What do you get the woman who has everything? Apparently, one million Instagram followers. At least that was Alec Baldwin's plan ahead of his wife's birthday. The actor's plea for more followers for Hilaria seems to have backfired, though, and now Alec has unwittingly become the butt of the joke.
Alec started drumming up followers for his wife in the days leading up to her big day.
The father of seven got to work at the start of the new year when he began posting a series of videos of himself asking his followers to click on over to Hilaria's profile, where he hopped they'd hit that follow button.
He posed the request to his 2.5 million followers, hoping at least some of them would help him out, and for the most part they did.
As of Monday, Hilaria's follower count had reached Alec's goal.
Hilaria must've rung in her January 6 birthday with a boatload of new followers, because Alec took a moment to thank everyone from helping her hit the seven-digit milestone.
"Many thanks to everyone who helped get my wife to 1 million followers," he shared in a handwritten note posted to his account.
Alec may have been celebrating, but his followers were put off by his move.
Not everyone liked Alec's choice of birthday gifts as was evidenced by the many comments left on his Instagram post. "One million followers is what's important on a birthday?" one person asked incredulously. "Give me a break."
Another person asked for clarification about the urgency of Alec's requests. "No disrespect but could you please explain why this was so important," the person wrote.
Plenty of people used the opportunity to mock Hilaria's past controversies.
The Boston-born yoga instructor has caught a lot of heat after a childhood friend spoke out about Hilaria's Spanish heritage. According to the source, the newly 39-year-old was born in America and raised by Caucasian parents, a far cry from the Spanish island of Mallorca where she claimed to have been raised, and even though more than two years have passed, people still haven't forgotten about the scandal.
"Does it get her closer to really being Spanish?" one person joked in the comments while another person wrote, "Cringes in fake Spanish."
Given everything the Baldwins have been through, this does seem like an odd thing to focus on.
Alec is still facing an investigation and lawsuits for his involvement in the accidental shooting death of Halyna Hutchins, which is why some fans thought it seemed weird that Alec was making such a big deal of Hilaria's following.
"Could you be any more shallow?" yet another person asked.
We're hoping Hilaria had a good birthday and enjoyed her newly inflated follower count, despite the backlash. Whatever Alec's reasons to want her to hit the milestone number probably aren't as important as the fact that he was able to accomplish his goal for his wife. Hopefully, it made her happy.
