Today's Loser: Alec Baldwin, a Jerk Who Heaps Verbal Abuse on His Young Daughter

Does art reflect life? In the case of veteran film and TV actor Alec Baldwin, apparently so.

Baldwin is sharp and funny as a pompous, self-absorbed network executive in "30 Rock" and he was so convincing as an angry, violent jerk in the terrific 2003 indie film The Cooler, which also starred William H. Macy and Maria Bello.

In real life, the most successful and possibly most talented of Hollywood's Baldwin brothers turns out to be as self-centered and frighteningly aggressive as any of the characters that he has played.

The proof? A tape, now circulating widely, of his telephone message to his 11-year-old daughter. In the profanity-laced recording, he screams at her for failing to pick up the phone at the agreed-upon time. Apparently, because of his bad behavior in the past, he has to schedule times to speak with his child, Ireland.

So what does he say? No need to repeat it all here, but he calls Ireland "a rude, thoughtless little pig" and "brainless," among other nasty stuff. He threatens to "straighten your a-- out" when he visits her today. In the recording, he indicates that he doesn't know whether she is 11 or 12 years old. Not exactly Father of the Year. Here's the AP report.

Yeah, that's how a real man behaves, Alec, by being verbally abusive to a child, your own child, someone you love, presumably.

Not that we're shocked, really, based on the reports that his ex-wife, Kim Basinger, has offered in the past. It's a good bet that she made the tape available to the media, so that she can prove that her allegations about his abuse -- at least, the verbal abuse -- aren't false.

And don't try to blame the alcohol: He was stone sober, at 11 a.m. in the morning.

Yes, I know that I ought to be able to separate the art from the artist, but in this case I've decided to stage my own personal protest.

"30 Rock" is one of the few shows, along with "The Office" that I DVR so that I can catch up on later.

No more. I won't watch it. No, I'm not being naive here. I know it won't really make a difference. But I'm deleting the shows that I haven't seen, and I'm not going to watch it anymore.

So there, you jerk, Alec Baldwin.

Hey, didn't Alec the Avenger pledge to leave the country if Bush were re-elected? What's he waiting for?

Oh yeah, that's right, America remains the best place for Baldwin and other artists of all varieties to pursue their careers and, you know, make heaps of cash. Gee, I almost forgot about all of that, with all the America-bashing that Baldwin and some of his political cronies have done in recent years.

Still, Alec really needs to go away for a while, to get out of the public eye until he's had, say, three years of anger-management training and some (carefully guarded) time to perhaps repair the relationship with his daughter.

It will be interesting to see if some of the politicians to whom Alec has so loudly given his support will respond to Baldwin's out-of-control behavior, or if they'll wimp out so as not to lose out on the dollars that he brings to their campaigns.