intro: Alec vs. Public Life
In an op-ed published yesterday in Vulture, actor Alec Baldwin said "good-bye to public life," especially in New York City.
"I find myself bitter, defensive, and more misanthropic than I care to admit," Baldwin wrote about a rough 2013.
He said that for years, people in New York were kind to him until last November, when he was accused of using a homophobic slur.
"This is the last time I'm going to talk about my personal life in an American publication ever again," he wrote. "I haven't changed, but public life has."
He cited "predatory photographers and predatory videographers who want to taunt you and catch you doing embarrassing things ... Photographers today get right up in your face, my wife's, my baby's. They are baiting you."
Baldwin admits he regrets screaming at photographers in certain situations. But he also called out Shia LaBeouf, MSNBC, Rachel Maddow and Anderson Cooper.
Finally, Baldwin, who's lived in New York since 1979, said "Now I don't want to be Mr. Show Business anymore ... I probably have to move out of New York. I just can't live in New York anymore."
This isn't the first time Baldwin has taken some shots at someone or said he's going to quit or leave something in his past behind (He said he was going to quit Twitter last summer). Here's a look back at some of the more memorable rants and altercations from the "30 Rock" star:
quicklist: title:November 2013, Alec vs. Court Coverage text: Just hours after Alec Baldwin's stalker was sentenced to 210 days in jail, the "30 Rock" star was at it again, chasing down a photographer who got close to his wife and baby daughter.
The video posted by TMZ, shows Baldwin, 55, yelling, "Get away from my wife and baby with the camera," as he jogs toward the paparazzi. After a female voice, presumably his wife Hilaria, calls him back, Baldwin stops his chase, but not before he gives the second photographer, who is shooting the video, an earful.
"Get away from my kid with the camera," he yells. "You know what's going to happen to you, don't you? Come on!" He added a homophobic slur at the end.
Baldwin's convicted stalker Genevieve Sabourin has been in court all week and this isn't the actor's first run in with the press in recent days. He left the Manhattan courthouse Tuesday, where the trial was held, and told one photographer, "I hope you choke."
He wasn't done.
Before taking off, he rolled down his window and asked the media, "What job did you want to do that you failed at that you're doing this job?"
Read: Alec Baldwin's Stalker Gets 210 Days in Jail
quicklist: title:July 2013, Alec vs. Twitter text: When asked by Vanity Fair, "Are you ever going to open your Twitter again?"
Baldwin said "never," and added that he had the epiphany during his friend James Gandolfini's funeral.
"Jimmy Gandolfini was so beloved as a person, and he was so admired as an actor, and he didn't give a f--- about social media," he said. "It's just another chink in your armor for people to come and kill you. ... I have one dream in my life and that is that this daughter I'm having -- she comes to me about seven or eight years from now, she has a friend, and she's at her house and she says, 'Daddy, Susie's mom says you used to be on TV. Daddy, is that true?' She has no knowledge of me as a public person. That would be heaven for me."
See the Emails From Alec Baldwin's Alleged Stalker
quicklist: title:June 2013, Alec vs. The Daily Mail text: After the Daily Mail newspaper reported that Hilaria Baldwin was Tweeting during Gandolfini's funeral, Baldwin took his fight to Twitter before deleting his profile altogether.
"I'm gonna find you," he wrote to the reporter, "... you toxic little queen, and I'm gonna f---...you...up."
And:
"You lying little b----, I am gonna f%#@ you up."
And:
"Someone wrote that my wife was tweeting at a funeral. Hey. That's not true. But I'm gonna tweet at your funeral."
quicklist: title:February 2013, Alec vs. The New York Post text: Early in 2013, Baldwin claimed that a New York Post photographer assaulted him while trying to bait him. "I slipped and fell on a trail of oil the Post 'photographer' left near my bldg. Who do I sue," he tweeted.
The photographer, who is African American, later accused Baldwin of using racial slurs, which angered Baldwin further.
"My publicist has just informed me that the 'photographer' from the Post is claiming I called him a racial epithet, prior to calling the cops. ... That's kind of magical thinking, isn't it? The Post accusing me of racism," he wrote.
The drama continued when a Post reporter asked him a question about his wife and a possible lawsuit, and Baldwin reportedly responded, "I want you to choke to death."
quicklist: title:June 2012, Alec vs. The New York Daily News text: Last June, Baldwin allegedly shoved a photographer from the New York Daily News, claiming in a tweet that the shutterbug "almost hit me in the face with his camera this morning."
Tame, except for the fact he added the hashtag #allpaparazzisshouldbewaterboarded.
He didn't stop there, he compared his scuffle to the Trayvon Martin shooting, "I suppose if the offending paparazzi was wearing a hoodie and I shot him, it would all blow over."
quicklist: title:2007, Alec vs. His Daughter text: Before Baldwin was one of Twitter's most talked about celebrities, he was using a more ancient device to facilitate his rants -- the phone.
In 2007, after his daughter Ireland allegedly missed a phone call with Alec, he left her a voicemail, which was leaked to the media.
"So, I'm gonna let you know just how I feel about what a rude little pig you really are. You are a rude, thoughtless, little pig, okay?" he said. "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."
She was 11.
Now, the two enjoy a close relationship, and Ireland has defended her father against critics. "He recognized that he needed to change, so he made changes," she wrote on her blog. "He is now a healthy, happily married with a baby on the way. He moved on, so why can't you?"
quicklist: title:1995, Alec vs. The Paparazzi text: Prior to the Internet's ability to spread news like wildfire and when Baldwin was still married to his first wife, actress Kim Basinger, the actor was no stranger to confrontation.
In October 1995, Baldwin was actually placed under citizen's arrest, according the LAPD, after he allegedly slugged a cameraman who was trying to get video of his three-day-old Ireland.