Posted at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11

Alec Baldwin and Elaine Stritch in "30 Rock." NBC photo

Elaine Stritch is so comfortable playing Alec Baldwin’s mom on “30 Rock,” the performing legend is sounding like his mom off camera.

“I want Alec to lose about 20 pounds,” said Stritch, 83, who returns to her Emmy-winning role as Colleen, Jack Donaghy’s mom, in the latest episode called “Christmas Special.” (She later changed the target weight loss to 25 pounds.)

Stritch told journalists recently that although Colleen makes Jack stress-eat on the show, Baldwin “should cut that out offstage.”

“The only time anybody should allow him to eat at all is on camera because it doesn’t get a laugh offstage,” she said. “He’ll feel better and he’ll even be funnier, if that’s possible.”

Stritch admitted that she is attracted to Baldwin, who she called “a sensational actor,” although not in a sexual way.

“I think I’m in love with his talent,” she said. “He is so talented that it’s scary.”

Making comedy isn’t any fun, she said, because it is one of the most difficult forms of acting. But on the “30 Rock” set she and Baldwin manage to have a great time. It shows in the episodes, in which Colleen brings out the absolute worst in Jack.

But how does Stritch get past her Baldwin crush to play the mother of such an unlikable guy?

“It’s because I’m exceptionally talented,” Stritch said, without hesitating. “I’m a very good actress. So I can fool even Alec Baldwin. OK?”

Stritch, never one to mince words, then fell back into mother mode—despite the fact that she has never been a mom in real life. She suggested that Baldwin, who has been known to take his career and acting very seriously, to lighten up.

“All Alec Baldwin has to do in his life to have a really good life is just easy [bleeping] does it,” she said. “That’s the best advice anybody could ever give to Alec Baldwin. Easy does it. Take it easy. The cameras are going to be there tomorrow.”

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