Is Christian Bale's Rant for Real? (Warning: NSFW Language)

This audio recording is supposedly the voice of actor Christian Bale on the set of the film "Terminator Salvation." Apparently, the Director of Photography, Shane Hurlbut, walked into a scene Bale was shooting, after which Bale went berserk, at one point threatening to hurl Hurlbut's butt off the set and off the picture entirely.

I don't know if the audiotape is a genuine recording of Bale, or whether it is a prank. It has shown up all over the news media as accurate. If the tape is real, it confirms some of the worst stereotypes about spoiled, abusive, infantile famous actors. Remember when Alec Baldwin was recorded in a similar telephone rant ("what a rotten little pig you really are") against his own young daughter?

Even though I live among some of these people, this sure doesn't make me want to go out of my way to get to know them.

(Photo from Amazon.com)