Alec Baldwin Proves Not All Publicity Is Good Publicity
Alec Baldwin Proves Not All Publicity Is Good Publicity
"Someone is responsible for what happened... but I know it's not me"
Alec Baldwin is not a smart man, but he’s good at modulating his voice and sounding imperious. He projects an icy, intimidating confidence with his smooth, purring delivery. This has served him well throughout his acting career. (“I’m here from Mitch and Murray, and I’m here on a mission of mercy.” Right? You can’t not hear it.) And apparently, he thought it would serve him well when he sat down with George Stephanopoulos on national TV to talk about what happened when Baldwin shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of his latest film.
He was wrong.
Stephanopoulos: How do you respond to actors like George Clooney who say that every time they were handed a gun, they checked it themselves?
Baldwin: Well, there were a lot of people who felt it necessary to contribute some comment to the situation, which really didn’t help the situation. At all. If your protocol is you check the gun every time, well, good for you. Good for you.
Okay, this is bad right off the bat. Now is not the time to air your grudges. It’s not the time to sneer “Good for you” at your fellow actors in Hollywood. Who, by the way, aren’t the ones who just killed somebody. No, they’re not going to keep your name out of their mouths, and you’re in no position to scold them for talking about what you did. Nobody cares about your wounded ego. A woman is dead. You pointed a gun at her and now she’s dead. Your critics are not your biggest problem right now.
Baldwin blames everybody but himself. He even manages to blame Hutchins, who of course isn’t alive to defend herself:
Stephanopoulos: There are some who say you’re never supposed to point a gun at anyone on a set, no matter what.
Baldwin: Unless the person is the cinematographer who’s directing me at where to point the gun for her camera angle. That’s exactly what happened.
So it’s her fault? That’s insane.
Then there was this bizarre moment, when Baldwin was apparently tickled by the word “armorer”:
Is this really what he thinks the world wants to see from him right now? He shot and killed a woman, and even his diehard fans are having trouble giving him the benefit of the doubt. Then he goes on national TV and grins about it?
This is not good either:
I guess there’s no good answer to that question: “Do you feel guilt?” If you say yes, you just admitted guilt. If you say no, you sound like a sociopath. There’s nothing you can say that’s going to help you. Which is why it was a very bad idea to agree to this interview.
And Baldwin’s admission about his precise actions the moment he shot Hutchins is just stunning:
So Baldwin pulled back the hammer of the pistol. Then he released the hammer, while the gun was pointed at Hutchins. And then the gun went off “all by itself.”
Is this really something he should’ve said on national TV? Now he has to deal with a lot of people who know something about guns, like this guy:
Whether it was intentional or not, whether Baldwin pulled the trigger or not, his own actions directly led to Hutchins’ death. He just said so himself.
I’m no lawyer, but if I were Alec Baldwin’s attorneys, I would quit immediately. What a disaster. I was willing to give Baldwin the benefit of the doubt before this, but now I want to see his ass behind bars.
Ladies and gentlemen: the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
I want to make sure you can see that whole chart:
That’s right, over the course of two weeks in November 2021, the price of gasoline went down two cents per gallon. Hey man, two cents is two cents. Sure, a year ago it was $2.12, and now it’s $3.38. But that’s still less than $3.40. Do the math, you dumb rednecks.
Oh, and be sure to vote Democrat!
I’ve read all the Jack Reacher books and I liked Tom Cruise in the first movie, even though he looks nothing like the character Lee Child writes about. The guy in the books is an ogre: 6’5”, 250 pounds, all muscle. A human wall, with hands the size of dinner plates. He’s like the Hulk on a calm day. Cruise would need to clone himself and ride on his own shoulders to be as big as that guy, but I thought he was good anyway because he nailed the character’s attitude and intellect and remorseless savagery. Just like Hugh Jackman was perfect for the role of Wolverine even though he’s 6’2”, a full foot taller than the character in the comics. It would’ve been nice if they’d found somebody more height-appropriate, but he embodied the character to a tee. It’s called acting.
Well, the producers of the upcoming Reacher show on Amazon Prime have found the right man for the job. He acts like Reacher, and he sure as hell looks like Reacher:
Yeah, I’d say Alan Ritchson bears a slight resemblance to the character in the books…
It looks like this show is based on the first novel in the series, Killing Floor, which was published in 1997. The Reacher in the books was born in 1960, so Ritchson is even the proper age at 37.1
One of the fun things about the books is Reacher’s arrogantly amused attitude toward anybody who’s smaller and/or dumber than he is. Which is almost everybody. He’s a bully who preys on other bullies, and he’s always beating up a whole crowd of dudes while insulting their intelligence. It’s macho fantasy wish fulfillment and I love it, and it looks like this show will deliver.
February 4. Mark your calendar!
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Lee Child insists on hewing to this 1960 birthdate for Reacher, even though each of the 26(!) novels is set in the year it was written. (Except for three flashback novels from Reacher’s days as an Army MP.) This is starting to become a problem in the more recent books, with a 60-year-old Reacher still kicking ass like a man half his age. I assume eventually he’ll be rebooted as a younger man in the books, like Batman and James Bond and all the other fictional tough guys who are too profitable to die of old age.
Just who are Baldwin's lawyers?! Malpractice.
Jack Reacher looks FANTASTIC! Is it only on Amazon Prime?
I thought Alec Baldwin was a POS before this, and now I'm convinced.