Alec Baldwin

[BinkyBetsy]

And the threats.

And as far as going off on kids, yes, every parent does it at one time or another. But it's not called for in this situation. He's basically going off on her, insulting her, threatening her, because he thinks she doesn't love him enough.

And I could even give him a mulligan on the anger, if there had been harsh words between them, not just from him, very recently. Or if he'd told her he would be calling specifically to discuss a particular issue, and stressed how important it was, so that her not answering could be taken as a deliberate refusal to cooperate. The insults are another matter, though. And the threats are absolutely inexcusable. You straighten your kid's ass out when they wreck the car or get arrested, or get arrested after wrecking the car. You do not straighten it out over not answering the phone, no matter how important that one call was.

And anyway, the only way you can SYKAO is if they respect you already, or if you start commanding respect. It sounds as if lack of respect is another reason he wants to SHAO, and it doesn't work that way. He may never get her respect back at this rate.

[margojata]

Well, and how nice is that "I'm going to fly there for ONE DAY to straighten out your ass, and then I'm getting on a plane and flying right back!". WTF? So is he supposed to be punishing her by not sticking around? That sounds like he's going to show up to beat her, and then back to his regularly scheduled life (that has been SO inconvienced every time he has to pick up his cell phone).

All that said, apparently Kim reported this incident, and the visitation was already cancelled... so I'm not sure how leaking did anything but make Alec look bad (which I'm all for).

[Deleted]

After reading that book about SNL, I kind of got the idea that Alec was never the most pleasant person to be around - he tells a story about John Goodman, I think, and how Goodman messed up a sketch and how angry he was with Goodman - far angrier than appropriate for the situation, it sounded like.

It doesn't really surprise me that he treats his daughter like that - he seems to demand perfection and "his way" in everything and I guess if he doesn't get the professionalism he wants, he flips out like a maniac.

Totally inappropriate, but I like him on 30 Rock too much to stop watching.

[Deleted]

Damn this sucks! I really love a lot of the stuff he's done as an actor and I wanted him to be a good guy in real life!

[Ginger]

I don't think Alec has ever physically abused Ireland because I'm sure Kim would have pressed charges in about 30 seconds. When he told Ireland he was going to straighten her out, I'm guessing he was planning on doing a lot of yelling and threatening and physically intimidating her without actually touching her.

And I think it's absolutely awful to call your daughter a pig, not because of the fat connotation, but because of the gross, dirty, lazy, disgusting connotations, which Ireland is definitely old enough to get. I think it's a horribly demeaning insult. Personally, I'd rather be called a bitch.

[petals]

I listened to the video for the first time yesterday and I have to admit--halfway through, I couldn't figure out what the big deal was. At first, he sounds like any other dad yelling at his kid. I don't get an abusive vibe from his comment about coming out there and straightening her out.

But then he calls her stupid and a pig. And that's when my jaw dropped. Those kind of insults stay with you. I feel for the little girl.

[timekeeper]

petals said:

I listened to the video for the first time yesterday and I have to admit--halfway through, I couldn't figure out what the big deal was. At first, he sounds like any other dad yelling at his kid. I don't get an abusive vibe from his comment about coming out there and straightening her out.

But then he calls her stupid and a pig. And that's when my jaw dropped. Those kind of insults stay with you. I feel for the little girl.

As the mom of a teenager, I have to agree with you. I can literally count on two fingers the times in 18 years that my son has done something to enrage me to a point of almost sinking to Mr. assholes level. As someone who lived with a perpetually angry, abusive mother my immediate thought was how low name calling and verbal abuse sunk my self esteem and how long it took to rebuild it.

[Deleted]

Kim comes across to me as someone who is lax in the discipline department. Alec even mentioned something to this effect in his rant. Kids who are not disciplined and are given all the material luxuries in life that their heart desires are likely to be lazy, spoiled ass, unbearable and out of control little brats. It would not surprise me if Ireland falls into this category and I have no problem with him chewing her spoiled ass out. My only problem with the rant is where he called her stupid. He should have rephrased this to say her actions were stupid.

[Deleted]

Why on earth would someone assume the daughter is the problem? Long before she was born, Mr. Baldwin was famous for his anger issues.

Bottom line: he's an extremely large, imposing, physically intimidating man, she's a little girl of "12 or 11", as her devoted father put it(she's 11)--and he twice made threats that sounded an AWFUL lot like he was going to BEAT her ass the very next time he saw her: "I. am. going. to. STRAIGHTEN your ASS OUT!!" as he put it.
You girls who are admitting that you've had meltdown with your sons--listen, that's physically different. Or a mom screaming at a daughter. EVERYone, mostly, has horrible moments. But does anyone seriously think this is some kind of isolated incident? Come on! He goes on and on and ON--because--well, let's see, did she--

-stand him up for an expensive dinner with others, keeping everyone waiting?
-was a no-show for a joint appearance on a national TV interview(Alec had just taped Letterman when he phoned his rant)?
-post nude pics of him on the internet?
-stole her dad's coke stash?

No, she didn't answer her phone but had it set to voicemai, missing a court-appointed calll. What a "vile, rotten little PIG" indeed.

I'd say he richly deserved having this broadcast. Poor Ireland. No amount of "spoiling" warrants this treatment.

[LurkerNan]

Yeah, I don't see the problem with the sharing of the tape, whomever actually did it. If the outcome is increased protection of the kid, it's worth the trouble.

It's clear from his trying to deflect the issue back to Kim, the person who he thinks leaked it, that he really doesn't feel bad about being an asshole to his daughter. No matter what his spokes-holes say now, his first instinct was to blame his woes on the leak, not on his own behavior.