Alec Baldwin Discusses Canceled MSNBC Show

Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 2 MIN.

Alec Baldwin is opening up about MSNBC officials canceling his talk show shortly after the actor came under fire for allegedly using anti-gay slurs towards a photographer.

In an interview with the Gothamist, Baldwin talked about the footage TMZ captured of him losing his cool, once again firmly insisting that he did not call the paparazzo a "cocksucking faggot" earlier this month.

"Showing a video in which I call someone a 'cocksucking something'... you can't really tell what I'm saying, and we live in a world in which the phrase 'TMZ's enhanced audio' exists," he said. "'TMZ's enhanced audio.' And then with The Post... there's nothing you can do when you get thrown in this washing machine, nothing. You know? Nothing. All you end up doing is just defending yourself all day long."

Baldwin then brought up Martin Bashir, who was criticized last week for making graphic comments about Sarah Palin on his MSNBC show, saying "he made his comment on the air!"

"I dispute half the comment I made... If I called him 'cocksucking maggot' or a 'cocksucking motherfucker'... 'faggot' is not the word that came out of my mouth," Baldwin continued. "That I know. But you've got the fundamentalist wing of gay advocacy-Rich Ferraro and Andrew Sullivan-they're out there, they've got you. Rich Ferraro, this is probably one of his greatest triumphs. They killed my show. And I have to take some responsibility for that myself."

The actor also responded to The New York Post's Page Six piece, where an MSNBC source told the publication, "The decision has been made. He's gone. The [parent company] Comcast guys have decided. Word is spreading through the building."

Page Six also lists reasons why he may have been let go, as one source says Baldwin wanted to take over a makeup room "being used by a woman with cancer who is sensitive to hairspray. When Baldwin was told he couldn't have his way, he allegedly bellowed at the top of his lungs, 'I don't give a fuck if she has cancer or not, I want that fucking makeup room.'"

"People who I worked with that I cared about-these people were all very supportive of the show," Baldwin told the Gothamist. "Now there was somebody on the staff who I did not want to work with. There was somebody on the staff who I thought wasn't a good fit for me. And I wouldn't rule out if that person went to the Post and gave them that story.

"These stories with the Post, the way they work, they have to have some kernel of truth," he continued. "So if I complained, as I did, I said to them... I didn't ask for a humidifier, I asked for humidification. So we had a day where... my voice would crack, it was heavily air conditioned, I found it tough to talk. I did not demand someone put a humidifier in. And the woman using that dressing room, I was told she's allergic to some chemical, no one ever ever ever said to me that somebody had cancer, and I never said 'I don't give a fuck...'"


by Jason St. Amand , National News Editor

Read These Next