My guess is that Mr. Baldwin (like most other celebrities and very wealthy folks) has created shelters for the vast majority of his wealth. Family trusts are a great way to shelter as is creating llcs for each project and keeping very limited cash flow in the llc that would be associated with income on this project.
I see him as a big pocket in this so he will be a target of a lawsuit but I don't think this is going to be a lawsuit that targets his personal wealth. If he followed the standards for acting with a fire arm and didn't go beyond the bounds of his training or ignore the safety manual regarding his own actions, I don't think he will be held personally accountable. As a producer, I think he and the company will be the target of a lawsuit. There has to be a huge liability policy, D and O insurance, and umbrellas to cover these folks. No personal or corporate lawyer would let him or anyone else set up a company and not have sufficient coverage. I see people on here really wanting to make sure that Mr. Baldwin becomes the target or fall guy for this but if he followed the rule book for what he does on set as an actor in scenes with a gun and didn't go beyond that capacity or boundary, he won't be able to be the primary target. (And, I think it would be a mistake to go after him rather than the two employees and the production company because it is so much easier to prove liability there --if not just criminality). Additionally, if criminal charges are filed (and successful) against these individuals or anyone else who utilized those guns or brought live ammo on the set, then, it will be almost impossible to go after Mr. Baldwin personally---especially if he doesn't have criminal charges filed against him. JMHO.
I think his liability comes in as producer, not actor.
And in light of your excellent comment, I wanted to post a bit about the financials of this tragic attempt to make...something (it's not a film, the cast keeps calling it a show - I guess it was a movie).
Alec Baldwin made $250,000 as salary from Rust. $150,000 as actor, $100,000 as producer. Additionally, there was a $5000 budget to transport him and other set elites by helicopter when they had to fly in and out of ABQ. (Several sources - the financials were released yesterday).
Rust was never meant for the Big Screen. I heard early on that it was "for Netflix," but it turns out that is just Baldwin PR spin - that was the
hope and it probably would have come true. But there was no deal and no liability for a truly Big Pocket.
The team behind Rust chose not to get the usual film insurance package. (NYTimes - excellent article if you haven't used up your monthly views).
Anyway, I don't care how many LLC's Alec has, or how he's trying to manage his money. He has very little current cash flow. He's washed up, he's not going to get any big budget productions ever again and he'll be lucky if he gets to play an aging grandpa character in some TV show. IMO.
He's going to be sued. And possibly sued in several directions (the LLC's and himself personally) and by different persons. In addition to two wrongful death plaintiffs, there could be a personal injury complaint or two. Emotional distress complaints, Etc. And whether or not he ever loses in court, there are some big lawyers involved (especially in that wrongful death suit) who will keep Alec in court until he breaks and forks up money - or goes bankrupt. I do not believe any personal umbrella policy is going to pay
all of his attorney's fees. He's going to have to pony up money from somewhere and regardless of where he's hidden it, his attorney is going to want cold, hard cash.
That's because, unlike a plaintiff's attorney (who works on contingency in California), a defendant's attorney wants cash up front. And it's going to take a lot of cash.
If you read the articles above, you'll learn that in addition to not insuring the movie in the regular fashion, the producers decided to ensure only themselves for a loss of up to $350,000. This is not going to play well in court. And regardless of the ultimate outcome, there will be extraordinary discovery into Baldwin's financial situation, if there's a penny to be found, it will be found. If ultimately, it turns out the judgment is not collected (possible, Alec may not have much cash), every check written to him or to one of the entities he owns, will go to the plaintiffs (that's the average scenario). He and Hilaria would be wise to separate their liabilities and assets completely right now (divorce; put money in various trusts for Alec, Hilaria and the 7 children).
The Baldwins pay their nannies approximately $100,000 a year (two make more than that), but the nannies still quit frequently. It's often a 24 hour job, so that's understandable. But they have aimed to have 8 full time nannies over the past 8 years, usually managing to have around 7 at a time. Two of those nannies live in one of the three interconnected Baldwin apartments in Manhattan (when they're there), along with the 6 younger children. Alec and Hilaria each have their own separate apartments. The total square footage is quite large. They're advertising for one right now. These live-in nannies make more than the others, but the others come in daily and on the weekends, and travel with them to the Hamptons.
I know it sounds like I'm obsessed with the Baldwins, but during the pandemic for some unknown reason, I comforted myself by doing lots of online fieldwork, having no where else to go. I got interested in the Baldwins, Hilaria's cultural appropriation (relevant to what I teach), and then, the very public upbringing of their children. I am from the opposite coast, although I've been to New York, it's still something of a foreign culture to me. And the Baldwin family subcultures (Alec and his brothers) could fill an anthropologist's notebook for...years.
So I predict that Alec will be fighting with his own liability insurer (who will prevail - but he'll still have to find an attorney to pry as much money as possible out of them), his colleagues (the other producers, none of whom are as wealthy as Alec and some of whom may sue him to try and show facts that he made the dreadful decision to have a part time armorer and no set security 24 hours a day - the plinking stories are going to sink him and the other producers - so the other producers are going to settle rapidly and that's not where the Big Attorney is going to focus his energy).
The Big Attorney now has a case of spectacular national interest and he knows it. Alec knows it too. Tabloids know it. NYTimes knows it.
At any rate, as linked above, there is no huge liability policy for Rust. $350,000 isn't going to cover this.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/business/media/alec-baldwin-shooting-rust-producers.html
