When Road Less Traveled National Advisory Board member Alec Baldwin comes back to Buffalo on Jan. 27 to perform in the Clifford Odets play The Big Knife, he will probably eschew American Airlines.

I have a feeling that will be fine with the good folks at American, too.

Our buddy Baldwin was bounced off an American Airlines flight bound from LAX to New York’s JFK Airport on Tuesday afternoon following a series of antics that seemed more Jack Donaghy than Jack Ryan.

At 2:03 p.m. on Tuesday, TMZ.com breathlessly reported that “...Alec Baldwin claims an American Airlines flight attendant WENT BALLISTIC on him on a plane at LAX moments ago ... all because he was playing ‘Words with Friends’ while the aircraft was still at the gate.”  Stewardesses don’t kid around about that whole turn off your electronic devices thing!  Words With Friends, by the way, is a game for mobile phones that is kind of like a cross between Scrabble and checkers and is apparently super-addictive.  I personally don’t know, because I can’t stop playing Angry Birds. 

And then it escalated!  TMZ.com updated their story at 3:20 p.m. with SHOCKING BREAKING NEWS: while the plane awaited takeoff, an irate Baldwin apparently answered the call of nature and responded with a resounding slam of the bathroom door—a slam so hard that the captain of the American Airlines flight booted Baldwin from the plane.  Again—you mess with the attendants, you get the horns.  In-flight crews have each others’ back.

Baldwin basically confirmed the absurd situation with a delightful series of tweets and re-tweets.  Here’s what he wrote in the ensuing hours after the undignified dismissal:

What a brilliant feed.  Alec Baldwin’s delightful self-awareness makes his somewhat douchy behavior—a.) he was the guy on the flight who wouldn’t put his damn phone away, and b.) he went and made a big deal about it, like he was being persecuted—completely forgivable.  He manages to trash American, poke fun at himself, share ridiculous YouTube videos and attempt to crash his own account all over the course of a day.  And this, older generation, is why Twitter is awesome.

Anyhow: if you want to see Baldwin in person and pepper him with a series of anecdotes about your own in-flight horror stories and about that time you saw Beetlejuice on mushrooms, remember you can still purchase tickets to Road Less Traveled Theatre’s Return of Alec Baldwin on Jan. 27 at the University at Buffalo Center for the Arts.  Tickets start at $70.

Photo courtesy of Twitter.com/alecbaldwin.