Poor Alec Baldwin. He got kicked off an airplane for playing Words with Friends (or slamming the bathroom door so hard that pilots suspected terrorism, whatever). For some reason, the incident led to Baldwin shutting down his Twitter account. But he still has a lot to say at Huffington Post, where he published a brief essay called “My Flying Lesson” Wednesday. In the post, he apologizes to his fellow passengers for creating a disturbance, explains that the incident upset him so much because he had been loyal to American Airlines for over 20 years, and complains about the “post-9/11, paramilitary bearing of much of the air travel business.” Baldwin also argues that many of the new flight attendants he’s encountered “walk the aisles of an airplane with a whistle around their neck and a clipboard in their hands and they have made flying a Greyhound bus experience.”
This jab didn’t escape the notice of Greyhound CEO Dave Leach, who responded with an open letter telling Baldwin he’s “disheartened” by the comparison. According to Leach, the famously low-budget bus line is now a paradise, replete with “more legroom, leather seats, power outlets and free Wi-Fi,” which would afford a multi-millionaire Hollywood star the luxury to play Words with Friends for the entire days-long trek between LA and New York. Very smart PR guy, that Dave Leach. [via Reuters]