Alec Baldwin Just Had A Major Setback In Rust Lawsuit
Alec Baldwin’s motion to be removed from Rust script supervisor Mamie Mitchell’s negligence lawsuit has been denied.
Actor Alec Baldwin has been served with some troubling news regarding the Rust lawsuit. According to Deadline, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge has allowed Rust script supervisor Mamie Mitchell to proceed with her negligence and other claims against the actor who fired a loaded gun on set last year, resulting in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. The news comes after Baldwin had filed a motion to remove himself from the civil lawsuit filed by Mitchell, and Santa Fe District Attorney criticized police report about the horrific incident.
As Deadline reports, Mitchell was standing next to Hutchins and Souza when Alec Baldwin fired the gun. According to the article, even though El Dorado Pictures tried having Mitchell’s claim for punitive damages removed, the judge denied Baldwin and his team’s motion. With this recent ruling, it appears that Baldwin will remain in the center of this story for some time.
A judge ruled that Alec Baldwin was responsible for the death of Hutchins on September 16, 2022. A month after, Mitchell said that Baldwin and other crew members were negligent on set. The judge later determined that the producers didn’t know about the gun being fired, or they would have stopped it. As a result, Mitchell’s charges against the Rust team- including assault and battery- were dropped.
The incident occurred while the cast was rehearsing and the gun wasn’t supposed to be loaded. During his interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Alec Baldwin claimed, “I didn’t pull the trigger.”
The FBI released their forensic report later, which suggested that the weapon responsible for killing Hutchins and wounding Souza couldn’t have been fired without pulling the trigger–contradicting what the actor said.
The death of a cinematographer has reminded everyone in Hollywood why film crew members have the most difficult jobs. Numerous reports and statements have been made that are contradictory, but there is still one tragedy that anyone can agree on. Alec Baldwin has tried to move past it in many ways, but the incident will definitely continue to haunt him for the rest of his career.
After the Rust shooting tragedy, there were many online debates about whether or not guns should be used as props on film sets. Shannon Lee, the sister of late actor Brandon Lee who was killed by an accidental gunshot from a prop firearm on the set of 1993’s The Crow, called for mandatory gun safety training and reducing firearms as props. Others who have worked in the industry shared similar sentiments and expressed their opinions online.
The awful shooting occurred when members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) threatened to strike because of their poor working conditions and pay. One of the IATSE members who fought for higher wages and improved working conditions was cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who said in an Instagram post: “Standing in #IAsolidarity with our @IATSE crew here in New Mexico on RUST.” If we take anything from the Alec Baldwin incident, it’s that workplace conditions in Hollywood are still a problem that needs to be fixed.
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