He’s had a decades-long anger-management problem that’s seen him epically rage against flight attendants, low-level staff, police, even his own minor child.
He’s infamous for a long string of homophobic rants he comically claimed weren’t anti-gay.
He took the life of a rising talent and mother of a young son — but callously refuses to take responsibility.
Tell me: Why hasn’t Alec Baldwin been canceled yet?
Media have been chronicling the New York actor’s bad behavior since the 1990s, when he punched his very first photographer — he’s made a habit of getting physical with the press.
And last week a new analysis of the gun with which he killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of “Rust” in 2021 confirmed what investigators — and the rest of us — have known all along: Baldwin pulled the trigger, giving the lie to his pathetic repeated denials.
Yet there he was days later, a big smile on his face, at Robert De Niro’s “star-studded 80th birthday party,” as Page Six reported, welcomed among such idols as, besides the birthday boy, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas and Paul McCartney. (Admittedly, so was disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.)
Baldwin posing with Halyna Hutchins and other actors on the set of “Rust” before he accidentally shot and killed her.Josh Hopkins/Instagram
An analysis of the gun that shot Hutchins confirmed that Baldwin pulled the trigger.@HALYNAHUTCHINS via REUTERS
Smarmy
It’s not just Big Apple hot spots — his smarmy voice makes its way into millions of homes every week.
I’m one of many loyal listeners of the New York Philharmonic’s syndicated radio broadcast.
Baldwin hosts, making him the voice of one of New York City’s most venerable cultural institutions. (Which is about to get new notice with Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic dropping soon; it’s already in the news for its own controversy.)
Yes, America’s oldest symphony orchestra, which has seen the likes of legendary leaders including Dvorak and Mahler, continues to choose as its public face a man who angrily chased after a photographer — after saying, “You know what’s going to happen to you, don’t you?” — calling him a “c—k s—king f—g.”
And that was Baldwin on a good day — his stalker had just been sentenced to seven months in prison.
He claimed he didn’t know the first word of the phrase “is an anti-gay epithet,” saying he’d “retire it from my vocabulary” and “you learn something new every day.”
That’s after saying when TMZ released the video of the tirade, “I would never say something to offend my friends in the gay community.”
Uncouth
I’d say that 2013 incident did lose the politically minded actor his MSNBC series, “Up Late with Alec Baldwin.”
But the show had terrible ratings, so his uncouth language, to put it mildly, was likely just a welcome excuse. (Baldwin blamed “the fundamentalist wing of gay advocacy.”)
Baldwin infamously went on a homophobic rant against a photographer who he called a “c—k s—king f—g.” Matt Agudo / SplashNews.com
He’s had no trouble getting other work, though, despite more anger-fueled incidents than I can possibly list in a single piece.
He called a gay reporter who wrote a piece he didn’t like a “lying little bitch” and “toxic little queen.”
“I am gonna f—k you up,” he tweeted. “I want all of my followers and beyond to straighten out this f—king little bitch.”
It’s not just the press that’s subject to his insane ire.
Baldwin laughing in court after getting acquitted of misdemeanor battery on celebrity photographer Alan Zanger in 1996.REUTERS
He went ballistic in 2011 when a flight attendant told him to put away the electronic device on which he was playing Words with Friends — he had to be taken off the plane.
But he had a good time joking about it on “Saturday Night Live.”
He got belligerent with the NYPD in 2014 when stopped for riding his bike the wrong way down the street, arguing and refusing to show ID.
And of course, nobody can forget the voicemail he left his daughter Ireland when she was 11.
“You are a rude, thoughtless, little pig, OK?” he said. “I don’t give a damn that you’re 12 years old, or 11 years old, or that you’re a child,” he added. “You have humiliated me for the last time with this phone.”
Baldwin infamously called his daughter Ireland a “rude, thoughtless, little pig” in a voicemail when she was 11 years old.Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Comedy Central
Baldwin has claimed that “black people love me” since he started doing an impression of Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live” because they are “afraid” of Trump.Will Heath/NBC via AP, File
Do-nothing charity
He can’t even manage to do charity work without courting controversy.
Alec and his sister Elizabeth Baldwin-Keuchler are roaring against Gov. Hochul’s decision to have someone else collect recycling at New York’s state fair this year — keeping the family’s Carol M. Baldwin Fund from raking in $50,000.
What would it do with the money?
The charity didn’t give out a single dollar in grants in 2021, the last year its IRS records are available, despite collecting nearly $450,000.
Almost a quarter of the money went to Elizabeth’s salary, though.
But most incredible, Alec’s signed on to multiple projects since killing a cinematographer on set — for which he could still face charges, especially given the new forensic analysis.
I suppose the New York, Hollywood and political elite would miss his Emmy-winning portrayal of Donald Trump on “SNL” if Baldwin finally faced the music.
Everyone loves his impersonation, Baldwin says!
“Ever since I played Trump, black people love me. They love me. Everywhere I go, black people go crazy. I think it’s because they’re most afraid of Trump.”
Who else could say such a thing and not get canceled?
Kelly Jane Torrance is The Post’s op-ed editor.
Source link: https://nypost.com/2023/08/20/its-about-time-we-cancel-alec-baldwin/