Alec Baldwin Responds to Sudden Cancellation of MSNBC Show

Yesterday BWW reported that MSNBC had fired actor and talk show host Alec Baldwin following a series of anti-gay slurs he recently uttered.

Sources told the New York Post's Page Six that "Up Late With Alec Baldwin," the actor's late night talk show endeavor on the cable network has been canceled because of the actor's "foul-mouthed rant" at a photographer. "The decision has been made. He's gone," an insider at the cable channel told the site. "The [parent company] Comcast guys have decided. Word is spreading through the building."

Baldwin, currently working on a new Cameron Crowe film in Hawaii, spoke with Gothamist.com and confirmed that his show will not return to MSNBC. He also commented on the situation saying, "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. '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."

He continued, "Martin Bashir's on the air, and he made his comment on the air! I dispute half the comment I made... if I called him 'cocksucking maggot' or a 'cocksucking motherfer'... 'faggot' is not the word that came out of my mouth. 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."

Regarding the story in the New York Post Baldwin said, "People who I worked with that I cared about-these people were all very supportive of the show. 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. 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 f**k...'"

Read the article in full here

Baldwin is well known for his portrayal of 'Jack Donaghy' on NBC's 30 Rock, and often hosts the network's Saturday Night Live. Baldwin's Blue Jasmine just hit theaters, and the actor will next appear on the big screen in Caught Stealing.

Baldwin just appeared on Broadway this summer in Orphans. His other stage credits include Twentieth Century, Short Talks on the Universe, A Streetcar Named Desire, Serious Money and Loot, as well as off-Broadway's Entertaining Mr. Sloane, South Pacific, Macbeth and Prelude to a Kiss.

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