Alec Baldwin loses it

This columnist, Martha Brockenbrough, perfectly expressed my sentiments on this issue, here's a link and an excerpt:

http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=259626&GT1=7701

The man clearly needs help.

Even so, I had a moment of recognition — one that I don't like, but one I'd be a total hypocrite to deny. The truth is that very few parents can go a lifetime without saying something regrettable to their children. To the ones who do, I offer my congratulations and admiration.

For the rest of us, though, who are sometimes worn down by life's stresses, disappointments and apparent exercises in futility, we don't always say the right things to our kids. Sometimes, we even say the exact wrong things — words we may regret for the rest of our days.

Baldwin revealed a lot about his emotional fragility when he said, "You have humiliated me for the last time with this phone."

I lost my cool with my child, but at least I get to see her every day. Baldwin doesn't, and this apparently wasn't the first scheduled call she missed. How devastating for a parent who does not have custody to not be able to count even on phone calls.

I know if I were in his situation, I would be crushed and frustrated, and very likely to lash out. I suspect I'd be furious with my ex, and I'd be mortally wounded by the apparent indifference of my child. I'd also want to go to wherever she was to explain how much she was hurting me.

I like to think I'd choose words that expressed my pain and not come across as threatening. But how do we know how we'd react if we felt we'd lost the one person we loved most in the world? How many of us, in our darkest moments, can express such humbling need with perfect clarity?
He definitely screwed up here. There's no way what he said was OK, even if his daughter at least has a sad piece of proof that her father wants to be part of her life.

I can understand his emotion more than I understand what could have possessed Kim Basinger's people to leak a tape that would publicize their child's pain and make it part of the permanent tabloid record.