Actor Christian Bale proved once again that he doesn't just play a superhero on film. To little Jayden Barber, the star of "The Dark Knight Rises" is a gem of a guy in real life.
Jayden, a cancer patient who turns 5 next week, got an early birthday gift this month when he met the star of the Batman trilogy.
Although the ailing boy spent time with another Caped Crusader in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, last month on what was declared Jayden Barber Day, he wanted to meet the "real Batman."
So friends and families started a Facebook page called "Lighting the Batsignal for Jayden!" "to help make a wish come true." The actor got the message and soon the youngster and his family were flown out to Disneyland for lunch at the park's exclusive Club 33 restaurant. Bale's wife and daughter joined the group.
“The entire interaction was like old friends having lunch" the boy's mother, Charlene Barber, wrote on Facebook. "Jayden did not get star struck but was well aware of who we were with!”
She said that the two talked about movies and superheroes and Bale "ensured we were treated like royalty."
Jayden was first diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, in January 2010. He underwent a bone marrow transplant in February but when it failed, doctors gave him little chance for survival. Yet more recent tests show his cancer is in remission.
This isn't the first time Bale has acted like a knight for someone in need. After the mass shooting during a screening of his movie at a theater in Aurora, Colo., the actor visited survivors of the attack in the hospital.
"Words cannot express the horror that I feel,” Bale said in a statement. “I cannot begin to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims and their loved ones, but my heart goes out to them.”