Personally, I think the only one Alec Baldwin should be apologizing to is his 11-year-old daughter. (Actually, I think he should be begging her forgiveness.) But, as it turns out the actor’s angry words (which happened to be broadcast around the world) are now sparking a war between men and women.
First, let’s discuss the 49-year-old actor’s explanation as to why he left a seething, brutal, berating voicemail on his young daughter’s cellphone in which he can be heard calling her “a rude, thoughtless little pig.”
Baldwin posted this (excuse) on his website yesterday:
“I’m sorry, as everyone who knows me is aware, for losing my temper with my child. I have been driven to the edge by parental alienation for many years now. You have to go through this to understand. (Although I hope you never do.) I am sorry for what happened.”
He added: “I have endured a great deal over the last several years in my custody litigation. Everyone who knows me privately knows that certain people will go to any lengths to embarrass me and to disrupt my relationship with my daughter.”
For those of you who don’t know Baldwin and his ex-wife, actress Kim Basinger, have been engaged in bitter custody disputes over their daughter, Ireland, since they divorced in 2002.
Which leads me to this final excerpt from Baldwin’s website “apology.” In it he seems to shift the blame for his rant to his ex-wife, basically telling the world it was Basinger’s fault that the voicemail message went public.
“In such public cases, your opponents attempt to take a picture of you on your worst day and insist that this is who you are as a person,” Baldwin wrote. “Outside the doors of divorce court, I have friends, I have respect from people I work with and I have a normal relationship with my daughter. All of that is threatened whenever one enters a court room.”
All of this family drama has gone public, and currently the incident is still making headlines. Two days later it’s still the topic of debate on many news shows—-one I found took an interesting angle, which pitted a man’s interpretation of Baldwin’s rant versus a woman’s.
The “Today” show conducted an informal survey and found men felt the actor’s message to his daughter was “not a big deal.” Including the comment about her being “a little pig.” In fact, one male interview subject went as far as to say that “little pigs are storybook characters” and Baldwin could have called his daughter a myriad of other names, but chose not to. What’s more, this man went on to say that “kids are tough” and Baldwin is “just a passionate person” who got caught up in the moment.
In contrast, the women in the survey called Baldwin’s remarks to his young daughter a form of “emotional abuse.” One female psychologist commented that the actor’s message was a form of humiliation, degradation, and that there is “no excuse for a grown man to take his frustrations out on an 11-year-old” in the manner that he did.
Frankly, I have to side with the psychologist. To me there’s no way Baldwin can make excuses for calling his only child a pig and no reason he should rail into her for not picking up the phone.
Apparently a judge agrees because on Friday Baldwin was ordered not to make any contact with his daughter until the case goes back to court next month.
Where do you stand on the debate?