Alec Baldwin On Men, Love, & His Bible-Thumping Brother

The eldest and most successful Baldwin brother,
highly respected for his New York stage work and
prolific film career (I’m still partial to
Working Girl and Beetlejuice), Alec garnered a
Golden Globe for his role as Republican network exec
Jack Donaghy on NBC’s 30 Rock, which as of
press time was on hiatus due to the writers
strike. With no time to touch on his Emmy-nominated
guest arc on Will & Grace or the many gay
characters he’s played as host of Saturday
Night Live (“Canteen Boy, have you ever had a
mimosa?”), the 49-year-old Oscar nominee
and I dredged up his own controversial “Drudge
report,” mourned the loss of Halston, and
looked back at the men he’s
loved. 

When I interviewed your brother William for The
Advocate on his Dirty Sexy Money role, I asked him
who’d get the hottest guys if the Baldwin
brothers were gay. He replied, “Me, because
I’ve always gotten the hottest
chicks.” How do you respond?

Well, you know,
Billy’s been in L.A. and out in the sun too long, so
we have to allow that he’s lost touch with
reality. Billy certainly has his following now from
his show, but I’ve had my gay following for a long
time. Billy didn’t have a book written about him.

 

Someone told me
about it, and I thought it was really funny. And the guy
who wrote the book sent me a copy, but no, I never read it.

 

I really
don’t know, because I remember when I grew up — and
this is on a serious, sad note here — there was only
one guy in my town that I knew of who was gay, and no
one even really knew what that was. I don’t even
remember that even being discussed when I was a kid. Then we
found out this kid who had killed himself was gay, and
he was my friend in high school. He was a lovely guy.
That, for me, was the beginning of understanding what
life was like for people who lived a gay life, but it
really became clear when I got into show business. I did a
soap [The Doctors, 1980–82], and David
O’Brien, who played my father, was gay. David
was my dear, dear, dear friend, and I was going with him and
his friends to Ambrosia and Rounds and the Mayfair
over on First Avenue—I lived at 58th and First,
so this was like upscale-gay central. I mean, this was
no Boots and Saddle, the Anvil, Crisco Disco, or any of that
militant, leather gay. These guys were bankers, insurance
executives—this was rich gay. Men who were gay
like ’50s gay — they kept it quiet, they went
to private clubs, and when they went out in the street they
didn’t want anybody to know their private lives
at all. I was hanging out with these guys, having
dinner with them a couple of nights a week, and it was
just the most amazing experience I’d ever had in my
life.

 

Oh, yeah, they
loved it. These guys either had long-term partners, or it
was about hustlers for them.

 

Probably Scott
Ellis, [the associate artistic director] of the Roundabout
that I did [Entertaining Mr.] Sloane with, and his
boyfriend, Jeff Mahshie, who’s a clothing
designer. But I have so many friends that are gay. If
you’re in this business, it seems like half of them
are — maybe more.

 

A few years ago you were set to star in the
long-delayed biopic Simply Halston as fashion designer
Roy Halston, which would have been your first gay
film role.

They decided to
do that with somebody else, and it ultimately made sense,
because it’s impossible to take an older actor and
make him look younger with makeup and so forth. When
you have an age range in a character, most directors
know the secret is to take someone young so that you can age
them. It disappointed me because I was completely in love
with the script. I was dying to do it. It was a great
challenge for me. 

Famous faces: Baldwin, daughter back on good terms

TMZ and the Daily Mail report Alec Baldwin and his daughter Ireland, 12, have reconciled. We know this because a paparazzo photographed a beaming Ireland sitting next to her dad in a car.

Baldwin shocked parents around the world in April when an angry, insulting voice mail he had left his then-11-year-old daughter was leaked on the Net. Baldwin was peeved that Ireland did not answer the phone. “You answer or you get hit with a brick,” he said during the two-minute harangue, in which he called her a “rude pig.”

Jamie Lynn Spears focusing on studies

Jamie Lynn Spears has passed her GED high school equivalency exam. According to an anonymous source, Britney’s lil’ sis might even take the ACT college entrance test. Jamie Lynn did especially well in reading comprehension.

“People don’t know her. When she gets something in her head, she’ll make it happen,” the source said.

Cuban writer wins top literary prize

Cuban writer Antonio Orlando Rodriguez is the winner of this year’s Alfaguara Spanish literary prize for his novel Chiquita. The award, which includes a prize of $175,000, is one of the most prestigious in the Spanish language.

A total of 511 works were considered, the Alfaguara publishing house, which organizes the prize, said Monday. Rodriguez, born in Ciego de Avila, Cuba, lives in the U.S.

Baldwin, Comley, Fleming, Lane to Be Honored at Actors Fund Gala

Alec Baldwin, Bonnie Comley, Renée Fleming, and Stewart F. Lane will be honored by The Actors Fund at its 2008 Gala on Monday, May 5.

Baldwin will be receiving the Nedda Harrigan Logan Award in recognition of his extraordinary commitment to all who work in the entertainment community and his ongoing arts advocacy efforts. International opera sensation Fleming will be receiving the Lee Strasberg Artistic Achievement Award, presented annually to an outstanding member of the performing arts community. Tony Award-winning Broadway producers and theater owners Lane and Comley will be receiving The Actors Fund Medal of Honor, given to individuals and organizations that significantly enrich the entertainment community.

For more information or to reserve tickets, call 212-763-8597 or visit www.actorsfund.org.

Dannielynn Named Anna Nicole's Sole Heir

Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead has been handed the keys to the castle.   

Larry Birkhead's 18-month-old daughter with Anna Nicole Smith was declared the sole beneficiary to the late model's estate Tuesday, after a Los Angeles judge approved Howard K. Stern's petition to clarify his departed paramour's earthly intentions. 

"We and Mr. Stern always believed that Anna Nicole never intended to disinherit her daughter," Stern's attorney, Bruce S. Ross, said after court Tuesday. "I'm pleased to say this chapter in the saga is closed." 

L.A. Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff's ruling also establishes a trust on Dannielynn's behalf, with her father and Stern serving as cotrustees. (View the documents.)

The once litigious pair were not present in court, but Ross said that neither had any particular disagreement as far as Dannielynn's financial future was concerned. DNA confirmed that Birkhead is Dannielynn's biological father about two months after Smith's death.

Smith's assets at the time of her passing were estimated at $710,000, but Tuesday's ruling leaves Dannielynn poised to inherit millions if the decade-plus legal battle between Smith (and now Smith's estate) and the family of her late husband, billionaire oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, turns in her favor.

Marshall, who was 90 and had been married to Smith for 14 months when he died in 1995, left most of his fortune to his widow, a decision his family has been raging against ever since. 

Stern filed papers Oct. 18 seeking to having Dannielynn singled out as Smith's heir, presuming the former Playboy Playmate would have certainly provided for her daughter had she drawn up a more recent will. 

Smith died Feb. 8, 2007, of an accidental prescription drug overdose in Hollywood, Florida. She was 39. 

The will filed in probate court was made out in 2001 and named Smith's son, Daniel, who died several days after Dannielynn's birth in September 2006, as the sole heir. The document also said, however, that the assets in Daniel's trust should be divided equally among any siblings if Smith had other children. 

"As a matter of law, Dannielynn is a pretermitted heir," Stern's petition stated, meaning she was an accidental omission, or someone who likely would have been named in the will except for the fact that the person drawing up the will didn't know her at the time. 

An ongoing inquest into Daniel's death is scheduled to resume Mar. 17 in the Bahamas. Birkhead and Stern are expected to be called to testify about his close relationship with his mother and the days leading up to the 20-year-old's death, also of an accidental Rx overdose.

Actors Fund to Honor Baldwin, Fleming, Lane and Comley at Annual Gala

The Actors Fund of America will present its annual gala May 5 in New York City.

The evening will honor four individuals, whose combined careers “represent the diversity and range of the entertainment industry,” according to press notes. Award recipients will include stage and screen star Alec Baldwin, opera singer Ren?e Fleming and Tony-winning Broadway producers and theatre owners Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley.

Baldwin will receive the Nedda Harrigan Logan Award “in recognition of his extraordinary commitment to all who work in the entertainment community and his ongoing arts advocacy efforts.” Fleming will be presented with the Lee Strasberg Artistic Achievement Award, which is given to “an outstanding member of the performing arts community.” And, Lane and Comley will receive the Actors Fund Medal of Honor, given to “individuals and organizations that significantly enrich the entertainment community.”

The Actors Fund, which was founded in 1882, is a non-profit organization that provides for the social welfare of all entertainment professionals. Some of the many programs The Actors Fund provides include a nursing home and assisted living care facility; senior and disabled programs; mental health services; chemical dependency services; entertainment industry assistance programs; the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative; the AIDS Initiative; and supportive housing on both coasts.

For more information or to reserve tickets to the 2008 Actors Fund Gala, call (212) 763-8597 or visit www.actorsfund.org.

Alec Baldwin Slams Brother's Anti-Gay Marriage Comments

Alec Baldwin has slammed his own brother in a letter to a popular U.S. gay publication.

The Cooler star took offence to comments born-again Christian Stephen Baldwin made about same-sex marriage on Howard Stern’s radio show.

He told the U.S. shock jock: “I don’t believe that gay marriage is in line with God’s word, which is found in the Bible… and the Bible says that gay marriage is not acceptable."

Alec has now made it clear that he doesn’t share his sibling’s condemnation of homosexual marriage.

In a letter to gay magazine The Advocate, he writes, "People like that…they want to ban gay marriage because those people are incapable of having a biological family – that’s their only argument.

"You can ban gay marriage, but if you’re going to make it fair, then you have to ban marriage for everybody else who won’t produce children. But they just single out groups of people that they hate."

Daughter named as Anna Nicole heir

Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter will inherit the former Playboy model’s estate, a judge has ruled.

Eighteen-month-old Dannielynn Hope was named sole heir by Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff, who also set up a trust in the girl’s name.

Her father, Larry Birkhead, and Smith’s executor, Harry K. Stern, will be co-trustees.

Beckloff granted a petition filed by Stern, who wanted to clarify Smith’s intentions toward her daughter. Smith drafted a will in 2001 – five years before the child was born – that left her estate to her then-only son, Daniel. However, it said the assets in Daniel’s trust should be shared equally if she had future children.

Daniel was 20 when he died in 2006, three days after Dannielynn was born.

“We and Mr. Stern always believed that Anna Nicole never intended to disinherit her daughter,” Stern’s lawyer, Bruce S. Ross, said after the hearing. “I’m pleased to say this chapter in the saga is closed.”

Dannielynn could inherit millions of dollars if the estate wins an ongoing court fight over a will by Smith’s wealthy second husband, J. Howard Marshall, that left much of his fortune to the model. His relatives have been fighting the will for years.

Baldwin's battle over politics

Alec Baldwin and his acting brothers regularly come to blows over their political beliefs – because they’re all passionate Republicans and Democrats.Alec and brother William are both fervent Democrats, while youngest Baldwin Stephen, a born-again Christian, is a die-hard Republican.And Stephen, who is backing evangelical Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in the ongoing US race for the White House, says: “Alec said to me recently, `My youngest brother, a Christian conservative Republican. My God, how did that happen?’”But he’s pretty cool with me. I’m the youngest. Sometimes I’m just a dummy or an idiot in his mind about everything. But he still loves me.”William, though, we can sometimes mix it up (fight) a bit.”

Ageing Tina and Alec skip publicity

30 Rock’s Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin have revealed their reluctance at being cover stars.

“I got older,” Alec, 49, said in the latest issue of Gotham.

“The industry now is largely about young people, sometimes very young people. Kids in movies have all kinds of marketing potential. Then it’s actors of the Zach Braff/Jessica Alba stripe, the 30-and-under people.”

Tina, 37, agreed, saying: “I’m really getting old. In the 21st century, there’s an expectation for every person in every job in every industry to ‘bring it’ like they’re a fashion model. I think TV has conditioned our brains to see fake teeth, fake tans and fake lips, so when you see a normal person, you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s disappointing’.”

She added: “I think in that way I’m probably always disappointing, with my crooked teeth and thin lips.”

Alec admitted finding suitable roles for his age can often be difficult too.

“The issue is competing to get good roles. If you look at the number of films that star people over 40, there seem to be a lot less of them now,” he said.

“Dustin Hoffman said something great to me once: ‘We’re all in line. Some of us are just in a shorter line’. And that’s really very true.”

I Heart Tap Water Contest Brings Out Wisdom In Alec Baldwin

I Heart Tap Water Contest Brings Out Wisdom In Alec BaldwinFiled under: campaigns, contests, food & drink, green and famous, thegreenpicture — parrish @ 2:04 pm

Can I tell you something? I don’t drink tap water. Oh God, does this make me totally unqualified to write for Ecorazzi? In fact, I am a total bottled water snob! And even though people tell me New York tap water is clean, I still avoid it like the plague. ? But it??™s Valentine’s Day, a day for love, and so perhaps I will follow the crowd of students who are all yelling at me to declare my love for the natural stuff and take a swig of the old faucet? juice.

Yes friends, today on Valentine’s Day, students from across the country are declaring their love for tap water in the celebrity-judged I Heart Tap Water student video contest. The I Heart Tap Water contest asks students to make a one to two minute video which should include these three important parts:? a declaration of love for tap water, some discussion about bottled water consumption, and why the student’s college or university should break the bottled water habit.

Celebrity judge, Alec Baldwin has said “Bottled water is not as environmentally friendly as people think it is.” Wait a tick, who thinks bottle water is eco-friendly? Yes, I drink it, but I know it??™s not environmentally responsible and thus flog myself for it in private. ? Alec, I think you??™re awesome, but your insight lacks insight.

So practice what I preach and not what I do by getting involved with the? I Heart Tap Water contest. Submissions will be accepted until Monday, April 14th, and the winner of the contest will be announced on Earth Day, April 22nd. For more information and contest rules, drink your way over to takebackthetap.org.

On a side note: Happy Valentine’s Day Ecorazzi readers??¦let??™s go steady!