What a smart Alec.
Hot-head Alec Baldwin was kicked off an American Airlines flight this afternoon in Los Angeles because he was playing a game on his phone apparently past the point when passengers are supposed to have turned off their devices.
On his Twitter account, Baldwin wrote: “Flight attendant on American [Airlines] reamed me out 4 playing WORDS W FRIENDS while we sat at the gate, not moving.”
Fellow passengers stuck on the runway at Los Angeles International Airport quickly tweeted about the incident moments after it took place.
Michael J. Wolf, founder of the website Activate.com, tweeted at around 4:20 p.m. ET that Baldwin had been tossed from the flight.
“On an AA flight at LAX. Alec Baldwin removed from the plane. We had to go back to the gate. Terrible that everyone had to wait.”
Baldwin was aboard AA Flight 4, which was delayed an hour, when the “30 Rock” star was booted for not listening to the flight attendant.
Passenger Steve Weiss, who was sitting across the isle from Baldwin, described the scene.
“Apparently he said he was playing a game, but he was actually talking on the phone. She [the flight attendant] was very nice. The door was closed they just announced that they were pulling away from the gate. He got up threw his papers on the floor stormed into the bathroom slammed the door closed, beat on the wall and then came back.”
“He said ‘If you want to kick me off, kick me off.’ He was just crazy, he just flipped out, the guy has problems.”
A crew member who dealt with the hotheaded Hollywood actor said he couldn’t stay on the flight.
“He was violent, abusive and aggressive. He got into the bathroom and started beating on the wall and he pounded his fists on the galley counter. Yelling, screaming, very ugly. It was unsafe to keep him on board that’s why he got kicked out.”
The crew member did not want to give her name, but said she asked him five times to get off his phone.
“He was asked five times. I contacted the captain. We were brought back in and he was let off the plane.”
No special treatment for Baldwin was given.
“Everybody is the same. Everyone has to follow the rules, it doesn’t matter who you are,” the crew member said.
A rep for Baldwin said, “Alec was asked to leave a 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.”
Words with Friends is a Scrabble-like game.
American Airlines declined to comment.
Baldwin is known for his bad temper.
In 2007, the actor left a nasty voice mail tirade for his young daughter, calling her a “rude, thoughtless little pig.”
He later apologized and wrote a book inspired by that incident.