[nmnrIjGB]

THE TV WATCH
The New York Times
April 28, 2007

Under Fire, an Actor Lashes Back With a Plan


Alec Baldwin went on “The View” this week to discuss the ranting
voice-mail message he left for his 11-year-old daughter.

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

The fate of “30 Rock” looks dire. Alec Baldwin said on “The View” yesterday that he wanted to quit that NBC sitcom to write a book about “parental alienation.”

For the good of viewers — and readers — Mr. Baldwin must not leave the show.

His performance yesterday suggests that he may need some persuading to stay with the sitcom, in which he is brilliant, and away from talk show couches, where he is anything but.

It’s certainly in the best interest of the child. As bad as all the publicity over her father’s ranting voice-mail message must be for 11-year-old Ireland, she will have to live it all over again if her father quits show business. The book reviews — let alone the stand-up comedy routines — would surely inflict even more emotional damage.

Mr. Baldwin told Barbara Walters and Rosie O’Donnell that he wanted to devote his life to exposing the injustices perpetrated on divorced dads, and that he hoped to publish a book this fall on divorce litigation. Mr. Baldwin’s long-winded, self-obsessed soliloquy on his usurped rights as a father and the fiendish acts of his ex-wife, Kim Basinger, was so impassioned that Ms. Walters had to remind him that his first concern should be his relationship with Ireland. (When he mentioned his daughter, it was to make a point about her mother’s perfidy.)

He was looking to persuade but was mostly painful to watch — a little like Captain Queeg melting down on the witness stand in “The Caine Mutiny.”

And Mr. Baldwin added more fuel to his pyre by lashing out at the celebrity gossip industry, including the journalist who first distributed the phone message, whom he did not identify by name. “Everybody who works in tabloid media are people who are filled with self-hatred and shame,” he said. “And the way that they manage those feelings is that they destroy the lives of other people and reveal your secrets.”

He has a reason to feel ill-used by the press, of course. His hectoring message and the words he used — “thoughtless little pig” — unleashed an almost Don Imus-size national debate over his behavior. Some people want Mr. Baldwin in irons; others wonder how and why on earth his phone message for Ireland found its way to the public. Mr. Baldwin began his interview by saying, “I got a huge bouquet of flowers from Don Imus.”

Ms. Walters looked startled. “Did you really?” she asked. He said he was joking.

If NBC has to gin up an intemperate fathers’ solidarity drive to keep him on the show, so be it. After yesterday’s appearance, Mr. Baldwin may require something along the lines of the scene in “Spartacus,” when the Roman commander demands to know which of a horde of rebel slaves is their leader, and one, two and then all of the slaves step forward, saying, “I am Spartacus.” Perhaps all parents could call their children’s cellphones and simultaneously holler something mean and borderline abusive.

Mr. Baldwin’s defense was unfortunate, and so was his timing. This is not a good moment for middle-aged actors to act out. Richard Gere is a wanted man in India after showering the Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty with kisses at an AIDS awareness rally in New Delhi; Indians frown on public displays of affection. Hugh Grant was arrested in London for throwing a tub of baked beans at a photographer.

Mr. Baldwin, who is known in The New York Post as “the Bloviator,” is not as winning in speeches and on talk shows as Mr. Gere or Mr. Grant.

But Mr. Baldwin’s career matters more, and not just because he neither publicly offended cultural sensibilities (this time) nor physically injured anyone (this time). He is a gifted actor who at the moment is peerlessly funny as Jack Donaghy, a silky-smooth, loony NBC executive in charge of a sketch comedy show.

The show was created by the former “Saturday Night Live” head writer and star Tina Fey, who also plays the fictional show’s head writer, Liz Lemon. The writing is sharp and funny, and so is the cast. But Mr. Baldwin steals every scene and has turned “30 Rock” into one of the best comedies on television. In Thursday’s season finale, which included his fiancée, Phoebe (Emily Mortimer), an art dealer who says she suffers from avian bone syndrome and cannot be touched, Jack is so stressed that he has a mild heart attack.

On his hospital bed he tells Liz that in a near-death moment, he saw his life flash before his eyes.

“In all the time I’ve been on this earth, I have only one regret,” Jack tells her. “I should have worked more.”

So should Mr. Baldwin. He should stop discussing his custody battle in public and get back to work on “30 Rock.”

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/28/ar...on/28watc.html

[zzarratusstra]

"I want to tell you something and I want to leave a message for you right now.

"It's 10.30 in New York on a Wednesday and once again I've made an ass of myself trying to get to a phone to call you at a specific time.

"When the time comes for me to make the phone call I stop whatever I'm doing and I go and make the phone call at 11 o'clock in New York.

"You don't pick up the phone at 10 o'clock and night and you don't even have that god damn phone turned on.

"I want you to know something okay. I'm tired of playing this game with you. I'm leaving this message with you to tell me you have insulted me for the last time."

. . .

"You have humiliated me for the last time on this phone and when I come out there next week I'm going to fly out there for the day just to straight you out on this issue.

"I'm going to let you know just how disappointed in you I am and just how angry I am with you that you've done this to me again.

"You have made me feel like shit and you have made me feel like a fool over and over and over again, and this crap you pull on me with this god damn phone situation that you would never dream of doing to your mother and you do to me constantly."

. . .

"I'm going to get on a plane or I'm going to come out there for the day and I'm going to straighten your ass out when I see you. Do you understand me?

"I'm going to really make sure you get it. Then I'm going to get on a plane and I'm going to turn around and I'm going to come home.

"So you'd better be ready, Friday 20th, to meet with me. I'm going to let you know just how I feel about what a rude little pig you are. You are a rude, thoughtless little pig."


Full article:
http://nz.entertainment.yahoo.com/070419/6/cb5.html

[eocavrWM]

He has a right to be angry, but he is yelling at Kim more than the kid.

He is frustrated that one of the only times he gets to talk to her is a scheduled daily phonecall, but then he is forced to leave a message instead of being able to talk to her.

He is being forced to let go, and probably also detects the hate her mother has for him seeping into her.

The beginning of the call seems 100% on the mark, but as he gets further into it it is like he is not talking to the kid anymore. What he did was wrong, but I do not feel he should be castrated for it.

Also, what the hell business is it of ours?

[Rithlilky]

I didn't think it was ever possible, but on this particular issue, I agree with Ninjahedge 100%.

[Spongebob]

Ninja makes a strong statement. I love this point, too:

Also, what the hell business is it of ours?

[loolitoertego]

Also, what the hell business is it of ours?

Agreed, there are more important stories and worse parents out there. Leave the guy alone, another example of the media dictating peoples lives.

[sbrthrds]

The U.K.'s "Daily Mail" is not what is considered top-grade journalism, yet an analysis of this situation is better-presented here than in almost any American source I can find:

The truth behind Alec Baldwin's 'rude little pig' attack on daughter, 11

by PAUL SCOTT - More by this author »
Last updated at 09:39am on 28th April 2007 Comments (11)

A gleaming cavalcade of blacked-out people carriers pulls up presidential-style at the gates of a smart private school in a moneyed Los Angeles suburb and disgorges a contingent of shades-wearing security men.

Then, when these bodyguards - some of whom carry small, handheld video cameras - are in position, the door of one vehicle opens and a child, pole-thin and deathly pale, emerges into the California sunshine.

She disappears inside, accompanied by her ever-present minders.

Even at this school, which plays host to the pampered offspring of some of Hollywood's most glittering names, it is a highly unusual scene.

Scroll down for more...



And what makes this tableau - witnessed earlier this week by her bemused school friends - all the more bizarre is that the 11-year-old in question needs this protection (if her famous mother is to be believed) not from a lunatic celebrity stalker or kidnapper, but from her actor father, Alec Baldwin.

In recent days, this has been the disturbing reality of the school run for Ireland Baldwin as the bloody custody battle between her Oscar-winner mother, Kim Basinger, and her former husband plumbs new and unspeakable depths.

Basinger, the star of LA Confidential, called in the beefcake protection team last week after 49-year-old Baldwin left a vituperative rant on the answerphone of their daughter for daring not to be at home when he rang to speak to her during one of their court-sanctioned weekly conversations.

In the shocking tape - suspiciously leaked to a showbusiness website - a raging Baldwin (the star of The Aviator and The Departed) brands his daughter a "rude, thoughtless little pig".

"You don't have the brains or the decency as a human," he spits.

"I don't care that you're 12 years old, or 11 years old, or that you're a child, or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the ass who doesn't care what you do as far as I am concerned.

"Once again, I have made an ass of myself trying to get to a phone. You have humiliated me for the last time with this phone."

But it was his sign-off to the two minute 12 second tirade - his threat to fly from his home in New York to Los Angeles to "straighten out" his daughter - that prompted Basinger to act.

In an exclusive interview with the Mail, Kim's father, Don Basinger, said: "The problem is that violence and anger are part of Alec Baldwin's make-up. He can't control his temper and you can't tell what someone like that is going to do.

"On the tape, he said he was coming to 'straighten' Ireland out. He was very threatening and Kim brought in the bodyguards because she has to protect her daughter.

"A father can just go to a school and pick a kid up. I don't think Alec is a danger, but sometimes people do things and regret their actions later. Kim is worried about her daughter."

So worrying was the anger in ex-alcoholic Baldwin's diatribe that a judge temporarily banned him from access to the daughter he and 53-year-old Miss Basinger have fought over since their highly acrimonious divorce five years ago.

Even so, given the level of hostility between them, few in Hollywood are under any illusion that the actress will seek to use his outburst to her advantage (hence the over-the-top presence of those bodyguards).

And how ironic, given the latest turn in this blacker-than-black farce, that it is the 91/2Weeks star herself who faces jail at a forthcoming hearing over 12 counts of alleged contempt of court.

Baldwin claims that she has continually ignored a series of court orders granting him visiting rights to Ireland.

If, as is still a distinct possibility, she is found guilty and sentenced to the maximum two months in jail, it would be into the care of her aggressive father that the schoolgirl would be placed while her mother is in prison.

Pity, then, poor Ireland - or "Addie, as she is known to her warring parents - in this mess as she plays hostage to the bloated egos of her mother and father.

So dire has the relationship between the stars become that Baldwin even recently had to seek a court order so he could take Ireland to the premiere of one of his movies.

Meanwhile, Miss Basinger is said to have waited until the ex-husband she hates was out of the country before having her baptised.

When Baldwin sees his daughter every first and third weekend of the month, plus alternate birthdays and Christmases, the pair must, a judge has ruled, be accompanied at all times by a female carer appointed by the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Also, phone calls with her father, who lost his battle for full-time custody in 2004, are strictly timed and limited (hence his anger when she was not there when he called).

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, in this climate of loathing, Baldwin's friends this week accused Miss Basinger (who can still command fees such as the million-dollar contract she signed this week with cosmetic company Coty) of leaking the tape of his phone call to force him to drop the contempt charges against her.

At the same time, in a cynical attempt to redeem himself in the eyes of an American public shocked by the virtual round-the-clock television broadcasts of the recording, Baldwin went on TV this week to make an emotional mea culpa and blamed his outburst on being barred from seeing his daughter by his ex-wife.

"Obviously, calling your child a pig or anything else is inappropriate. I apologise to my daughter for that," he said.

"There's nothing wrong with being frustrated or angry about the situation. But as people often do, I took it out on the wrong person."

He also dramatically announced that he was quitting the smash hit NBC sitcom 30 Rock, for which he received a Golden Globe earlier this year, and pledged to give up acting to devote his time to the issue of "parental alienation".

What was hardly surprising in this tawdry saga was that he also used the occasion to promote his tell-all book, A Promise To Ourselves, about the bloodiest of Hollywood divorces, which is due out later this year.

Equally predictable was that the U.S. network - desperate not to lose him from its ratings-winning comedy - rejected his offer of resignation.

Meanwhile, Baldwin's lawyer, Vicki Greene, who says Basinger "has so contaminated this child she now doesn't even want to be with her father", has launched yet more legal proceedings to discover who leaked the explosive recording.

His legal team claims Basinger has a "pathological need" to distance Ireland from her father.

One court petition claims: "Over and over, she demonstrates that her resentments are more precious to her than the emotional well-being of her child."

For her part, the actress, who fell for Baldwin on the set of The Marrying Man in 1990, denies any involvement in the voicemail message being released to the media.

Her father told the Mail she believes the tape, which was made on April 11 when the actor called his daughter at 10.30pm from a Manhattan restaurant, was released by a member of court staff after Kim supplied it as evidence in a bid to get a restraining order against Baldwin.

Don Basinger said: "Kim had to present it and from then on she was not in control. It could have leaked out from the courthouse or somewhere.

"Kim wouldn't release that tape knowing it would hurt Ireland. How could she want to hear somebody calling her daughter a pig over and over again on TV?"

What is beyond question, however, is that both parties - who announced earlier this year they had put their battles behind them for the sake of their daughter - are still seemingly content to make poor Ireland cannon fodder in their increasingly dirty war.

It had once been so different.

The handsome Baldwin and the former Playboy centrefold became Hollywood's hottest couple after their lavish 1993 beachside wedding in the fashionable Hamptons, outside New York.

But even before the birth of Ireland, their only child, in October 1995, Hollywood was already awash with rumours about their turbulent relationship.

Basinger, who had gained a reputation as a prima donna on the set of her movies, was said to live in fear of her husband's violent rages.

At the height of her fame, she suffered terrifying panic attacks and locked herself away for six months at a time in their home as the agoraphobia that had plagued her as a child returned with a vengeance.

Baldwin, meanwhile, was already renowned for his incendiary temper, and he was forced to pay the medical bills of a photographer he was accused of attacking for trying to take a picture of them with their baby.

He was also seen humiliating his wife in public with a ferocious verbal barrage in front of embarrassed patrons at a Long Island coffee shop.

Twice-married Kim finally fled their home in 2000, five years after going bankrupt - the result of being sued for backing out of an agreement to play the role of a woman whose limbs are amputated by her mad lover in the weird movie Boxing Helena.

As their divorce and custody battle over their daughter sank into vitriol, Kim branded her ex a "tin-pot tyrant", called him "Saddam Hussein" and said she fantasised about him dying. Baldwin hit back, accusing her of being a "black widow".

Certainly, Baldwin's notorious hair-trigger temper has shown no signs of cooling.

Last year, his leading lady quit the off-Broadway play Entertaining Mr Sloane in disgust after revealing that his volatile behaviour had left her fearing for her "physical safety, mental health and artistic integrity".

Acclaimed stage actress Jan Maxwell said she locked herself in her dressing room because of his frequent temper tantrums, which included him punching his fist through a wall because the theatre was too hot.

Then the Left-wing Baldwin had to apologise after describing U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney as a "terrorist" and "hate-filled maniac".

Basinger, meanwhile, has been told by the court to submit herself to "psychological evaluation", after she sacked a state-appointed therapist whom she accused of taking his side.

All of which has been watched in horror by Don Basinger, who is divorced from Kim's mother, Ann.

He told the Mail this week: "I know Alec loves Ireland and I'm sure she loves her father, but this has little to do with Ireland - it's all about bitterness.

"Alec is a generous and kind man in many ways, but he has a flaw - he can't control his temper. He needs to get some help.

"Ireland is in the same situation as Kim was before the divorce. She is uncomfortable in his presence. She is suffering verbal abuse and that can be just as bad and damaging as violence.

"She's witnessed his outbursts many times and I don't think a child could ever forget what he said on that tape.

"She was with me two weeks ago and she is handling it well. It's hard to get into the mind of a child, but she's very mature and strong.

"Kim just wants to safeguard her child. The courts have nothing to do with it. Protecting her daughter comes first - regardless of the consequences, even if that involves going to jail or leaving the country.

"I think Ireland can reconcile with her father. He and Kim need to communicate. This has been going on for five years and they have each spent a fortune on lawyers.

"In the end, they will realise that what they are doing is not productive and nothing has changed. Then I think they will say 'let's cool it and stop this'. I pray that will happen."

Wise words, but not, one suspects, enough for Hollywood's most selfish battling exes to call a truce for the good of the child they claim to love.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...=1766&ito=1490

[hrotedk]

That much of an article about something that is pretty strait forward?

Don't people, in general, have better things to do with their time?

I was tempted, so I skimmed the first few paragraphs, but it is the same old postulation and speculation "Could he be, could she be".

Ugh I hate this crap.



Why did I even click on the post?

[18holesin]

Agreed. I could kick myself for reading that.

WHO cares about these people? One could understand if they were talented, interesting, especially beautiful ...but they're not. The warring here is mundane, pedestrian.. no glamour.

----

"I might run from her for a thousand years and she is still my baby child. Our love is so furious that we burn each other out."

Richard Burton

[nakeseireo]

Ninja, Fab, and all the rest of you -- you have 2 choices:

1. Kick yourself for having wasted time reading this thread and vow that you'll never come back to it. (In which case, you may have to kick yourself a second time for coming back and "peaking".)

2. Realize that Alec and Kim are only "representations" to illustrate very serious and prevalent social problems with regard to children in divorce. These problems will continue to increase as the divorce rate rises.


What can be done about these problems on a large-scale level?

What future government legislation should be enacted?

What rulings should the higher courts, maybe even the Supreme Court, make?

What can we, the "ordinary" people, do help correct the problems?


We have barely scratched the surface, so let's start scratching.

[SantaClaus]

"Realize that Alec and Kim are only "representations" to illustrate very serious and prevalent social problems with regard to children in divorce."

This trashy story does not "represent" a larger picture. These are rich spoiled people, and in the scheme of things, perhaps border-line nut cases. This is they way they'll behave whether it's fighting over the kid or fighting over where to go for dinner.

Oh, pleeeeease:

"A gleaming cavalcade of blacked-out people carriers pulls up presidential-style at the gates of a smart private school in a moneyed Los Angeles suburb and disgorges a contingent of shades-wearing security men".

[gundas]

Haha, thanks for that. Nothing like dry humor to set the record straight.

Secondly, I just loved how this was the top story on FoxNews the day it came out. Poor Alec, getting lambasted by all these conservatives. His threat to leave the country after Bush 2004 probably did him in for good. Who thinks he'll pull a Johnny Depp?

[singleGirl]

2 points:

1. I agree with the prevailing wisdom... he was reacting to being treated rudely.. who is to say he is out of line?
2. even if he IS out of line, what in the world makes this news worthy? Good lord, how low are our journalistic standards when something like this gets headlines, but the bush administration's stated strategy change in training the Iraqi Army (no longer a priority) flys under everyone's radar screen. The whole media has become th NY Post.

[discountviagraman]

Good lord, how low are our journalistic standards when something like this gets headlines, but the bush administration's stated strategy change in training the Iraqi Army (no longer a priority) flys under everyone's radar screen.

It's really: "flies under almost everyone's radar screen." It didn't fly under yours, mine, or the radar screens of other members who prevalently posted on the Iraq/Middle East threads.


Am the only site member who thinks that as long as the Baldwin/Basinger story is making the headlines, something good for all of us should come out of it?

We all know parents who got unfair child custody arrangements because of unethical actions on the part of the other parent. Most of the public couldn't care less about these cases because the people involved are not celebrities or high-level figures. But the public is fascinated with Alec and Kim. I hate to repeat a cliche, but we should seize the moment for the sake of Mr. and Mrs. Anonymous, and even moreso, for their children.

[Vznvtthq]

I guess it just never dawned on me the benefits society might gain from Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger.

May God bless them.

[GSgCGxsF]

If those two help bring about constructive public discussion on divorced parents, then perhaps they will be redeemed.

Fab, surely you have met divorced gay men who because of their gender preference, are not allowed, or hardly ever allowed, to visit their children? Now seems as good a time as any to discuss this injustice.

[JMLot]

Uh....would you pass that by me again? : "....divorced gay men who because of their gender preference, are not allowed, or hardly ever allowed, to visit their children?"

[Bondjrno]

It's really: "flies under almost everyone's radar screen." It didn't fly under yours, mine, or the radar screens of other members who prevalently posted on the Iraq/Middle East threads.

It was a new post. I clicked on it.

Amazing.


Am the only site member who thinks that as long as the Baldwin/Basinger story is making the headlines, something good for all of us should come out of it?

Quite possibly. You are also one of the only members that seems to like to change the typeset, font color and size to somehow convey an emotion that you think we cannot read from your post.

What emotion is "blue"?


We all know parents who got unfair child custody arrangements because of unethical actions on the part of the other parent. Most of the public couldn't care less about these cases because the people involved are not celebrities or high-level figures. But the public is fascinated with Alec and Kim. I hate to repeat a cliche, but we should seize the moment for the sake of Mr. and Mrs. Anonymous, and even moreso, for their children. But celebrities NEVER represent what is actually going on in the real world. As for "seizing the moment", when you seize dog poo to hard, the best you can do is smear it on something else.

[itsmycock]

It's really: "flies under almost everyone's radar screen." It didn't fly under yours, mine, or the radar screens of other members who prevalently posted on the Iraq/Middle East threads.

True enough. Actually my comment was more directed toward the 'mainstream media' than toward the public in general or this audience specifically. Most of the media outlets are so focused on tabloid or celebrity journalism... i almost feel as they do not focus on hard news any longer.

First Anna Nicole. Than Imus and now Baldwin. Even the VTech massacre, as newsworhty as it was, completely monopolized the news for days and crowded out other legimate news stories that may have had worldwide reprucussions. I mean, did anything eles of note happen on those days? You would never know it unless you really digged. I find it really disturbing.

[Appenianags]

You are also one of the only members that seems to like to change the typeset, font color and size to somehow convey an emotion that you think we cannot read from your post.

What emotion is "blue"?

(Ooh, another shade of blue!)

Perhaps I choose a typeset, size and font color to give you the impression that I'm trying to convey an emotion that I think you can not read from my post because I know you can not read it from my post...

Then again, sometimes a color is just a color.

As for "seizing the moment", when you seize dog poo to hard, the best you can do is smear it on something else.

... and when you squeeze a lemon too hard you get lemonade. Oh, but you only know about dog poo.