UPDATE: MSNBC Fires Alec Baldwin For Homophobic Rant And Divalike Behavior

Following the announcement that MSNBC had canceled Alec Baldwin’s six-week-old talk show after the furor over his most recent public use of antigay language, the actor spoke with website Gothamist and laid much of the blame for his dismissal on the hands of media watchdogs who’ve had their fill of his hasty apologies but continued use of homophobic slurs.

“But you’ve got the fundamentalist wing of gay advocacy — Rich Ferraro and Andrew Sullivan—they’re out there, they’ve got you,” he said. “Rich Ferraro, this is probably one of his greatest triumphs. They killed my show. And I have to take some responsibility for that myself.”

Ferraro, GLAAD’s VP of Communications, quickly released his own response:

I consider GLAAD’s campaigns to end the Boy Scout of America’s ban on gay scouts, raise national visibility of the violence and inequality facing transgender people, and battling for marriage equality to be among my ‘greatest triumphs.’ But if a teacher, coach, local radio show host, or parent realizes that anti-LGBT slurs are outdated and unacceptable because of this Baldwin issue, I guess we’ll call it a win. Alec Baldwin’s team has not been open to turning this incident into an opportunity for public education and that’s unfortunate.

We previously reported:

MSNBC has given Alec Baldwin the old heave-ho after the temperamental thespian’s homophobic rant against a paparazzo to whom he so warmly referred as a “cocksucking fag.”

According to Page Six, Baldwin’s obnoxious outburst was only partly to blame for his dismissal, as it turns out Ms. Alec is giving Mimi a run for her coins in the diva demands department:

Besides demanding a humidifier because he claimed the air at 30 Rock was too dry, Baldwin alienated staffers when he demanded a separate makeup room being used by a woman with cancer who is sensitive to hairspray. When Baldwin was told he couldn’t have his way, he allegedly bellowed at the top of his lungs, “I don’t give a f?-?-?k if she has cancer or not, I want that f?-?-?king makeup room.”

Sounds like working with charm itself. When reached for comment, Baldwin’s spokesman refused to acknowledge an actual “firing,” though he did concede that the show would not be coming back, while insisting that Baldwin “had questions on whether he wanted to continue.”

Those questions were more or less answered by the dismal ratings of Up Late with Alec Baldwin, his frequent public ragings and his apparent wig snatching at MSNBC. Well, now that he and Ann Coulter are BFFs, maybe Baldwin can find a home at Fox News. They’re a lot more tolerant of those kinds of shenanigans.