And so as he flies the blue lady of the skies into the sunset, we say “Aloha, 5 O’clock Charlie!” and return to our duties. Let me remind you the Weblog is open 24 hours for your dining and dancing pleasure.
“Alec Baldwin has been fired by MSNBC,” sources tell the New York Post’s Page Six column:
The rage-aholic’s weekly show, “Up Late With Alec Baldwin,” has been canceled because of the actor’s foul-mouthed rant at a photographer he called a nasty name.
“The decision has been made. He’s gone,” an insider at the cable channel told me. “The [parent company] Comcast guys have decided. Word is spreading through the building.”
Baldwin’s dismissal was decided on partly because of his diva-like behavior toward co-workers, a source said.
Besides demanding a humidifier because he claimed the air at 30 Rock was too dry, Baldwin alienated staffers when he demanded a separate makeup room being used by a woman with cancer who is sensitive to hairspray.
When Baldwin was told he couldn’t have his way, he allegedly bellowed at the top of his lungs, “I don’t give a f - - k if she has cancer or not, I want that f - - king makeup room.”
Just a reminder, back in early September, I wrote:
Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC couldn’t be more pleased to have Baldwin aboard. When speaking with NPR in 2011 about that year’s addition to the MSNBC lineup, the NBC executive gushed, “I’m a big fan of the Reverend Sharpton. I’ve known him quite a bit. he’s smart. He’s entertaining. He’s experienced. He’s thoughtful. He’s provocative, all the things I think that MSNBC is.” Griffin is similarly effusive about the equally pugilistic Baldwin:
“I’ve been talking with Alec for a while and can’t wait to bring his personality and eclectic interests to MSNBC,” said Griffin in a statement. “He’s got such passion for ideas and what’s going on in the world — he’s going to be a great addition to our lineup.”
Alec Baldwin: making Keith Olbermann seem like a model corporate citizen at NBC by comparison.
Note that Martin Bashir still has his job — it’s always acceptable behavior at Comcast-NBC to suggest crapping on a Republican woman.
For a flashback to where it all began, here’s Baldwin on the Conan O’Brien show, then still on NBC, back in 1998, telling the audience that they should stone to death then-GOP Congressman Henry Hyde — and his wife and family — over the impeachment of Baldwin’s fellow Democrat, Bill Clinton:
I come back from Africa to stained dresses and cigars and this and impeachment. I am thinking to myself in other countries they are laughing at us twenty four hours a day and I’m thinking to myself if we were in other countries, we would all right now, all of us together, [starts to shout] all of us together would go down to Washington and we would stone Henry Hyde to death! We would stone him to death! [crowd cheers] Wait! Shut up! Shut up! No shut up! I’m not finished. We would stone Henry Hyde to death and we would go to their homes and we’d kill their wives and their children. We would kill their families. [stands up screaming] What is happening in this country? What is happening? UGHHH UGHHH!!!!”
As the Media Research Center noted back then, “Now, in your mind substitute the name Al Gore or Hillary Clinton for Henry Hyde and the name of a conservative for Baldwin. What kind of reaction would the media establishment be expressing?” Of course after Baldwin’s recent homophobic slurs and scatological stylings of Martin Bashir, we now know what NBC executives were thinking — sign this man up for MSNBC!
Update: Blair’s Law defines, “the ongoing process by which the world’s multiple idiocies are becoming one giant, useless force.” QED, this classic moment on Twitter today:
— ABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) November 26, 2013
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