Alec Baldwin’s TLC reality show, “The Baldwins,” with his wife, Hilaria, and their seven children, has been met with scathing reviews in the press, and now the legal team for Halyna Hutchins’ family.
Gloria Allred, who is representing Hutchins’ parents, Olga Solovey and Anatolii Androsovych, and her sister, Svetlana Zemko, filed a notice of deposition for Baldwin in the family’s wrongful death lawsuit against the actor after the death of Hutchins on the set of “Rust” in 2021.
“The Baldwin reality show at once celebrates Mr. Baldwin’s joy of being with his children while ignoring the fact that Alec Baldwin took a child away from her parents. That is the painful and actual reality with which Halyna’s parents and sister live each and every day,” Allred said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
The statement continued, saying Baldwin “never called or tried to contact her parents or sister to say that he was sorry, and to this day he has never taken responsibility for Halyna’s death.”
“As though it is not enough that Alec Baldwin killed their daughter, and that he was not held accountable in the criminal case because the case was dismissed with prejudice by the court before the jury could decide if he was guilty or not, now Alec Baldwin has compounded the pain of Halyna’s parents and sister by taking advantage of his increased fame and notoriety by monetizing it in a TLC reality show, where he takes on the role of victim after he shot and killed Halyna Hutchins on the set of ‘Rust.’”
Allred criticized Hilaria’s claim that Baldwin had “PTSD” from the incident.
Hilaria states in the first episode, “He was diagnosed with PTSD, and he says, in his darkest moments, ‘If an accident had to have happened this day, why am I still here, why couldn’t it have been me?’”
“Why is he claiming that he has PTSD? Is his reality show just a veiled attempt to create sympathy for himself with a future jury pool in our civil case? Is this just a shameless attempt to portray him as the real victim in this case?” Allred’s statement reads.
“No longer under the threat of criminal prosecution, it is long overdue for Alec Baldwin to admit and face the real-life consequences that he caused Halyna’s parents and sister.”
Allred adds, “It is time for him to face reality under oath.”
The deposition is scheduled for May 9, 2025, at Allred’s New York office.
Lawyers for Baldwin did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Of Baldwin’s decision to appear on a reality TV show after the “Rust” shooting, a public relations expert said that “it’s not uncommon for celebrities to set a plan in place after a public distancing to carve a path back into the limelight.”
“Some celebrities crave the attention and others ‘need’ the money, and occasionally it’s about the joy of the art,” Kara Schmiemann, senior director at Red Banyan, told Fox News Digital. “However, not all cancelations are made equally.”
“In Alec Baldwin’s case, we’re not talking about a poorly worded remark, we’re talking about life and death, and coming back from something like this is not easy to navigate.”
She continued, “Let’s be clear. There probably was no length of time that the public nor Ms. Hutchins’ family would accept and forgive without significant backlash, and rightfully so. The only risk-free way to navigate a tragedy like this is to stay out of the public eye. But for whatever their reasons, misguided as they may be, the Baldwins wanted to showcase their experience, which opens them up for criticism, and they are certainly feeling that public disdain by way of poor reviews across the board.”
“The Baldwins” premiered Feb. 23 on TLC and acknowledged the presence of the trial in their lives.
In the first episode, the family relocates to the Hamptons for the summer as Baldwin prepares for the criminal trial in New Mexico.
The couple worries about the effect it will have on their children, noting that the youngest few only know a time when their father has been under duress from the shooting and legal fallout.
“We’re going through some very stressful things, and we’re trying to parent through it,” Hilaria says.
“Everything was so different before this happened, and our lives are very, very different. Our children have been forced to recognize that, they’ve been forced to deal with that with us in their own way,” Baldwin says.
Earlier in the episode, Hilaria also says that Hutchins’ death will always “be a part” of their family’s story and acknowledges that “A son lost his mom in the most unthinkable tragedy. This is never something to forget.”
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Reviews for the series were highly critical.
Variety’s review headline called it, “Alec and Hilaria Baldwin’s Strange Response to the ‘Rust’ Tragedy.”
The Guardian slammed the series as a “dreadful reality show” that “is a new low for TV.”
Vulture said it was “Grimmer Than You Imagined.”
Ratings for the series have also reportedly been lackluster, though no official numbers have been released.
“Baldwin’s show started as a thinly veiled attempt to manipulate public opinion and morphed into a dumpster fire of gold-painted horse manure, cementing his image as Hollywood’s most tone-deaf celebrity,” Eric Schiffer, chair of Reputation Management Consultants, told Fox News Digital. “The show reeks of desperation and is a PR disaster masquerading as family entertainment at the cost of Alec’s credibility.”
In the second episode, Hilaria tells a friend she was looking at text messages from the day after the “Rust” shooting and says Baldwin wrote to her that “he wanted to kill himself.”
“He has survivor’s guilt,” Hilaria explains in a confessional interview. “You’re involved in this thing that nobody could even possibly imagine. So it goes back to that day. He wishes it were him. He would change places in a second.”
“This has affected his health and his mental health tremendously,” she adds, saying it’s affected his heart health and that he’s been to the hospital several times.
Hutchins died shortly after being wounded during a rehearsal for “Rust” in October 2021 at a film set on the outskirts of Santa Fe.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer, was pointing a revolver at Hutchins when it discharged, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer, but not the trigger, and the revolver fired.
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The second episode concludes with the Baldwins’ 12th wedding anniversary gift exchange, just two days before they leave for New Mexico.
The case was ultimately dismissed in July 2024 after the judge ruled that the prosecution concealed evidence from Baldwin’s legal team.
“The state’s willful withholding of this information was intentional and deliberate,” Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said. “If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith, it certainly comes so near to bad faith as to show signs of scorching prejudice.”
A trailer for the full season shows the Baldwins looking ahead, with Hilaria asking in what appears to be a therapy session, “Where do you go from a tragedy?”
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Baldwin states, “I do not want to go back to the life I had; I don’t. I don’t care.”
The “30 Rock” star does have several projects in the works on his IMDb profile.
In the second episode, Baldwin does go to film some motion-capture work for an undisclosed project.
“Opportunities for jobs have been few and far between because of the situation,” he says. “A lot of people cut my throat, lot of people cut my throat in my business.”
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He also notes he’s experienced “a reversal of fortune” in his business and can no longer be “picky” about the projects he chooses.
However, in Schiffer’s opinion, he believes that “Baldwin should focus his efforts on acting since his reality show rebrand is tanking harder than crypto advice from a drunk uncle.”
He continued, “Baldwin went from ‘The Hunt for Red October’ to ‘The Hunt for Relevance,’ monetizing a toxic rebrand atop a manslaughter scandal. His current reality show image reduces the perceived value and importance of his current movie projects, yet Alec’s saving grace remains his strong acting chops, which will serve him on screen.”
Schmiemann added that “Alec Baldwin would likely never have been able to come back to the screen without repercussions, but a reality TV show was not the right move. Sticking strictly to movies, where the character is the central focus, as opposed to the man, coupled with a subtle and careful press promotional strategy, would likely have been a softer rollout.”
“As far as his upcoming movies, time will tell how this reality show affects his reputation in the long run. It’s very likely that his movies will see an impact. The public can be forgiving and will sometimes forget, but perhaps not in this case.”
