Baldwin blow-up costs him child custody as his angry voicemail proves hard to justify
By Damara Popoola
Baldwin on 30 Rock set
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 4/20/07 — A career high year may be coming to screeching halt for Alec Baldwin. Fresh off his “Departed” and “30 Rock” success, Baldwin’s made a major mistake this week when audio of a vicious voicemail sent to his 11-year old daughter Ireland hit the internet moving a family court judge to temporarily suspend Baldwin’s visitation rights.
While it’s generally accepted that Baldwin’s ex, Kim Basinger leaked the audio to the media during a acrimonious custody dispute, Baldwin’s vitriolic diatribe is hard to overlook. The 49-year old actor called his daughter a “rude, thoughtless little pig.” Upset that she had neglected to answer her phone, he continued, “You don’t have the brains or the decency as a human being.”
Baldwin, realizing there was no satisfactory way for him to spin this whole incident opted to release a statement Thursday where his spokesperson said that “in the best interest of the child,” the actor would “do what [Kim Basinger] is pathologically incapable of doing … keeping his mouth shut and obeying the court order.” The statement continued, “Although Alec acknowledges that he should have used different language in parenting his child, everyone who knows him privately knows what he has been put through for the past six years.”
Most people can sympathize with a parent dealing with a difficult child or even a messy divorce, but the anger and borderline egocentric vibe in Baldwin’s voicemail is a whole different story. At one point in the message he says, “I don’t give a damn that you’re 12 years old, or 11 years old, or that you’re a child, or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the ass who doesn’t care about what you do as far as I’m concerned. You have humiliated me for the last time with this phone.”
It is not surprising then that Basinger’s camp simply said, “”The voice mail speaks for itself.”
Baldwin and Basinger were married in 1993 and have been embroiled in a viscous custody battle since she filed for divorce in 2001, which was finalized in 2002. Their disputes have frequently been fodder for the media, most recently in October when Basinger was charged with contempt of court for violating a2004 custody agreement. A motion to dismiss the charges was denied Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court and the next hearing is scheduled for May 4.
