Photographer Testifies Actor Hit, Kicked Him

Movie star Alec Baldwin belted photographer Alan Zanger in the face for videotaping Baldwin’s wife--actress Kim Basinger--arriving home with a newborn daughter and then kicked Zanger in the rear, the photographer testified Monday as Baldwin went on trial on a battery charge.

“You got what you deserved,” Baldwin told him as he delivered the kick, Zanger testified.

But minutes after delivering those blows, Baldwin told arriving police officers that he was to blame and would pay any damages, Deputy City Atty. Jeff Harkavy said in his opening statement for the prosecution.

Baldwin, star of “The Hunt for Red October” and “Miami Blues,” among other films, is charged with one count of misdemeanor battery for allegedly breaking Zanger’s nose. He faces up to six months in jail if convicted, although Harkavy said it is unlikely he would get the maximum sentence.

The 5-foot, 7-inch, 160-pound Zanger suffered a black eye and broken nose. His septum is so damaged that his nose is still 90% blocked.

Wearing a blazer, jeans and cowboy boots and speaking in a reedy voice, Zanger, 51, of Altadena, recounted the collision between film star and tabloid photographer that has sparked a debate about the right to privacy in the media age.

The immaculately coiffed Baldwin took notes on a legal pad and conferred frequently with his attorney, Charles English.

On Oct. 26, 1995, Zanger, a self-described celebrity stakeout specialist, was asked by a fellow paparazzo photographer to videotape Baldwin bringing Basinger and their newborn daughter to their Woodland Hills home. Parking his 1984 Dodge pickup truck across the street from the Baldwins’ hillside home, Zanger crouched under a camper shell with tinted windows and waited for the stars’ arrival.

About 20 minutes later, Zanger said, a black Chevrolet Blazer carrying the Baldwins pulled into the driveway, and he began taping. Zanger’s tape, played in court Monday, shows a bearded Baldwin emerging from the Blazer and walking directly to Zanger’s truck.

Zanger said Baldwin rapped on the windows, shouted and smeared them with shaving cream, which the videotape showed him doing.

Recalling a previous incident in which an enraged photo subject ripped off the camper shell and beat Zanger with a baseball bat, the nervous photographer crawled out of the truck.

“He came running right over to where I was where I exited,” Zanger said. “He was extremely upset that I was taking pictures. . . . I was obliging what he said. I was not photographing anymore. . . . My story, as far as I was concerned, was made.”

Zanger held the camera behind his back, lens pointed to the ground as the much larger Baldwin grabbed for it, he testified. “All of a sudden I got slammed in the face. It was just a very hard slam that caused me to lose my balance and lose my glasses.”

Nearly blind without his glasses, Zanger said, he squatted and began groping for them. Baldwin bent down, handed the glasses to Zanger and gave him a swift kick in the seat of the pants, Zanger testified.

“He said ‘Now get the hell out of here. You got what you deserved,’ ” Zanger said.

Down the street was a limousine holding at least one other photographer, but Zanger--who has also filed a civil suit against Baldwin--insisted he was not trying to provoke an attack, either to improve the newsworthiness of his videotape or to lay the groundwork for a profitable lawsuit.

“Was it your hope that by getting out of the back of the truck that Mr. Baldwin would hit you and you would make some money?” asked Harkavy, the prosecutor.

“No way,” replied Zanger.

Baldwin’s attorney implied that it was, suggesting that a video of an enraged Baldwin would be worth more than the skimpy footage Zanger had shot up until that point. English noted that after Zanger was beaten with the baseball bat, he sued his assailant and won $200,000.

English also suggested that Baldwin merely struck Zanger on the glasses rather than in the face.

Zanger disputed English’s characterization of him as a photographer who intrudes on people’s lives and exploits their private moments.

“The way I work,” Zanger said, “I feel that I’m unintrusive.”