ALEC BALDWIN (left) on the set of the award-winning comedy series 30 Rock.

ALEC BALDWIN was rushed and soaked with sweat as he entered the Upper West Side home of a photographer for a portrait shoot and an interview. He closed himself in a tiny air-conditioned office, decided not to be photographed on account of the heat and made a long phone call. The words “Democratic Party” and “$600,000” floated out. The next morning he would receive his seventh Emmy nomination, his second as lead actor in a comedy for his role as crazed mercenary network honcho Jack Donaghy on the NBC comedy 30 Rock.

“I’m not an awards-driven person in anything. Anytime you do get caught up in that, you usually end up getting whacked.” We were then nearly knee-to-knee in his newly commandeered headquarters. “I’d like the show to win an Emmy,” he went on. “Individually, I couldn’t care less.”

30 Rock, a much-beloved if less-watched romp about the production of a weekly TV sketch show and its nutty network, should do just fine at the Emmys. It has done fine for Baldwin, too. His character, and his guns-blazing deadpan performance, rehabilitated his public image. (There was a bit of tabloid scandal in the spring of 2007, when an angry voice mail he left his daughter became public.) He entered a period of well-executed crisis PR management. He offered to leave the show; NBC declined. He stayed put and sold a book about the traumas of divorce, to be published in September.

Sitting in the room, Baldwin discovered the photographer’s computer. He played Chopin through iTunes. “A man turns 50 and he has a funeral for the skills that he never had,” he said. Baldwin just had that birthday in April. “He says goodbye. I’m never gonna be a cop, never gonna be a professional baseball player, never going to play the piano, a ballet dancer, the leading rusher in the NFL. All those things gone. But! There are other things to do. The world is run by men in their 50s. So I’m trying to decide what to do when I quit this business.”

Politics, perhaps? “What would I run for?” he asked. He has a smart squint when he asks questions. Comptroller? He barked his loud laugh. “Yeah, I do have to find another career,” he said. “I don’t want to do this....I don’t.”

It’s not that he’s unhappy with 30 Rock necessarily. Maybe he’s just feeling that 50-year-old’s itch to start something new. Then again, as he fusses over the computer, it could just be the uttering of a capricious thought.

He found the browser and went to ArkivMusic.com. “I love this. Isn’t this great? Couldn’t you just sit and do this all day? I’m looking for ‘Ultimate Chopin.’ What could be more worthy than that? Ah! The complete collection of Rachmaninoff. Complete recordings!” His face darkened and a little swearing ensued. “This is Dutoit with the Montreal! What is the problem? You lying...! Ultimate collection. Well, we don’t see Ashkenazy.” This went on for a while, then a phone rang. “Can’t you see I’m listening to Chopin?” he said, in a put-on accent. “I can’t be bothered with this....”

He doesn’t watch much TV. Also, he cannot sing. “The people who can sing are the ones that move me the most. I would give anything if I could sing. I’d never do anything but that again. I’d do a show on Broadway every year and no more ditzy sitcoms.

“It’s just that what you do, it doesn’t have as important a place in the lives of people now,” he said. “The world is in a really tough spot. And you can make people laugh and do a TV show and that’s important to them but...” he breaks off midthought to marvel over Chopin’s “Nocturne No. 1 in B-Flat Minor.” And then he’s back. “How long does that last, that effect? How long do you take their mind off other things? And the second question becomes: Should you be taking their mind off other things?

“Television, the ratings are the king,” he said. So why aren’t more people watching 30 Rock to take their mind off things? “I’d like the show to build this year,” he said. “The show isn’t like what’s popular now.”

He explained his fondness for the writers. “I know this sounds like I’m being handy, but it’s handy and true at the same time, which works quite well. The networks have to do it clean. I love The Sopranos; I love everything on the cable stations where it’s much more hard-edged, salty, more adult. The networks, we don’t have that luxury. You can’t go blue. You’ve got to keep it clean. That’s harder to do. The fact that we have a smart show with nothing that caustic or harsh is a miracle. To talk about what I want to do to Condoleezza Rice sexually without saying something really, really anatomical—that takes a lot of doing.”

He talked a little about his early TV venture on Knots Landing and how networks need to give shows more time to build their audience. Then he suddenly stood up and said, “Lemme go find out something, hold on” and, inexplicably, went to lunch.

The room was suddenly empty of a consuming, marvelous, anxious energy. The apartment had been like a bay full of tall chop, his wake pushing everyone around unexpectedly and then after, without him, it was boring and flat, but something of a relief, too.

‘Protect Me From My Desires’

NOT as harried as on his previous visit to be part of the Ayala Malls’ “Bravo Filipino” series of highbrow shows where he unleashed his intellectual Matavenero collection, Lesley Mobo was having fun this time.

Gab Fab: ‘Seen at the scene’

Seen at the scene: John Lloyd Cruz and girlfriend Liz Uy spending a weekend in Hong Kong. The two enjoyed each other’s company but when it came to shopping, the two did their own thing, with John Lloyd checking out the men’s stuff while Liz browsed through local Hong Kong designer stuff.

PIANIST Victor Asuncion is a man in a hurry. He had barely stepped on the stage of the Little Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) when he went straight toward the piano and, without even so much as a smile or a bow to acknowledge his audience, launched into the Bach-Busoni “Chaconne.”

Penelope Cruz has much to talk about

Penelope Cruz is busy, busy, busy. She’s in her hometown Madrid, dashing to an evening shoot for Pedro Almodovar’s Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces), while talking to us on her cell as her driver zips in and out of traffic.

Alec Baldwin: Over acting?

ALEC BALDWIN was rushed and soaked with sweat as he entered the Upper West Side home of a photographer for a portrait shoot and an interview. He closed himself in a tiny air-conditioned office, decided not to be photographed on account of the heat and made a long phone call. The words “Democratic Party” and “$600,000” floated out.

The Rebirth of the Denim Skirt

Turning a much-loved, overworn pair of jeans into a skirt isn’t a new idea—nimble sewers have done it for decades—but making the results look chic took the happy rediscovery of the mini. It’s a trend that belongs to the street—jean skirts were the coverup of choice at the recent US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, California, and the paparazzi are catching model Agyness Deyn and other leggy style leaders wearing them just about everywhere—but now even fashion houses such as Chanel are turning out superdistressed denim minis.