Alec Baldwin jokes about being gay to defuse anti-gay controversy

This is uncomfortable.

AP Photo/Seth Wenig 

At a technology conference in San Francisco Wednesday night Alec Baldwin told a male member of his crew, "I want you to be my lover," according to the Associated Press.

"I want you to be my lover, Matt," Baldwin reportedly joked in front of an audience at the ServiceSource International Inc. conference. "I love you, Matt. I love you in that way."

Baldwin's joking comes after he had his MSNBC show suspended last week for calling a New York paparazzo a "c***sucking fag." He apologized for the remark, but maintained that he said "fathead" and not "fag."

Baldwin, 55, referred to the controversy, saying, "if any word is remotely offensive to people, then I'm perfectly willing to learn a different word." He also said there's "a drive-by justice to the Internet society. ... They indict you, convict you and hang you on the same day."

His suspension from MSNBC is supposed to end after Friday but Baldwin wrote in the Huffington Post that he wasn't sure about the fate of his show.