WWW- Alec Baldwin has taken a vow of silence after a recording of a volcanic tirade by the actor to his 11-year-old daughter appeared in US media reports.
The Oscar-nominated star of "The Departed" unleashed a heated tirade at daughter Ireland, who has been caught in the middle of tit-for-tat legal battles between Baldwin and ex-wife Kim Basinger in recent years.
Baldwin's April 11 rant -- where at one point he informs his daughter that she is a "rude, thoughtless, little pig" -- was reported widely in US broadcast and online media Friday.
The 49-year-old actor's ire was apparently triggered by Ireland's failure to switch her mobile phone on for a scheduled call with her father.
"Once again I've made an ass out of myself trying to get to a phone at a specific time," Baldwin says in the message. "I'm tired of playing this game with you. You have insulted me for the last time.
"You don't have the brains or the decency as a human being -- I don't give a damn that you are 12 or 11 or a child or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the ass who doesn't care what you do."
Baldwin then tells his daughter that he is going to fly to Los Angeles to "straighten her out."
Baldwin's spokesman said in a statement that "in the best interest of the child" the actor would "do what the mother is pathologically incapable of doing -- keeping his mouth shut and obeying the court order."
The statement said Basinger and her lawyer leaked the tape in violation of a court order, and that Baldwin regretted the choice of language used.
"Although Alec acknowledges that he should have used different language in parenting his child, everyone who knows him privately knows what he has been put through for the past six years," it added.
Baldwin and Basinger, the star of "LA Confidential," split in 2001 but have been locked in bitter legal wrangling over related to Ireland's custody and visitation rights.
Basinger was charged with contempt of court last year for violating a 2004 custody arrangment. A Los Angeles court rejected a bid by Basinger's lawyers to have the charges dismissed this week.
