Alec Baldwin has never successfully read the room, and might even be room-illiterate. Now, the actor, producer, and person of interest in the shooting death of Halyna Hutchins has decided to share his thoughts on Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards.
Baldwin, who was an executive producer on the film set with the worst safety accident in recent memory, began by scolding the producers of the Oscars telecast for not taking care of their talent. “I am not reading much about how, or even if, the producers attended to Chris,” Baldwin wrote on social media on March 29th. “But I love you, Chris Rock,” he continued. “And I’m sorry the Oscars turned into the Jerry Springer show.”
If you’re feeling generous, you’ll no doubt point out that Baldwin was trying to defend someone he apparently cares about, and what could be wrong with that? But if you’re cynical, or exasperated with his often insensitive response to accidentally killing a woman — even if it wasn’t necessarily his fault — you might still find such a statement a teensy bit hypocritical. While Baldwin was producing Rust, several crew members staged a walkout hours before the shooting to protest safety issues and poor work conditions. Baldwin didn’t load the gun with live ammunition, and he may not have pulled the trigger, but in his capacity as producer he was at least partially responsible for creating the strained set conditions that made such an accident possible.
Hutchins’ family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Baldwin, his co-producers, and several crew members, while Santa Fe County’s investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
Following the incident at the Oscars on Sunday, Will Smith issued an apology to Rock, saying, “I was out of line and I was wrong.” The Academy is launching a formal investigation of the attack.
