Notoriously bad-tempered actor, Alec Baldwin,?got into a fight with a reporter and a photographer from the New York Post yesterday morning, allegedly calling the photographer?a litany of unpleasant names, including a racial epithet, telling?the photographer to suck his dick, and making ?disparaging remarks?? about the photographer’s mom.
Charming guy, don’t you think? Oh!?I almost forgot …?Alec?may or may not have also threatened to choke?the young female?reporter to death.
In his defense,?Alec claims to have been intentionally provoked and that’s probably true … but he really should have learned his lesson by now.
Reports say that Alec was?in New York City’s?East Village?on Sunday morning when he was approached by the reporter and photographer … presumably to get his reaction to a lawsuit recently filed against his wife … and instead of inviting them in for a coffee and a chat, Alec lost his shit.
The?reporter, Tara Palmeri, said that Alec grabbed her arm and told that?he wanted to choke her to death.?Alec denies making the threat, claiming he said “I hope you choke to death.” This is an important distinction:?he didn’t actually threaten to do it himself, he merely relayed?his wish that she would die by choking … different thing altogether. Tara was evidently?audio-taping the interaction, so I suppose the truth will come out on that one.
Finished with Tara (who, in the photo below, looks like an adorable cross betweeen Rashida Jones and Maria Menounos), Alec then directed his fury at the photographer, G.N. Miller,?a retired NYPD detective and a black man,?supposedly calling him “a coon,” “a crackhead,” and “a drug dealer.”
?[Alec] was saying some serious racist stuff.?… He said some choice words about my mother, and he was telling people in the street that I'm a drug dealer. He could have said a lot of other stuff. But he used all of the stereotypes associated with black people.?
Alec fervently denies using derogatory racial language, telling the Gothamist:
“If you want to put words in my mouth…I’ve certainly had my moments. But this is not one of them. I don’t think I’ve ever uttered a racial epithet to someone in my lifetime.”
In addition to the verbal abuse, there’s a bit of he said-he said about physical interaction between the two men, but we do know that some amount of pushing and/or bumping occurred. Alec and the photographer filed matching harassment claims against each other, which will presumably cancel each other out.
Following the incident, Alec?tweeted a few very bizarre comments, which have since been deleted. The first was a thank you to the police who took his complaint. Just after that, he wrote:
?Moments after I tweet about the Post, Ralston, the ex-crackhead ?photographer? shows up at my door w 1 of Murdoch?s nieces in tow.?
The meaning of?this?is completely unclear.?Ralston clearly refers to the photographer and the tone suggests that it’s?nasty, but the only Ralston I’m familiar with is Ralston Purina dog food. Murdoch’s niece? I have no idea. Perhaps Alec is delusional. He followed up with:
?Ralston claims he's ex NYPD!! That can't be!!! Ex NYPD don't become crackhead, ex jailhouse paparazzi!?
At this point, I would like to say that, despite his obvious anger issues, I do like Alec Baldwin ON SCREEN. I love him on Saturday Night Live. I liked him on 30 Rock. I even liked him in Beetlejuice. And I do like that he has the balls to stand up to errant assholes who disturb his morning walk with their foolishness. He has a bad temper and we all know that. It’s well-documented. On top that, his new wife is newly pregnant and has just?been hit with a really ludicrous-sounding lawsuit. Also, he has a stalker whose trial is pending. He’s probably a wee bit stressed out. Not that that’s an excuse, but give?the guy some space, for fuck’s sake.
That said, Alec would lose me, and doubtless a lot of others, if he did throw in the race card? … which, again,?he denies and I tend to believe him.?Fight the paparazzi?all you want, threaten to kill them, make fun of their moms, but leave out the racial shit.