Alec Baldwin rectifies omitting daughter Ireland from Instagram tribute

Actor Alec Baldwin, reacting to commenters attacking him on social media when he did not mention his adult daughter in a post expressing thanks for his brood of very young children, rectified the omission in a second post.

Captioning a black-and-white close-up photo of model Ireland Baldwin, 27, the Long Island native, 65, joked on Instagram, “We forgot Billy Preston!” — a reference to George Harrison in the first of the former Beatle’s two Concert for Bangladesh all-star benefit shows at Madison Square Garden on Aug. 1, 1971. During band introductions in the afternoon performance, Harrison says at the end, “Have we forgotten anyone? … We’ve forgotten Billy Preston,” the acclaimed soul-music keyboardist and singer often referred to as “the fifth Beatle.”

Continued Baldwin, “This one, the first one, is about to make me a grandfather.” Ireland Baldwin announced on Dec. 31 that she and her musician boyfriend, RAC, né André Allen Anjos, were expecting.

Alec Baldwin concluded with a classic New York Yiddishism often used to punctuate a boneheaded error: “Oy.”

Igniting the online outrage was an Instagram post with a photo each of his and wife Hilaria Baldwin’s seven young children together: daughters Carmen, 9, Marilu, 2, and Ilaria, 7 months, and sons Rafael, 7, Leonardo, 6, Romeo, who turns 5 on May 17, and Eduardo, 2½. “Seven reasons to carry on during some tough times. I’m not gonna lie, without my family, I don’t know what my life would be.”

Despite the lovely sentiment, Baldwin was repetitively scolded for not mentioning the grown Ireland, who lives in Oregon. While some comments were simply inquisitive (“Don’t you have 8 children?”), others were sarcastic (“Guess Ireland doesn’t count??”) and many assumed it was a deliberate snub (“Or did you forget Ireland on purpose?” “How could you SHAMELESSLY leave out your FIRST BORN … Shame on you for being so INSENSITIVE”).

Several commenters defended the three-time Emmy Award winner, who was born in Amityville and raised in Massapequa. “She’s grown and raising her own family. I don’t think he meant it in a way to exclude his first born daughter,” said one. “Of course Alec loves her but these seven are in his day to day life and help him get through the tough times,” wrote another. Yet another noted, “I find it mystifying when people on one hand are super sensitive about calling out a post they deem as insensitive to others but will say mean things in turn to someone else.”