The actor defended himself and his tirade against a British journalist who accused his wife, Hilaria, of tweeting during a funeral for James Gandolfini.
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A restrained Alec Baldwin leaves his lower Manhattan home on Friday.
Hot-headed Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin broke his self-imposed silence
Friday to say he’s a Twitter quitter — but definitely not a homophobe.
The famously blustery Baldwin blew past reporters outside his East Village apartment with barely a word, but by late afternoon he popped up on Gothamist to say he wasn’t using a gay slur when he called a British reporter a toxic “queen” on Twitter.
“The idea of ... that being something that people thought is homophobic ... a queen to me has a different meaning. It’s somebody who’s just above,” Baldwin told Gothamist, adding that he would have moved out of New York years ago if homosexuality offended him.
“I know women that act queeny, I know men that are straight that act
queeny, and I know gay men that act queeny. It doesn’t have to be a
definite sexual connotation, or a homophobic connotation. To me those
are people who think the rules don’t apply to them,” Baldwin said.
The volatile actor took his Twitter account down Thursday after directing a series of rage-filled and profanity-laced messages to a Daily Mail reporter who incorrectly said Baldwin’s wife was tweeting during the tear-soaked funeral service of James Gandolfini.
“George Stark, you lying little b----h. I am gonna f%#@ you up,” the actor ranted.
“My wife and I attend a funeral to pay our respects to an old friend, and some toxic Brit writes this f---ing trash,” he fumed.
He then followed up with what many viewed as gay slurs.
“(I’d) put my foot up your f---king ass, George Stark, but I’m sure you’d dig it too much,” Baldwin wrote.
“I’m gonna find you, George Stark, you toxic little queen, and I’m gonna f---k...you...up.”
Baldwin sent an email to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Friday apologizing for his comments.
“My ill-advised attack on George Stark of the Daily Mail had absolutely nothing to do with issues of anyone's sexual orientation ... As someone who fights against homophobia, I apologize,” he wrote.
Stark touched off Baldwin’s hair-trigger temper by claiming the actor’s
heavily pregnant wife, Hilaria, sent “upbeat” tweets about recipes and
summer smoothies while others were mourning.
But witnesses at the event said it never happened.
“I was sitting right next to them, and I can tell you neither one of them took out a camera, a phone, or anything,” said Gandolfini’s fellow “Sopranos” castmate and longtime friend Garry Pastore.
“The service was riveting and moving, we were saying goodbye to a
wonderful guy, and Alec and Hilaria were just as touched as everyone
else,” Pastore said.
Hilaria took to Twitter to defend herself after her husband’s meltdown, deriding Stark’s “poor journalism” and retweeting a link to an article that suggested he read Twitter’s time stamps wrong.
Stark, based on the West Coast, saw her tweets stamped with Pacific time — three hours earlier than Hilaria actually sent them, the article said.
“Daily Mail might owe @hilariabaldwin an apology. The smoothie tweet
they say was at 847am was actually 1147am,” said another Tweet from a
fan.
“I hope that this reporter knows how much pain and drama he has caused from his poor journalism. Lying and bullying are shameful,” Hilaria tweeted.
The couple was spotted loading bags into the back of a car and getting out of town Friday.
Baldwin told Gothamist his decision to get off Twitter actually came during Gandolfini’s emotional send-off — and not as a result of the shocked public reaction to his violent outburst.
The “Sopranos” star, 51, died suddenly of a massive heart attack last week while vacationing with his family in Italy.
“I was sitting there at Jimmy Gandolfini’s funeral and these people were talking about what a great person he was, what a great friend he was, father he was, what a great colleague he was,” Baldwin told Gothamist.
“He didn’t think to himself, ‘Man, I gotta have a Twitter, I gotta be Twittering.’ I thought, ‘You know something? I’m gonna take a lesson from Jimmy Gandolfini.’ This media thing is a complete waste of time.
The famously blustery Baldwin blew past reporters outside his East Village apartment with barely a word, but by late afternoon he popped up on Gothamist to say he wasn’t using a gay slur when he called a British reporter a toxic “queen” on Twitter.
“The idea of ... that being something that people thought is homophobic ... a queen to me has a different meaning. It’s somebody who’s just above,” Baldwin told Gothamist, adding that he would have moved out of New York years ago if homosexuality offended him.
Splash News
Hilaria Baldwin leaves her home Friday following the controversy that she was tweeting during James Gandolfini's funeral.
The volatile actor took his Twitter account down Thursday after directing a series of rage-filled and profanity-laced messages to a Daily Mail reporter who incorrectly said Baldwin’s wife was tweeting during the tear-soaked funeral service of James Gandolfini.
“George Stark, you lying little b----h. I am gonna f%#@ you up,” the actor ranted.
Walter McBride/WireImage
Alec and Hilaria Baldwin married in June 2012. They are currently expecting their first child.
He then followed up with what many viewed as gay slurs.
“(I’d) put my foot up your f---king ass, George Stark, but I’m sure you’d dig it too much,” Baldwin wrote.
Andrew Burton/Getty Images
The ‘30 Rock’ star arrives Thursday at James Gandolfini’s funeral.
Baldwin sent an email to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Friday apologizing for his comments.
“My ill-advised attack on George Stark of the Daily Mail had absolutely nothing to do with issues of anyone's sexual orientation ... As someone who fights against homophobia, I apologize,” he wrote.
LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS
Actor Alec Baldwin and his wife, Hilaria, arrived Thursday for funeral services of James Gandolfini at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York.
But witnesses at the event said it never happened.
“I was sitting right next to them, and I can tell you neither one of them took out a camera, a phone, or anything,” said Gandolfini’s fellow “Sopranos” castmate and longtime friend Garry Pastore.
James Devaney/WireImage
The Baldwins left the James Gandolfini's funeral through a side exit.
Hilaria took to Twitter to defend herself after her husband’s meltdown, deriding Stark’s “poor journalism” and retweeting a link to an article that suggested he read Twitter’s time stamps wrong.
Stark, based on the West Coast, saw her tweets stamped with Pacific time — three hours earlier than Hilaria actually sent them, the article said.
via Twitter
Baldwin closed his Twitter account for the third time Thursday evening following a rant to defend his wife’s tweet.
“I hope that this reporter knows how much pain and drama he has caused from his poor journalism. Lying and bullying are shameful,” Hilaria tweeted.
The couple was spotted loading bags into the back of a car and getting out of town Friday.
Baldwin told Gothamist his decision to get off Twitter actually came during Gandolfini’s emotional send-off — and not as a result of the shocked public reaction to his violent outburst.
The “Sopranos” star, 51, died suddenly of a massive heart attack last week while vacationing with his family in Italy.
“I was sitting there at Jimmy Gandolfini’s funeral and these people were talking about what a great person he was, what a great friend he was, father he was, what a great colleague he was,” Baldwin told Gothamist.
“He didn’t think to himself, ‘Man, I gotta have a Twitter, I gotta be Twittering.’ I thought, ‘You know something? I’m gonna take a lesson from Jimmy Gandolfini.’ This media thing is a complete waste of time.
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