Celebrity tantrums bring out the best on Youtube, the worst for the celebrity involved.

Yet, we as a society, are quick to forgive and forget … only when it comes to movie stars.

Just wondering, but why are they given a free pass when sports figures on the same level are condemned from the start?

Anyone, anyone? Racking my brain for an answer, but I don’t have one. Hollywood blowups happen all the time. This actor is a jerk, this actress is high maintenance, this director treats people like dirt.

Christian Bale provides laughs when something like his tirade on the set of “Terminator Salvation” hits the Internet, as it did last week. If an athlete did that, it would be no laughing matter. It was years before the public forgot about the Patriots’ messy harassment of Boston Globe reporter Lisa Olson in 1990. That’s just one example.

Bale’s outburst was the verbal beatdown of all verbal beatdowns. The f-bomb-laced explosion was directed at the movie’s director of photography, Shane Hurlbut. Bale later apologized on a Los Angeles radio show saying, “I was out of order beyond belief … It is inexcusable.”

Regardless of the apology, it’s not unreasonable to assume Bale has issues with anger management. In a few weeks though, how many of us will really care? As long as Bale’s Terminator flick is a success and he continues to don Batman’s cape and cowl, fans will keep on flocking to the theatres, whether we think he’s a good or bad person.

Unfortunately, if a sports figure is branded a bad guy in today’s society, he or she is branded for life. Go figure.

- Mark Podolski