Alec Baldwin --- Ranting

[janeeyre]

Talented actor --- but definitely in need of major help.

He is blaming his temper tantrum on his frustration with the custody battle. Well, he can kiss custody goodbye. Didn't he say he would leave the country if Bush was elected --- good idea.

 

[chinaco]

I heard the tape on a conservative radio talk show driving home from work. I must admit, he was over wrought and ranting.

While I think he went over the top... I kinda felt a little embarrassed hearing it. Not just from the perspective of his ranting... but also because this was being aired on the radio and probably other media to embarrass him. He has made some political statements and his enemies are using the tape to get even.


AB was a turn-off for his behavior. I was just a turned off by the mouthpiece that would nto shutup about it. I turned the radio off.

 

[riskadverse]

While I haven't heard the tape, and I'm not sure I would want to, I'm sure everyone has had times they would truely be embarassed about, were it to have been recorded and then broadcast.

 

[Donzo]

They just had this played and discussed on CNN. It was a mistake for him to go off on his daughter...and on a tape recorder - his ex and her lawyer are using it for obvious reasons.
What was'nt included was that he caught himself and apoligized profusely before hanging up -

Dirty pool, this stuff should have stayed w/ the family and potentially the custody trial - not public consumption.

I am SO glad that I'm a "nobody"!

 

[haha]

Hey single guys- better hurry out and find a wife. Look at what you are missing!

Ha

 

[tryan]

Wow, how pompous do you need to be to speak into a RECORDER like that and think it won't haunt you later. WOW!

 

[bssc]

I think that his mouth was moving faster than his brain. Still, that does not justify calling her a pig.

 

[dex]

He called his 11 yo daughter a "fat little pig"

 

[Alex]

Actually, he called her a VAPID little pig, not a fat pig.


I ran into Alec Baldwin and his daughter at the Sherman Oaks Mall about 3 months ago. My wife and I were waiting for the elevator. When the doors opened there he was in a nylon sweat suit with his daughter and one of her tweenaged little friends. I smiled and gave him that backwards nod of the head that men sometimes do with one another, he just sneered at me and started to walk out. As he started to go he snapped his fingers at his daughter to get her to move more quickly. DW and I commented to each other that he didn't seem too happy. Now, this latest rant becomes public and all kinda makes sense. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. :

 

[stargazer08]

That man is a classic moron. I feel sorry for the kid. She's being used as a pawn (probably by both parents) in this divorce. Hollyweird at it's best.

 

[Texas Proud]

Sorry... but I am not going to pile on this guy... at least he is TRYING to be with his kid...

There are SO many men that father children... get divorced and never give one hoot about thier offspring... no child support, no calls.... like they never existed... those are the guy I think are slime...

Yes, he is a 'A' personality and is used to getting his way.. he will be that way with his kids... but since none of us know how he is with her when they are alone etc... why pile on

 

[happy2bretired]

Ok, I'll chime in a little too. I say cut the guy a little slack. With a nasty divorce you never know who the real bad guy is. I also know that some kids can really press your buttons in order to get attention...good or bad attention. It ain't easy being a parent, especially the parents of middle school kids.

 

[Lakerat Nomore]

I agree with stargazer8. And I have to say, even though I will be blasted for it. If I were the mother, I too would fight to keep this guy from my daughter. Any father who can't control himself any better than that and would treat his daughter with such contempt I would fight to keep him away. Yes, he is the father, but how much emotional harm can you allow to be done to your child and not step in and help. If the man will do this on a recording, what could you expect from him when he and Irland are alone together. If the child has been treated this way in the past, maybe that's why she doesn't want to call Daddy. Maybe that's why she doesn't want to be around Daddy. I know if my father had ever called me a "pig" it would have been something I could never have forgotten. I really feel for this young girl. Something tells me there is a "Daddy, Dearest" book in the making in a few years.

 

[Texas Proud]

Lakerat,

The problem with making a decision only on ONE recording is that we can come to the wrong conclusion easily... (first, I have only heard a bit of the call, maybe 30 seconds... don't care to listen to much more)..

We don't know how psycho (sp??) the mother is and how much bull she can be putting into her daughters ears... she has control of her most of the time.. and we don't know is she refused to let the daughter talk to him... and we don't know if she filed some motion that day or told him he would never see his daughter again... there are many things that could have brought him to the brink and that phone call was the tipping point... he lost it.. no question about that, but IMO we can only make judgements in context...

I am one that grew up with an abusive father... both physically and mentally... I have the scars.. so I know what one can do if that is what they really are... but I don't know anything else about Baldwin so I will not jump to the conclusion that he is a bad guy...

 

[sgeeeee]

http://video.aol.com/video/baldwin-responds-to-voicemail-rant/1892614

 

[TromboneAl]

I will say that teenage daughters can be infuriating, although 11 is a little young for that.

Teenagers have evolved this trait through millions of years of evolution. This is the age at which the kid needs to get a cave of his/her own; that is, move out of the parent's cave. A community is less likely to survive if the teenagers love to hang with Mom and Dad.

So, there's a lot of adaptive value in provoking your dad into call you a rude, thoughtless little pig.

 

[haha]

I don't like to criticize people who have done me no harm.

But I will say that if I ever talked to anyone like Alec is talking to his daughter, I would fear that I had likely lost that person for good. Leaving aside the clear demonstration from the POV of family court that he is too impulsive to have any custody of his daughter, think of what he has done to her.

A bad show. Divorce and custody battles can push us beyond our limits of good sense and common decency, but somehow both have to be to be maintained and the long view taken.

Ha

 

[Sue J]

I like Alec Baldwin on 30 Rock. He's very good.

But listening to this makes me think he's a very good actor, because I truly dislike the man on the voice mail message. He's yelling at his 11 year old daughter that she has insulted him and humiliated him for the last time. She's made him feel like a fool. Then he threatens to come and straighten her out.

He seems to be very warped in his sense of who is the parent and who is the child.

 

[dmpi]

I feel for the daughter, but none of us really knows exactly is he talking about. I mean... she might be in trouble for running into traffic or taking rides from strangers.
Also I like the way Alec can be mad as hell, but pronounce each word so clearly. Must of took voice lessons.

 

[LKH]

IMO, any parent who acts like that - or acts like Kim Basinger, who was wrong for making that rant public, is guilty of child abuse. Ireland should be removed from both of their homes, and given to people who would put her before their selfish issues.

 

[donheff]

I agree with Ha Ha. Baldwin went way overboard. Unless Kim Bassinger is a loon herself he will be lucky to get supervised visitation. This wasn't a frustrated dad pushed to the limit by an inconsiderate teenager. This was a potential abuser outing himself.

 

[Caroline]

I know if my father had ever called me a "pig" it would have been something I could never have forgotten.

I have a friend who remembers being insulted when she was about the same age and visiting one of her school friends. The friend's brother, a few years older, told his sister not to "let that dog crap in our yard."

My friend is 50 years old and all these years later she came close to crying when she told me the story. You are right, kids remember this type of cruelty and internalize it for a long, long time.

Sometimes once is one time too many.

On the positive side, maybe some other parents will recognize themselves in this scene and resolve to do better.

I don't know what Alec Baldwin has been through, but I will report that my father never, ever used this type of language with me, and some of the nonsense I pulled was a lot worse than missing a phone call!

 

[HFWR]

Sounds like the "grownups" in this situation need to "grow up"...

 

[mickeyd]

Sounds like Al is ready for ER to me.

 

[LKH]

I think he's a jerk, but what kind of mom would release those tapes? Could she possibly get over her vindictiveness long enough to consider how her kid would feel, not only having her dad call her that, but having the world know about it?