Christian Bale breaks ground on foster homes project

Christian Bale (Chris Pizzello/AP)

British-born actor Christian Bale has broken ground on a project he has been pursuing for 16 years — the building of a dozen homes and a community centre in Los Angeles County intended to keep siblings in foster care together.

The Oscar winner stood with a grin and a shovel full of dirt alongside local politicians and donors in the decidedly non-Hollywood city of Palmdale, 60 miles north and across the San Gabriel Mountains from Los Angeles.