Alec Baldwin recants the rant

LOS ANGELES - As Alec Baldwin's angry words to his daughter were being broadcast around the world, the 49-year-old actor explained himself yesterday on his Web site.

"Although I have been told by numerous people not to worry too much, as all parents lose their patience with their kids, I am most saddened that this was released to the media because of what it does to a child," wrote Baldwin, who has a home in the Hamptons. "I'm sorry, as everyone who knows me is aware, for losing my temper with my child. I have been driven to the edge by parental alienation for many years now. You have to go through this to understand. (Although I hope you never do.) I am sorry for what happened. But I am equally sorry that a court order was violated, which had deliberately been put under seal in this case."

A voicemail Baldwin left for his 11-year-old daughter, in which he can be heard calling her "a rude, thoughtless little pig," was published Thursday by celebrity news site TMZ.com.

Baldwin and his ex-wife, Kim Basinger, have been engaged in bitter custody disputes over their daughter, Ireland, since the couple divorced in 2002.

"In such public cases, your opponents attempt to take a picture of you on your worst day and insist that this is who you are as a person," Baldwin wrote. "Outside the doors of divorce court, I have friends, I have respect from people I work with and I have a normal relationship with my daughter. All of that is threatened whenever one enters a court room."

Meanwhile, Baldwin's attorney, Vicki Greene, said she filed a Superior Court order yesterday "to determine how the tape got leaked and to determine whether actions should be taken against Kim Basinger, or her attorneys, or Harvey Levin [who runs TMZ.com] and anybody else associated with the leaking of the tape and the violation of the court orders to keep the proceedings closed." *