“Alec Baldwin has struck again … allegedly … grabbing a photog on the streets of New York in front of several witnesses … and now the NYPD is involved. Gossip site TMZ reports, with photos of Baldwin wrestling with the photographer:
Sources connected with Baldwin tell TMZ … the photog was the aggressor.
We spoke to the photog — not a TMZ guy — who tells us he did nothing to provoke Alec saying, “All I can say is I was doing my job asking him normal questions and he flipped. That’s all.”
The photog says he called police … and cops responded to the scene.
A friend of Alec tells us … Alec was with his wife Hilaria during the incident … and Hilaria, in an effort to avoid the pap, ducked into a nearby tea store. We’re told Alec also called police.
The friend tells us, “What kind of sick twisted psychopath chases a woman who just got out of the hospital from having a baby into a tea store?”
Hilaria just gave birth to the couple’s daughter on August 23.
The London Daily Mail adds:
Baldwin, 55, has infamously previously been involved in altercations with both reporters and photographers, and admits he struggles to deal with the interest in his private life.
Earlier this year the 30 Rock star told Gothamist: ‘The one element of culpability I have is I did let it get to me, and I have been confrontational with them [the press].’
Back in February he allegedly told a reporter to ‘choke to death’ after she questioned him about a lawsuit involving his wife Hilaria’s work as a yoga instructor.
The comments were recorded and passed to police.
During the altercation he is further said to have called photographer G.N. Miller, who is black, a racial epithet, a ‘coon’, ‘a drug dealer’, a ‘crackhead’ and made disparaging remarks about his mother, according to Miller’s police statement.
Curiously, the Daily Mail fails to mention Baldwin’s last run-in with a photographer, in late June:
Alec Baldwin — who puts Paula Deen to shame in the bigotry department — again showed his true colors with a hate-filled tirade that targeted gays.
A British reporter wrote a story that Baldwin’s wife was tweeting recipes and other things during James Gandolfini’s funeral. The actor went nuts on twitter, claiming the story was false. Nothing wrong with that.
But then Baldwin played his go-to homophobic card — he’s done it before — tweeting that the reporter was “a toxic little queen.” Baldwin continued, “If (sic) put my foot up your f***ing ass, George Stark, but I’m sure you’d dig it too much.”
Baldwin then called the reporter a “f***ing little bitch” several times and then just plain threatened, “I’m gonna f**k you up.”
Baldwin has reportedly been hired to be an on-air host at the archleftist TV network MSNBC; it seems rather offputting for a tyro journalist, particularly before his show goes on the air, to attack a fellow tradesman in the profession whose ranks Baldwin will soon be joining.
Does Baldwin risk losing his new gig even before he goes in front of the cameras at the network for the first time? I would doubt it; presumably, as he said about fellow leftist Al Sharpton, MSNBC president Phil Griffin likely views Baldwin as “smart. He’s entertaining. He’s experienced. He’s thoughtful. He’s provocative, all the things I think that MSNBC is.”
Update: The New York Daily News adds this charming detail:
Baldwin quickly took to Twitter to compare the June 2012 incident to the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin.
“I suppose if the offending paparazzi was wearing a hoodie and I shot him, it would all blow over,” he tweeted.
The Manhattan District Attorney ultimately declined to file charges.
Like much of MSNBC’s talent, the nascent video journalist does not appear to be well-served by Twitter. And yet, despite repeated promises to quit yet another media to which he appears to be ill-suited, Baldwin seems addicted to the micro-blogging format.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member