Baldwin-Bassinger Battle Brews On

If you've had the TV on at all this weekend, you've heard about the phone message Alec Baldwin left for his daughter last week. Here's the transcript:

"Hey I want to tell you something, OK?
And I want to leave a message for you right now, once again it's 10:30 here in New York on a Wednesday.

And once again I have made an ass of myself trying to get to a phone to call you at a specific time.
When the time comes for me to make the phone call I stop whatever I'm doing and I go and make that phone call-- at 11:00 in the morning in New York and if you don't pick up the phone at 10:00 at night . . .
And you don't have the goddamn phone turned on!

I want you to know something, OK? I'm-I'm tired of playing this game with you.
I'm leaving this message with you to tell you have insulted me for the last time.
You have insulted me-- you don’t have the brains or the decency as a human being.

I don’t give a damn that you’re 12 years old, or 11 years old, or that you’re a child, or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the ass who doesn’t care about what you do as far as I’m concerned.
You have humiliated me for the last time with this phone.

And when I come out there next week I am going to fly out there for the day
Just to straighten you out on this issue--I'm going to let you know just how disappointed in you I am and how angry I am with you that you have done this to me again.

You have made me feel like shit that you have made me feel like a fool over and over and over again
And this crap you pull on me with this goddamn phone situation-- that you would never dream of doing to your mother;
And you do it to me constantly-- and over and over again.

I am going to get on a plane, and I'm going to come out there for the day and I'm going to straighten your ass out when I see you, do you understand me?

I am going to really make sure you get it-- and then I'm going to get on a plane and I'm gonna turn around and I'm gonna come home.

So you better be ready-- Friday the 20th-- to meet with me, so I'm gonna let you know just how I feel about what a rude little pig you really are.

You are a rude, thoughtless little pig, OK?"

A friend of Alec Baldwin's told reporters that the actor called Ireland afterwards and apologized for his outburst. The friend added that Ireland is the most important thing in the world to Alec and that he is frustrated because over the last six years, Kim has "tried everything" to alienate Ireland from him.

Los Angeles County Superior Court commissioner Maren Nelson heard the tape and temporarily suspended Baldwin's visitation rights. A hearing is set for May 4, where the judge could permanently deny Baldwin visitation or contact with Ireland.

In a statement released this weekend, Baldwin said:

"Thank you to everyone who has posted messages of suppport and understanding. Naturally, it is not best for a parent to lose their temper with their child. Everyone who knows me privately knows that I have endured a great deal over the last several years in my custody litigation. Everyone who knows me privately knows that certain people will go to any lengths to embarass me and to disrupt my relationship with my daughter.

In such public cases, your opponents attempt to take a picture of you on your worst day and insist that this is who you are as a person. Outside the doors of divorce court, I have friends, I have respect from people I work with and I have a normal relationship with my daughter. All of that is threatened whenever one enters a court room.

Although I have been told by numerous people not to worry too much, as all parents lose their patience with their kids, I am most saddened that this was released to the media because of what it does to a child. I'm sorry, as everyone who knows me is aware, for losing my temper with my child. I have been driven to the edge by parental alienation for many years now. You have to go through this to understand. (Although I hope you never do.) I am sorry for what happened. But I am equally sorry that a court order was violated, which had deliberately been put under seal in this case.

Once my book is published, I'm sure more people will understand the incredible strains created by parental alienation.

In the meantime, I'm sorry to anyone who's taken offense from this episode."

Basinger's publicist, Annette Wolfe, told reporters: "The voicemail speaks for itself."

And by the way-- the Baldwin phone message story got a full seven minutes during the 7:30 half hour on the Today show last week. Ever since Couric's departure, it seems that NBC's morning flagship has gotten more and more "tabloid". . . .