The two movies Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger made together flopped – but until recently it looked like the superstars had an off-screen hit on their hands.
He’s a hothead and she’s a hothouse flower, but together they were one of showbiz’s most dynamic couples, weathering controversy and pushing causes together.
So the revelation that their uncommon unity has crumbled in divorce surprised many of those who witnessed their decade-long romance blossom from Hollywood to the Hamptons.
“Everybody out there had the idea that they were the perfect couple – the perfect little family,” said Jim Winthrop, who works at an Amagansett shop where Baldwin is a regular customer.
The screen idols first crossed paths when Baldwin strolled onto the set of 1988’s “My Stepmother Is an Alien,” which co-starred Basinger – but sparks didn’t fly.
But when they met again as co-stars of 1991’s “The Marrying Man,” it was lust at first sight.
At the time, both were hot commodities in Tinseltown.
Born in Georgia, Basinger dropped out of school at 16, moved to New York to become a Ford model, then went west for an acting career.
After some TV and small movie roles, a 1983 Playboy spread raised her profile and helped get her juicy parts in “The Natural” and “9½ Weeks,” the explicit sex-games flick.
Baldwin, the son of Long Island teachers who produced three other actors, had dropped out of George Washington University with stars in his eyes.
Starting out in soap operas, he parlayed a role as a psychotic on “Knots Landing” into film parts. A sought-after actor by the late ’80s, he earned leading-man status with 1990’s “Hunt for Red October.”
Baldwin, a bachelor, and Basinger, a divorcée who counted Prince among her ex-boyfriends, sizzled on and off the set of “The Marrying Man.” But their chemistry couldn’t help their movie, which tanked amid reports they had sabotaged the production with wild demands.
It was the first controversy of their courtship, but it wouldn’t be their last.
They wound up in the headlines in 1992 when Basinger pushed for a ban on Big Apple carriage horses. At a City Council hearing on the issue, Baldwin challenged a driver to a fight and lobbed a gay slur at him.
The following year, Basinger was hauled into court for a breach-of-contract suit over the film “Boxing Helena” and was eventually ordered to pay $7.4 million for backing out of the lead role.
As a result, she filed for bankruptcy and had to sell her share of Braselton, Ga., the town she bought with other investors for $20 million. Economic hard times in the hamlet brought more bad press.
The lovers also began filming a remake of “The Getaway.” If they were hoping to set the silver screen on fire, they would be disappointed. The flick was roundly panned.
But the fledgling Basinger-Baldwin relationship survived the hard knocks.
On Aug. 19, 1993, they were married in a romance-drenched, star-studded wedding on an East Hampton beach, exchanging vows in a circle of lit torches, under a shower of rose petals.
Less than two years later, the couple became a threesome when they brought home their newborn daughter, Ireland.
By now, Basinger and Baldwin were the queen and king of the East End and the darlings of the liberal establishment.
She saved beagles from medical experiments, tried to shut down a circus and disrobed for a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals campaign.
He lent his name to the New York Democratic Party, hosted President Clinton at a big-bucks fund-raiser, shrugged off rumors of political aspirations and vowed he’d leave the United States if George W. Bush became president.
Paradise wasn’t completely trouble-free, however.
Behind the scenes, Basinger was waging a battle with agoraphobia, a crippling fear of public places that kept her confined to her home for six months.
Baldwin, meanwhile, continued displaying his knack for getting into hot water – assaulting a freelance photographer, writing nasty letters to journalists and joking on national television about “killing” impeachment figure Henry Hyde.
While a career-making role eluded Baldwin, his wife basked in Oscar glory for her femme-fatale role in 1997’s “L.A. Confidential.”
She followed up with last year’s “Bless the Child” and “I Dreamed of Africa,” both box-office and critical disappointments.
Joan Jedell, publisher of The Hampton Sheet and a celebrity photographer, said the last time she saw the couple together was at the “Africa” premiere in Sag Harbor.
“They seemed very much together. He seemed very protective of Kim. Alec has always been protective of her,” she said.
“There was really no sign or buzz around them. Whatever their problems have been, they’ve kept them very quiet.”
Not quiet enough.
Just last month, a supermarket tabloid published photographs of Kim and Alec in a blazing argument at a Hamptons coffee shop.
“I tell you, I tell you and I tell you, but you never do what I tell you to do,” Baldwin reportedly bellowed at his wife, who fled in humiliation after 10 minutes of abuse.
A week later, The Post reported that Basinger had emptied out their Amagansett farmhouse and had everything trucked away – leaving only the marital bed.
Then came Friday’s divorce filing by Basinger in Los Angeles Superior Court – confirmation that the dust-up wasn’t just a little spat.
The document raised more questions than it answered. As the reason for a divorce, Basinger simply cited “irreconcilable differences.”
Hamptons author Steven Gaines said he even felt for Baldwin – nicknamed “The Bloviator” for his mouthing off.
“You’ve got to feel sorry for the guy,” he said. “Even if you’re a movie star, if your wife leaves you it’s got to sting. It’s got be extremely embarrassing to go through this in public.”