In the New Yorker magazine of September 8th 2008, Alec Baldwin bemoans the fact that he is not Leonardo De Caprio.

“To be Leo!…To play the role that is the fizz in the drink, you know what I mean? You are the movie!”

The profile is full of that hyper, intense sense Baldwin has of himself. Baldwin is his own best role, and, as if to prove this to himself and to us he has resuscitated an almost terminally stalled career.

He’s released an inconsistently reviewed memoir, ‘A promise to ourselves,’ that promises, at the start of every chapter, to be fair, to his ex-wife, his daughter, the American judicial system, his lawyers (Baldwin is involved in one of the more protracted and prominent custody battles in Hollywood at the moment) and then proceeds to criticise each for extended periods. It’s entertaining in its own train-wreck way, like a sparkler throwing off malicious sparks.

Grammy winning TV series ‘30Rock,’ currently has Baldwin at its frenetic centre playing an egotistical CEO Everyman: management-plus, assertive to a fault and unfailingly funny.

‘I wish I could play the lead role in one movie, one great movie,’ Baldwin says in his New Yorker profile, ‘Why Me?’

Mickey Rourke suprised this year with a comeback so unexpected it seemed pure fiction.

Why not Alec Baldwin?