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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Alec Baldwin's airplane outrage seems a little too convienent for gaming company Zynga

Alec Baldwin reportedly got kicked off an American Airlines flight for not putting his cellphone away because he was really into a game. Oh, those crazy celebrities. Always thinking they're above the law, causing some ruckus. Mr. and Mrs. Big Shots. Yadda yadda yadda. But I had to think about it for a second. If Baldwin was partaking in a very important phone call at the time (he's a big shot celebrity, so it's possible), I can totally see him going a little berserk.

However, under these circumstances, it just doesn't add up for me. Sure, it's very likely he was killing time playing a cellphone game. Totally can see him playing a game or two. But he reportedly went off on the flight attendant when asked to put the phone away, saying how he couldn't put "Words With Friends" away. Details are sketchy on how he acted out on the plane, but it all comes back to this: He was playing "Words With Friends," which is a Scrabble-like game where you compete with other players by building words with tiles.

The "30 Rock" star even tweeted out "“flight attendant on American reamed me out 4 playing Words With Friends while we sat at the gate, not moving.” Even his spokesman got in on it. “He loves ‘Words With Friends’ so much that he was willing to leave a plane for it,” said Matthew Hiltzik.

Of course, all ended well for Baldwin, he is a celebrity after all. He just moved right on with life by getting another flight. No harm, no foul. Something a normal person would never get away with. If I was on a plane and heavily into a game, you know what they'd do to me if I pulled this? Police escort off the plane, interrogation, ticketed, locked away, who knows what else.

But all of this seems awfully fishy, and dare I say a publicity stunt? Baldwin was so specific, saying that "Words With Friends" was so amazing and like it's the greatest thing in the world. Celebrities love to get paid and endorse all kinds of stuff. But why endorse some random game like this?

Well, "Words With Friends" was acquired by Zynga, a browser-based gaming company. What's Zynga been up to these days? Getting ready for their initial public stock offering, where they are planning to seek up to $1 billion. According to Business Week, the company is offering 100 million shares at $8.50 to $10 a pop. And this web IPO could be the biggest since Google. Mmm money, money, money.

Hmmm, is there a little side deal going on that no one knows about? "Hey Alec, we'll pay you so-and-so if you go out there and go crazy for this game of ours. We like money." "Sweet, shouldn't be a problem. I like money, too." So Zynga gets some extra publicity for its upcoming big day, and Baldwin gets in the spotlight once again. Win-win for both.

And there's my conspiracy theory for today.

Get even tinier random thoughts at www.twitter.com/JeffHoard921

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