Posted on 04/20/2007 5:06:55 PM PDT by advance_copy
Alec Baldwin issued an apology on Friday for unleashing a volcanic tirade at his 11-year-old daughter and blamed "certain people" for leaking the rant to US media.
The Oscar-nominated star of "The Departed" branded daughter Ireland a "rude, thoughtless, little pig" in a fiery voicemail message that emerged on celebrity websites on Thursday.
It is the latest twist to the bitter legal wrangling between Baldwin and ex-wife Kim Basinger over custody and visitation rights relating to Ireland. The couple split in 2001.
Baldwin's tirade was apparently triggered by Ireland's failure to switch her mobile phone on for a scheduled call with her father.
"Once again I've made an ass out of myself trying to get to a phone at a specific time," Baldwin says in the message. "I'm tired of playing this game with you. You have insulted me for the last time.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Not when prefaced by “rude”. Listen, this guy is bad enough without Freepers imputing evil which is not there. Remember that a guy like this is too simple to engineer an adult insult. there is no forethought in anything he says or does.
No, he’ll be picking her up from rehab.
I was 15 before I knew my brother’s middle name wasn’t “dammit”.
I’m not excusing this shite. This is like the Rodney King tape, edited out of context because we don’t see what led up to it. Still bad, still wouldn’t do it, but unless we know the full context the moral judgment is a mistake. These people should have never reproduced, either one.
Bitter enough to let it come out in an occasional rant, but what I learned from it was that obvious emotional stability is the one thing the father must not show to his children. I had my moment, fearful not violent, and when I saw the looks on their faces I knew I’d done wrong. They have not seen a negative emotional moment from me in 16 years since. Anger? Sometimes, but always tempered. Fear? Never. So, while I won’t excuse this event, I know the nature (but not the magnitude) of the stresses he is under. The only legal weapon he will ever have is to make KB show that child support money is spent on the child. My personal experience is that his attorneys won’t have much else. Since they both have high-cost, high-powered attorneys, her advantage with the court trumps all else.
If you think verbal abuse is abuse, you haven’t seen the real thing.
My abusive ex sounds similar when he goes on tirades against me (that I am now free to hang up on). So far, our 9 year old daughter hasn’t experienced one. To this day, she is one of maybe 3-4 females (all blood related) in his life that he doesn’t treat with disdain and vitriol.
Well...I will fess up...I am not a Hollywood celebrity! :0)
However, I have lived all over and travel a great deal. IMHO, living in a fish bowl is just more reason for this mother to act selflessly and put aside her own vindictive agenda and place the interest of her child above her own desire to villify her ex-husband. My statement was not so much made from a sense of privacy as from a place of maternal protection
Please know, I am in no way excusing what Alec did and find his “apology” quite offensive. As a mother, I just cannot fathom how Kim could have possibly thought her actions were in any way in Ireland’s best interest.
My prayer is as you said, that despite this painful situation, that somehow it will prove to be a watershed event in the lives of both of these “parents”.
We think alike on this, but because it’s Baldwin, it makes it easy to criticize him.
My kids have driven me crazy on many an occasion. I’m not sure if I would want my angry words recorded and played back to the public. Of course, it’s none of the public’s business either.
The divorce and custody battle has been going on since 2001. That would surely give a father of good will time to master the learning curve about being a non-primary custodial dad and still getting along reasonably with his child.
If you have never been in a custody battle, you may not recognize the signs — that for the more abusive parent, the battle is to patch the ego and deny publicly that one is abusive. Abusers often use highly abusive tactics to try to accomplish this goal, and are often quite impervious to therapy, reason or any legitimate concern for the child. The concern is aimed at denying the reality of the abuse. Sometimes the only way to fight a dirty fighter is to land one below the belt. At which point the dirty fighter will behave as if this is the only blow that has ever been landed — and that he is the victim. We have yet to hear any credible repentance from this guy, just excuses and damage control.
You really need to understand that there are many parents with successful relationships with their kids (and kids who stay out of trouble) who never, never, never speak to their kids in such demeaning way. Learning to communicate discipline respectfully of the child, the other parent and of oneself is one of the key skills needed for marriage and parenthood.
This phone call was not an isolated incident, but part of a pattern of abuse that has been reported not just in the tabloids, but also in the mainstream media, for many years. He's had plenty of time to have learned better.
Those who are frightened of accusations of abuse would do well to spend take marriage and parenting classes, learning not develop patterns of abuse in order to deal with spouses and kids. Who said being a parent should be easy, or that the parent deserves more consideration than the child? This guy had just mocked his daughter on national tv, twice. Where is her platform?
A father is supposed to defend his daughter's honor. He totally blew it, and he's been outed. Thankfully.
We agree that girls and boys tend to be different in the way you describe. And no, I don't believe in giving daughters a pass for doing things they should not do — absolutely not. I'm saying that the discipline used for a boy that might toughen him up would devastate a girl and hobble her development, the same way that girl-appropriate discipline would geld a boy.
FWIW, no, I absolutely deplore the medication angle for boys. In many cases, there are conditions like food allergies causing the hyperactive symptoms.
Amen! Out of your keyboard into God's ears!
There’s no excuse for verbal abuse like that, none. I can’t imagine my father having talked to me like that, nor my husband talking to our daughters like that. She will carry these things with her for the rest of her life and most likely choose a mate who treats her the same way. Very sad. Did he even think for a moment that maybe there was a good reason she didn’t pick up the phone or maybe he should consider there’s a reason she doesn’t want to talk to him? The way he sounded on that message, one can only imagine what he would have done to her had she been standing in front of him. He simply should have left a considerate message like a normal person, and if he had a problem, take it up with his ex.
I moved back home with mom when dad was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer a few years ago. I lived on my own for 10 years. He passed away and mom was having a hard time coping, paying bills, keeping house clean while working full time, etc., so I haven’t moved back out yet. Plus, considering rent is $1200+ a month for any decent one-bedroom apartment around here, I am saving that money to buy my own home.
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