Here's a late-breaking news item…
A judge dismissed a case against Alec Baldwin, ruling that prosecutors had made crucial missteps amid their prosecution of the actor for involuntary manslaughter after a 2021 accident left cinematographer Halyna Hutchins dead.
A couple folks wrote to ask what I thought about this and I think what I think about this is that I don't need to think about this. I'm often reminded of a lady who was on the staff of a TV show I worked in back in the eighties. She was one of those people who seemed to feel that every single thing on this planet was put here so she could offer her opinion of it. If you worked with her, she would — clear outta-the-blue — assault you with her critique of whatever you were wearing that day and of your haircut and any accessories in view.
Nobody ever asked her for these opinions. You didn't have to. She'd offer them freely and generally without malice… though often with a soupçon of snark. She did not notice your "Who asked you?" expression nor did she hear your eyes roll. She just acted like it was her assignment to tell you that those shoes didn't go with that blouse or that you looked so much better with your hair that color. Finally one day, I told her, "You know, it's not required that you have an opinion on everything!"
And she responded with her opinion of me saying that. Of course.
I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to the whole Alec Baldwin matter. If I were a member of the jury or a reporter covering the trial, I'd have to. But I heard enough about it to feel that both sides had a point and that I didn't care enough to devote a lot of attention to the case. Yes, we all have an interest in seeing that the Justice System is fair and does its job well…but we leave it to courtrooms and juries all the time to do that. The fact that this case involves a movie star (about whom I also have no opinion) doesn't change that for me.
I hope the judge made the right call. But I don't know enough about what happened to say…and from what I could tell, neither did most of the people following the trial.