A clash between actor Alec Baldwin and reporter and photographer for The New York Post yesterday promoted dueling harassment claims and an “exclusive” frontpage story in the Post. “Alec’s ‘Race’ Rant,” reads the Post cover. “Black photog: Baldwin used racist slurs.”
Mr. Baldwin was approached by reporter Tara Palmeri while he was walking dogs outside his East Village apartment yesterday morning. After Ms. Palmeri asked the actor for a comment on a lawsuit involving his wife Hilaria Thomas’s work as a yoga instructor, Mr. Baldwin grabbed the reporter by her arm and said “I want you to choke to death,” the Post reported. Ms. Palmeri told the police and played a recording of the conversation. He then called Post staff photographer G.N. Miller (who is black) a “coon, a drug dealer,’’ Mr. Miller’s police statement said.
The cops were called, and both Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Miller filed harassment claims against each other. According to Mr. Miller, “the actor bumped him in the chest during their tete-a-tete, although Baldwin told cops the photographer “pushed into him,’’ according to the actor’s complaint,” the Post reports.
Mr. Baldwin took to Twitter to address the incident.
“Thank u 2 NYPD officers who came to my home 2day so that I could file a formal complaint against NY Post “photographer’’ who assaulted me,’’ he tweeted, according to the Post. The actor has since removed most of the posts, the tabloid reports.
But Mr. Baldwin didn’t delete all of the tweets he wrote addressing the matter. “I wonder what outrageous claims the Post will make tomorrow re the ‘photographer’ I filed an NYPD complaint against today,” Mr. Baldwin’s Twitter feed reads today. “That’s kind of magical thinking, isn’t it? The Post accusing me of racism?” reads another Tweet.
Mr. Baldwin’s spokesman, Matthew Hiltzik, called Mr. Miller’s accusations “completely false.’’ And Mr. Baldwin, through his spokesman, denied making the remarks.
The Post, of course, doesn’t need to use Twitter or spokespeople to tell their side of the story. They have a front page at their disposal.
