Alec Baldwin Slammed Over Barbra Streisand Comment

Alec Baldwin's comment in which he gushed about Barbra Streisand's beauty on an Instagram post has sparked derision on the social media platform.

In late October, a fan account called Barbra Streisand Italia shared black-and-white video footage of a young Streisand performing her early 1960s classic track Lover, Come Back to Me live onstage.

The footage shared by the account, which has more than 87,000 followers, attracted more than 115,000 likes. Celebrities who liked the post included Queen Latifah, Mary Steenburgen, Mickey Rourke, Chelsea Peretti, Marc Jacobs, Andy Cohen, Eric McCormack, Tatum O'Neal and her father Ryan O'Neal, who passed away last week.

Currently sitting at the top of the comments section is a post from 30 Rock star Baldwin that reads: "My God. This is the hottest woman. Ever." As of press time, the comment has garnered more than 150 likes.

After more than six weeks in relative social media obscurity, Baldwin's remark was highlighted by the account Comments by Celebs, which trawls social media for comments stars have made on posts that might otherwise get lost in the shuffle.

The repost by the Comments by Celebs account, which has more than 1.7 million followers, sparked a wave of posts from people mocking Baldwin.

One detractor said Baldwin's remark was a "very weird comment when he has a wife," while another asked: "Isn't he married?"

"HILARIA IS NOT OK OMG CHECK ON HER," another commented.

Actor Baldwin has been married to Hilaria Baldwin since 2012. They have seven children together. Father-of-eight Baldwin is also dad to model Ireland Baldwin, from his previous marriage to Kim Basinger.

Others took aim at erroneous claims that Massachusetts native Hilaria Baldwin was born and raised in Spain, with one writing: "Oh no! Hilaria is going to be muy mala [very bad]... how do you say angry."

"How you say...sleep on el couch?" another wrote.

"Cue Hilary suddenly being from Brooklyn!" said another, in reference to Streisand hailing from the New York City borough.

"How you say cucumber in Yiddish?" another quipped, referencing one of Hilaria Baldwin's 2015 appearance on the Today show.

During the segment, she made gazpacho, telling Telemundo's Evi Siskos as she pointed to the ingredients required: "We have very few ingredients. We have tomatoes, we have, um, how do you say?"

Hilaria then correctly identified the ingredients in question as cucumbers, just a split second before Siskos stepped in to help her out.

After her Boston origins became widespread public knowledge in December 2020, she would later explain to The New York Times that the slip up was a mere "brain fart" and the result of being nervous because it was one of her first TV appearances.

Amid the flood of mocking comments, several other Instagram users agreed with Alec Baldwin, with one writing: "He's not wrong about this one [though]."

"I crushed hard in her when I saw Hello, Dolly as a kid," another shared. "Then I saw What's Up, Doc and that cemented it."

Hilaria Baldwin's accent controversy came to the fore in late December 2020 when someone on X, formerly Twitter, accused her of impersonating a Spanish person. The thread included a number of videos supporting the user's allegation.

More damning comments regarding Hilaria's background emerged, including posts from people claiming to be her former high school classmates in Boston. They disputed her statement, made on her podcast in 2019, that she didn't move to the United States until college. Also, Hilaria's birthplace was listed as Mallorca on her former talent agency's website.

She took a month off from Instagram in early 2021 after social media users noticed her accent had disappeared in a video posted in December 2020.

Upon her return to Instagram following the controversy surrounding her heritage, Hilaria—who was born Hillary Hayward-Thomas—said she had used the time for "listening, reflecting" after people criticized her accent.

"My parents raised my brother and me with two cultures, American and Spanish, and I feel a true sense of belonging to both. The way I've spoken about myself and my deep connection to two cultures could have been better explained—I should have been more clear and I'm sorry," she wrote.

She further told The New York Times: "The things I have shared about myself are very clear. I was born in Boston. I spent time in Boston and in Spain. My family now lives in Spain. I moved to New York when I was 19 years old and I have lived here ever since. For me, I feel like I have spent 10 years sharing that story over and over again. And now it seems like it's not enough."