Alec Baldwin's late-night talk show was yanked off the air for two weeks after the foul-mouthed actor spewed a homophobic slur against a photographer.
Baldwin’s weekly show “Up Late” was booted from its slot Friday night and won’t be back next week either. MSNBC pulled the plug on Friday — a day after he allegedly called a photographer a c---s---ing f-g.
After initially denying unleashing the hateful words, the “30 Rock” star admitted on Twitter that he had used an “anti-gay epithet.”
Richard Harbus/for New York Daily news
The ruckus erupted just minutes after Baldwin’s wife, Hilaria, insisted her husband didn’t have anger issues.
“I apologize and will retire it from my vocabulary,” he added.
The Baldwin suspension comes on the heels of his triumph in court. A judge on Thursday found Genevieve Sabourin guilty of stalking and sent the obsessed actress to jail for seven months. But instead of a victory lap, the actor was in a full back pedal.
“I did not intend to hurt or offend anyone with my choice of words, but clearly I have – and for that I am deeply sorry,” he said in a statement released by MSNBC. “Words are important. I understand that, and will choose mine with great care going forward. What I said and did this week, as I was trying to protect my family, was offensive and unacceptable. Behavior like this undermines hard-fought rights that I vigorously support.”
Richard Harbus/New York Daily News
Actor Alec Baldwin talks with NYPD officers to press charges against some members of the media. He left for Hamptons.
Not many people will miss his show, it appears.
The Oct. 11 premiere of “Up Late” drew 654,000 viewers. The number of viewers plummeted to about 395,000 on Nov. 8 — a drop of about 40%. Insiders say the show’s days are numbered.
PHOTOS: STARS WHO ATTACK PAPARAZZI[1]
Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News
Confronted by reporters and photographers trying to ask him about his courtroom victory over a female stalker, Baldwin smacked a smartphone from one reporter’s hands and shoved him against a car.
Before Baldwin got spanked by the network for his homophobic vitriol, he was getting hammered from all corners.
“Alec Baldwin shows his true colors yet again,” said openly gay CNN host Anderson Cooper. “How is he going to lie and excuse his anti-gay slurs this time?”
Daily Dish blogger Andrew Sullivan didn’t mince words.
Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News
"If you are his friend and you said my brother really wants to get into the business, he would say let's go out for a drink, let's go out for dinner. I'll give you some advice, he does that all the time," Hilaria (center) said of her husband.
“This raging, violent bigot cannot be defended any longer,” Sullivan said.
As the outrage mounted, Baldwin tweeted thanks to the staff at “Up Late” for their “wonderful efforts.”
Then he sent an cliff-hanger tweet from his foundation account, saying, “All good things...”
Steven Hirsch/Steven Hirsch
Genevieve Sabourin in Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday.
While MSNBC punished the poison-tongued actor, Hilaria Baldwin stood by her man. Earlier Friday, she addressed stalker Sabourin’s claims that Baldwin slept with her and then dumped her.
“No, what my husband does is he helps people,” she said Friday. “If you are his friend and you said my brother really wants to get into the business, he would say let’s go out for a drink, let’s go out for dinner. I’ll give you some advice, he does that all the time.”
RELATED: ALEC BALDWIN CRIES, CALLED A LIAR BY FRIEND IN STALKING TRIAL[2]
Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News
“Hey, you just assaulted me,” the reporter complained.
As for Sabourin, Hilaria said, “This was a case of that going very wrong.”
“I think that you can see from her behavior,” she said. “You know, my husband is an intelligent man. That's not something he would get mixed up in.”
Hilaria Baldwin also made the eye-rolling claim that the “30 Rock” star didn’t have a short fuse.
Richard Harbus/for New York Daily news
Alec Baldwin carries pooches as he and wife Hilaria head to the Hamptons after the hotheaded actor scuffled — yet again — with media on Friday.
“I think that you need to turn the camera around and you need to look at yourselves and see what you're doing,” she said. “This is our home, and you're standing outside of our home.”
And then, on cue, Baldwin blew up again.
Confronted by reporters and photographers trying to ask him about his courtroom victory, Baldwin smacked a smartphone from one reporter’s hands and shoved him against a car.
Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News
Baldwin said the obsessed 41-year-old French Canadian hounded him and his wife for two years. He denied having sex with the blond and insisted she was the mistress of “Scarface” producer Martin Bregman.
“Hey, you just assaulted me,” the reporter complained.
Baldwin laughed. “I assaulted you?” he said.
RELATED: STASI: STALKER FACING JAIL BECAUSE ALEC BALDWIN’S A CELEB[3]
Bryan Smith
“I think that you need to turn the camera around and you need to look at yourselves and see what you're doing,” Hilaria said. “This is our home, and you’re standing outside of our home.”
Then Baldwin bounded down the block to the Lifestyles Salon on Broadway for his regular haircut.
Baldwin later hired some local toughs to run interference for him as he was leaving the building with his wife and daughter. Shoving matches with the reporters quickly erupted at a half-dozen cops arrived within minutes.
At one point, Baldwin accused a TV reporter of assaulting his wife. “I want her arrested,” he demanded.
During her trial, Sabourin testified she had a “dream date” with Baldwin on Valentine’s Day 2010 that ended with a romp at a swanky Manhattan hotel.
No arrests were made and the Baldwins roared off in their SUV.
Baldwin’s beastly behavior outside his East 10th St. digs was a repeat of Thursday when he went after photographers trying to get a picture of him and Hilaria leaving their home with their baby daughter Carmen.
Baldwin should have been in a good mood following his court victory, but instead he grew livid at the sight of the shutterbugs and was caught on camera by TMZ.com hurling a filthy anti-homosexual slur at one of them.
Bryan Smith
It was Hilaria who sicced the cops on Sabourin when she showed up at their building in April 2012 and demanded to see Baldwin.
His subsequent apology wasn’t good enough for the gay rights group GLAAD, which said Baldwin — a liberal who has spoken out against anti-gay discrimination — should know better.
"Mr. Baldwin can’t lend his support for equality on paper, while degrading gay people in practice,” their statement said. “It's clearly time he listens to the calls from so many LGBT people and allies to end this pattern of anti-gay slurs."
RELATED: ALEC BALDWIN STALKER FOUND GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS[4]
In a bid to show that he’s a tolerant guy, Baldwin trotted his 27-year-old stylist, Nick Berrios, out of the salon Friday and asked him if he was “a homophobe.”
“Yes,” Berrios answered and both began laughing.
Later, Berrios described Baldwin as “a really nice guy” who has no problem with him — or anybody — being gay.
“From what I see, it's out of character,” Berrios said of the anti-gay outburst. “But I'm not him and I don't know what it's like to have a camera in my face.”
Meanwhile, Sabourin’s mom called her daughter’s situation “horrifying.”
“It’s too difficult for me to bear,” said Murielle Sabourin, who lives outside of Montreal. “I don’t want to comment on the decision the courts made because I’m just trying to surmount this horrible situation.”
During her trial, Sabourin testified she had a “dream date” with Baldwin on Valentine’s Day 2010 that ended with a romp at a swanky Manhattan hotel.
With Shayna Jacobs, Caitlin Nolan and Rebecca Ugolini in Montreal
References
- ^ PHOTOS: STARS WHO ATTACK PAPARAZZI (www.nydailynews.com)
- ^ RELATED: ALEC BALDWIN CRIES, CALLED A LIAR BY FRIEND IN STALKING TRIAL (www.nydailynews.com)
- ^ RELATED: STASI: STALKER FACING JAIL BECAUSE ALEC BALDWIN’S A CELEB (www.nydailynews.com)
- ^ RELATED: ALEC BALDWIN STALKER FOUND GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS (www.nydailynews.com)
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