Alec Baldwin's biggest controversies after deadly set shooting from calling daughter 'rude pig' to wife's 'FAKE accent'
ALEC Baldwin fired a prop gun on Thursday that killed one crew member and injured another in a tragic incident on the set of his new Western movie "Rust", which he's starring in and producing.
The 63-year-old Academy Award nominee was pictured sobbing outside of a police station yesterday following the deadly accident in Santa Fe, New Mexico that left cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, dead and director Joel Souza, 48, hospitalized.
The shooting happened in the middle of a scene that was either being rehearsed or filmed, a spokesman for the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Investigators are quizzing those on the set to determine precisely how Hutchins and Souza ended up being shot.
The case remains active and open and no charges have been filed.
As the investigation continues, a union covering prop masters, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 44, released a memo to its members suggesting a "live round" had been loaded into the prop weapon.
"A live single round was accidentally fired on set by the principal actor, hitting both the Director of Photography, Local 600 member Halyna Hutchins, and Director Joel Souza," the email, seen by IndieWire, said.
"Local 44 has confirmed that the Props, Set Decoration, Special Effects, and Construction Departments were staffed by New Mexico crew members. There were no Local 44 members on the call sheet."
The union's claims have not yet been confirmed by police.
TRAGIC ACCIDENT
But according to ShowBiz 411, Baldwin was distraught following the tragic accident and questioned why he was handed a loaded gun.
He released a statement on Friday morning, sharing his heartbreak over the death of Hutchins.
"There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours," the 30 Rock star wrote.
Read our Alec Baldwin shooting live blog for the very latest news and updates…
"I'm fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family.
"My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna."
Baldwin's wife Hilaria was pictured fleeing the couple's New York home with their six children and their pets on Thursday night as news of the tragic shooting first broke.
HIGH-PROFILE CONTROVERSIES
Baldwin, who rose to fame in the 1990s, has endured a turbulent career blemished by high-profile public flair-ups, fallouts, brawls with paparazzi, substance issues, and homophobic outbursts.
His history of rageful fits has earned him the moniker "Angry Alec" in the tabloid press.
In October 1995, the Miami Blues star was sued over an altercation with photographer Alan Zanfer that unfolded outside of the actor's home as he and then-wife Kim Basinger returned from the hospital.
It began when Baldwin approached Zangar and asked him not to film his newborn daughter Ireland, who was then just three days old.
The pair became ensnared in a heated exchange of words when the actor allegedly punched him on the nose.
The case went to court but Baldwin was eventually acquitted of misdemeanor battery.
"Anyone with a shred of human decency would understand that there are times in your life when you want your privacy respected … I do believe that bringing your wife and 3-day-old baby home from the hospital is one of those occasions," he said in a statement at the time.
"I'm sorry for any problems caused and I look forward to (the photographer) Mr. Zanger and I putting this behind us."
INFAMOUS 'PIG' VOICEMAIL
Baldwin would once again make headlines with Ireland 12 years later, but this time for leaving a scathing voicemail for the then-11-year-old.
Spanning nearly two minutes, Baldwin launched into the vicious diatribe after Ireland screened one of his calls.
In it, he called her a "rude thoughtless little pig", adding: "You don't have the brains or the decency as a human being.
"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.
"Once again I have made an ass of myself trying to get to a phone. You have humiliated me for the last time with this phone."
He concluded his message by telling Ireland she "made him feel like s**t" and also threatened to fly to LA to "straighten her out."
The actor apologized for the message and Ireland took it as a reaction to her dad's frustration over his custody battle with her mother.
Eight years later, the pair even found humor in the whole incident, with Ireland posting a photo of him reading her a book called "If I Were a Pig … "
'WORDS WITH FRIENDS' INCIDENT
Within a few years, Baldwin found himself back in hot water again when he was kicked off of an American Airlines flight for refusing to turn off his iPad before takeoff as he was apparently engrossed in an important round of Words With Friends.
He then took to Twitter to fume about the incident. In one since-deleted tweet, he bashed the airline, writing it was "where Catholic school gym teachers from the 1950's find jobs as flight attendants."
American later responded to Baldwin's online tirade, claiming that the star had been "extremely rude" and had been calling people "inappropriate names" and using offensive language.
He was reportedly booted from the plan after slamming "the lavatory door so hard, the cockpit crew heard it and became alarmed.”
Baldwin once again apologized for the outburst, though this time with a sarcastic edge, writing in an article in the Huffington Post: "It was never my intention to inconvenience anyone with my ‘issue’ with a certain flight attendant.
"I've learned never to be on my cellphone when the Catholic school gym teachers from the 1950s are on duty."
PHOTOGRAPHER BUST-UPS
Just months later, an angry Alec Baldwin was photographed assaulting a New York Daily News photographer in Manhattan, moments after he obtained his marriage license with Hilaria.
Witnesses at the time said Alec was repeatedly "shoving and punching" the photographer.
The paparazzo meanwhile, said the SNL actor "lunged at [him] like a raging bull."
History would repeat itself the following year in August 2013, when police were called to separate a scuffle between Baldwin and another snapper.
The incident was reportedly sparked when the photographer approached Alec and Hilaria as they were walking around Manhattan and asked them a few questions regarding the birth of their newborn baby girl Carmen.
Baldwin was photographed pinning the photographer to the hood of the car. Hilaria, meanwhile, sought shelter from Baldwin's rageful outburst in a nearby coffee shop.
Both of the men admitted to getting physical to police and no charges were filed.
'ANGRY ALEC'
In May 2014, Baldwin was arrested by officers from the NYPD after he became "disorderly" when written up for riding his bike the wrong way down a street in Manhattan.
The Departed actor allegedly became aggressive and started yelling at the cop, asking him for identification in order to issue him a summons.
Police alleged that he was belligerent and started arguing with them while using profanity.
Once in custody, Baldwin reportedly asked the desk supervisor, "How old are these officers, that they don’t know who I am?"
In a subsequent tirade on Twitter, Baldwin blasted the city of New York as a "mismanaged carnival of stupidity that is desperate for revenue and anxious to criminalize behavior once thought benign."
In the years that followed, Baldwin found success with his SNL portrayal of Donald Trump, which would see him land his third Emmy award.
But amid his successes, any thoughts "Angry Alec" may have mellowed in his older age appeared to shatter in the fall of 2018 when he was once again arrested.
This time, Baldwin had become involved in a physical altercation with another man over a parking spot outside of his East 10th Street building in NYC.
The incident was reportedly spurred when the 49-year-old victim took a parking spot that Baldwin had been waiting for.
The driver was injured in the incident but said he "wasn't sure if he was punched or exactly how he was injured in the altercation."
Alec told police "he took my spot. I did push him," and initially pleaded not guilty.
However, the morotirst later claimed that Baldwin "[struck him] across the left side of [his] face with [a] closed right hand, resulting in pain to [his] face."
Baldwin eventually worked out a plea deal that saw him only admit to harassment.
The assault charge was dropped, and he was ordered to pay a small fine and attend a one-day anger management course as a result.
HOMOPHOBIC REMARKS
In June 2013, Baldwin took to Twitter to defend his wife, Hilaria, who was accused of tweeting during the funeral of late Sopranos star James Gandolfini.
“Someone wrote that my wife was tweeting at a funeral. Hey. That’s not true. But I’m gonna tweet at your funeral … you toxic little queen,” Baldwin wrote in an expletive-laden rant directed at Daily Mail reported George Clark.
Clark had earlier commented that Hilaria's Twitter account had been sharing upbeat posts at the same time mourners had been gathered in the church for the ceremony.
Five months later, Baldwin was caught on tape yelling a homophobic slur at a photographer, calling him a "c**k sucking f**k" as he left his apartment.
Baldwin denied making the comment, but his MSNBC talk show "Up Late With Alec Baldwin" was pulled from the air.
Baldwin wrote in another Huffington Post editorial: “Two requests. Don’t allow my problem to be MSNBC’s problem. They are good people who work hard at a job, just like many of you. And two, please respect the privacy of my wife and family.”
He has been involved in a number of other alleged instances of homophobia.
In 1997 he allegedly called a horse carriage driver a "f****t" in Central Park; in 2011 he was accused of calling a Starbucks barista an "uptight queen"; in 2012 he called the New York Daily News editor an "English queen."
HILARIA SCANDAL
Angry Alec reared his head again last year during the pandemic after he and wife Hilaria became a laughing stock on social media after it was revealed her claims of a Spanish heritage were entirely false.
Videos flooded social media showing Hilaria, who was raised in America, sharing conflicting information about her so-called Spanish roots and fluctuating accent.
Alec responded to mocking tweets by telling people to "go f**k yourself."
He took a more subdued swipe at another critic via Twitter in response to a post about an opinion essay for People entitled: "Why the Hilaria Baldwin Scandal Is Painful for Immigrants — Including Me."
The essay by Ale Russian slammed Hilaria – who eventually confessed that she was born in Boston and that her real name is Hillary – for the "exaggerated" accent she "appropriated as an adult."
Alec replied: "Fake? Exaggerated? Appropriated an accent as an adult? She lived in Spain for many years as a child. She lived both places."
Hilaria later denied claims of cultural appropriation but insisted she never meant to misrepresent herself.
"I was born in Boston. I spent time in Boston and in Spain. My family now lives in Spain. I moved to New York when I was 19 years old and I have lived here ever since," she told the New York Times.
She couldn't confirm how much time she had spent in Spain as a child.
"I think it would be maddening to do such a tight timeline of everything,' she said. "You know, sometimes there was school involved. Sometimes it was vacation. It was such a mix, mishmash, is that the right word? Like a mix of different things.
"When we weren’t in Spain, we called it 'we brought Spain into our home.'"
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