Deliberations Underway in Baldwin Case

Jurors in the assault and privacy rights battle between movie star Alec Baldwin and paparazzo Alan Zanger began deliberations Friday in a case one lawyer said will ultimately boil down to credibility and motive.

“The only thing that matters to Mr. Baldwin is the principle of the thing,” his lawyer, Philip D. Weiss, told the jury in closing arguments. “The only thing that matters to Mr. Zanger is the money.”

Baldwin hit Zanger in the face nearly three years ago when the photographer attempted to videotape the actor bringing his wife, Kim Basinger, and newborn daughter Ireland home to Woodland Hills from the hospital. Baldwin contends Zanger assaulted him and that he struck back in self-defense. Zanger claims he did nothing to provoke the actor.

Zanger’s lawyer, Leonard Steiner, says Baldwin hit the “mousy” paparazzo simply because the man had the audacity to tape the actor and his family without his consent. “This is a big man, Mr. Baldwin, and he’s an imposing figure,” Steiner said. “Why on God’s earth would Mr. Zanger strike Mr. Baldwin?”

Steiner told jurors that while his client has made the same basic allegations for the past three years, Baldwin has changed his story every time he has told it. Baldwin told Los Angeles Police Department officers that he slapped Zanger in the face, without mentioning his claim of having hit him only in self-defense, Steiner said

“I think he made up this story. He belted Zanger and he panicked,” Steiner told jurors in Van Nuys Superior Court. “Mr. Baldwin has changed his story every time he told it.”

That’s not what jurors in a criminal trial believed in 1996. Baldwin was tried for battery but a jury acquitted him, saying Zanger lost his credibility after admitting to exaggerating the incident in a media interview.

Also at issue is a jump in the video that Baldwin contends is an edit and Zanger’s lawyer says is simply a pause in the filming. Zanger said Baldwin’s blow cracked the cartilage in his nose, deviated his septum and caused permanent dizziness. He claimed $85,000 in medical expenses and lost income.

An ear, nose and throat specialist who has been treating Zanger said he believed those injuries were caused by Baldwin and that Zanger needed at least plastic surgery to correct his breathing and dizziness problems. An ear, nose and throat specialist testifying for Baldwin, however, said Zanger’s nose was normal. Any slight deviation in his septum existed before the altercation with Baldwin, as did his dizziness, the physician said, bringing out medical records to back his claim.

Baldwin, who has stared in such movies as “The Hunt for Red October” and “The Juror,” is suing for invasion of privacy, claiming Zanger intruded on his “solitude” by staking out the celebrity household.

Zanger, who filed suit the day after the October 1995 incident, has made thousands of dollars from video footage he took of the actor smearing the photographer’s pickup truck windows with shaving cream when the Zanger tried to videotape Baldwin’s homecoming with his wife, Weiss said. He sued Baldwin the next day.

“Isn’t it enough that you have gained fame in addition to our fortune from this tape? What more do you want? What more do you think you’re entitled to?” Weiss asked Zanger during closing arguments. “Mr. Zanger, it’s time for you to get on with your life and it’s time that you let the Baldwins get on with theirs.”