Alec Baldwin Kicked Off Of American Airlines Flight At LAX
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- "30 Rock" star and potential NYC mayoral candidate Alec Baldwin was kicked off a plane at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday.
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Two passengers on a flight leaving LAX tweeted first-hand accounts of seeing Baldwin getting the boot.
Moments after those tweets, Baldwin himself tweeted the following: "Flight attendant on American reamed me out 4 playing WORDS W FRIENDS while we sat at the gate, not moving." He added the hashtag "#nowonderamericaairisbankrupt"
Baldwin was apparently so hooked by a game, he wouldn't turn his phone off, CBS 2's Hazel Sanchez reported.
American Airlines issued a cryptic statement, saying: "We're sorry, but owing to privacy concerns regarding our customers, we don't comment on something that might or might not have happened."
Boxer Oscar De La Hoya was among several passengers sitting near Baldwin in first class on American Airlines Flight 4. De La Hoya was shocked to see the actor get kicked off the plane.
"The stewardess told everyone to turn everything off and he was doing it," De La Hoya told Sanchez. "Alec Baldwin was turning off his devices and he just got a little angry -- that's about it."
Baldwin's spokesman, Matthew Hiltzik, issued the following statement: "Alec was asked to leave the flight for playing 'Words with Friends' while parked at the gate. He loves WWF so much that he was willing to leave a plane for it, but he has already boarded another AA flight."
Baldwin was expected to arrive at John F. Kennedy Airport late Tuesday night.
Media executive Michael J. Wolf was one who tweeted, saying Baldwin was removed from the flight.
According to enraged passengers via Twitter, the plane had to return to the gate.
"He looked a little bit intoxicated to me," one passenger told Sanchez.
Baldwin has hinted at the possibility of one day running for NYC mayor.
"I wouldn't rule it out," a close confident of the start told CBS 2's Marcia Kramer of the actor's desire to fill Michael Bloomberg's shoes.
Baldwin has long harbored political ambitions. In 1998 he appeared on CBS 2's Sunday political talk show, and in 2000 he campaigned with Hillary Clinton for the U.S. Senate. So, it was no surprise that in January he told Eliot Spitzer that he's ready to get into the political game.
"The answer is 'yes.' It's something I'm very, very interested in," Baldwin said at the time.
Baldwin is no stranger to controversy. A few years ago he was overheard expressing parental outrage at his teenage daughter.
"You are a rude, thoughtless little pig, okay?" Baldwin said during a phone conversation.
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