Hilaria Baldwin Holds Her Center

Even for a yogi, maintaining peace can be hard when you’re married to New York’s most popular enfant terrible.

Case in point: Hilaria Baldwin not only stood still, but she posed graciously for two female paparazzi who emerged, seemingly out of nowhere, from a crowd that formed on Broadway and 53rd Street in early May to watch the striking brunette tape a segment for the TV show “Extra.” She even thanked them, flashing a smile sweeter than Fun Dip.

“I never would have done that before,” said Ms. Baldwin, 30, in the back of a cab to Lincoln Center moments later. “I am trying to make my peace with the paparazzi.” They are, after all, a fact of life for anyone orbiting Alec Baldwin, the 56-year-old actor and controversy magnet whom she married in 2012. (It all began in 2011, when she winked at him in a downtown vegetarian restaurant.)

But fast-forward six days, and Ms. Baldwin is trying to get a posse going. Hours after her husband made news with his arrest for riding his bike the wrong way down Fifth Avenue, she tweeted several photos of an aggressive photographer who confronted her and her 9-month-old daughter, Carmen, outside their East Village apartment.

Ms. Baldwin said in one of her tweets, “This man almost hit my child and ran when the cops arrived. Anyone know him?” Shortly after, she posted a short video of the swarming photographers on her sidewalk with the caption: “Wanna be a celebrity? Enjoy.”

Peace, as they say, is a process.

That one of the city’s most sought-after yoga instructors, a lifelong vegetarian who talks a lot about things like “spirit” and “being present,” has come to be known for such public disharmony may be a cosmic joke, or evidence of how a combination of fame and New York City can wear on even the nicest person. But such is life on the fault line of celebrity and opportunity.