Alec Baldwin. Everyone, leave him alone. Sometimes you get into a pit. Others then reprise it to heighten or exacerbate the problem and you can’t get out from under. Mother Teresa he’s not, but not all’s his fault. He’s baited.
Look, we’re not close. I wouldn’t recognize his wife from a yoga mat. I know him from old, old days when he rehearsed Broadway roles with my friend, drama coach Elaine Aiken. Earnest, caring, talented. He worked hard. Soaked up the Actors Studio. Wrote a 65-page thesis on Method acting.
That phone argument with then-young daughter Ireland? Me, I remember every two weeks he’d leave his theater, fly all night to see her for one day in LA, then grab the red-eye to be onstage next day.
Stop ambushing Alec. Villains, leave him be to settle. Pick on some pickpocket.
Asking Barbara out to dinner
Disclosure. Barbara Walters attended college while I dated Joey, who starred at her father’s Latin Quarter. We’re the longest, closest friends. Shortly we’re going abroad for R&R. Once back, she’s getting more honorariums. Enough already with Barbara’s hourly tributes. When the Pope retired, there was less fuss.
One cellphone text said she’s wonderful, talented, fabulous “incomparable,” etc., etc., ending with a request for dinner — whenever, wherever she says, and he’ll personally pick her up and blaah blaah.
The sender? Gen. David Petraeus, whom, you’ll recall, also knows something about retirement.
Bits & pieces
More generals. HarperCollins’ new Michael Korda book is on Robert E. Lee. Costco ordered 25,000 copies . . . Must be they’re fascinating because Viking’s doing “Eisenhower: A Life” . . . November, another labeled “A Life” is on hotshot commander Napoleon.
Team player
A-Rod’s advisory gang who couldn’t shoot straight? Here’s more.
Besides Jay Z’s team (which did not include Solange), his heavy-duty advisers included the ex-wife. He wanted no part of her — including her movable parts — and divorced her, but Cynthia suddenly became home plate. Not good enough to live with but good enough to consult with, his children’s mother became A-1 in A-Rod’s F-for-Failure decision making. Just telling you what I know.
All about Judy
Tuesday, 8 p.m., CBS-TV, it’s more Judge Judy. Besides her daily blabathons, it’s an hour prime time special on who she is, how she got there. The woman’s 71, 5-foot-1, weighs 111, a 36D, and grabs more airtime than those mechanical drones. Advance p.r. hints a special surprise guest. Forget the hint. The Special Surprise Guest who’ll introduce her is Samuel L. Jackson.
‘Blood’ is up
“Blue Bloods,” based on a multigenerational New York cop family, celebrates five weekly CBS years with a new set. Producer Leonard Goldberg: “Scenes work in Tom Selleck the Commissioner’s office. Tom said, ‘The rug is wearing out,’ so we’re adding an anteroom, like at NYPD headquarters.”
Why’s this one successful amid TV’s multiple shoot-em-out bang-bang shows?
“It’s not just procedural segments. Each episode has a homey, dinner-table touch, and viewers love where the family of officers discuss the case. Another reason? With a casting list of 100 actors I never envisioned anyone but Tom Selleck.”
High-rise. 70th and Third. Ask not how it happened. I know only it happened. Lady: “Ducks are in my apartment. Not just one. Nine ducks. They flew in. All comfy in my living room. It’s a family.” How’s she know it’s a family? “Put it this way. They look alike.” She’s phoned the authorities and Donald Duck, Daffy Duck or whatever the parent’s called is being relocated with his relatives as we speak.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.