Apparently, Baldwin had court orders to call the kid at a certain hour and when he did, either Basinger or the kid herself had turned the phone off. Which was pretty crummy behavior on either Basinger or the kid's part. By the way, what did he call her besides "pig?"
2Hot, I find it funny that you had no problem with being physically punished, and consider that much less damaging than verbal punishment. I don't know how many people would agree with you on that one (I myself don't really have an opinion on it- I was spanked and yelled at as a kid and lived to tell the tale).
Look, it was stupid of Baldwin, and he's a hothead and does plenty of stupid things, and Basinger was crummy to give the message to the press, but come on- he's a parent of an 11-year-old. None of you have never, ever, yelled at your child, or perhaps used language that was less than angelic with them? Hell, I've heard much worse on the local radio station when kids arrange for their parents to be crank called by the DJs ("you little b*tch" and "I'm going to kill you" are very popular among the parents, when all is revealed to them).
I think this is a real tempest in a teapot. But it inspired this pretty funny article, so perhaps it was all worth it:
http://salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/04/25/hotheads/