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Alec Baldwin to quit public life

Alec Baldwin unleashes on America's obsession with celebrity on the way to the exit door.

2014-02-25_1106Alec Baldwin has told New York Magazine he is ready to quit public life.

As TIME notes, the piece he wrote is mainly focused on denying allegations of homophobia that rose from a November altercation with a paparazzi photographer in which the actor allegedly used a homophobic slur. That led to the suspension and then cancellation of his MSNBC talk show. Baldwin denies using the slur and reaffirms his commitment to LGBT rights in the essay, before naming some of the people he blames for his fall from grace.

He slams a multitude of famous Americans in the media for incompetence, phoniness, or outright stupidity -including Shia LeBouf (who also quit public life), MSNBC, TMZ and the Huffington Post, Anderson Cooper and more. At least Tina Fey got off scot free.

In vowing to renounce fame, Baldwin says “I haven’t changed, but public life has.” He also mentions some advice from Warren Beatty that may explain Baldwin’s behaviour: “Your problem is a very basic one, and it’s very common to actors. And that’s when we step in front of a camera, we feel the need to make it into a moment. This instinct, even unconsciously, is to make the exchange in front of the camera a dramatic one.”

The downside to it all -as if that wasn’t enough in its own right- he’s still threatening to make another movie.

9 Responses

  1. @ Adam

    Vehemently disagree that anything Baldwin has said is justified. Here is someone that has a history of using gay slurs and has previously delivered expletive-laden rants to everyone from airline hostesses to his own daughter, but now when his actions have consequences, he suddenly hates the media despite wanting to be one of them only a few months ago. Frankly, his essay is the written equivalent of asking a girl to go out with you and after she dumps you, launching into a tirade of reasons why you never wanted to date them in the first place.

    It is ironic that he’s included Shia LeBouf in his essay, as his response has been as juvenile as LeBouf’s, when he was called out for plagiarism, short of donning a paper-bag over his head.

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