Alec Baldwin’s daughter Ireland Baldwin is taking some serious criticism over her Halloween costume. The 26-year-old posted photos on Instagram of herself dressed as a bloody schoolgirl, with spattered blood on her body and clothes and tracks of it running from her eye and nose. Given her father’s recent accidental shooting on the set of Rust, fans thought this violent costume was “tone-deaf.”
Baldwin posed for three photos in her bloody costume including two matching with musician Rac. She also wrote a caption about how she stayed home on Halloween to celebrate alone rather than face the paparazzi hounding her in public. Some followers commented saying that this costume had too violent a connotation, especially coming just 10 days after her father fired a prop gun that was loaded with live rounds, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.
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“How about not this year?” one of the top comments on Instagram read. There were others like it, as well as plenty defending Baldwin and wishing her well. As for the model herself, she replied to one commenter with a scathing response.
“I feel destroyed for Halyna’s family who have to spend the holidays without her,” it read in part. “There’s nothing I can personally do to change the situation. This has affected many people in different ways and maybe that hasn’t quite occurred to you… being somebody who couldn’t be more removed from this situation. It’s been a tough time for my family, and I decided to dress up and celebrate Halloween. Have a good one.”
Still, plenty of commenters continued to hound Baldwin, both in her own comment sections and elsewhere on social media. Here’s a look at some of the commentary on her costume.
Bad Taste
Commenters who already disliked Alec Baldwin tended to come down the hardest on Ireland Baldwin for this story once it left the realm of her own Instagram comments.
Careless
Many people thought that the costume was a sign of carelessness, and that Baldwin likely hadn’t considered how it would inevitably be related to the recent tragedy. One user even posted a link implying that this costume was a sign of sociopathy.
No Blood
Commenters also pointed out plenty of ways Baldwin could have partaken in the Halloween aesthetic without referencing blood or violence.
Unrelated
On the flip side, many people thought that this was an over-reaction and that Baldwin had no obligation to consider how every single action she took would be related to the tragedy. They remarked on how tangential her tie to the shooting really was.
Victim
Seeing headlines about the costume, some readers initially assumed that Baldwin had dressed up as Halyna Hutchins herself, and were confused to find out that she merely dressed as a bloody schoolgirl.
Reach
Many proclaimed the whole story “a reach,” saying that both the outraged commenters and those who broadcast the story to a wider sphere were making a mountain out of a molehill.
Guilt
Finally, the conversation about Baldwin’s costume ultimately came about around to debates about whether Alec Baldwin has any guilt in this shooting, or if it should be chalked up entirely to an accident.