You’ve undoubtedly seen Alec Baldwin’s SNL skit from this weekend, in which he spoofed his ouster from a domestic American Airlines flight for refusing to turn off his phone. On SNL Baldwin impersonated an American Airlines pilot, complete with a moustache and a pitch perfect accent, and apologized to himself. He played it completely straight and it was pretty amusing.
Baldwin previously issued an apology to his fellow passengers for refusing to turn off his phone while his plane was sitting at the gate, causing a further delay in takeoff while he was kicked off the flight. He never apologized to the crew or flight attendants though, and claimed in his statement that he was singled out by one flight attendant, whom he compared to a retired Catholic school gym teacher. Well the flight attendants aren’t forgiving Baldwin, either. E! News has confirmed that the American Airlines flight attendant union is lobbying the bankrupt airline to pull all episodes of “30 Rock” that play on the in-flight entertainment system. I think we know now why that stewardess was so annoyed with Alec Baldwin. Anyone who has to see the same sitcom episode every day at work (no matter how good it is) is going to harbor some grudges.
E! News has confirmed that the seemingly grudge-holding American Airlines Flight Attendants Union has taken the first steps to make sure Baldwin—or his TV alter ego—never step foot in their planes again.
The airlines confirmed that since Alec’s game of Words With Friends gained him some enemies (or more accurately, since the actor spoofed the airline on Saturday Night Live over the weekend), the union has broached the subject with those in charge of making such decisions of pulling the critically lauded 30 Rock from its inflight entertainment lineup.
So if it was possible, the skies just got even less friendly for Alec Baldwin. And less amusing for Alec Baldwin fans.
No decision has yet been made regarding the sitcom’s yanking, though an airline spokesperson was quick to explain that NBC routinely rotates which programs it offers onboard the AA flights, and that not every flight offers the same lineup (so just because passengers don’t see Tina Fey & Co. on their next voyage doesn’t mean the show has been pulled).
Currently, the show does continue to air on some—though not all—of the airline’s flights, which is standard programming procedure. For now.
[From E! Online]
This would be a very petty move. I have to fly in a couple of days and I’m not looking forward to it at all. It’s not some cushy one-off domestic flight, either, it’s international and I have two freaking layovers. I did side with Baldwin slightly in my coverage of this as I’ve suffered air rage silently and I’ve held it in. I’ve dealt with some nasty flight attendants and I’ve wanted to tell people off. I’m sure the flight attendants hate us when we’re bitches too, and they have more of us to deal with. They don’t want Alec to become some sort of folk hero. If they deliberately and obviously ban his TV show from flights, they may be giving him more credit than he deserves, though.
Alec Baldwin is shown on 12/6, 8/20 and 7/25/11. Credit: Fame
American Airlines sucks. I always dread having to fly AA but often end up using them because they’re the cheapest. I guess I’m not surprised that they have absolutely NO sense of humor whatsoever. Lighten up, people-it was a joke!
You pick your flights by what’s cheapest but you’re surprised that it’s an unpleasant experience?
What world do you live in where something that is economical automatically has to be awful? You must be a rich person…
You don’t have to be rich to understand that if you choose something solely based on price, you’re not likely to get the best quality and service. If it were better, they could charge more.
Really? I feel sorry for you if that’s what you think. Myself, I get to enjoy many things in life-much of which are either cheap or FREE (gasp!). It’s called reuse/recycle. See: ebay.com, coupons/groupons or even my used Rav4 (re-gifted from my mom and the best car I could ask for). Sorry that you’re of the mindset that you have to pay extra $$ to get quality/enjoyable things out of life-sounds like a sucky way to live.
Oh gg-I COMPLETELY forgot about RyanAir-and I cannot agree with you more! My friend and I used them for a connecting flight from France to Ireland a couple years ago and it was a NIGHTMARE. Not sure if you noticed the same thing but when I was using them it was around the holidays and there were a ton of college kids on the flights (maybe because it is so cheap?) and I couldn’t believe how blase they were about the whole thing-maybe they’re just used to it being a terrible experience? But yeah-sitting on the tarmac for hours, cattle call line-up, completely disorganized etc. So you are completely right in this example. I just mean that it doesn’t AUTOMATICALLY have to be unpleasant just because it is cheap. My friend and I always say “RyanAir: NEVER again!” when we talk about that trip 🙂
I’m not saying you can’t find good things that are inexpensive – but if your sole criteria for choosing something is price, don’t be surprised if you get low quality.
I also have to add that I recently paid $600 to fly roundtrip from Boston to London via British Airways. Not only was the ticket price a steal but the flight experience couldn’t have been better. So yes “cheap” does not have to mean “low quality”.
On the “you get what you pay for front”, I have only four words that would change your mind about supercheap airlines: RYAN AIR and EASY JET. I have never had such horrible experiences before the ONE time each I have ridden on these european airlines. I don’t even have the space on here to go into the details but we wanted to stab people after waiting in line for an hour and a half only to be told we had to do it all over again because we were 2 pounds over the limit on one of our bags, amongst other annoyances. OY. I compared notes with friends and they had similar experiences with these two. NEVER. AGAIN.
Baldwin is a notorious ass.
And I am not going to ever believe that the flight attendant was in the wrong.
He has spent the last decade terrorizing Kim Basinger.
So for him to terrorize American Airlines with his asshole-iness is nothing new to him.
Maybe Kim will get a break from it all.
And Baldwin can write another book has he is being prosecuted for being “right”.
How the airlines violated his “rights” to be a asshole. By forcing him to follow simple rules.
(He has previously wrote a book about how he was wronged by the court system by not getting permanent custody of their daughter.)
Agree. He’s such an ass and yet his career has done well and Kim is nowhere to be seen. I feel sorry for her and anyone else who has to deal with him.
sorry, but kim is not a good actress, that’s why she is not around anymore. he is an ass, but a good actor.
I agree. He has and in my eyes, will always be a d**chebag!!
I agree he’s a jerk, but Kim is no walk on the beach either. It takes two to have a huge passive-aggressive decades-long fight.
He is a huge tool.
If any one of us pulled the same crap he pulled (i.e. VIOLATING FEDERAL REGULATIONS), we would’ve been arrested the millisecond we stepped off the plane. The fact that he’s getting positive publicity & media/public support is ridiculous and disgusting.
Imagine how the story would’ve been handled if, say, Sarah Palin did what Alec did.
We’d probably hear a lot of piddle and crap about the ‘lamestream media’ and some chucklehead would start pissing and moaning about how if it were Mrs. Obama she would have been hailed as a saint for this because of reverse racism, because there’s no such thing as a logical fallacy. Then Ole Gin Tits (R. Limbaugh) would get off on some rant about about *overweight* ‘feminegroes’ in between taking in snorts of his hillbilly heroin (oxycontin) and secreting out more grease than any one truss can contain.
Blubbersnot (G. Beck) will weep about having received transmissions about the two little girl dancing in congress with Mamon, filling his infernal gut with all of the plain and vanilla yogurt they could find. Here’s why: Yogurt is far too healthy for the First Lady and her underhanded vegetable indoctrination agenda. We know that it’s insincere because we have photographic evidence proving that she ate low-fat ribs that one time. Most importantly, it has to be yogurt because the family hates white culture. Remember when the president told all of those kids not to drop out of school when he was speaking at the school and the teachers cried ‘brainwashing’ but when Laura Bush encouraged reading in kids she was hailed? Activia.
And poor little flower Palin, tricked into wiping her mouth with an American flag that the president had previously disguised to look like a napkin through the power of sorcery.
Bubba O’Reilly (Falafel Baron) would question, how can we even be so distracted by something so piddling as air travel safety when the president has finally revealed his ties to the occult? After 9/11, do we really even have time to wonder what individual people are doing in planes? What other kind of mind juju has he possessed, is there a chance that he could use teleportation to force watershed moments that would distract America for long enough for the Ice Tea Ghetto Uprisings to ensue as foretold in the prophecies?
Mr. Ailes, chronicle our fair and balanced woes so that others may gnash their teeth at our push into the periphery and weep at our WASP-ish sorrows before the end of the next news cycle. SANCTUARY! Our time is doomed, we are all fat and illiterate and the so-called first couple never even tried to address it. Mrs. Obama, why wouldn’t you do anything about how fat I am? Cast her into the darkness! SANCTUARY!
*
That’s what would have happened. The incident is incindental with a one-track script. What’s a plane, anyway?
Yo Mama, the DNC is calling you with tomorrow’s talking points. I’m tired of left-wing polemics that have nothing at all to do with the topic at hand. Save it for the Daily Kook.
*Standing Ovation* for Jo “Mama” Besser!!!!
@Jo- “Ol’ Gin Tits” – hilarious!
@Bobster – I’m tired of both sides pretending that “their” side isn’t full of predictable talking points that usually end up off-topic. Thats what talking points do… Keep people on “agenda” rather than having an actual conversation with new ideas. I’m sure that was Jo’s whole point. Lighten up.
Yes, it was a joke about rigid talking points and turgid moral absolutes that get pinned artificially and artlessly to any situation that can be experienced or dreamt up by humans.
But Gin Tits still stands, that one’s staying in my pocket ’til I’m under the earth..
Words With Friends is the only winner in this whole saga!
i agree. all i want to know is Alec’s WWF username so I can play him. lol
As expensive as air travel is, it’s pretty unrealistic to expect it to be the kind of (fun?) experience it was 20 years ago. We’ve all had bad experiences, but considering how much we all utilize it- it goes pretty smoothly. Alec Baldwin thinks he speaks for the masses and that we all despise the “ridiculous” rules the FAA has. For my part, I despise the assholes who can’t abide by those rules and cause a problem for the rest of us. Baldwin would be the first one to whine like a 2 year old if he was inconvenience by a disruptive passenger.
Hear, hear! I also despise these entitled assholes who disrupt other passengers’ journeys because they’re too immature to bide by the rules we all have to follow. Alec Baldwin acted like an idiot. End of story.
I agree, he’s not Spartacus.
Everyone can agree that flying is an unpleasant experience for anyone who is not in First Class (I can’t believe that haven’t figured out a way to keep us scum from walking thru it) and Flight Attendants can be part of the problem – yet they’re taking the blame for a lot of things that they don’t have any control over.
Alec was wrong, but Alec doesn’t want to admit he was wrong. He wants to say he was “picked on”. He is amazingly immature and very talented. Thankfully, I only see him on a screen once in a while.
I think the FA’s are taking a stand against him and his behavior so more people don’t think they can argue with them about “the rules”.
Just sit down, shut up and let the plane take off already.
I enjoy him on 30Rock, but he leaves a bitter taste in my brain.
He’s a petulant old queen who will throw a screaming, door-slamming tantrum when he doesn’t get his way. He’s just as psychotic as his are-tard brothers.
I don’t disagree that he was wrong to misbehave on the flight. My point is that AA’s reaction to his SNL skit is kind of over-the-top don’t you think? He was just trying to use humor to diffuse the situation. Now the whole thing has turned into a pissing match on both sides. Seems kind of silly to boycott a great tv show because of it. Besides, watching 30 Rock is one of the few things I look forward to on an AA flight. Why further punish the passengers for something that has obviously gotten personal?
I don’t think he was trying to diffuse the situation at all. He has trying to belittle the situation if anything and show how ‘in the wrong’ the flight/airline were.
I found it in poor taste and the behaviour of an entitled, petulant brat.
You were asked to turn your phone off, Boo hoo for you and your intelligent word game. The flight attendant was just doing her job…. wonder if such a fuss would have been made if she was young and pretty! 😉
Oh jeez-well I guess that’s your interpretation (and there’s nothing wrong with that) but I thought the SNL skit was done in a VERY self-deprecating way, in the typical Alec Baldwin style of irony, making fun of his “ego”. I laughed and I didn’t see it as “belittling” to AA employees in any way, shape or form. In fact, I took it more as Baldwin making fun of himself. I also think if the AA people had just laughed about it instead of getting their panties in a bunch then they would have come out the victor. Just my opinion 🙂
30 Rock is a great show, and Baldwin is great on it.
That said, I bet his residual check for the showings of 30Rock on American Airlines is more than the flight attendants make in a year. More than they make in five years. This is a way for them to stand up. Its winner-take-all culture that’s the problem, Alec can treat people like crap because it doesn’t affect him financially or otherwise. Flight attendants have limited recourse against an obnoxious passenger. I think this is a clever way of getting back at Baldwin.
This whole thing was stupid, but now its moved on to downright ridiculous.
I love Alec Baldwin always have always will.
Ditto. Yes, he’s an arrogant D-bag but he’s MY arrogant D-bag.Couldnt love him more.
They need to get over it. Big f….ing deal. He paid the consequences and was thrown off the flight.
Exactly. He WAS treated like any other passenger-he was THROWN off like any other passenger.
Oh Alec, quit your whining. You were asked to turn off your phone, not sit quietly on the tarmac for hours on end without a bathroom or food.
Gah! If you are going to big ole drama queen, at least make sure the fit is worth throwing.
I’m kinda bummed. I actually was just starting to be able to tolerate Alec Baldwin, as an actor, not as a person. Now I can’t look at him without thinking of what a complete jerk he is. Everyone has to follow the rules. I can’t imagine how he would have acted, had the plane been held up for someone else and he was a passenger. Then everyone else would have been at fault. Oh wait…….
@CB: I don’t get why you’d be flying AA.
If you’re visiting family you should make sure that you’re connecting within the Star Alliance. In the US that means United (from where the friendly skies originated) and Internationally it means Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, etc.). No ‘air rage there’.
That was the personal note, please feel free to delete this.
In general, AA sucks donkey balls.
But Baldwin insulted them really badly. I’m not blaming the airline for standing behind their employees in this case.
He insulted the ‘fleet of attendends’ out of the blue and vigorously. It wasn’t recapped here, though.
And for the record, and since I am about to make the same international flight, may I suggest Air New Zealand? Amazing service, GREAT food, free alcohol with nice corked wine bottles, a TV for everyone. Footrests, the ability to get a sleeping couch. Great airline and really decent prices. AA sucks, United is a bit better, but flying sucks in general. In Europe we try to take the train, waaayyyy easier!
I’m with AA on this. All Alec had to do was turn the dame phone off. That’s not a hard rule, but Alec is too important.
I keep wondering what this will do for his Capital One miles card endorsement.
LMFAO!
Never had a problem with AA. I’ll never fly with Delta though. I had an insane experience with them.
1. Had a stop over in Atlanta to connect to a flight to Miami. We missed the Miami flight due to weather but they kept pushing us back. Other airiness were flying out and customer service agreed to switch me to AA but then delta wouldn’t give AA credit for my flight.
2. Stood in lines for 6 hours with delta while keeping my composure and being polite finally got a flight to ft lauderdale. Had to stay overnight and delta paid for the hotel. Thought the worse was over until after asking for a care package the desk clerk threw a box over the desk at the ground causing the packages to fly on the floor.
3. Get to ft lauderdale and bags are lost. Had to pay $80 for a taxi to ft laud to Miami to make it on time for our ship.
4. On flight back from Miami our connecting flight in atlanta gives out seats away and leaves early with 15 mins to spare. Meaning another 6 hours in line fighting them.
5. Called customer service got an apology but tough titty on everything.
Damn, that’s cruddy!
He used to be a douche. After his SNL stunt, AB is now a douche squared.
I was totally team AA after it first happened, but really, the SNL skit was funny and self-deprecating. AA looks stupid with their ploy of pulling 30 Rock now. Let it go.
I don’t care how big an ass he was, flying sucks! One personal experience: I got to the airport early, with two small children, for the first flight of the day. They LOST the plane. THEY LOST. THE FREAKIN’. AIRPLANE.
As in, “we’re very sorry, but your flight is delayed, because we don’t know where the plane is.” HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?
Once we got on board, we were delayed (OF COURSE!) and they offered us one (1!) free beverage.
Are you f’ing kidding me? I left at 7 in the morning to make my flight and landed 20 hours later (from Portland to San Diego) and you offer me ONE FREE BEVERAGE?!?!?
Bite me!
OMG that is so bad!! You could’ve rented a car and driven in at least a third of the time, right?! And with great scenery, coastal highway. I can’t imagine being at any airport with my two young ones one my own, good on you for trying! Which airline?
From Portland to San Diego? She could have driven to San Diego with at least 3 hours to spare in that time (straight shot on I-5 takes 19 hours from Seattle to Oceanside IF you hit LA around midnight).
One free beverage? I’ve gotten free flights and refunds for less.
LOST A PLANE?! Were you flying Air Langoliers, or something? That’s ridiculous and kind of scary.
He is a total a**. But, there is something so amusing about his shenanigans. He doesn’t seem to be afraid to speak his mind whatever the outcome may be.
His poor daughter though. To have to parents that through their kid in the fire. He should have never spoken to his kid that way but I think he and Kim were putting her in an awful position. Horrible parents.
Alec Baldwin is an ass-hat.
He was in the wrong but the skit was funny as hell and I’m sorry I’ve flown with some great airlines and AA ain’t one of them. I get that the job may not be the most amusing but neither is mine and I still do it with a smile. I expect to be treated with the same respect I give out and that rarely happens on AA. Airlines have gotten ruder and ruder in the past 15 years I’ve flown.
AA can yank it if they want, it’s theirs they already paid for it, and will have to keep paying until their contract runs out.
Let’s be clear. Alec Baldwin was not wrong for being angry. If you percieve someone as mistrating you, you will get angry it is a natural feeling. Alec Baldwin was wrong for having an outburst of anger that delayed the flight, especially for someone notrious for having anger management issues. He was also wrong for thinking he is above the rules.
I am flying in a few days as well. My issue is less with flight attendents than it is with passengers who can’t be parted from their cell or other electronic equipment for the duration of the flight. We’ve known for years that we have to turn off electronic equipment when it is time to take off so why do we fight it? If you have a flight you need to accept that the cell phone goes off and stays off during the time you are on the aircraft. There is no excuse you can give that will allow me to feel sympathetic towards your reason of having to keep your cell phone on. Schedule your flights a day in advance for that meeting, the person meeting you on the other side will be made aware of a delay status if they look it up online, etc. On an aircraft=not allowed to use cell phone unless in some extraordinary circumstance.
I fly all the time. Don’t get me wrong, Airline customer service is awful (AA especially). But I see no sense in perpetuating the cycle. If people push back it will only get worse.
True. The most gear-grinding part is that you don’t even need to turn off your devices for the entirely of the flight, you know? What’s twenty minutes for the hours of freedom that follow/precede?