SCANDALS CAN'T TOUCH THE BOX OFFICE

SIMON HOUPT

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Don't worry, Warner Bros: You'll be fine, even if the apparently dysfunctional Bale family won't be.The revelation that Christian Bale was questioned about an alleged assault of his mother and sister at the Dorchester Hotel in London on Sunday night - an allegation he has denied - is unlikely to cause any trouble for The Dark Knight, which has now surpassed $200-million (U.S.) at the North American box office. Times have sure changed since 1921, when Fatty Arbuckle's career was effectively snuffed out after the accidental death of a woman with whom he allegedly had extramarital sex during a party in a San Francisco hotel suite: The comedian endured months of outrageous newspaper coverage and the banning of his films by Hollywood's Hays Office censors before he was acquitted in his third manslaughter trial and left to suffer the judgment of scandalized moviegoers.