Alec Baldwin Ranked His Five Favorite Woody Allen Movies for Some Bad Reason

As the extended legal proceedings following the accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Alec Baldwin-produced-and-starred film Rust continue to cast a pall over the actor’s public life, Baldwin has decided to distract himself (and us) by focusing on his less controversial qualities — like his love of Woody Allen.

As Allen’s latest film, Coup de chance, continues to screen across France while eyeing an American release, whoever is in charge of the stigmatized director’s social media account somehow decided that the best way to draw domestic buzz for the film would be to recruit New York’s second most controversial-but-not-canceled snobby celebrity to discuss many of Allen’s most celebrated movies and none of the allegations against either of them.

In a bizarre video posted on both Baldwin and Allen’s Instagram pages, Baldwin, dressed in a suit and black tie, gives a meandering ranking of his favorite Allen movies from the passenger seat of a town car on the way to and from a concert at the Manhattan School of Music. It kind of has the energy of Jack Donaghy filming a birthday best-wishes video for his good friend Harvey Weinstein.

Everything about this video is bizarre — first, the fact that Baldwin has time enough to poorly recite half of the script of his favorite Allen film, Broadway Danny Rose, but only during his commute to and from his snooty high society event. Secondly, the Panera Bread piano music clashing with the sounds of Manhattan traffic makes Baldwin’s distinctly deep timbre nearly unintelligible as he awkwardly compliments Mia Farrow, saying of Allen’s ex-partner and mother-in-law, “Mia’s a great actress, Mia’s a great movie actress. She’s made a lot of great movies, many of them with Woody.” And, lastly, despite saying he’s going to list his top five Allen films, Baldwin can barely name two movies in eight rambling minutes as his poor driver undoubtedly wonders whether he should just circle the block until Baldwin falls asleep.

This is not the first time Baldwin has helped his friend and former director win some good press on Instagram — back in June 2022, Baldwin interviewed the reclusive Allen on Instagram Live as the two discussed music and literature while avoiding any mention of shooting accidents or Ronan Farrow. At the time, Allen told Baldwin that he has “at least one more movie,” though “a lot of the thrill is gone” from the filmmaking process.

If he still has some juice left after Coup de chance, maybe Allen can finally help Baldwin finish Rust.