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 "I want you to be my lover, Matt," Baldwin told a member of his
entourage after asking him to stand up. "I love you, Matt. I love
you in that way."
After the packed audience's laughter died down, Baldwin added that
he has loved some men more than women during his life, although
never in a sexual way.
The Emmy-winning actor prefaced his moment of levity with plenty of
contrition as he sought to minimize any lingering damage to his
career from the fallout after a confrontation with a photographer
outside his New York home last week. He made his appearance at a
major technology conference in San Francisco, a city that has been
at the forefront of the gay rights movement for decades.
Echoing remarks that he made in blog post over the weekend, Baldwin
adamantly denied punctuating a profanity-laced tirade with an
epithet that demeans gay men.
MSNBC suspended Baldwin's talk show on the TV network for two weeks
after the entertainment website TMZ posted a video of the
combustible actor's latest outburst. The TV network hasn't said
whether the show, "Up Late with Alec Baldwin," will return.
Baldwin, 55, has gotten into heated exchanges previously with
photographers taking pictures of him and his family. He also was
kicked off a plane in 2011 after he refused to stop playing a game
on his smartphone.
The actor told Wednesday's crowd that he hopes his 3-month-old
daughter learns to control her temper better than he has as an
adult. He also says he now realizes he needs to be chose his words
more carefully.
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 "If in any context in the world that we live in
today, if any word is remotely offensive to people, then I'm
perfectly willing to learn a different word," he said.
Baldwin also lamented people's tendency to believe everything they
hear and read on the Internet.
"There is a drive-by justice to the Internet society," he said.
"They indict you, convict you and hang you on the same day."
ServiceSource International Inc., a San Francisco technology company
that sponsored Baldwin's appearance, almost canceled the session
after TMZ posted the video of the actor's verbal assault. The
perception that Baldwin had insulted the gay community presented
ServiceSource CEO Michael Smerklo with what he described as one of
the toughest decisions in his career.
The session went on, Smerklo said, because the company and Baldwin
agreed that it could spur a dialogue about important issues.
ServiceSource had asked Baldwin to share his views on business
largely because of his fictional role as a top General Electric Co.
executive on the TV series "30 Rock" and his role as a hard-charging
salesman in the 1993 film "Glengarry Glen Ross."
ServiceSource played clips of Baldwin in both of those roles during
Wednesday's session, although it left out a scene in which his
character in "Glengarry Glen Ross" spews a gay slur.
[Associated
Press; MICHAEL LIEDTKE]
Copyright 2013 The Associated
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