Chaotic Alec Baldwin Moments We Couldn't Look Away From

Alec Baldwin has been labeled a controversial celebrity for many years due to a contentious divorce with Kim Basinger, the tragic "Rust" shooting, and having a lot of kids over a short amount of time with his current wife, Hilaria Baldwin — and that's just to name a few. Although these events have made headlines because of sad details, his reputation isn't just built on the hardships he's endured. He's also had strange, angry outbursts that have made headlines all on their own. Whether he was kicked off a plane, ignoring bicycle safety rules, or provoking a fight with someone who was just trying to do their job, Baldwin has given the public plenty of reasons to raise a collective eyebrow at him.

In hindsight, some of his outbursts have grains of truth in them, like his 2012 tirade against Harvey Weinstein, in which he labeled the director a "douche bag," albeit over the disgraced movie mogul's refusal to participate in Baldwin's documentary project (via The Hollywood Reporter). However, even disregarding the tragedies in his life and the moments we didn't know he was speaking the truth, it's wild to look back at his most chaotic moments and realize that a grown man thought it was acceptable to act that way in public. 

One of the strangest and biggest controversies in Alec Baldwin's past is that time he got kicked off of a plane because he wanted to keep playing Words With Friends. As reported by BBC News (and basically every other news outlet in the world) in December 2011, Baldwin was on an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York when he was asked to turn off his phone while he was playing Words with Friends. Although it's a common request made of passengers by airline personnel, Baldwin didn't comply, and instead got up and continued using his phone in the plane bathroom, per the report. In a tweet about the incident, as reported by ABC News, Baldwin said the plane was at the gate and not moving at the time.

When American Airlines personnel confronted him, Baldwin was "extremely rude to the crew, calling them inappropriate names and using offensive language," per the airline's official statement, as reported by the BBC. Another flight passenger confirmed in real time on social media that Baldwin was removed from the plane. The "30 Rock" star later apologized to the flight passengers, not the airline, in a piece written for Huffington Post in which he blasted an allegedly rude flight attendant, via ABC News.

"It was never my intention to inconvenience anyone with my 'issue' with a certain flight attendant," he wrote. "In nearly all other instances, the flight attendants seemed to be unbothered by and said nothing about such activity, by me or anyone else, until we actually were pulling away from the gate."

Alec Baldwin got into a years-long legal dispute with a man named Wojciech Cieszkowski over an incident regarding a parking spot in New York City that allegedly got physical. Per court documents obtained by CNN, Cieszkowski alleged that in 2018 "shoved him hard and then punched him in the jaw," during the argument over a parking spot. Per CNN's report, the "Dr. Death" actor eventually pled guilty to violation of harassment in the second degree with a conditional discharge and agreed to participate in an anger management program. The violation is not characterized as a crime in New York City. 

Then, in November 2019, Baldwin sued Cieszkowski for false imprisonment and defamation, alleging that the man exaggerated the fight. According to Baldwin's claims, he never punched Cieszkowski. The former game show host admitted to pushing the man, but said the act wasn't as forceful as Cieszkowski described. Baldwin and Cieszkowski settled in 2022, per CNN. Their lawyers released a joint statement announcing the resolution of all legal matters, but saying the terms of the agreement were "private and confidential." The settlement occurred amid the investigation into the "Rust" shooting.

Another strange moment in Alec Baldwin's legal history involves the actor riding his bicycle unlawfully on the streets of Manhattan. In May 2014, NYPD officers gave Baldwin two citations for an early morning incident that occurred after he rode his bike the wrong way down Fifth Avenue, at 16th Street, according to CBS News. When officers noticed the "30 Rock" star riding against traffic near Union Square Park, they stopped him and then detained him in a patrol car and took possession of his bicycle after he produced identification. 

He wasn't officially arrested, but was issued two summonses: one for the bike riding offense and one for disorderly conduct after he "got arrogant and loud," during the incident. Baldwin tweeted about the encounter, named the officer who detained him, and revealed the woman's badge number. CBS News reported that Baldwin also tweeted about photographers outside his home scaring his infant daughter that day in a potentially unrelated incident, nearly hitting her in the head with a camera. 

Alec Baldwin is apparently no safer from drama in a car than he is on a bicycle. In October 2025, the "It's Complicated" star posted a video to Instagram explaining that hours before, he had crashed a car into a tree after being cut off by a garbage truck (that he said was "the size of a whale") in East Hampton, New York. He had swerved the car to avoid hitting the truck, he said. His brother Stephen Baldwin was in the car with him at the time, and thankfully, no one was hurt. "I crushed my wife's [Hilaria Baldwin's] car, and I feel bad about that. However, it's all fine and I'm fine and my brother's fine and bopity bop," he said in the video. Per an ABC News report, police cited an uninvolved vehicle and slippery road conditions as contributing factors to the accident. 

Although odd, the October 2025 incident was mild compared to the car accident that allegedly happened in Los Angeles in the spring of 2021, according to The Blast. A man named Ahmed Mustafa filed a civil lawsuit against Baldwin related to the accident in 2023, claiming that Baldwin's "impatience and negligence" while leaving a shopping center caused the accident. Baldwin allegedly sped up and tried to cut Mustafa off, although Mustafa had the right of way. Baldwin allegedly crossed double yellow lines and caused the accident. Mustafa reportedly sued Baldwin for "wage loss, the loss of the use of his property, hospital and medical expenses, general damage, property damage, and loss of earning capacity as a result of the car accident," per the Blast. The lawsuit appears to be ongoing. 

When he's not calling out Starbucks employees for being rude on X, Alec Baldwin is infamous for having allegedly hostile encounters with paparazzi. One of the first incidents occurred in Los Angeles in 1995, when he was still married to Kim Basinger and his eldest daughter, Ireland Baldwin, was a newborn. Per People, Baldwin allegedly sprayed shaving cream over freelance photographer Alan Zanger's car windows for being camped out near his home. It sparked a physical fight, during which Baldwin allegedly punched and broke the man's nose. Baldwin was acquitted of misdemeanor charges related to the incident but had to pay $4500 in damages. However, he won an invasion of privacy lawsuit against Zanger.

People also reported that Baldwin got into two separate confrontations with photographers in June 2012. One was outside of the Marriage License Bureau in Manhattan, where he went with his then-fiancée, Hilaria Baldwin. A photographer named Marcus Santos told the Daily News that Baldwin was allegedly "shoving and punching me — one time, right in the chin," when he was photographing them. A rep for Baldwin said Santos allegedly "assaulted" Baldwin with his camera. The rep denied Baldwin punched anyone and said any physical contact happened because the "Boss Baby" star was trying to protect himself. Later that same month, he verbally assaulted another photographer in a video obtained by TMZ. The Daily News (via People) reported that Baldwin pinned a photographer against a car in August 2013. Three months later, in November, he called a photographer a homophobic slur in a video obtained by TMZ.