Alec Baldwin was forced to leave an American Airlines flight for playing Words with Friends. But he's by far the first celeb to clash with a flight crew.
Alec Baldwin
30 Rock funnyman Alec Baldwin didn’t seem too amused when he was kicked off an American Airlines flight on Tuesday for refusing to turn off his phone. But can you blame him? According to the temperamental actor, who has been known to engage in, ahem, lively arguments on occasion, he was deeply engrossed in an addictive game of Words with Friends. After the incident, Baldwin did what many upset celebrities do, and aired his side of the story on Twitter, saying, “Flight attendant on American reamed me out 4 playing WORDS W FRIENDS while we sat at the gate, not moving. #nowonderamericaairisbankrupt.” Hit them where it hurts, Baldwin. As of Wednesday morning, the actor’s Twitter account (@alecbaldwin) was shut down, but only after a slew of feisty tweets were sent.
As for American, they released a statement saying that Baldwin refused to follow FAA regulations by not turning of his electronic device, adding “The passenger was extremely rude to the crew, calling them inappropriate names and using offensive language.” Meanwhile, other passengers sat in their seats tweeting away about the altercation. As far as we know, no one else was asked to leave the plane, prompting his publicist, Matthew Hiltzik, to tweet, “hey @American_AA: How come ok 4 other 1st class passengers 2 tweet while @alecbaldwin asked to leave while using his device? #hypocrisy.”
Billie Joe Armstrong
The Green Day frontman was escorted off a Southwest flight on September 2, after a flight attendant deemed his pants “sagged too low.” Armstrong was asked to pull his trousers up while boarding a flight from Oakland to Burbank and after he refused — while also lashing out at the employee — he and his travel companion were led off the aircraft. The musician then did what most people who are angry at airlines do these days: he tweeted his frustration. Southwest soon reached out with an apology and a new booking.
Gerard Depardieu
Nature waits for no man, and that includes Gerard Depardieu. When the famed French thespian had to heed the call of nature on a transatlantic flight, he headed towards the plane’s lavatory. When the stewardess asked the Academy Award-nominated actor to return to his seat as the plane was taking off, he allegedly dropped his pants and urinated on the floor. Hopefully he had enough savings left over from Green Card to get a private jet back home.
Ivana Trump
NewsFeed knows at least one prominent socialite who would be a proponent of child-free flights. In 2009, the Donald’s ex-wife, Ivana Trump, blew a gasket when confronted with unruly children on a plane set to take off from Palm Beach on its way to New York. According to the New York Daily News, when the screaming kids ran in front of her, Trump threw a fit and couldn’t be calmed down, even dropping the f-bomb while referring to the troublemaking tots. The pilot returned the aircraft to the gate; when a hysterical Trump refused to exit voluntarily, law enforcement had to remove her from the plane.
John Rich
The story of how singer John “Save a Horse [Ride a Cowboy]” Rich got booted from a Southwest plane this past weekend is a country song in the making. After a weekend in Sin City, he carried the party on for longer than the real world allows, causing Southwest crew members to promptly kick him off his return flight. According to reports, Rich started causing a ruckus with a few passengers prior to boarding the plane and continued his drunken antics on board, TMZ reports. Crew members promptly asked the inebriated star to leave the plane and take a later flight.
Josh Duhamel
On December 2, 2010, the Transformers actor was escorted off a flight with an unidentified airline in New York after he refused to turn off his Blackberry before takeoff. Duhamel was reportedly asked three times to turn off the phone, yet after the third time he merely laughed at the airline employee. The plane was then taken back to the gate, where two officers led him back into the terminal. “I learned that it’s best to always turn them off. Not my favorite moment,” Duhamel later said of the incident.
Kevin Smith
The Clerks director stirred up quite the public battle with Southwest after he tweeted that the company had kicked him off one of its flights from Oakland to Burbank on February 13, 2010. The ejection was apparently due to Smith being “too wide for the sky.” Smith was reportedly deemed too large to safely fly — Southwest has a policy that asks that passengers who are unable to lower both armrests when seated to book an additional seat — and asked to leave the aircraft. The airline tweeted an apology while also pointing out its policies. However, Smith countered that he was able to fit in a seat with both armrests down and his seatbelt comfortably buckled. The airline later issued a statement saying, “We would like to echo our tweets and again offer our heartfelt apologies to you.”
Leisha Hailey
The L Word actress was at the center of controversy after she tweeted that she’d been kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight on September 26 for kissing her girlfriend, musician Camila Grey. The airline has since said it was merely the couple’s reaction to a flight attendant reminding them that they were on a “family” airline — a reaction that reportedly included plenty of profanity — and not same-sex affection that led to the duo’s removal.
Mo’Nique
Comedian and Oscar-winning actress Mo’Nique was on her way to New York when she got kicked off her United flight back in 2006…over a dispute about her hair dryer. Mo’Nique’s hairstylist, who had been seated in coach, was trying to store the actress’ hair dryer in her overhead bin in first class. After a flight attendant questioned the stylist and who the appliance really belonged to, another crew member reportedly told Mo’Nique to “tell [her] people” that they will be booted the next time they have an attitude, saying “Since 9/11, we don’t play around.” After being asked to leave the plane, Mo’Nique went public with her outrage over the situation: “I felt like I was being treated like an animal. This happens to black people all the time, and they don’t have a voice. I have a voice.”
United issued a statement with a non-apology, saying they must act in the best interest of their customers. Somehow, we have a feeling that the passengers aboard wouldn’t have cared if a hair dryer was stored in its owner’s bin. Mo’Nique seems to have the last word here: “I won’t [fly United again], and I hope no other black person will fly them either.” Is this a racial issue, a class issue between first-class and coach passengers, or simply a misunderstanding? NewsFeed will let you decide that for yourself.
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell must not have heard the one about “don’t shoot the messenger.” When the cabin crew on a 2008 British Airways flight informed the supermodel that her bag was missing, she reportedly flew into a rage. The model’s invective was so forceful, police were called to escort her off the plane. That’s when she allegedly assaulted not one, but two police officers, an act that landed the anger-prone Campbell in the clink. The police academy probably doesn’t prepare you for that. She was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and fined $4,600, according to the New York Times.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/12/07/baldwins-booted-brethren-10-celebrities-who-have-been-kicked-off-planes/#all
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