Alec Baldwin Explains Why He Tussles with Photographers, But Says He Doesn’t Hate the Media
Ever since getting arrested in 1995 for allegedly hitting a paparazzi photographer in Los Angeles, Alec Baldwin has been known to have a bit of a temper.
In 2012, a photographer accused the Framing John DeLorean star of showing aggression towards them on a New York City street. Then the next year, another photographer filed a harassment claim against the Oscar nominee.
“The most essential thing to say about that, which always hurts my feelings, is this notion that the incidents I’ve had where I’ve had ugly encounters with people — typically tabloid photographers and paparazzi — is that it happened unprovoked,” Baldwin, 61, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.
The actor adds that he “never have a problem” with people who “keep their distance.”
“The ones who almost knock my wife’s teeth out with their lens while they’re crowding us in front of our building, they throw the camera in my wife’s face and intimidate her and harass her,” Baldwin says. “I made a decision years ago — and I’m not proud of this decision — I said to myself, I’m going to make my own rules, not wait for the cops to come down here and take care of me. I have to do what I have to do, and it’s led to some very, very ugly things, but all of them have been provoked by people who have harassed and intimidated me or my family.”
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The father of five understands that photographers and the organizations they work also have jobs to do.
“I don’t want to go like Trump and say the press is the enemy of the people,” Baldwin says. “There’s the legitimate press and there’s the tabloid press. The media is a business. I don’t fault anyone that.”
A post shared by Alec Baldwin (@alecbaldwininsta) on Mar 23, 2019 at 10:44am PDT
Luckily as Baldwin’s time in the spotlight has progressed, so has the technology, allowing him and his wife Hilaria to control their own message via social media.
For more on Alec Baldwin, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on stands Friday
“Instagram has enabled us to pretty much kill the paparazzi,” the Match Game host says. “The paparazzi are parked in front of my house not very often anymore. Thank God for Instagram.”
Framing John DeLorean opens Friday, and Match Game returns to ABC on Wednesday on at 10 p.m. ET.
