Alec Baldwin is sounding off today after being kicked of an American Airlines flight yesterday. According to the airline, Alec was rude, abrasive, swearing at the flight attendant, and got up and slammed the bathroom door when the seatbelt light was on. Now, I know Alec is notoriously rude – but I’m finding myself siding with him on this one. I’ve been on waaaay too many flights with Stewardesses on some power trip. Read his open letter to American Airlines below.

First off, I would like to apologize to the other passengers onboard the American Airlines flight that I was thrown off of yesterday. It was never my intention to inconvenience anyone with my “issue” with a certain flight attendant.

I suppose a part of my frustration lay with the fact that I had flown American for over 20 years and was brand loyal, in the extreme. The ticketing agents and Admiral’s Club staff have always been nothing but abundantly helpful to me, as I have flown hundreds of thousands of miles with the one carrier.

My confusion began when the flight, already a half hour behind schedule, boarded, the door closed, and we proceeded to sit at the gate for another fifteen minutes. I then did what I have nearly always done and that was to pull out my phone to complete any other messaging I had to do before take off. In nearly all other instances, the flight attendants seemed to be unbothered by and said nothing about such activity, by me or anyone else, until we actually were pulling away from the gate.

In this case, while other people were still manipulating their own phones, this one employee singled me out to put my phone away. Afterward, we still sat at the gate. I pulled out my phone again, while others did the same. Again, I was singled out by this woman in the most unpleasant of tones. I guess the fact that this woman, who had decided to make some example of me, while everyone else was left undisturbed, did get the better of me.

However, I have learned a valuable lesson. Airlines in the US are struggling with fuel costs, labor costs, bankruptcies, you name it. It’s no secret that the level of service on US carriers has deteriorated to a point that would make Howard Hughes red-faced. Filthy planes, barely edible meals, cuts in jet service to less-traveled locations. One of the big changes, in my time, is in the increase of the post-9/11, paramilitary bearing of much of the air travel business. September 11th was a horrific day in the airline industry, yet in the wake of that event, I believe carriers and airports have used that as an excuse to make the air travel experience as inelegant as possible.

Most of the flight attendants I have ever encountered still have some remnant of the old idea of service. Add to that the notion that in this day and age, many people have a lot of important work to do, by phone, and would like to do so till the last possible minute. But there are many now who walk the aisles of an airplane with a whistle around their neck and a clipboard in their hands and they have made flying a Greyhound bus experience.

The lesson I’ve learned is to keep my phone off when the 1950′s gym teacher is on duty. That was my fault there, even though this trip was quite a bit different from so many others. But it is sad, I think, that you’ve got to fly overseas today in order to bring back what has been thrown overboard by US carriers in terms of common sense, style, and service.

Who’s side are you on? AA or Alec Baldwin?

Source

Alec Baldwin found himself booted off a flight yesterday afternoon, after he refused to stop playing Words With Friends on his iPad.

The 53-year-old actor was kicked off his flight after a stewardess asked him to turn off his iPad, and he refused. The plane was sitting at the gate waiting to take off, and Alec didn’t want to stop playing his game. “The flight attendant on American reamed me out for playing Words With Friends while we sat at the gate, not moving,” Baldwin tweeted. “No wonder American Air is bankrupt.”

“But, oddly, 30 Rock plays inflight on American,” Baldwin added. “The real way is United.”

Several passengers who were on the plane confirmed the news via Twitter.

Said Activate founder and managing director Michael J. Wolf: “On an AA flight at LAX. Alec Baldwin removed from the plane We had to go back to the gate. Terrible that everyone had to wait.”

Baldwin’s early exit may have been due to his use of electronics. “The flight attendant on American reamed me out for playing Words With Friends while we sat at the gate, not moving,” Baldwin tweeted. “No wonder American Air is bankrupt.”

Baldwin’s rep explained the ordeal to Us Weekly, saying: “Alec was asked to leave the flight for playing Words with Friends while parked at the gate. He loves WWF so much that he was willing to leave a plane for it, but he has already boarded another AA flight.”

TMZ goes a bit deeper, claiming the stewardess “reamed” him for playing the game.

The last straw in the Alec Baldwin/American Airlines incident came when he “slammed” the bathroom door so loudly the captain of Flight 4 had to get involved … according to people on the plane.

We’re told Baldwin’s tweets about the incident are on point — flight attendants wanted him to shut off his cell phone in the middle of a game of “Words with Friends” … after the cabin door closed, but the plane remained at the gate.

But according to passengers … after the confrontation over his phone, Alec got up to go to the bathroom and angrily slammed the lavatory door. We’re told it was so loud the captain called back to flight attendants to find out what was happening.

That’s when the captain himself made the call to have Baldwin removed.

Sources close to Alec claim he did not slam the door, and only got up to get the flight attendant’s name so he could file a complaint — but because the fasten seat belt sign was on he was asked to leave the plane.

Alec boarded the next LAX-JFK flight — and we’re guessing he’s enjoying an intense match of ‘Words’ right now … at 40,000 feet.

I can totally see both sides to this. I generally am not a huge fan of stewardesses. They all just give you the nasty side-eye, don’t they? On the other hand – Alec Baldwin is an epic a**hole, always has been. So who knows.

These are pictures of Alec arriving in NYC after the whole incident. Doesn’t he look happy!

Photos: Fame, Source, Source

Alec Baldwin is one of Hollywood’s longest-running bachelors. Apparently that won’t be for much longer, the 53-year-old actor (and possible New York City mayoral candidate) has moved in with his 27-year-old yoga instructor girlfriend, Hilaria Thomas.

People close to the “30 Rock” star confirmed that Baldwin sold his 300 Central Park West apartment at New York’s famed Art Deco Eldorado to move in with his girlfriend downtown.

In a recent interview, Baldwin described the Upper West Side neighborhood where his luxury apartment was listed for $9.5 million as “more middle-class” and “not a little kind of jewel-box, privileged pocket of the city like some neighborhoods are.”

Moving on from his uptown roots, sources said Baldwin purchased an apartment in SoHo favored by raven-haired beauty Thomas.

“He’s really in love,” a source said. “He’s even met her parents. He sees marriage in the near future.”

The two were even wearing what appeared to be promise rings. Baldwin, who played in the annual Artists/Writers softball charity game in East Hampton, N.Y., last weekend, sported Thomas’ green hair band on his ring finger while Thomas flaunted a round diamond on a platinum band which she said belonged to her grandmother.

When asked by a fellow attendee if marriage was in the future, Thomas was overheard saying, “Let’s see how it goes.”

She looks more like his daughter than his girlfriend. I find it super creepy when a guy in his 50′s dates a girl in her 20′s. It’s just plain creepy – even if you are cool, like Alec Baldwin.

Photos: Fame – In these pics from Alec’s softball game over the weekend in East Hampton Long Island, Hilaria can be seen wearing a ‘promise ring’ on her left ring finger, surely a sign to Alec and their growing love and journey toward marriage.

Source

Director Adam Shankman tweeted this photo of Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand from the set of ‘Rock of Ages’. The ’30 Rock’ actor is decked out with long hair, shades and a jean vest.

Balwin and Brand are just a few of the big names starring in the big screen adaption. The cast also includes Tom Cruise, Mary J. Blige, Julianne Hough and Catherine Zeta-Jones. (Last week I posted pictures of Julianne in a bikini filming beach scenes.)

The 53-year-old star will play the part of Dennis Dupree, an ex-rocker who runs the Rock of Ages nightclub in order to hold onto his rock star past. Set in 1987 on the LA Sunset Strip, ‘Rock of Ages’ is the story of a small town girl who meets a big city rocker in an LA rock club, as they fall in love to a soundtrack of the greatest songs of the ’80s.

Source

Two days ago, actor Alec Baldwin claimed that the hit show 30 Rock will be over and done with after it’s final season that will air in 2012. Well, it seems that someone gave Alec a talking-to, because he sang a different tune when he wrote on Huffington Post:

“I want to take the opportunity to state that although my days on network TV may be numbered, I hope 30 Rock goes on forever, or at least as long as everyone involved desires.”

To top it off, he even suggests some possible storylines for the Emmy Award winning comedy series:

“Next year hopefully won’t be the last. Kenneth [Jack McBrayer, 37] can run the network. Jenna [JaneKrakowski , 42] will get her own talk show. Tracy [Tracy Morgan, 42] will become Mayor of New York. Then resign to go raise exotic reptiles. And Lemon [Tina Fey, 40] will go do. . . just about anything she sets her mind to.”

He ended it with a polite:

“Here’s to five more seasons.”

Yeah, no hit show wants any actor to spark controversy with the public by saying it’s only got another year-and-a-half shelf life!

Source

The ’30 Rock’ star wants to work in the government because he “deeply cares about the middle class” and thinks many politicians are failing to deal with the problems the country faces.

He said: “Yes, it’s something I’m very interested in. I do believe that people want to believe that someone who deeply cares about the middle class … would like to seek public office.

“We’ve had men who are Ivy League-groomed running this country since 1988. We’ve had men, regardless of their background, 22 years of Yale and Harvard and the problems aren’t getting solved.”

Despite his political ambitions, the 52-year-old actor believes he would find it difficult to quit his current career – like actor Arnold Schwarzenegger had to do when he ran for the office of Governor of California in 2003.

He added in an interview on CNN: “People would say to me all the time, ‘Why would you want to run for office?’

“And sometimes I don’t want to do it, because to leave what I’m doing now would be extremely painful because I like what I’m doing now.

“To quit now where it feels good would be enormously difficult.”

Source

Alec Baldwin was rushed to a Manhattan hospital early Thursday morning (February 11) after a girl thought to be his daughter called 911 saying he was “unresponsive,” New York Daily News reports.

Paramedics rushed the 30 Rock star from his Central Park West apartment to Lenox Hill Hospital with his consent around 12:10 a.m., authorities report. Baldwin was released shortly thereafter. A law enforcement official stated that Baldwin and his 14-year-old daughter Ireland had argued and she told a 911 operator her father threatened to take pills.

“This was a misunderstanding on one person’s part,” Baldwin’s rep, Matthew Hiltzik, states. “Alec was quickly released from the hospital, he’s completely fine and will be at work today.”

Continue Reading…