Why Is Alec Baldwin in a Twitter War With the New York Post?

30 Rock star lashes out at various reporters at the NYC tabloid after they allegedly threatened to run a negative piece on someone close to him

By Gina Serpe Sep 13, 2011 9:03 PMTags
Alec BaldwinMauceri/Donnelly/INFphoto.com

Alec Baldwin is not what you would call shy about calling out those he thinks have wronged him. A Starbucks barista knows this. John Krasinski knows this. And now, the New York Post knows this.

The 30 Rock star got tweeting mad this week, lobbing some finely crafted, 140-character insults at two of the paper's reporters who conducted their schmuck-raking a little close to the actor for comfort. So where did they go wrong? And what did Alec have to say about it?

Well, it all started last week, when Baldwin responded to an article written about his dust-up with a Manhattan Starbucks barista (which, incidentally, the world only learned about after Alec himself tweeted the altercation). The article was written—as will become abundantly clear in a moment—by a reporter named Helen Freund, who put in some real man hours on her tabloid tale by actually doing a reporter's job and going up to the coffee locale to get different eyewitness accounts of the incident.

Which led Baldwin to post the following query:

"Today's question: What make Helen Freund of NY Post such a sleazy, from-under-a-rock tab gnat? What drives these tab 'writers?' do u care?"

Not sure, but by the sounds of it, Alec sure does.

However, things went from bad to worse just one day later, when on Sunday—Sept. 11—a second reporter came a-calling for quotes on a follow-up story to Baristagate.

Which was enough to send the proud New York actor right over the edge.

"A woman named Amber Sutherland from the Post JUST CAME TO MY APT BLDG!!" he tweeted. "ON THE 9-11 ANNIVERSARY!!! To ask me about Starbucks."

And yet still, that was not the end of it. The latest missive was filed just moments ago by the actor who, presumably responding to some communiqué from the paper, released the following tweet:

"Did the NY Post just threaten to do a negative piece on someone close to me bc I outed them 4 harassing me at my home on 9-11?"

We certainly hope not. In any case, kudos on the cojones, Alec. Not that we'd expect anything less from Pete Schweddy.

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