How Alec Baldwin Deleted His Twitter And Blamed Gillian Anderson
Alec Baldwin has deleted his Twitter account, detailing the move on Instagram. And it came about because of Gillian Anderson. Eesh.
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Alec Baldwin is off social media again. This time maybe for good. But the path to getting off of Twitter doesn’t have the same story as you’ll usually see when this kind of thing goes down for a celebrity. Often it’s because he/she posted something unbecoming and was forced into social media hiding to let things cool off. Not this time for Baldwin. Instead, he’s taking a break because of his wife’s recent run-in with the internet mob as well as a little assist from Gillian Anderson of all people.
The decision for Alec Baldwin to quit Twitter didn’t happen in a vacuum. The actor went into his decision in a video posted to his Instagram account. In it, he is driving home and waxing on his decision to leave one social media platform while posting on another. He has a couple of interesting quotes from this 10-minute video but they all stem from a recent dust-up he had because of his wife Hilaria Baldwin being dragged for apparently misrepresenting a Hispanic accent. You can check out the full video below:
His wife’s “controversy” led to Alec Baldwin posting on Twitter about Gillian Anderson of all people. In it (the account is now deactivated), Baldwin makes mention of Anderson switching between an American and English accent in interviews regarding her Netflix series, The Crown. Apparently, Baldwin took issue, in a joking fashion, with this kind of accent appropriation not being a problem while his wife moving between accents had become something of a controversy. Baldwin then took to Instagram to try and clear the air about his comments and explain his decision to leave Twitter.
Alec Baldwin doesn’t mention Gillian Anderson by name in the video, alluding simply to his post on Twitter and why he’d be leaving the social media platform for good. Near the beginning he offers this up:
“Of course, you can’t do any irony on Twitter. You can’t do any irony in the United States because the United States is such an uptight, stressed out place. Such an unpleasant place right now. But the person I was referring to is someone I’m a huge fan of. Huge, huge fan of. The comment was meant to illustrate the point that I find the multicultural expressions of anyone — whatever country language, music, food, clothing, art — whatever of those expressions are important to you, that’s your business.”
Of course, as with most social media dustups, this one is mostly much ado about nothing. The original “controversy” came when Hilaria Baldwin appeared on Instagram with an American accent. No big deal, except that for years in television appearances she’d had a decidedly Spanish accent. This caused a stir about whether she was putting on the former accent to represent a different heritage. She was dragged through the media mire because of it, calling into question some of what she’d represented about her background. This led to Alec Baldwin getting caught up in the stir because of his high-profile celebrity status.
And in this latest Alec Baldwin social media piece, Gillian Anderson is simply caught up in the crossfire. She had nothing to do with the original story and is merely brought up by Baldwin because of what he felt was a double-standard in reporting around switching of accents. And, for all intents and purposes, it does appear he went into it a bit tongue-in-cheek.
But social media is social media and it looks like Alec Baldwin will now be taking a break from Twitter going forward. You won’t catch him on that platform, but you can see him when he makes a return to action movies later this year. He can quit social media, but dude will still be crushing it on the big screen.
