A dirt-bike accident did the trick.
Bale can proudly join Daryl Hannah, and Rahm Emanuel in our loop on Celebs Missing Fingers, which is possibly why he staged the accident in the first place.
Is it too much to hope that the next Batman movie could have an all missing-finger cast? So far we have Bale, Hannah (cougar love interest?), Matthew Perry as Commissioner Gordon, and Gary Burghoff as the Penguin.
Too bad about Pat Hingle passing on in January — he was missing a pinky and actually played Commissioner Gordon in the 1989 Batman and two sequels. Perry has some big gloves to fill.