Alec Baldwin defends himself (by saying he was defending himself)

Alec Baldwin seemed to continue in a “when celebrities attack” vein Wednesday in New York -- or perhaps he did nothing of the sort, as he tells it.

Word that the actor had run over a reporter with his bicycle outside his building Wednesday morning seemed, to some, to indicate a pattern of disproportionate responses after a run-in between Baldwin and a photographer the day before, when Baldwin and fiancee Hilaria Thomas were getting a marriage license.

Of course, any pattern depends on whether Baldwin was the aggressor Tuesday or simply defending himself amid a crush of reporters and photographers. And any calm assertion by Baldwin does come with the backdrop of previous outbursts, including two other clashes with shutterbugs, some highly charged voice mails to his daughter and that whole Words With Friends incident on an airport runway.

“The guy lunged and he almost hit me in the teeth with the lens of the camera,” Baldwin told Charlie Rose in a Tuesday interview that was replayed in part on “CBS This Morning” on Wednesday. “So I just pushed the guy away.”

Still, he said, in an age of nearly instant publication and social media, “People think I’m out there just decking photographers willy-nilly, when nothing could be further from the truth.”

The New York Daily News, whose photographer was the one allegedly punched, pulled no punches in sharing its interpretation of Wednesday morning’s events:

“Photographer-bashing Alec Baldwin found a new target Wednesday, rolling his mountain bike over a television reporter’s foot outside his East Village apartment,” the paper said, referencing an “Inside Edition” reporter allegedly “pushed aside” by the actor.

“‘Ouch, my back,’ the 5-foot-2 woman said after her brush with the hot-headed Baldwin. ‘He shoved me and ran over my foot.’”

The actor had a different take.

“15-20 cameramen outside my bldg this am, chasing me on my bike,” he said on Twitter. “They’re knocking into ppl on the street, yelling ‘Will you seek help, Alec?’”

(Hey, the guy was just walking down the street with a blanket over his head Tuesday afternoon, after the marriage-license incident. Nothing to worry about.)

The “To Rome With Love” actor and “30 Rock” star has a history with Marcus Santos, the photographer involved, he told Rose.

“This is a guy who has baited me before,” Baldwin reportedly said. “He’d camped out in front of my house. ... We ignore this stuff and we minimize these invasions in our lives until one day it’s not advisable. Sometimes I do draw the line myself.”

Another photographer on the scene Tuesday told police he did not see Baldwin throw a punch, according to NBC 4 New York sources. If evidence indicates a punch was thrown, the actor could be charged with assault.

Back on the home front, fiancee Thomas chimed in Tuesday as well, noting via Twitter, “It is amazing that people get paid for making threats and creating drama in other peoples’ lives What is wrong with our society? #getalife”

“Is nothing sacred?,” tweeted Thomas, a native of Mallorca, Spain. “Have a heart Que verguenza.”

That last bit? It’s Spanish for “Shame on you.”

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