Will Alec Baldwin get 30 Rock thrown off airline?
Could Alec Baldwin manage to get Liz Lemon, Tracy Jordan and Kenneth the Page tossed off of American Airlines' flights, too?
Flight attendants at American have inquired about having Baldwin's 30 Rock removed from the company's in-flight entertainment, following the actor's on-board hissy-fit and subsequent digs at the airline, its employees and modern-day air travel in general, a spokesperson for the airlines has confirmed to TheWrap.
Sadly for the aggrieved attendants, it doesn't appear that Jack Donaghy will be removed as easily as was the actor who plays him.
There have been some discussions about all this, but I don't know that we can call this a 'formal' request, the spokesperson tells TheWrap.
A spokesperson for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants union confirms that the anti-Baldwin initiative is unlikely to take off. According to the spokesperson, the union has no intention of throwing its weight behind the drive to have 30 Rock pulled -- and the union feels the Baldwin situation is being handled properly as it is.
In fact, if 30 Rock disappears, you can blame the network that airs it.
NBC routinely rotates programs on and off what is offered onboard, and not all programming is the same on every flight, the American Airlines spokesperson tells TheWrap. At this time, '30 Rock' continues to air on some of our flights, but not others, which is our standard programming procedure.
Baldwin was removed from an American Los Angeles-to-New York flight on December 6 after ignoring multiple requests to turn off his phone while his plane sat at the gate. The actor claimed that he was being harassed for playing the game Words With Friends, but according to crew members on the flight and the airline itself, Baldwin flew off the handle, slamming the door of the airplane lavatory with such force that the flight's captain intervened.
After being removed from the plane (he was booked onto another American flight, according to his spokesperson), Baldwin taunted the airline with a series of tweets. One tweet, making light of the airline's recent financial woes, offered the hashtag #nowonderamericaairisbankrupt.
Since then, Baldwin -- apparently unable to leave bad enough alone -- has continued to take digs at the airline. In a snarky, non-apology-apology published by the Huffington Post, Baldwin lamented the state of modern air travel, lamenting the filthy planes, barely edible meals and the paramilitary bearing of airlines in the post-9/11 era.
The screed went on to complain that flight attendants have made flying a Greyhound bus experience. (That last comment prompted a response from the Greyhound bus company, whose CEO asked that Baldwin apologize for the comment.)
Over the weekend, Baldwin continued to pick at the scab left from his airplane meltdown.
The actor made an appearance on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update as Capt. Steve Rogers -- the supposed captain of the flight Baldwin was removed from -- to apologize to himself.
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