Given his history of temper tantrums, it’s not surprising that Alec Baldwin has been forced to defend himself against claims that he unleashed a racially-themed wrath on a New York Post photographer.

However, the “30 Rock” hunk told David Letterman that there was nothing racist about his sentiments during the incident in question.

Alec began, “There was no evidence … that I ever said something racial. I thought it was interesting, by the way, that they assigned a word to me I haven’t heard since Rod Steiger was in ‘In the Heat of the Night.' This is a word that is usually confined to a certain part of the South in the early '60s."

"The claim of racist remarks is one of the most outrageous things I’ve heard in my life. I would like to begin now an official campaign to get the New York Post nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for journalism.”

Baldwin added, “I am capable of saying things that are purposefully provoking and insulting. They’re dying to get you doing something on film or saying something."