Take one world-weary and cuddly famous dad and one glamorous younger mum, and marinate with the joyous bedlam of life with their seven adorable young children.
It might have sounded like the perfect recipe for uplifting reality TV when actor Alec Baldwin and his lithesome ‘yoga-preneur’ wife Hilaria sat down with bosses of the TLC network to discuss a fly-on-the-wall series about their family life – clouded only, perhaps, by the stress of Alec’s upcoming involuntary manslaughter trial for accidentally shooting a woman dead.
Instead the new series, the first episode of which went out last weekend in the US, has attracted some of the worst reviews of any TV programme in many years.
One critic described The Baldwins, as the series is titled and in which the couple are ‘executive producers’, as a ‘new low’, another as ‘one of the darkest and most bizarre hours of television to appear in recent memory’.
Many of their harshest detractors hailed from Left-leaning publications that once heaped praise on Baldwin, a die-hard Democrat, for his hammy impersonations of Donald Trump on the comedy series Saturday Night Live.
Even allowing for their vast egos, what could have possessed the couple, chorused critics, to think they could get away with such self-serving puffery – portraying the cantankerous and faded star as a lovable family man – amid the fallout from the tragic 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the western Rust?
Although the involuntary manslaughter charge over her death no longer hangs over Baldwin after a judge last year dismissed the case on procedural grounds, many believe he has a case to answer and he still faces several lawsuits, including one from Hutchins’ family who insist she’s been denied ‘justice’.
This week, a string of ‘crisis management’ PR specialists told the Mail they couldn’t imagine any professional advisor would have countenanced recommending that the Baldwins agree to do a reality series at the best of times, let alone under these circumstances.
Actor Alec Baldwin and his wife Hilaria along with their children (pictured) in the new reality TV show The Baldwins
Hilaria (pictured) was exposed in 2020 for pretending to be Spanish – her only link with Spain was her parents’ holiday home in Majorca
Alec Baldwin (pictured) has eight children – including Ireland, his only child with first wife Kim Basinger
Meanwhile, the TLC network hardly helps the family brand given its reputation for such tacky and insipid shows as ‘1000-lb Sisters’ and ‘Pregnant Behind Bars’.
I can confirm the talk around Hollywood is that it was actually entrepreneurial Hilaria – a relentless self-promoter – who ‘orchestrated’ a farce that threatens to obliterate the tattered remains of her husband’s career.
Hilaria, readers may remember, has her own public image nightmare to overcome after being notoriously exposed in 2020 for pretending to be Spanish.
In fact, she was born and raised in Boston, not as ‘Hilaria’ but Hillary Hayward-Thomas. Her only link with Spain was her parents’ holiday home in Majorca.
Presumably to make herself seem more interesting, however, she often prefers to speak in a Spanish accent, and once notoriously asked, ‘How do you say in English?’ as she pointed to a cucumber in a cookery segment on breakfast TV.
She certainly comes across as the show’s driving force in the first episode – appropriately titled ‘Along Came Hilaria’ – of the eight-part reality series, frequently taking centre-stage as her heavy-set and, at times, dishevelled husband bumbles around in the background, occasionally mugging with over-egged exasperation for the cameras.
In one bizarre scene, 41-year-old Hilaria is seen drawing a family ‘seating plan’ simply for the two cars – a Range Rover and Cadillac – to ferry them from their multi-million dollar flat in Manhattan to their multi-million dollar mansion in the Hamptons for their three-month summer break.
‘That’s typical Hilaria,’ someone who knows the couple told me. ‘She likes to be in control.’
Hilaria, 41, with her 66-year-old husband Alec Baldwin (pictured) in The Baldwins, the first episode of which went out last weekend in the US
The yoga instructor caught Baldwin’s eye at a vegetarian restaurant in Manhattan in 2011 and she winked back at him – they have been married since 2012
Further evidence of her control-freakery – and hot temper – emerged on Tuesday when a Donald Trump impersonator heckled Alec outside their home in Greenwich Village.
Baldwin, 66, was filmed confronting comedian Jason Stoop and telling him: ‘If this camera wasn’t here, I’d snap your f***king neck in half and break your f***king neck right here.’
According to Stoop, when the camera was turned off, Hilaria appeared and chased him down the street in her high heels, berating him and lunging for his phone.
‘They’re very protective of each other, just as they are of their children,’ says one source.
Certainly, an awful lot is riding on this ill-conceived TV project. Baldwin’s manager, Matt DelPiano, wouldn’t comment on claims Hilaria was the main instigator for The Baldwins but insisted to the Mail that the couple hadn’t taken the decision to make it alone as he’d been involved, too.
He claimed that ‘there actually hasn’t been much criticism’ of the first episode, adding: ‘It’s been very well received at TLC and everybody is very happy with it.’
Others might beg to differ.
Howard Lee, chief creative officer of Warner Bros Discovery’s US TV networks (which includes both TLC and Discovery+, the channel showing the series in the UK) revealed this week it had to bid against other companies for the right to make the series.
Baldwin has always denied responsibility for Hutchins’ death, he denied pulling the trigger, but prosecutors said forensic reports disproved that account
Baldwin, 66, was filmed confronting comedian Jason Stoop and telling him: ‘If this camera wasn’t here, I’d snap your f***king neck in half and break your f***king neck right here.’
Without disclosing how much they paid the couple, he admitted to Vulture.com that even he found it ‘very surprising’ Baldwin had wanted to do the series at all, but added: ‘I think they needed this show. I think they feel misunderstood. They really wanted a platform on which they can voice what’s on their minds.’
Some of what’s ‘on their minds’ in episode one is jaw-droppingly tone-deaf – though they occasionally acknowledge the tragedy of Halyna’s death, including for her young son, the pair spend more time bemoaning their own lot.
‘Sometimes I say, “Why do we have seven kids?” And I realise – to help carry me and you through this situation,’ Baldwin says at one point.
Later, he pompously confides: ‘I have one overriding concern – and that is letting seven children know that I love them.’ (In fact, Baldwin has eight offspring – including Ireland, his only child with first wife Kim Basinger.)
Baldwin uses the first episode to discuss his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since Hutchins’ death.
However, after enduring years of mockery for her bizarre Spanish act, Hilaria arguably has as much to gain as her husband from shamelessly flattering reality TV that promotes her as a cosy, caring mother rather than the pushy narcissist she’s often accused of being. (The series is billed as ‘unfiltered access into the highs and lows of one of the world’s most famous and infamous families.’)
The yoga instructor caught Baldwin’s eye at a vegetarian restaurant in Manhattan in 2011 and she winked back at him. ‘He just kept looking at me and I finally walked over to his table. He took my hand and said, “I must know you. I must know you”,’ she recalled of her first encounter with a man 26 years her senior.
Since they married in 2012, she’s worked tirelessly to exploit her celebrity link.
Some sources have suggested to the Mail there might be a financial factor in the Baldwins agreeing to a reality series
Alec Baldwin uses the first episode to discuss his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since Hutchins’ death
Baldwin’s connections got her a job as a ‘lifestyle correspondent’ on a showbusiness TV show and a year after their wedding, she came second behind Kate Middleton in a Vanity Fair list of best-dressed pregnant celebrities.
To promote her yoga and keep-fit DVDs, such as Fit Mommy-to-Be Prenatal Yoga, she has posted endless pictures of herself on social media, often performing raunchy yoga poses in high heels – once with her leg wrapped around a male companion’s neck at a restaurant table.
In 2016, she was still in hospital when she tweeted a photo of her enviable post-natal figure in bra and pants a day after giving birth. She wanted to ‘normalise a real body and promote healthy self-esteem’, she explained.
So when, in 2020, she was forced to deny allegations that she’d for years been falsely claiming to be Spanish, howls of laughter rang out across America.
Her various online CVs all claimed she was born in Spain while she wore a traditional ‘mantilla’ veil and carried a flamenco fan at her wedding to Baldwin, later saying: ‘I liked that I brought in a bit of my culture.’
‘Cucumber woman’, as some still know her, has clearly yet to live it down. At least one TV critic said his biggest hope in watching The Baldwins was that Hilaria might try to explain herself.
Her old Spanish accent now gone, she had a go: ‘I love English. I also love Spanish. And when I mix the two that doesn’t make me inauthentic, it makes me normal.’
As for Alec, the ‘devoted dad’ on display in The Baldwins is far removed from the notorious moment in 2007 when he left a message for his then 11-year-old daughter, Ireland, calling her a ‘rude, thoughtless little pig’.
Alec, the ‘devoted dad’ on display in The Baldwins is far removed from the notorious moment in 2007 when he left a message for his then 11-year-old daughter, calling her a ‘rude, thoughtless little pig’.
Alec has said that he went through a period of being a ‘daily drug abuser’ during the 1980s and even overdosed once in his 20s
Baldwin has always denied responsibility for Hutchins’ death, stressing he’d been told the gun did not contain any live rounds and that live ammunition is supposed to be banned on sets.
The actor also denied pulling the trigger, but prosecutors said forensic reports disproved that account.
Other film industry insiders, including George Clooney, have countered that actors must always check themselves that a gun they’re holding doesn’t contain live rounds.
Baldwin also faces potential fresh embarrassment with the release next month of a documentary Last Take: Rust And The Story Of Halyna, made by a friend of the dead film-maker, Rachel Mason.
In a TV interview soon after Hutchins’ death, Baldwin insisted he was so devastated he ‘couldn’t give a s*** about my career any more’.
But his lawyers have since complained in court papers that he has suffered from a loss of acting roles and income as a result of prosecutors deciding to charge him.
And in January, Baldwin sued those lawyers, claiming they were ‘blinded by their desire to convict [him] for all the wrong reasons’.
His manager declined to provide details of his upcoming films to the Mail, although the four mentioned on industry website IMDB are listed only as in ‘pre-production’.
Baldwin’s past films include The Hunt For Red October, Beetlejuice and The Edge
Alec Baldwin practising drawing his revolver on the set of Rust. While filming the movie, a prop gun held by the actor went off and killed a cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins
None are like the big budget productions in which Baldwin – whose past films include The Hunt For Red October and Beetlejuice – used to star.
Although Rust was finally finished last year, predictable unease about its calamitous history means it is yet to find a US distributor.
Some sources have suggested to the Mail there might be a financial factor in the Baldwins agreeing to a reality series.
For as viewers of The Baldwins will rapidly notice, the couple have huge outgoings – two large homes, seven young children, and two nannies (only fleetingly glimpsed in the first episode, which – after all – is all about the Baldwins’ tireless commitment to parenting).
There’s also his team of very expensive lawyers, led by star celebrity attorney Alex Spiro, whose clients include Elon Musk and who charges $3,000 an hour.
In fact, Baldwin has been trying to sell their Hamptons home since 2022, dropping the price by $10 million to $28.9 million.
Early signs indicate viewers are not rushing to watch The Baldwins (just 680,000 watched on its opening night in the US) and as a PR exercise it has backfired, practitioners in the field told the Mail.
British PR guru Mark Borkowski dubbed the TV series the ‘Baldwin Redemption Tour’, adding: ‘Except, rather than redemption, it’s a slow-motion car crash dressed up as a cosy slice of family life.
Alec Baldwin with his family. The cameras began rolling on The Baldwins earlier this year
Baldwin has been trying to sell their Hamptons home since 2022, dropping the price by $10 million to $28.9 million
‘A truly abysmal piece of self-mythologising disguised as reality TV, designed not to entertain but to rehabilitate.’
He went on: ‘This should have been a careful, patient, delicate exercise in damage control. Instead, it’s a tone-deaf, self-indulgent whinge-fest.’
If the aim was to make Hilaria seem ‘authentic’, meanwhile, it had ‘failed spectacularly’, Borkowski added. ‘PR disasters like this don’t come along every day, but when they do, they are excruciatingly fascinating to watch.’
Kari Morrissey, the special prosecutor in Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter case, told me: ‘I haven’t watched the show and won’t watch the show but I have no reason to disagree with the critics’ opinions. That is consistent with my experience with Mr. Baldwin during the criminal prosecution.’
Hollywood crisis management expert Holly Baird said she’d met Baldwin several times and found him a ‘lovely, genuine person’. But she said it was ‘incredibly transparent’ they were using The Baldwins to address the Halyna Hutchins calamity and try to ‘humanise him’.
Hutchins’ death would be a ‘dark cloud hanging over his career for some time’ but he’d have been better advised doing good deeds and charity work, she added.
Of Hilaria, Baird said tactfully: ‘If this is her idea of introducing herself to the world, I’m not sure it’s the best way.’
