Christian Bale breaks ground on foster homes he’s fought for 16 years to see built

By ANDREW DALTON
AP Entertainment Writer

PALMDALE, Calif. (AP) — Christian Bale has broken ground on a project he’s been pursuing for 16 years — the building of a dozen homes and a community center intended to keep siblings in foster care together. The Oscar-winning actor who played Batman in the “Dark Knight” trilogy shoveled dirt alongside local politicians and other officials Wednesday in Palmdale, a community about 60 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. The British-born Bale has lived in Southern California since the 1990s and sought to build the community after hearing about the huge number of foster children in Los Angeles County — and learning how many brothers and sisters had to be separated.