OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Actor Alec Baldwin is still on the hook for the accidental shooting of his late “Rust” colleague Halyna Hutchins, who tragically died last year.
Many on social media sounded off on Baldwin when he did a recent interview with well-known film director Woody Allen.
“Like Baldwin’s career isn’t already hanging by a thread. What a dumb way to completely destroy it,” one person said about the interview.
“Remember when Alec Baldwin literally killed a crew member on a set last year, faced zero repercussions, and is now… promoting a special interview he’s doing with… Woody Allen? That’s literally all you need to know about the film&TV industry,” another wrote.
“Alec Baldwin, who shot and killed his employee 8 month ago, is live on instagram now with Woody Allen who is married to his daughter,” journalist Emily Miller noted.
“Alec Baldwin announces an interview with Woody Allen. Topics to include the murdering of innocent people and child molestation,” a fourth Twitter user satirically quipped.
“The aforementioned tweets echoed several people online who found it ironic that Baldwin would agree to sit down with a controversial figure amid his own scandal. Allen’s adopted daughter Dylan Farrow accused him in 1992 of sexually assaulting her in their family’s attic when she was 7 years old. The famed director has called the claims, which resurfaced in 2021 due to the HBO series Allen v. Farrow, categorically false,” Page Six reported.
Baldwin is still part of the ongoing investigation into the Oct. 21, 2021, shooting of Hutchins on the New Mexico set of “Rust” after the actor fired a loaded gun at the cinematographer.
Baldwin previously declared that he does not believe any charges will be coming for him in the shooting death of a cinematographer on the set of his movie “Rust” but the district attorney does not necessarily agree.
“Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” the actor said to ABC News host George Stephanopoulos said. “Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.”
“I don’t know what happened on that set. I don’t know how that bullet arrived in that gun. I don’t know,” he said. “But I’m all for doing anything that will take us to a place where this is less likely to happen again.”
But then he made the statement that has ruffled the feathers of some in law enforcement who are working on the case.
“I’ve been told by people who are in the know, in terms of even inside the state, that it’s highly unlikely that I would be charged with anything criminally,” Baldwin said.
First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies appeared to respond directly to Baldwin’s interview on Friday when she said to Deadline, “certain individuals may be criminally culpable for his/her actions and/or inactions on the set of Rust.”
She said that she plans to “exercise my prosecutorial discretion to its fullest, including filing charges that are supported by probable cause,” Carmack-Altwies also said today that her office is “exploring various legal theories at the time.”
“Everyone involved in the handling and use of firearms on the set had a duty to behave in a manner such that the safety of others was protected, and it appears that certain actions and inactions contributed to this outcome,” she said.
“As the First Judicial District Attorney, I have not made a decision to charge or not charge any individuals involved in the shooting that resulted in the death of Halyna Hutchins and injury of Joel Souza,” she said.
The remarks by Carmack-Altwies were not altogether unexpected as Deadline has heard from a number of New Mexico sources that Santa Fe law enforcement were very unhappy with Baldwin once again speaking to media.
“Interviewed immediately after the shooting and subsequently by the Sheriff’s Office, the Emmy winner has been asked to not comment on the shooting beyond condolences as the police’s investigation continues – requests Baldwin has acknowledged, but is clearly ignoring as he lays out his version of what went down that terrible day.
One source told us the department felt “betrayed after all the consideration given to Baldwin in the aftermath of the shooting.” Another law enforcement source said that “Baldwin is testing the department’s patience and becoming a distraction to the ongoing investigation…
No end date has been given for the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office’s investigation, but it could be several more weeks before it is wrapped up, I hear.
Though four separate search warrants have been issued for Santa Fe detectives and there’s lots of finger pointing and theories about where the live round that killed Hutchins came from, no one has been arrested, let alone charged yet in the matter.
