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Baldwin Apologizes to His Daughter on 'The View'

Friday, April 27, 2007

NEW YORK, Apr. 27, 2007 -- In his first television appearance since the public airing of a vicious voice mail he left for his 11-year-old daughter, actor Alec Baldwin apologized to her on "The View."

Speaking to Barbara Walters and Rosie O'Donnell, the show's co-hosts, Baldwin says that up until this incident, his relationship with his child has been a good one.

"Obviously, calling your child a pig or anything else is improper and inappropriate, and I apologize to my daughter for that," he said. "Everyone in my life who knows me, knows that I have a great relationship with my daughter."

Baldwin, of course, made headlines last week after TMZ.com released a phone message he'd left for his 11-year-old daughter, Ireland. In the voice mail, he called her a "rude, thoughtless little pig," berating her for reportedly avoiding his phone calls.

While contrite about the voice mail, Baldwin had harsh words for those he blames for the frenzy that followed its release: tabloid reporters, saying they are nothing more than abused people living with "shameful secrets.

"People in the tabloid media are themselves people who are abused and are people who are living with shameful secrets," Baldwin told "The View." "They make it their career to humiliate you and expose your secrets.

"You find out that everybody who works in tabloid media are people who are filled with self-hatred and shame, and the way they manage those feelings, they destroy the lives of other people and reveal your secrets."

Baldwin reportedly accused his ex-wife, Kim Basinger, of releasing the now-infamous voice mail. On "The View," however, the actor, without divulging a name, repeatedly referenced the "the guy that's responsible for this tape coming out."

"I called some friends of mine in L.A., and I said, 'What's his story?' And they told me his story and what he's all about, where he's coming from, what are his secrets," Baldwin sais.

After the media frenzy that followed the release of the voice mail message, Baldwin asked NBC if he could leave the cast of "30 Rock." The actor recently won a Golden Globe award for his portrayal of an abrasive corporate executive.

"I don't want those people to be negatively impacted and for them to be hurt by the situation, so I've asked NBC to let me out of my contract and let me leave the show," he says. "If I never acted again, I couldn't care less."

NBC, however, said in a statement Wednesday that Baldwin would remain a part of the show, according to The Associated Press.

Baldwin also says that his focus on finishing a book about divorce is another reason he wants to leave the show. The book, Baldwin says, will be published in September.

"The book is not a memoir. It's about divorce litigation, and I would like to take a portion of & the next coming years and devote myself to the cause," he says. "I want to work more toward helping men understand what divorce in our society right now means for their rights as parents. Divorce court in this country is the civil procedure that hands out criminal penalties without any regard for people's rights whatsoever. It's a very sad thing."

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