Alec Baldwin got in fake-trouble this week after misguidedly choosing the nationality "Filipino" for an innocent mail-order-bride joke during a Letterman appearance, leading inevitably to a Filipino Senator (and former actor) vowing to personally beat Alec up ("He will see mayhem") if he ever entered the country. So today on the Huffington Post, Alec apologized and made amends in a way that simultaneously gracefully shamed The Philippines while making Alec out to be a longtime crusader against sex trafficking:
However, I do apologize to anyone who took offense. The comments of some Philippine government officials come as no surprise to me, either. Even the one by a former action film star-turned-Senator who beckoned me to come to the Philippines so he could "beat" me over my comment.
The Philippines has suffered significant problems with the issue of sex trafficking and I would like to turn your attention to the work of an organization called Love146 that my brother Stephen educated me about. Visit their website at www.love146.org and learn of the important work that is being done, in various regions of the world, by Rob Morris and his co-founders and staff.
I had met with Rob in New York, some months before the Letterman appearance, in the hopes of helping him raise money for this group. Again, I apologize for the perceived insensitivity of that remark and ask you to visit the Love146 site.
Alec Baldwin is a PR genius. This is the equivalent of Claire Danes responding to her 1998 Philippines ban over her complaint about their cockroach problem by sending the country a hundred cases of Raid.
