Bale

Bale's on-set behavior is not-so-dynamic Actor Christian Bale, who portrayed Batman in The Dark Knight, can be heard in newly surfaced audio delivering a long, profanity-laced verbal thrashing to a cinematographer and anyone who tried to calm him down on the set of Terminator Salvation. The three-minute clip was posted Monday on TMZ.com. In it, the actor rails against cinematographer Shane Hurlbut for apparently walking behind co-star Bryce Dallas Howard and through Bale's line of sight, considered a film-set foul.

Central Maryland farmers who were bedeviled by drought and low yields last year are finding the opposite problem this summer: lots of hay to mow, but it's selling for half the price."

TORONTO -- The Orioles' resumption of play last night one week after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 had not erased a very real issue for those younger players scheduled to begin play in any of several winter leagues after the major-league season. While the decision to play in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico or Venezuela is ultimately left to a player, he is also influenced by his team's efforts to secure a spot on a roster. Players such as left-handed pitchers John Parrish and John Bale, outfielder Larry Bigbie, infielder Brian Roberts and right-handed reliever Kris Foster, are projected to leave the country next month -- several of them to play under Rochester manager Andy Etchebarren, who will lead the La Romana entry in the Dominican Winter League.

If Dieter Dengler hadn't already existed, he would be exactly the sort of character who might have sprung from the fertile imagination of Werner Herzog. Shot down over Laos in 1966, the German-born U.S. fighter pilot endured months in a brutal prisoner-of-war camp before escaping and - more amazingly - surviving an ordeal that left him at the mercy of the Southeast Asian jungles. Rescue Dawn (MGM) Starring Christian Bale, Steve Zahn. Written and directed by Werner Herzog. Rated PG-13.

As the 90-degree temperatures, black roofs and concrete transform Baltimore into a toaster oven, Heather Bathon and Michael Furbish enjoy summer's remnants in a home made cool and quiet by 18-inch walls of tightly baled straw. And each evening, they can contemplate their garden from a porch sheltered by a roof covered with a living quilt of green plants. The simple farmhouse, 25 minutes south of the city, is a low-tech response to increasingly high-cost energy problems. Constructed mostly from local and sustainable materials, the Bathon-Furbish home stands as a monument to environmental talk translated into action.

Like many Hollywood hopefuls, dialect coach Francie Brown first went to Los Angeles to act. Unlike most, she ended up actually making a living in the movies, though not in the way she had anticipated. "I was always interested in accents," she says without a trace of her native Philadelphia inflecting her diction. "I collected dictionaries for years and always liked picking up bits and pieces of other languages. But I never realized there was actually a living to be had in it until a few years after I got into Hollywood."

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - With their blood tests complete and body-fat counts recorded, the Orioles' pitchers and catchers took the field late yesterday morning for their first workout of spring training. Luis Rivera and Geronimo Gil were no-shows, but they had excused absences. They are expected here this weekend, with Rivera a long shot to make the backend of the rotation and Gil competing with Fernando Lunar for a reserve role behind starting catcher Brook Fordyce. Rivera, who underwent season-ending shoulder surgery last March, was involved in an automobile accident in Mexico and had to appear in court yesterday.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Chris Richard made his first appearance at the Orioles' camp yesterday, enduring almost two hours of strength and flexibility exercises, hitting off a tee and sounding confident of an earlier return than projected. Richard had surgery on Nov. 5 to reattach his left shoulder capsule and clean some fraying in the rotator cuff, reserving a spot for him on the 60-day disabled list by Opening Day. The Orioles are prepared to lose him until the All-Star break, but Richard said, "There's a very good possibility I'll be back before that."

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Orioles reliever Alan Mills participated in his first workout yesterday, still beaming from the arrival of his second child last week and still unsure if he'll be ready to pitch on Opening Day. The five months that have passed since his shoulder surgery didn't clear up the uncertainty over his status. He began throwing off a mound in the middle of January and found encouragement. Just not enough to completely satisfy himself or eliminate the lingering questions.

MILWAUKEE -- Little more than three months after the 1995 baseball draft, scouting director Gary Nickels doesn't have a true read on how the Orioles fared. He probably won't for a few years yet, when the players he picked succeed and fail.He's pleased with his first selection, pitcher Alvie Shepherd, who showed in a minicamp that he might be a little better athlete than anyone thought. But Nickels regrets those players who got away: The Orioles failed to sign their fifth-, sixth- and seventh-round selections.