You know what I’ve gotten out of this ongoing Alec Baldwin debacle? That we need to give Lorne Michaels and Tina Fey way more credit. When Alec was on 30 Rock, he was still acting like a d-bag often enough and there were the occasional rage-monster moments, but Alec was properly contained and insulated by Tina and Lorne and their PR wizardry. Now that there’s no 30 Rock, Alec and his rage-attacks are “fair game” and that just makes him even madder. Still no word on whether he had a rage-attack at his wife Hilaria because she posted photos of their baby. Except that’s not really what all of this was about, was it?

Anyway, one of the more interesting consequences that Alec had to face after his f-bomb drop a few weeks ago was that his MSNBC Friday night show got “suspended”. Alec seemed fine with the suspension, he offered an apology on MSNBC.com and wrote a lengthy, self-serving essay on HuffPo all about the future of his show and whether he could go on. During that time, MSNBC played their cards close to the vest – it’s not like Alec was a staple of the news network, or that people were tuning in especially for him. He was only on the air a few weeks before his show was suspended! So, this is really no biggie: MSNBC fired him. Only they’re letting him act like it was a mutual decision:

MSNBC and Alec Baldwin‘s camp announced jointly that Baldwin’s Friday show is toast: “We are jointly confirming that Up Late will not continue on MSNBC,” MSNBC and Baldwin rep Matthew Hiltzik said. Added MSNBC: “This is a mutual parting and we wish Alec all the best.”

It’s the first MSNBC has spoken about Up Late’s suspension; Baldwin announced earlier this month the network had suspended his show for two weeks; his announcement came after a video clip caught him tearing into a photographer with at least one gay slur and possibly two, though Baldwin has denied uttering the second one and says he did not realize the first was a slur.

“Whether the show comes back at all is at issue right now,” Baldwin wrote in his blog after his show’s first week off the air, setting the stage for its non-return. “[If] the show dies, its fate ends up being no different than the vast majority of start-up TV programming, and so be it,” he wrote – though that all-about-the-ratings-like-any-other-start-up storyline grew less pat when Up Late’s fill-in show, Lockup, clocked an even smaller number than Baldwin’s show the past two weeks. MSNBC said Baldwin’s former time slot — Fridays at 10 PM — will continue to be taken by Lockup.

Last week, Baldwin attended a tech conference in San Francisco to jokingly profess his love for a man, in the hope of, once again, recalibrating his image. After asking a member of his entourage to stand up, Baldwin told him: “I want you to be my lover, Matt. I love you, Matt. I love you in that way.” The Associated Press reports Baldwin’s bit got a big laugh from the conference crowd. The actor also told that tech-conference crowd that he hopes his 3-month-old daughter learns to control her temper better than he has as an adult, the AP reported. He also told the group he now realizes he needs to choose his words more carefully. “If in any context, in the world that we live in today, if any word is remotely offensive to people, then I’m perfectly willing to learn a different word,” Baldwin said.

[From Deadline]

If you go to the Deadline link, there’s a whole second half to the story which is all about Martin Bashir’s show and how he’s a “headache” for the channel. Since I watch a lot of MSNBC and I tend to catch up on headlines in the late afternoon, I end up watching Bashir’s 4 pm show sometimes. He’s very… what’s the word? He’s cloying. He’s rather smug. I don’t really understand why America needs to keep importing these British tabloid guys, although I have to say: I like Martin Bashir more than Piers Morgan.

As for Alec… I feel like he doesn’t care very much about losing this show. In fact, I kind of wonder why he agreed to do it in the first place.

Update: Alec gave yet another whiny, self-serving, it’s-everybody’s-fault-but-mine interview to The Gothamist. You can read it here.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.