Baldwin almost blinded

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, May 23, 2004 | by EXCLUSIVE By Julian Brouwer

ALEC Baldwin headed for the sunbed to tan himself up for a role - and ended up nearly blinding himself in a bizarre accident.

The handsome Irish/ American star, using a gift certificate entitling him to a day at a Hollywood tanning salon, had to be rushed to the emergency room when his eyelids seared and burned shut.

Fortunately quick-thinking medics managed to save his vision with injections but the star was left shaken.

"The place had old-style tanning beds with aluminium walls," says dark-skinned Baldwin, 46. "I'd never been to one before."

He was handed a pair of protective goggles - but didn't bother to put them on. "I thought they weren't that serious about that," says Baldwin,.

"As the lights were baking me, I was looking at myself in the reflective surface burning my eyeballs," says the Pearl Harbor star.

"I almost went blind from that."