May 7, 2007: Alec Baldwin: Will his recent outburst affect child custody?

People frequently assume that every moment of a celebrity’s life is filled with glamour.  That assumption is dead wrong, especially when that celebrity couple has children!  In fact, my two favorite celebrity sightings are always when I run into stars doing typical family activities with their children.   For example, one weekend a few years ago, Michelle Pfeiffer and I both suffered through the greasy pizza and noisy games at my local Chuck E. Cheese.  And I don’t think that it was more than three years ago when I saw Alec Baldwin skating with his daughter Ireland in a very unglamorous suburban roller skating rink.  

Although Baldwin’s acrimonious relationship with his ex-wife Kim Basinger is well known, it was once again thrust into the spotlight recently, after “someone” released a disturbing message  left by Baldwin on his daughter’s cell phone -- calling her a thoughtless, rude "little pig.”

Let’s get the obvious out of the way:  Alec Baldwin was completely out of line to raise such a harsh voice to his child -- whatever the reason.  The question now is how will his outburst affect his custody situation?  The court will undoubtedly be upset with Basinger, who at the moment, is the most likely suspect in terms of releasing the call to the media, though she claims not to be responsible.  And while the court will no doubt have a problem with how Baldwin handled the situation, the judge will also look to see if Basinger has been involved in what is called "Parental Alienation," the intentional alienation of a child from one parent by the other parent.

I suspect that Baldwin’s custody arrangement will not be changed significantly as a result of his outburst, assuming that he has a good parenting record otherwise.  But there is also no doubt that this will be a major strike against him with the court, and subsequent conduct on this level would likely result in some changes to his current custody arrangement.  While pundits continue to speculate who will “win” and who will “lose” this ongoing custody battle, the rest of us are left to wonder if daughter Ireland is the real loser in this very sad, very public situation.

WENDY JAFFE, Esq. is the author of "The Divorce Lawyers' Guide to Staying Married."  You can get more of Jaffe's advice and hear a podcast interview at AOL.com, and you may also visit her website at divorcelawyersguide.com.

• Anger management and divorce
• Child custody and single parenting
• Parental alienation syndrome

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