Alec Baldwin pleads with viewers not to blame MSNBC for show suspension
The strange case of Alec Baldwin continues. This has been quite a week for the troubled former star of “30 Rock,” as everything from a court case involving a former stalker to incidents with the paparazzi have landed him in the headlines. Things got so severe that there were allegations that Baldwin used a gay slur in regards to one reporter, and also claims that he fired off a series of threats to some who were photographing his wife Hilaria. All of his led to his MSNBC show “Up Late with Alec Baldwin” being suspended for last night and the subsequent episode.
Now, Baldwin has written a new blog for The Huffington Post where he makes an attempt to explain himself. First, he denied using a homophobic slur, saying that after referring to one reporter as a “queen” earlier this year, he learned his lesson. He also reiterated being an advocate for equality as well as same-sex marriage.
In addition, Alec also addressed the future of the show, mostly lamenting that the hard work of others is going to be tainted or damaged thanks to his own situation:
“Whether the show comes back at all is at issue right now. My producers and I had a very enlightening and well-researched program prepared to air on November 22nd itself, dealing with John Kennedy’s assassination. That show is off the air now. I am deeply apologetic to Ron Fried, who worked extremely hard with me on that show. It’s heartbreaking to me that the show, meant to coincide with the actual anniversary, will not be aired that night. The show is no doubt a work in progress and one that I believe featured some interesting guests and disseminated a good deal of interesting information. But if the show dies, its fate ends up being no different than the vast majority of start-up TV programming, and so be it. We do take a small amount of pride in knowing that we beat CNN in the ratings each of our nights.”
In some ways, we understand the frustration that Alec must have with having his wife and infant child harassed on the street by reporters, with many of them probably being there at this point specifically to get a rise out of the actor and making themselves into a story. But, at the same time, why not move to a more secluded area? Unfortunately for Alec, one man is not going to change the way in which most paparazzi choose to conduct their business.
Photo: MSNBC