Alec Baldwin admits he ‘bullied’ women: Preemptive PR move or just being honest?

https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/11/03/alec-baldwin-admits-he-bullied-women-preemptive-pr-move-or-just-being-honest/

While receiving a career-spanning honor from the Paley Center for Media Thursday, Alec Baldwin made a point to discuss the current sexual misconduct allegations circulating in Hollywood.

The Emmy Award-winning actor who plays Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live” admitted to engaging in some bad behavior himself in the past. The bad behavior he’s guilty of, he said, is bullying women.

“I certainly have treated women in a very sexist way,” he said in a conversation with Steve Higins, an “SNL” writer-producer, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

“I’ve bullied women. I’ve overlooked women. I’ve underestimated women,” he said. “Not as a rule. From time to time, I’ve done what a lot of men do, which is … when you don’t treat women the same way you treat men. You don’t. I’m from a generation where you really don’t and I’d like that to change. I really would like that to change.”

Hmm, the idea that Baldwin, 59, would engage in bullying, aggressive or belligerent behavior …

Of course, this is not shocking news to anyone who has followed his long career, as well as his highly publicized conflicts with a paparazzo, a flight attendant, and his daughter Ireland. In 2007, during the height of his bitter custody dispute with ex-wife Kim Basinger, Baldwin left a voicemail, calling Ireland “a rude, thoughtless little pig.”

So, maybe it’s no surprise to read that Baldwin admits to being a bully. Some might say he deserves some props for being honest and expressing a desire to be more thoughtful and to change, even as he nears 60 years old.

Then again, Baldwin has faced backlash for initially keeping quiet after news broke last week that multiple woman had accused his good friend, director James Toback, of sexual harassment or assault.

Baldwin and Toback worked together on the 2013 documentary “Seduced and Abandoned,” which followed the pair around the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, pitching a sexually explicit update of “Last Tango in Paris.” Baldwin also had a small part in Toback’s latest film, “The Private Life of a Modern Woman.”

Since the Los Angeles Times initially outed Toback as an alleged serial abuser, more than 300 women have come forward.

US actor Alec Baldwin (L) poses on May 21, 2013 with his wife Hilaria Thomas (C) and director James Toback during a photocall for the film "Seduced and Abandoned" presented Out of Competition at the 66th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes. Cannes, one of the world's top film festivals, opened on May 15 and will climax on May 26 with awards selected by a jury headed this year by Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg. AFP PHOTO / ALBERTO PIZZOLI (Photo credit should read ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images)
Alec Baldwin, with his wife Hilaria Thomas and director James Toback at the Cannes Film Festival (ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images)
Baldwin finally broke his silence on Toback in an interview with the Los Angeles Times over the weekend, acknowledging that he knew Toback once had a reputation for “hitting on women” and “saying provocative things to them.”

But he told the Times that he never knew that Toback had “assaulted or bullied or pressured” any woman.

“In all the time I’ve known Jimmy, I never had one conversation about his sex life,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin also told audiences at the Paley Center event that he heard more generally about “rumors of things happening to people, but I didn’t necessarily know the scope, when you hear the hundreds and hundreds of women who are complaining about this.”

He added, “It’s been a very eye-opening experience for me personally.”

Not surprisingly, Baldwin’s comments at the Paley Center about being a bully met with mixed reactions, with most people saying on social media that they are not at all surprised.