Alec Baldwin | The New York Observer

Hollywood or Bust: Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin to Co-Host the Oscars!

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:21:04 -0500

Don't look now, but the Oscars just got interesting. No, not because of the ten potential Best Picture nominees—as we've already discussed , this has a chance to be the worst field of Best Picture candidates since ... well, last year—but rather because of the actual telecast. The improvements started with the news that so-boring-paint-drying-itself-would-flip-the-channel honorary awards would be given out on a separate night; continued when the rules for Best Original Song were adjusted...

Three Fearless Predictions for Emmy Night!

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:06:08 -0400

It seems fitting that on Emmy night—a night that ostensibly is supposed to celebrate the greatness of television—there is plenty of great television available to divert your attention away from the glitz and glam of the award ceremony itself. Despite the presence of host Neil Patrick Harris—and who doesn’t love themselves some NPH!—the Emmy Awards are set to battle a new episode of Mad Men (which despite 16 nominations will not...

Alec Baldwin's Plastic Footprint

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:51:50 -0400

Who knew that the little metal ring at the top of a can of tennis balls was such a big deal?

From a recycling perspective, apparently, it makes all the difference.

"What the USTA did this year to recycle the tennis ball cans was extraordinary, because you have to take that little metal rim off the plastic can," said Peter Lehner, executive director of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "This year for...

Take Me Out to the Baldwin: Alec Strikes Out, Writers Prevail at Herrick Park

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:39:04 -0400

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon on Aug. 15 in East Hampton’s Herrick Park as players warmed up for the 61st Annual Artists and Writers Charity Softball Game.

Actor Jean Reno prepared to throw the first pitch to start the nail-biter of a game. What kind of an artist makes the best softball player, the Transom wondered? “Human,” Mr. Reno said. “Human people that understand suffering. Laugh, also. You have to understand the global...

At East Hampton Authors' Night, Baldwin Says Literary Theme of His Life is 'Something Dickensian'

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:02:54 -0400

On Saturday, Aug. 8, East Hampton's Main Street was packed with people making their way to the Fifth Annual Authors Night at the East Hampton Library. So long was the line of parked cars that one of the presenting authors, Allen Planz, an elderly poet and charter captain, sprawled himself out on the sidewalk, shoe in hand, taking a rest before continuing on to the event. The library party was comprised of a large...

The Week in DVR: Ricky Gervais Goes Ghost and Showgirls Remind Us Why Bad Movies Are Sometimes So Good

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:11:48 -0400

Monday: Ghost Town
Does anyone do misanthropy better than Ricky Gervais? The acerbic star—who will be seen cutting people down in September’s The Invention of Lying—makes hating on humanity seem not only appealing, but actually kinda normal. Ghost Town, his first foray as a lead actor in a feature film, came and went without much more than a whimper last fall, which is a shame, since it’s one of...

Bring Tissues—Lots of 'em!—to My Sister's Keeper

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:13:20 -0400

My Sister’s Keeper
Running time 109 minutes
Written by Jeremy Leven and Nick Cassavetes
Directed by Nick Cassavetes
Starring Cameron Diaz, Jason Patric, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, Sofia Vassilieva

A less talented director than the sensitive, polished and mature master craftsman Nick Cassavetes might fail to lift My Sister’s Keeper above the level of suicidal depression. It’s about a 14-year-old girl dying of cancer, but don’t let the subject matter deter you from experiencing a...

Get Me Rewrite! Once Variety Ruled the Holywood Press, But Twittering Stars and Cutthroat Blogs Have Put Blood on Sunset Boulevard

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:39:10 -0400

On Monday, April 13, the actor Ashton Kutcher sent a message out to his fans using the microblogging tool Twitter.

“My dad always said 'I'll believe when I hear it from the horses mouth,'” was the message his subscribers received. “twitter is the horses mouth. no more 'well the news said ...'”

By Friday, April 17, Mr. Kutcher became the first “Twitterer” to attract a million readers. He beat CNN.com's continuous headline feed, also syndicated to...

Dysfunction Junction: Baldwin, Culkin Boys Make Great Screwed-Up Family

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:45:15 -0400

Lymelife
Running time 95 minutes
Written by Derick Martini and Steven Martini
Directed by Derick Martini
Starring Alec Baldwin, Kieran Culkin, Jill Hennessy, Rory Culkin

Derick Martini’s Lymelife, from a screenplay by Derick and Steven Martini, was filmed over 22 days on location in New Jersey (standing in for Long Island). The subject is late-’70s suburban sprawl into Long Island out of Queens and the rest of New York City, and how the transition affects...

Love and Disease on Long Island

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:00:05 -0400

Lymelife
Running time 95 minutes
Written by Steven and Derick Martini
Directed by Derick Martini
Starring Alec Baldwin, Kieran Culkin, Rory Culkin, Jill Hennessy, Timothy Hutton and Cynthia Nixon

Next to getting laid, young independent filmmakers today, working with digital cameras on ginger ale budgets, seem primarily concerned with escaping from dysfunctional families in the suburbs. It is never clear just whom, what or where they’re escaping to, but like Porgy, they’re on...

Vegging Out: Sir Paul and Stella McCartney Espouse Meatless, Hybrid Lifestyle at Eco-A-List Bash

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:57:55 -0400

“My daughter is getting an award so I’m a proud duh-dee!” Paul McCartney told the Daily Transom at the Natural Resources Defense Council’s annual Forces for Nature benefit at 583 Park Avenue on Monday, March 30, where his daughter, fashion designer Stella McCartney, and Discovery Communications’ CEO David Zaslav were honored for their respective environmental work.

Mr. McCartney, wearing a lightweight European aristo scarf indoors, was accompanied by his lady friend, M.T.A. board member Nancy Shevell,...

Don't Squeeze the Baldwin

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:22:16 -0500

AdWeek's AdFreak blogger, David Giantasio brings word—and image!—of this 30 Rock promotional stunt from The Netherlands that's so strange, it has to be real.

Behold, Oscar-nominated actor and recent New Yorker profile subject Alec Baldwin's face on toilet paper. (This comes via TVTattle.)

Someone should probably send a case of this stuff to the staff of the New York Post's Page Six' and Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, each of whom has...

Are These Really The 30 Best Of 30 Rock?

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:47:22 -0400

As you have no doubt already heard, the season three premiere of 30 Rock is available online at this very moment. (Hooray! It looks like we have something to do this weekend!) If you’re one of those old fashioned folks who wants to wait until next Thursday to watch the show on an actual television set, you can still get your 30 Rock fix over at Paste Magazine. In preparation for...

Three Out of Four Baldwin Brothers Back in the Spotlight

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:06:35 -0400

If you are anything like us—it's O.K. if you're not!—you like to keep abreast of the long-running soap opera that is the saga of the Baldwin Brothers. So much more than the sum of their parts, the quartet of actors manage to cover all ends of the talent and political spectra with their entertaining brand of blue-eyed, overbearing crazy. This morning was a special one, as we found three out of Alexander and Carole's...

Emmy Picks, Day Four: The Actors

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:03:27 -0400

The 60th Primetime Emmy Awards air Sunday on ABC. And in preparation, we thought it would be fun to give you a little help on your office pool. Welcome to Day 4 of our Emmy preview!

We've already handicapped both supporting races and the lead actresses. Now it's time to look at the actors.

Best Actor, Comedy: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock; Steve Carell, The Office; Lee Pace,...

Morning Memo: James Franco is Eye Candy at Columbia; Cityfile Gets Servicey; Alec Baldwin Loses It Again

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:15:28 -0400

Columbia students have been harassing James Franco, who's enrolled in an MFA program in writing. [P6]

Mary-Kate Olsen forced organizers of at the Rock and Republic show to re-seat her in between Gossip Girl stars Chace Crawford and Jessica Szohr, though she later obliged them by "[smiling] in the front row." [NYDN]

Sean 'Diddy' Combs totally lied about having a private jet! [Palm Beach Post]

For those who don't know their Hamish Bowles from their Michael...

A Reader's Guide to Celebrity Parent Tell-All Books

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:05:25 -0400

Apparently, an increasingly coherent and aware Britney Spears is upset about her mother Lynne's forthcoming tell-all, Through the Storm. The book reveals, among other things, that the pop star lost her virginity at 14 and began drinking in middle school, along with embarrassing details about Britney's many, many crack-ups. No longer content to act as a passive, panty-less A.T.M. for everyone in her circle, Spears is "furious" with her mother, especially since she thinks...

Will Oprah Be 30 Rock's Miracle?

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:26:00 -0400

When a television comedy gets overloaded with stunt casting, it usually means the show is just not funny and thus has to over-compensate by dangling shiny objects in front of viewers' faces. Think Will & Grace. "Look there's Matt Damon! And that's Demi Moore! Oh, I love Michael Douglas!"

With 30 Rock, it's the opposite. It's pretty much the funniest show on television, hands down. [Though we also love Samantha Who?....

Jay McInerney, A.M. Homes, Fareed Zakaria to Party in the Hamptons This Weekend

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:22:26 -0400

Tomorrow evening, the East Hampton Library will host its fourth annual Author's Night benefit, Page Six reported today. All of the proceeds will benefit the library (though an Authors Only summer share might be kinda fun too!). Over 80 writers are expected to attend, including E.L. Doctorow, Jay McInerney, A.M. Holmes, Marie Brenner, Malachy McCourt, Steven Gaines, Barbara Goldsmith, Robert A.M. Stern, Fareed Zakaria, Tom Clavin, Sidney Offit, Philip Schultz, and ...

The Transom in Print, August 6, 2008: ZoneHampton; Eliza Dushku; Polo Players

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:48:50 -0400

The rain didn't deter Hamptonites from making their way to Bridgehampton for the polo matches, but when they got there, the fields were muddy and the games had been canceled. Fortunately suave polo player Nacho Figueras was there to make everyone feel better, Irina Aleksander reports.

Then Ms. Aleksander muscled her way into ZoneHampton, a gym frequented by the likes of Alec Baldwin, Kelly Ripa and Matthew Broderick, and spent an hour huffing and puffing...

'Carpooling Encouraged' for Celebrity-Packed Obama Fund-Raiser in the Hamptons

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:48:12 -0400

Residents of the Hamptons will be doing their part to raise money (and the average contribution figure) for Barack Obama's Victory Fund at an August 17 fund-raiser with special guest Caroline Kennedy, according to an invite sent in by a reader. (Obama will not be in attendance.) The hosts of the event are Ross Bleckner and Dorothy Lichtenstein, and the co-hosts include just about everyone in Hampton's society.

According...

Morning Memo: Liv and Royston Split; Jeff Zucker's Secret; Paul Giamatti to Play Dick Cheney?

Fri, 09 May 2008 07:40:21 -0400

Page Six meant to report that Katie Couric might be returning to NBC when Jeff Zucker was spotted visiting her Upper East Side apartment, but instead totally outed Mr. Zucker to his wife! The NBC Universal CEO was simply picking up a gift that he asked Katie to buy for his wife for mother's day. [P6]

Nina Garcia might be following the cameras and going over to Marie Claire just as Project Runway chucks...

The Week in DVR: House Is Where the Heart Is; A Very Hairy Tuesday

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:12:17 -0400

MONDAY

There’s something comforting about the predictability of House (Fox, 9 p.m.), which returns tonight. Sometimes it’s nice to have a show where you can set your watch by its familiar plot points, like the show’s every climax where Dr. House has reluctantly ordered some incredibly invasive procedure to cure a patient, only to have it interrupted at the last moment by a new symptom or a phrase that triggers one...

Hamptons Film Festival's Freaky Friday

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:54:36 -0400

It looked on Friday night as though the 15th annual Hamptons International Film Festival were going to be a washout. Torrential rains slowed traffic to a baby crawl on the Long Island Expressway, and by the time it was a little before 7 p.m., the assorted bedraggled paparazzi were fidgeting and joking among themselves at the sight of the empty red carpet at the East Hampton Cinema on Main Street, the hub of the...

Zooming In on Alec Baldwin

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:38:51 -0400

Sometimes, apparently, people just go to a tennis match to watch tennis.

Shortly after the end of the first set between Carlos Moya and Novak Djokovic last night, a crowd-cam zeroed in on Alec Baldwin, who was sitting some ten rows from the court, just below the President’s Suite. Some fans in the crowd booed.

The 49-year-old actor called a young man in a coat and tie down from the President’s suite to speak with him...

Hamptons Secede!

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:19:28 -0400

At the beginning of each summer, reporters strap themselves into rented Ford Focuses, drive east, stick their pale forefingers in the air and try to decide whether the Hamptons are still hot, or so over.

On Saturday, June 23, at the after-party of the Southampton premiere of the movie Fierce People, legendary adman Jerry Della Femina offered his assessment. “The Hamptons,” Mr. Della Femina declared grandly, “have become a nation unto themselves.

...

Cancer Vixen Tells All

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400

On the evening of Thursday, Sept. 21, the Champagne and rosé were flowing yet again at Da Silvano on Sixth Avenue, this time in celebration of owner Silvano Marchetto’s wife, Marisa Acocella Marchetto, and her graphic memoir, Cancer Vixen: A True Story, published by Knopf—the suspenseful tale of what happened to the author after she found a cancerous tumor in her breast three weeks before her wedding. The scene at the restaurant, as it...

All the World’s a Stage— But the Set’s Gotta Be Right

Sun, 02 Apr 2006 20:00:00 -0400

It’s a pity the garbage dump is missing from the Roundabout Theatre’s revival of Joe Orton’s vintage 1964 black comedy, Entertaining Mr. Sloane. After all, the English master of amoral anarchy set the genteel drawing room of his play on a garbage dump, and we assume that the great Orton knew what he was doing. The set tells us all. It’s the life-blood of any production, creating the world the characters inhabit. If...

Looking for Peacocks In the Magic of Farce

Sun, 09 May 2004 20:00:00 -0400

There's a true story that Tom Stoppard liked to tell about a man he knew who kept peacocks. Not to worry! This is a completely comprehensible Stoppardian story. No particular knowledge of peacocks, moral philosophy or the existence-or nonexistence-of God is required, thank God.

One bright morning the man was shaving, and he looked out the bathroom window and saw that one of his treasured peacocks had escaped onto the road. So he dashed out...

Baldwin Arroused

Sun, 30 Nov 2003 19:00:00 -0500

Somewhere around Los Angeles, Alec Baldwin was taking a hike and panting.

"I don't want to go all over the map here, but where is the protest against this war when almost on a daily basis, someone is dying over there?" he said between labored breaths. "Right when you would want to question the motives of an administration, the country has gone and taken a nap. They're hiding in their houses. They're afraid of bin...

Pre-Pre-Oscar Party

Sun, 28 Sep 2003 20:00:00 -0400

"This is like the New York Oscars, except without any of the annoying prestige," said Michael Ian Black, the VH1 I Love the 80's fetish object, who had been hired to host the 13th annual IFP/Gotham Awards on Monday, Sept. 22, at Chelsea Piers' Pier Sixty.

Mr. Black may have been scathingly accurate in his assertion that he'd "talked to the numbers guys" and determined that the Gothams-which will air on the Independent Film Channel...

On the Beach with ABC's Hamptons

Sun, 02 Jun 2002 20:00:00 -0400

The first words in The Hamptons -Barbara Kopple's thoughtful, meandering voyage through the social weeds and fields of eastern Long Island to be broadcast June 2 and 3 at 9 p.m. as a two-part docu-mini-series on ABC-belong to an earnest, scruffy-faced local named Alec Baldwin. "I would come out here and it would have a grip on me," the work-shirted Mr. Baldwin intones to Ms. Kopple's camera. "The air, the light … it...

Arlene Dahle and Rosemary Harris Give Nod to the "Maximus" Beef Filet at Academy's East Coast Oscar Party Tasting

Sun, 25 Mar 2001 19:00:00 -0500

Mom Rocks

It was enough to make a mother proud–and we don't mean a member of Frank Zappa's original lineup. At the 16th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria–under chandeliers and TV lighting, with a wall-sized teleprompter towering in the back–everyone gave it up for Mama, even the baddest of the bad boys. Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry thanked his for letting him play as loud as he wanted in...

The Perfect Swarm: A Hamptons Weekend

Sun, 16 Jul 2000 20:00:00 -0400

On the evening of Saturday July 8, actor Alec Baldwin sipped from a plastic cup filled with orange liquid under a white tent that had been erected on the Sag Harbor pier. Dressed in a blue shirt, suit jacket, and some nifty leather moccasins, his sunglasses fairly embedded in his plump face, Mr. Baldwin was doing his part, as one of the Hamptons' resident celebrities, to spiff up the annual benefit dinner and auction...

Hey! Yeah, You ! What's Your Gay Quotient?

Sun, 27 Jun 1999 20:00:00 -0400

It used to be easy. You were either gay or you were straight. Maybe certain oddballs belonged to that category known as "bi," especially in the 70's. But for the most part, you got to identify yourself as one thing (heterosexual) or the other (homosexual), and that was that. That was O.K. But how about this: Just how gay are you? What percentage?

"I guess I'd have to be way down," said John Seabrook, a...

Jeanne Moreau: La Bitch Is Back

Sun, 02 May 1999 20:00:00 -0400

Jeanne Moreau: La Bitch Is Back

At the reception in the French Embassy on April 23 for the release of "Tout Truffaut"–a 14-film retrospective of the late François Truffaut's oeuvre that opened earlier that day at the Film Forum–French actress Jeanne Moreau sat at a small round table with Truffaut's on-screen alter ego, actor Jean-Pierre Léaud. They had flown in from Paris for the event; both sipped Perrier from wineglasses. A cluster of Francophones and...

Weary Clinton Eats Bouloud's Big Dinner at Wassersteins', Plays Golf; Hillary Dazzles Mr. and Mrs. Alec Baldwin

Sun, 09 Aug 1998 20:00:00 -0400

The helicopters made mechanical thunder in the overcast sky as they descended in pairs to the East Hampton Airport's tarmac. First came the dual-rotor transports, their olive hulls emblazoned "United States Marines" in gold. Down the ramp of one of the aircraft scrambled what looked like a cadre of Secret Service agents, all brushcuts and skeptical scowls. From the ramp of the other clambered cameramen and reporters from the Washington press pool, bored-looking and...

President on Lam Drops Into Mediacracy's Back Yard; His Goal? $2 Million; Their Goal: Eat Him Alive!

Sun, 02 Aug 1998 20:00:00 -0400

A serious tone crept into State Democratic Committee chairman Judith Hope's voice. "Let me point out something that everyone has missed," she said, referring to the dozens of reporters who had written about President Bill Clinton's visit to the Hamptons. "This weekend is primarily a weekend of rest and relaxation for a family called Bill and Hillary Clinton and Chelsea if she can come."

In this very surreal moment of history, Ms. Hope can be...

Leaked by Starr? Clinton Does the Hamptons

Sun, 02 Aug 1998 20:00:00 -0400

From: The Office of Strategic Summer Vacation Planning.

To: Office of the President. Re: Your Weekend in "The Hamptons." Mr. President: This memo will serve as a follow-up to our discussions regarding your proposed trip to "The Hamptons," currently scheduled for July 31-August 2, 1998. As per your request, it reflects the input you requested from the D.O.J. (Department of Justice), the Democratic National Committee, the F.B.I., C.I.A., E.P.A., I.C.M., Harry Thomason and David Geffen. Issue 1: Transportation. Addressing...

Mutiny aboard Ark Restaurants! Employees sue

Sun, 09 Nov 1997 19:00:00 -0500

Restaurant Union Deluges Ark

Michael Weinstein, the man at the helm of Ark Restaurants Corporation, a large, publicly traded company, has repeatedly been noted in the restaurant trade as a guy who is good to the people who work for him. Mr. Weinstein is reputed to remember his employees' names ( Restaurant Business ). He is said to display "a kind of caring that is uncommon" for someone in his position, even selling three...

Turn Back!Avoid U-Turn

Sun, 05 Oct 1997 20:00:00 -0400

No amount of Saint Johnswort will get you through U-Turn. You need stronger stuff, since it's a movie so stupefyingly bad it seems to have been made by people stoned on Prozac and helium. Not so much directed as hallucinated by madman Oliver Stone, this lurid, violent and pretentious cross between Blue Velvet and Duel in the Sun is not as much fun as it sounds. Vultures circle overhead in every scene while...

Not So Long-Toothed Russell Baker Semi-Retires After Sulzberger Nudge

Sun, 28 Sep 1997 20:00:00 -0400

For actor Alec Baldwin, the response is natural. "When someone pisses on your wife, you want to knock their teeth out," he told The Transom.

The co-star of the current release The Edge , Mr. Baldwin is well aware of the consequences to celebrities who cold-cock civilians. So when he read a piece in the Sept. 7 edition of The New York Times , by Bernard Weinraub, that he contended was unfair to his bride,...