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Six years ago, I interviewed Alec Baldwin to assemble & edit an "as told to" essay called "Good-bye, Public Life," which he intended as a mea culpa for having offended the gay community & a declaration that he was done being a public figure. <thread> https://www.vulture.com/2014/02/alec-baldwin-good-bye-public-life.html
Baldwin had contacted me through a mutual acquaintance and asked if I'd write a story focused on the tabloid incident that got him in trouble so he could explain his side. It was obviously a damage control strategy, so I said it would have to be in his own voice. He agreed.
We met over lunch at a private club where he was a member and talked for a couple of hours. A couple of follow up calls later, I assembled the essay and let him read it to make sure it was accurate. After minor editing, he approved.
When it came out, there was a lot of eye rolling and schadenfreude -- and renewed outrage over his use of the word "tranny" in his mea culpa to the gay community. The article probably didn't quite have the intended effect he had hoped.
Next thing you know, I pick up his book "Nevertheless: A Memoir" and discover he's written about the article and says it was *I* who approached *him* and proceeded to call the piece, written in his own voice, "an incoherent mess."
He does also say that people told him I was a "square guy," which I appreciated.
But it seems the Baldwins like being famous but just can't help stepping into the tabloid muck. Then they blame the tabloid muck for their muddy shoes.
