Story highlights
NEW: Baldwin says his wife left her phone in her car
The actor wages a one-sided war of words with a journalist over a story
The story alleges Baldwin's wife was tweeting during James Gandolfini's funeral
Alec Baldwin is at it again. And this time, a journalist is on the receiving end of his expletive-filled rant.
The actor waged a war of words with a Daily Mail journalist over a report alleging Baldwin’s wife was tweeting during actor James Gandolfini’s funeral Thursday.
“The pregnant yoga instructor’s social media feed was full of upbeat posts while ‘The Sopranos’ star’s friends, family and co-stars were gripped with grief at a New York Catholic church,” journalist George Stark wrote. “Messages included a request for ideas about wedding anniversary presents and promotional notes about her upcoming appearance on the Rachael Ray show.”
In a statement hours later, Baldwin said his wife, Hilaria, left her phone in her car.
“It’s disgraceful that a reporter would manufacture and publish a story and not call for comment or explanation – especially when it’s intended to take away attention from honoring the memory of a beloved figure like James Gandolfini,” he said Friday.
His statement came after a series of fiery tweets aimed at the journalist.
“My wife and I attend a funeral to pay our respects to an old friend, and some toxic Brit writes this f****** trash,” he tweeted.
“My wife DID NOT use her phone, in any capacity, at our friends funeral.”
The star of the award-winning comedy “30 Rock” threatened to find the writer of the story and “f****…you…up,” referring to Stark as a “toxic little queen.”
Attempts to reach the journalist were unsuccessful.
Baldwin’s wife also weighed in on the report.
“I hope that this reporter knows how much pain and drama he has caused from his poor journalism,” Hilaria Baldwin tweeted. “Lying and bullying are shameful.”
Twitter, which lets users post messages in 140 characters or less, also allows the advance scheduling of tweets to post later. It is unclear whether that was the case.
Shortly after the rant, Baldwin deleted his Twitter account.
On Friday, GLAAD, an LGBT advocacy group, published a statement Baldwin gave to the organization: “My ill-advised attack on George Stark of the Daily Mail had absolutely nothing to do with issues of anyone’s sexual orientation.”
Baldwin also wrote, “I would not advocate violence against someone for being gay and I hope that my friends at GLAAD and the gay community understand that my attack on Mr. Stark in no way was the result of homophobia.”
Baldwin told the online publication Gothamist that he won’t be going back to Twitter. “Twitter and Tumblr and Vine and Instagram and Facebook and Myspace, all these things are social media tools that we were all told we had to have, and what we’re realizing is that no you don’t! No you don’t. All this energy goes into these things, and for what?” he said.
This is not the first time the actor has been engaged in a public confrontation.
In 2011, he was booted off an American Airlines flight because he refused to turn off his cell phone after the plane’s doors were closed for departure.
He later apologized.
CNN’s Elwyn Lopez and Carolyn Sung contributed to this report.
