who got interested in acting at a young age, was very excited when she was offered the role of Rizzo. Her performance made her a big star in the late 1970s. She even won a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture Supporting Actress. However, the actress from New York found it hard to get the same kind of success after Grease.
Channing was given two of her own sitcoms, Stockard Channing in Just Friends (1979) and The Stockard Channing Show (1980), but neither of them did well, and her career slowed down.
But Channing, with her Elizabeth Taylor-like looks and calm confidence, didn’t give up. She kept acting in many highly-praised movies and stage plays. Her most recent big-screen appearance was in the movie Angry Neighbors, which premiered in 2022.
Moving to London
In recent years, Stockard Channing has been involved in theater productions in London, where she now lives. She used to live in Maine with her partner of 25 years, but she moved to England in 2019.
“Living on my own here during the pandemic, I was sort of going through the same experience as everyone else in the country,” she told The Times.
Keeping a Low Profile
On a personal level, Stockard Channing has kept a low profile. The Grease star, who has always been known for being “reckless” and restless, has no children.
She has been married and divorced four times. Nowadays, she finds comfort in her dog, who has been her constant companion for many years.
Stockard Channing and Plastic Surgery
In recent years, Channing has also gotten attention for her changing appearance. It all started in 2017 when she was interviewed on Lorraine, a British breakfast TV show.
Here’s the article rewritten in simple language:
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### Reactions to Channing’s Appearance
Channing was on the show to talk about her career and the roles she’s played, but many viewers were more focused on how different the *Grease* star looked. Many people were surprised by how much she had changed, leading to lots of talk on Twitter and articles in the tabloids.
“Oh my god, what has Rizzo done to herself?” one viewer wrote, while another said, “Shocked at how Stockard Channing looked on *Lorraine*. Why do they mess with plastic surgeons?”
In an article from the *Daily Mail*, a surgeon suggested that Channing might have used botox. However, others defended Channing. After all, we all get older, and it’s normal for an 80-year-old woman’s appearance to change over time.
To me, Channing still has that “Rizzo” personality – cool and confident! In an interview with *Out* magazine in 2011, she said she does “everything I f—ing can” to stay in shape.
“You get to a certain age, and you start playing a lot of mothers. Maybe if I had children, I’d feel differently, but I really hate being compared to these guys’ memories of their mothers, which, trust me, aren’t so great,” she laughed and added:
“Or maybe they watched a lot of *The Golden Girls*, you know? And while I’m thankful for *The Golden Girls*, they don’t spend time with women my age now, and I’d like to think the world has changed since then.”
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