× ‘Rust’ shooting: Alec Baldwin lawyers up after being hit with lawsuits
“I would not say I’m beaten,” Alec Baldwin says of his recent drama with gossip-magazine journalist G.Q. magazine. “I’m just bruised.”
According to Baldwin, the magazine got hold of his private business information, which included a letter that offered advice to GQ reporter Michael Daly and a photo of a TV attorney dressed in all black.
Baldwin’s lawyer, Martin Schmukler, says that the TV attorney is his principal client and that the lawyer referred to in the letter is Patrick Maloney. But that his primary contact at that TV network is Debbie Johnson, who also is a consultant to the show “Scandal.”
“I would consider it part of GQ’s,” Schmukler says, calling the letter that shows Johnson’s face to be a fake and the photo an altered picture.
The incident occurred when Daly asked Baldwin about his past “brief tryst” with actress Taylor Swift. “I did nothing wrong and was fully cooperative in the fact that you are asking me about it,” the actor said. “The notion of s/he is a person I’ve never met and has no ties to me whatsoever.”
In that same interview, Baldwin also described his little-used but long-popular show “Saturday Night Live” and explained why he had decided to sign a pact with NBC Studios to play Donald Trump on “SNL” in the event that the character would actually become President.
“We have a deal with NBC Studios, the network, for the Trump season that we just said, ‘Would you let us go beyond August?’” Baldwin says. “‘Would you please let us go past August?’ Well, we’ll do it. If we do it, let’s do it if it’s something special.”
Last month, shortly after that interview, media sites reported that Baldwin had settled a lawsuit over a canceled speaking engagement. According to Schmukler, that settlement was unrelated to the GQ incident.
The attorney had a number of further accusations about GQ, including the magazine not being cordial to his client’s representatives at Houlihan Lokey, the law firm that has a client list that includes such big names as H.W. Bush, Charlie Rose and Tom Cruise.
Schmukler also referred to the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jim Nelson, as “a misogynist and a bigot.”
GQ responded to those assertions in a news release, calling the public dispute “insanely stupid.”
“Alec Baldwin was inappropriately and recklessly harassing and threatening our staff members behind the scenes, then reported those incidents as harassment to the public,” the statement read. “That is what this has come to. It is no surprise that he is acting outrageously under the glare of the media spotlight, given his recent denigration of our staff, which represents a man-hating attempt to denigrate the staff of a magazine he despises by attacking the most vulnerable part of the organization.”
Baldwin’s lawyer responded in a statement that his client is “stopping the libel without filing any lawsuit.”
“He made a mistake and is seeking to remedy it,” Schmukler said. “Otherwise, there could be a real libel case for libel and slander.”
So far, there has been no official response from GQ.
Baldwin, who is also starring on NBC’s “Will & Grace,” last month called the GQ interview “bland and boring.”
He told E! News that “it was a bad idea, and I’ll explain what I was trying to do later.”
CNN’s S. L. Vanzo and Kobi Sanders contributed to this report.