Baldwin Takes On 'Gay Sheriff' Cooper

Alec Baldwin has kept an uncharacteristically low profile since his Twitter rant against gay journalist George Stark. That rant, one of many the 30 Rock actor has launched via Tweet, and its subsequent scandal began when Stark claimed Baldwin's wife was texting during James Gandolfini's funeral.

Baldwin vehemently denied this, and threatened Stark: "George Stark, you lying little bitch. I am gonna fuck you up." He also described Stark as a "toxic little queen" and wrote, "(I'd) put my foot up your fuckking ass, George Stark, but I'm sure you'd dig it too much." Baldwin later said that he hadn't meant to be homophobic, telling GLAAD, "My ill-advised attack on George Stark of the Daily Mail had absolutely nothing to do with issues of anyone's sexual orientation."

Intentions cruel or not, this ugly incident in turn led to two immediate reactions from third parties, one sincere and the other cynical. The cynical reaction was right wing organizations suddenly being offended by homophobia and calling on Capital One to drop Baldwin as a spokesman. That request has not been answered.

The second, more sincere response came from Anderson Cooper. Surprised by a dearth of outrage over Baldwin's "little queen" comment, the gay CNN host took to his own Twitter, writing, "Why does Alec Baldwin get a pass when he uses gay slurs? If a conservative talked of beating up a 'queen' they would be vilified."

Baldwin was asked about that comment during a sit down with Howard Stern yesterday, and though he says he has "nothing" to say to Cooper himself, Baldwin did have some choice words for the media, Cooper's place therein, and Cooper's sudden interest in being a gay "sheriff."

"What I realize about [Cooper] is, everybody in media, they have a job to do. Anderson Cooper has a job to do. And that job is to try to reinforce his credibility in the gay community after the fact that you couldn't get him out of the closet for 10 years with a canister of tear gas. Now he's the sheriff. Now he's running around writing everybody a ticket!"

Here's preview video from Stern's show that includes Baldwin touching on Cooper and other topics, including Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and whether or not he lives to court controversy.