Alec Baldwin

Alec Baldwin has an interesting, even somewhat sympathetic, take on the Anthony Weiner scandal, which reached new, disgusting heights this week upon the release of the Congressman's bare penis pic.

In a piece for The Huffington Post, Baldwin delved into the way technology has shaped human behavior and wrote:

“For high functioning men like Weiner and other officials who have lived through such scandals, who are constantly on the go, that leaves one tried and true source of a reliable high. The affirmation that comes when someone lets you know they want to sleep with you. Or even cyber-sleep with you.”

Smart phones and social networks have opened the door for busy individuals to receive the kind of gratification they aren't receiving at home, Baldwin argues:

“Appointment sex with your spouse doesn’t always arrive when you need it most. A modern cell phone, loaded with contacts of willing fellow players, has a table with a red checkered table cloth ready for you at virtually any time.”

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Russell Brand is accustomed to looking flat-out ridiculous. In fact, it'd be strange if he didn't. Alec Baldwin, though? We're used to seeing him as buttoned-up exec Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock, making the image below even more awesome.

This photo from the set of Rock of Ages pretty much speaks for itself.

"On the set with the one and only Russell Brand," Baldwin Tweeted:

The duo play a music club owner and his assistant in the film, but we really think they should consider adopting these respective hairstyles full-time.

Katy Perry wouldn't mind ... would she?

The same man who cracks us up each week with dry-witted 30 Rock quotes has grown (somewhat) serious when it comes to Charlie Sheen's career.

In an editorial for The Huffington Post, based on his own experiences with executives in the movie and TV business, Baldwin addresses the troubled actor and says: "You can't win. Really. You can't."

Meaning what, exactly? Baldwin gives us a look inside the industry and continues:

"No actor is greater than the show itself when the show is a hit. And, in that regard, [executives] are often right. Add to that the fact that the actor who is torturing their diseased egos is a drug-addled, porn star-squiring, near-Joycean Internet ranter, and they really want you to go."

Baldwin is correct that almost all hit shows remain popular and profitable after stars leave. Look at NYPD Blue, ER, CSI.

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Amid the shocking news that MSNBC fired Keith Olbermann late last week, the network is already looking to find a new marquee star for its growing brand.

Their ultimate wish list is topped by none other than Alec Baldwin.

"He's already part of the NBC family, has a huge fan base and is very respected for his long term passions for politics," a network source says of the actor.

FUNNIEST HOST EVER: Could Alec Baldwin be the new Keith Olbermann?

Alec, whose right-leaning media exec delivers epic 30 Rock quotes on a weekly basis, has expressed political aspirations before, especially lately.

"Yes, it's something that I'm very, very interested in," Alec told CNN's Parker Spitzer when asked if politics was a "game" he wanted to enter.

But could Baldwin really replace Olbermann after his tumultuous exit?

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Alec Baldwin is a terrific actor whose 30 Rock quotes always make us laugh on Thursdays and who seems like an upstanding, grounded guy in real life.

Relationships with his ex-wife and daughter have been tumultuous, however.

In the latest chapter, Alec was hospitalized briefly after his 14-year-old offspring Ireland Baldwin couldn't reach him and the worried teen called 911.

But Skip Basinger, brother of Alec's ex-wife Kim Basinger, tells People it was just a misunderstanding blown out of proportion and not an attempt to embarrass him.

Ireland was in L.A. and her father was at his Manhattan apartment when they argued over the phone on Thursday, February 11, according to Skip:

"Ireland was talking to her dad and they got into an argument. He got upset. She tried to call him back and couldn't reach him, so she called 911."

Alec Baldwin was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital before being released just hours later. A source said a big factor was him threatening to take pills.

"It was a simple little thing, a misunderstanding," Basinger says about his niece's decision to call 911. Alec and Ireland "talk all the time," he says.

"Ireland calls him, he calls her. Ireland loves her dad. But kids and their dads are always arguing. Have you ever tried to raise a teenager?"

Skip says Alec has better control of his famous temper after ... well, you know. "After the voicemail incident, he learned to restrain himself."

Alec Baldwin ended up in a New York City hospital last night after his 14-year-old daughter, Ireland, called 911 from the 30 Rock star's Manhattan apartment.

WNBC in New York reported the news Thursday morning.

The status of Baldwin's condition, as well as what sort of episode triggered the incident, was not divulged, but Today said the Emmy winner has been released.

The 51-year-old actor reportedly agreed to be taken to the hospital, whatever the reason for him being admitted, and was examined before being sent home.

Alec Baldwin and daughter Ireland.

Besides the Emmy-winning comedy series, Baldwin also stars in It's Complicated with Meryl Streep and Steve Martin, with whom he is due to co-host the Oscars on March 7.

We've still got a couple of years left, but get ready to say farewell to Alec Baldwin in movies and TV shows, according to the master thespian himself.

The Emmy-winning star whose 30 Rock quotes are as funny as it gets says he plans to quit acting when his contract for the NBC show ends in 2012.

Says Baldwin in the new issue of Men's Journal: "I don't have any interest in acting anymore. I'm not young, but I have time to do something else."

While the actor has won the best reviews of his life playing Republican, bottom-line-obsessed Jack Donaghy, he harshly dismisses all of his movies.

"I consider my entire movie career a complete failure," declares the star of The Hunt for Red October and Glengarry Glen Ross. Why such criticism?

"The goal of moviemaking is to star in a film where your performance drives the film, and the film is either a soaring critical or commercial success."

"I've never had that."

Alec Baldwin makes Thursdays on TV that much funnier.

Baldwin still regrets the leaked voicemail in which he called his daughter a "rude, thoughtless little pig," saying, "I feel the consequences every day."

Alec's custody fight over Ireland with ex-wife Kim Basinger, who gave his voicemail the Michael Lohan treatment, has affected his love life, too,

He says his baggage led to the recent dissolution of a seven-year relationship he had with another woman. Yet he claims that he doesn't mind.

"I'd rather be lonely than wrong," he says.

One is a comedian that plays the banjo.

The other is an actor that utters the funniest 30 Rock quotes - nay, the funniest quotes, period! - on television.

Together, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will host the 2010 Academy Awards.

"I am happy to co-host the Oscars with my enemy Alec Baldwin," Martin, who has hosted the event twice before, said in a statement.

Replied Baldwin: "I don't play the banjo, but I'm thrilled to be hosting the Oscars – it's the opportunity of a lifetime."

"We think the team of Steve and Alec are the perfect pair of hosts for the Oscars," said show producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic. "Steve will bring the experience of having hosted the show in the past and Alec will be a completely fresh personality for this event."

Hey, as long as he leaves he doesn't leave any messages during the event, Balwin is an inspired choice.

Alec Baldwin is known for uttering hilarious 30 Rock quotes. But on a more serious note, the actor writes on the Huffington Post about a topic that he takes very seriously - animal rights. Specifically, as they pertain to Michael Vick.

In a 60 minutes interview and a written apology this week, the football star-turned-dogfighting kingpin has begun the process of rehabbing his image.

But some people aren't interested in hearing Vick's apology.

While not condoning what the disgraced NFL star did, Baldwin says that Vick is being unfairly scapegoated and that people who demonize him are:

1. Missing the bigger picture altogether
2. Ignoring the fact that letting the football player try to rehabilitate himself may actually bolster animal rights causes in significant ways

Here are some excerpts from Alec's blog. See if you agree:

"What [Michael Vick] did is, obviously, senseless and reprehensible. But as a wealthy and talented athletic superstar who performs his job out in the open before crowds of highly opinionated fans, he suffers an unfair disadvantage.

As compared to, say, the heads of a meatpacking plant or the directors of a medical research lab where animals are suffering the cruelest imaginable abuse behind walls and doors that remove them from our sight and judgments.

Vick did horrific things and he deserved to be punished. He served his time and now I wonder what good does it do to exile him in shame and not let him become an example of how one can be rehabilitated after that kind of behavior.

If Vick returns to his true form as an NFL pro, that platform can mean real progress for animal rights. Do people really not want to open that conversation?

Each day in this country, millions upon millions of animals are suffering lives of daily abuse in factory farming, but we turn away because that animal, unlike Michael Vick's dogs, ends up on a grill and then on our plates.

Animals not raised as pets suffer in ways that you and I don't really want to know. And in economic hard times, support for groups like the Humane Society and other prominent players in the animal rights movement, drops precipitously.

To ban Vick, to simply cast him aside and simply hate him, knowing that someone in his position stands potentially ready to effectively serve the interests of the very groups and individuals that he most offended, would be a mistake.

Vick deserves another chance. One chance. Just like all of us who eat meat, drink milk, attend rodeos, circuses, zoos and horse races and yet find it easier to hand Vick the bill for all of the other, more systemic abuses in our society."

Is Michael Vick being unfairly scapegoated?

Looks like Johanna Cox has won two important things over the last year:

1. The reality show Stylista;
2. Alec Baldwin's heart.

According to various sources, Cox and the 30 Rock star are an item, as they were spotted together at the recent premiere of his new movie, Lymelife.

"They acted like a couple,” said a witness. “They were holding hands."

Cox is 29 and Baldwin is 51.