ALEC BALDWIN GETS CHARGED
Charging the actor with a crime is a gross miscarriage of justice and a waste of time and money
The D.A. in Santa Fe, NM decided to charge actor Alec Baldwin with “involuntary manslaughter” for his actions on a movie set that resulted in the tragic death of the cinematographer. READ STORY HERE
This is preposterous.
Putting aside our personal feelings about Baldwin, his politics, his past, and his personality–this is an absurd judicial excess presumably motivated by nothing more than hunger for publicity and the spotlight of a show trial that will likely turn into a circus.
Well done, Santa Fe. You got your big show.
The person who was in charge of guns and ammunition should *certainly* be charged with criminal negligence. That person failed to do his job. A death resulted.
However, actors are not trained professionals in handling firearms. They should not be expected to know live ammunition from blanks. They are no more responsible for the management of props on the set (including guns) than the lights, microphones, cameras, and other components of film production. Expecting an untrained actor to decipher real bullets from fakes is ridiculous. While it might be appropriate to charge other film crew personnel with a crime for negligence (the director, producers, etc.) — that is, if safety protocols weren’t followed — going after the actor makes no sense at all.
As a result of this announcement, if I was in charge of ANY major studio, or film production company, I would absolutely boycott that county in New Mexico and advise any other production teams to avoid filming there in the future. It’s obvious that D.A.’s office lacks any understanding of the responsibilities of people who work in film production. It’s also likely the D.A. is an attention-seeker desperate for publicity, presumably to further her own career.
Assuming the events of this tragedy have been reported accurately, there’s no way any jury is going to find Baldwin guilty of any crime. What a monumental waste of time and taxpayers’ money.
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Addendum (courtesy of Eric Rosenberger, who has worked in film production):
For the benefit of anyone who does not have experience on a Hollywood set, or a union job, this might not seem as ludicrous as it is.
Each department on a set is carefully guarded by union rules so that only members of that union may do that particular job on set.
And everyone else must wait until that job is done before proceeding.
For example, on the set of ER, I once watched as EVERYONE stood around waiting as the sole “qualified” person on set took their coffee break, only to return, flip one switch that turned on the ambulance lights in the background, before the Assistant Director could yell “QUIET ON SET!”
Now don’t get me wrong, those rules are usually a bit more lax while on location, such as the set of “Rust”, however, anything involving firearms or explosives, the pyrotechnics and armory team have absolute control over.
NOTHING can be done without their explicit say so, no matter how much it might frustrate the Director or stars.
And so, with those rules in place, charging Alec with involuntary manslaughter is an absurd proposition done solely by those either looking for publicity and/or those with ZERO understanding the rules on a filming set.
Expect a countersuit to recoup the lawyer fees over this clearly false accusation.
Now, don’t get me wrong again, the Armory team is going down for this obvious and egregious error, as they clearly did not do their job properly which resulted in loss of life, but hold Alec accountable in this case is asinine.