You may recall that on Thursday, Alec Baldwin — as he is wont to do — had another one of his glorious Twitter meltdowns after The Daily Mail accused his wife of being insensitive for Twittering during James Gandolfini’s funeral. Baldwin, naturally, blew up on Twitter and attacked George Stark, The Daily Mail reporter who wrote the piece, calling him “a f***ing little b*tch,” “a toxic queen,” and suggesting that he would enjoy having Alec Baldwin’s foot up his ass.
Naturally, several people in the media — including Anderson Cooper — pounched on Baldwin’s words, suggesting Alec Baldwin is homophobic. Those voices got so loud that eventually Alec Baldwin was forced to apologize, issuing a statement to GLAAD and the Gothamist.
He wrote (via The Wrap):
“My ill-advised attack on George Stark of the Daily Mail had absolutely nothing to do with issues of anyone’s sexual orientation. My anger was directed at Mr. Stark for blatantly lying and disseminating libelous information about my wife and her conduct at our friend’s funeral service. As someone who fights against homophobia, I apologize.”
Baldwin also told Gothamist that he didn’t mean “queen” as an anti-gay slur.
“A queen to me has a different meaning,” he said. “It’s somebody who’s just above. It doesn’t have any necessarily sexual connotations. To me a queen… 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.”
He added: “If homosexuality was an issue for me, I would have moved out of New York years ago. I find that laughable.”
Look: I don’t think that Alec Baldwin is homophobic. He’s as liberal as they come, but I also don’t think he should get a pass for homophobic language just because he’s liberal. I do think that both the “little b*tch” and “toxic queen” statements were a reference to George Stark’s sexuality, but I don’t think Baldwin has anything against the gay community, just this particular gay person (assuming, that is, that George Stark is even gay).
What I do think, is that he bungled his apology, and in a way, he ended up sounding like certain people who use the N-word and then claim that they are not racist either because 1) they have black friends, so how could they POSSIBLY be racist, or 2) those particularly insidious people who claim that the N-word doesn’t refer to one’s skin color, but to a particular attitude (i.e., the Chris Rock distinction).
What he should’ve is to be honest, for once. To say, “Yeah, I said a sh*tty homophobic thing about this particular person. I singled out his sexuality. I shouldn’t have said it. I was a jerk for doing so. If I’m going to insist on insulting someone like George Stark on Twitter, I should single out another characteristic for insult, like the fact that he’s a hack-y pissant little journalist who writes for a well-known rag. In fact, I probably should’ve kept my mouth shut because who the hell believes or cares about anything they have to say at The Daily Mail? It was a poor choice of words, and I am sorry.”
The point is: Alec Baldwin should really stay off of Twitter.
(Source: The Wrap)
