Notoriously hotheaded actor Alec Baldwin has gained attention once again for some controversial tweets he exchanged this week, this time with former Mitt Romney aide Garrett Jackson.
The online debate between the two began on Wednesday after Baldwin sent out a tweet referencing the Keystone XL pipeline documentary “Above All Else,” declaring that the film “shows how oil and keystone in particular, destroy our lives.”
This prompted Jackson, who now works for a private equity firm that invests in energy services called SCF Partners, to respond: “need to do a film on how you and Hollywood distort our lives.”
And then it was on.
An obviously angered Baldwin hit back with the jab “losing that election still hurts like hell, dun’ it?” followed by Garrett’s remark “not as bad as the paparazzi feels when you hit em!” Baldwin continued with “What lost cause you working on now, maybe a Newt Gingrich fashion line?” and then went in with a zinger some later considered to be homophobic.
“You’re on your knees in that photo,” he tweeted with regards to a Jackson’s default Twitter photo which shows him on a bended knee beside Romney on the 2012 Presidential campaign trail. “What’s up with that, Garrett?”
Jackson was quick to point to the actor’s questionable phrase with “come on! Being a homophobe has gotten you into enough trouble,” but Baldwin went at it again: “While you’re on your knees, you can polish my Emmys.”
The concluding whammy?
“Ha! While I am down there I will pick up the pieces of your failed show,” Garrett retorted.
Immediately after the backlash began, Baldwin deleted his controversial tweets. A rep for the star declined to comment.
And in fact, it was earlier accusations of homophobic slurs that instigated the cancelation of his short-lived, low-rated MSNBC talk show “Up Late.” Last November, the actor was caught on camera chasing down a paparazzi near his New York home, allegedly hurling homophombic slurs at him. Following the incident, Baldwin penned a defensive article in New York Magazine.
“Am I a homophobe? Look, I work in show business. I am awash in gay people, as colleagues and as friends. I’m doing ‘Rock of Ages’ one day, making out with Russell Brand. Soon after that, I’m advocating with Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Cynthia Nixon for marriage equality,” he wrote in the publication. “I’m officiating at a gay friend’s wedding. I’m not a homophobic person at all.”
But prior to that incident, Baldwin also came under fire for hurling seemingly anti-gay slurs toward the editor-in-chief of the New York Daily News, British-born journalist Colin Myler, referring to him as “Her Highness” and an “English Queen.”
And while many in the Twitterverse were offended by Baldwin’s previous remarks, some are not disturbed by the latest gaffe with the Romney aide.
“This one is an attempt at reputational extortion,” Steven Petrow, the former president of the National Gay & Lesbian Journalist Association, told FOX411. “Garrett Jackson was on his knees in the photo with Gov. Romney and he did everything he could to provoke Mr. Baldwin. Sometimes ‘on your knees’ is actually just ‘on your knees.’”
A representative for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) did not respond to a comment request.
But aside from the host of apparently anti-gay comments, Baldwin – despite numerous past declarations and vows to stay off social media – just can’t help but go back.
“Alec is acting up in social media as he acts up in the real word. He's a hot head,” added crisis management expert Glenn Selig. “Because he can't control himself his knee-jerk reaction is to just quit--it's clearly his way of trying to show the public that he is in fact in control, that he can quit at any time, even though from his tweets it's very clear that he is not in control of his behavior.”
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