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April 5th, 2011

07:52 PM ET

"30 Rock" star visits CNN at the White House

CNN White House Producer Becky Brittain

WASHINGTON (CNN) -– The star of the hit television comedy "30 Rock" made a stop at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue this afternoon.

Actor Alec Baldwin was at the White House for a meeting with staffers over funding for the arts. While on campus, he stopped by the CNN cameras to tape an interview with HLN's Joy Behar Show which will air tonight.

In the interview, Baldwin pointed out that the areas in danger of losing funding are the places across the country without many options for cultural arts.

"Where the government stops the funding, it has a tremendous impact, especially on young people. But the argument that I'm really fond of this year is that we don't want to leave the cultural identity of our children to commercial interests alone," Baldwin said. "If you leave everything to the music industry, and the movie industry, and the television industry for our young people to kind of develop their own sense of self, self-expression, and their identity, we're in for a lot of problems in this country."

Baldwin was in town as part of the Arts Advocacy Day, organized by the non-profit Americans for the Arts. Originally Baldwin was scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill but ironically, because of the showdown with the budget, the hearings were cancelled. Instead he met with various lawmakers privately.

No word on whether he had a chance to stop by the West Wing to see President Obama and to give his two cents on the budget negotiations.