* Baldwin’s volatile temper has contributed to altercations with a number of people in both his personal and professional life:
“Hey, I want to tell you something, okay, and I want to leave a message for you right now, cos again it’s 10:30 here in New York on a Wednesday and once again, I have made an ass of myself trying to get to a phone to call you at a specific time. When the time comes for me to make the phone call, I stop whatever I’m doing and I go and I make that phone call … and you don’t even have that goddamn phone turned on.
“I’m tired of playing this game with you. I’m leaving this message for you to tell you that you have insulted me for the last time. You have insulted me. You don’t have the brains or the decency as a human being… I don’t give a damn that you’re 12 years old or 11 years old, or a child, or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the ass who doesn’t care about what you do as far as I’m concerned.
“You have humiliated me for the last time with this phone and when I come out there next week. I’m going to fly out there for the day just to straighten you out on this issue. I’m going to let you know just how disappointed in you that I am and how angry I am with you that you’ve done this to me again.
“You made me feel like sh** and you’ve made me feel like a fool over and over and over again. And this crap you pull on me with this goddamn phone situation that you would never dream of doing to your mother and you do it to me constantly and over and over again. I am going to get on a plane and I am going to straighten your ass out when I see you.
“Do you understand me? I am going to really make sure you get it. That I’m going to get on a plane and I’m gonna turn around and come home. So you better be ready Friday the 20th to meet with me. So I’m going to let you know how I feel, about what a rude little pig you really are. You are a rude thoughtless little pig. Okay?”
According to a crew member: “He [Baldwin] was violent, abusive and aggressive. He got into the bathroom and started beating on the wall and he pounded his fists on the galley counter. Yelling, screaming, very ugly. It was unsafe to keep him on board that’s why he got kicked out.”
Baldwin subsequently denied that his remarks were anti-gay: “The idea of … that being something that people thought is homophobic … a queen to me has a different meaning. It’s somebody who’s just above. I know women that act queeny, I know men that are straight that act queeny, and I know gay men that act queeny. It doesn’t have to be a definite sexual connotation, or a homophobic connotation. To me those are people who think the rules don’t apply to them.”
* In a March 2013 interview, Baldwin lauded ABC newsman Brian Williams for his “unbiased, thoughtful, and direct reporting.” Some two years later, in early 2015, Williams became engulfed in scandal when it was learned that he had lied to viewers dozens of times over the years regarding his alleged presence at, or involvement in, major world events.
* From 1989 to 2008, Baldwin gave $130,902 in political contributions, of which $124,402 went to Democrat candidates, and none went to Republicans. Beneficiaries of Baldwin’s donations included Barbara Boxer, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, Richard Durbin, Russell Feingold, Al Franken, Tom Harkin, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and Jerrold Nadler.