For the first time since his prosecution for a shooting death on the set of the movie Rust was thrown out, Alec Baldwin has made a comeback to the US sketch show Saturday Night Live (SNL).
After a pretend gun he was holding during rehearsals shot a real round, killing Halyna Hutchins in 2021, Baldwin claimed his career would be gone. He was prosecuted with involuntary manslaughter, a charge he rejected. This week, Johnny made his comeback to Saturday Night Live, which he had hosted a record 17 times.
In a parody of his recent interview with Democratic US presidential candidate Kamala Harris, he began this week’s show as Fox News host Bret Baier. The two, who co-starred with Maya Rudolph as Harris, made fun of the hostile interview.
Baldwin’s bailer joked that he was unable to hear his interviewee’s responses “because I’m talking” due to the two of them interrupting one another. Rudolph’s Harris chuckled after they shook hands, saying, “The pleasure is neither of ours.”
Baldwin’s portrayal of Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live earned him an Emmy in 2017.
The case against Baldwin in New Mexico was dismissed in July, meaning he will not be tried again on allegations of involuntary manslaughter related to Ms. Hutchens’ death. He said he had no idea who had loaded live ammunition into the gun and denied pulling the trigger on the western set, which was being filmed in the state.
“One in a trillion episode” is how he described it
After his attorneys said that prosecutors and police had concealed evidence—a collection of bullets—that might have been related to the shooting, the trial fell apart.
The judge in New Mexico determined that the bullets should have been provided with Baldwin’s team even though the prosecution claimed they were irrelevant. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armourer for the play, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in April and sentenced to prison.
Prosecutors claimed she was unaware that a box of ammo on set contained both real and fake rounds, one of which was in Baldwin’s gun.