This past weekend, This Ends With Us opened with $50 million at the domestic box office, partly driven by all of the free media the film was given. Why so much free media? Well, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds seemingly had their knives out for Justin Baldoni, who directed and starred in the film. There were lots of rumors about professional and personal beefs between Baldoni and Lively, and then during the promotional cycle, they simply refused to do any promo together. Now that IEWU is a hit, Blake wants sole credit for the success. She also wants to use the success to ensure that Baldoni is, uh, negatively affected. This week’s shady, vague People Mag article about “there is much more to this story” was enough to show me that Blake and Ryan are on the attack. Justin realized it too and he’s hired a crisis management team:
It Ends With Us director and actor Justin Baldoni has hired crisis public relations manager Melissa Nathan of The Agency Group amid reports of drama with the cast, including his costar Blake Lively, a source familiar with the matter tells PEOPLE. The film, based on the best-seller by Colleen Hoover, opened on Friday, Aug. 9.
At the New York premiere on Aug. 6, Baldoni posed his wife Emily but apart from the rest of the cast, which includes Lively, Brandon Sklenar, Isabela Ferrer and Jenny Slate. Baldoni also did not join the cast in introducing the film at the screening and has been noticeably absent from other group promotional appearances, including the London premiere.
In It Ends With Us, Baldoni and Lively play a couple whose relationship becomes abusive in nature.
Baldoni and Lively both have credits behind the camera, too. Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, secured the rights to Hoover’s book in 2019, years before Lively’s casting was announced in January 2023, and is credited as an executive producer.
If you recognize the name of the crisis management team, it’s because they were the people hired by Johnny Depp. Which sucks – that team did more than just “let’s combat bad PR with good PR.” They hired a bot army to spread disinformation, they conducted a g–damn psyop on social media and they made a mockery of domestic violence. I don’t fault Baldoni for hiring a crisis management team – he can see what Blake and Ryan are doing and he’s prepared to fight for his reputation. But hiring this specific team is pretty gross.
What’s also funny is that Blake’s IEWU promotion was already being widely mocked and TikTok has already been ripping her a new one. To the point where Blake *finally* posted something about DV, only to see widespread mockery of that too.
blake lively posting this on IG after her ass has been getting called out for the press tour for it ends with us just being her and ryan’s side business hustle……a clown 😭 pic.twitter.com/sQV93HBd74
— n (@ceokimjisoos) August 13, 2024
“lice filled hair care line” is DIABOLICAL 😭😭😭😭😭 blake lively… girl i don’t think anyone can save you after this it ends with us press tour. she stated facts but ryan reynolds is not ugly at all pic.twitter.com/W28so3Nq5M
— ♡ (@laacolee) August 14, 2024
they are eating blake lively up on tiktok pic.twitter.com/XdLxGP5Pcv
— oatmeal influencer (@acechhh) August 13, 2024
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- ‘It Ends With Us’ Junket at the Four Seasons Hotel Downtown in Tribeca Featuring: Blake Lively Where: New York, United States When: 04 Aug 2024 Credit: INSTARimages.com
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- ‘It Ends With Us’ Junket at the Four Seasons Hotel Downtown in Tribeca Featuring: Blake Lively Where: New York, United States When: 04 Aug 2024 Credit: INSTARimages.com
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- ‘It Ends With Us’ World Premiere Featuring: Blake Lively Where: New York, New York, United States When: 06 Aug 2024 Credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com
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- ‘It Ends With Us’ World Premiere Featuring: Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds Where: New York, New York, United States When: 06 Aug 2024 Credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com
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- ‘It Ends With Us’ World Premiere Featuring: Hugh Jackman, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds Where: New York, New York, United States When: 06 Aug 2024 Credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com
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- World Premiere Of ‘It Ends With Us’ at AMC Lincoln Square Theatre Featuring: Justin Baldoni Where: New York, United States When: 06 Aug 2024 Credit: Darla Khazei/INSTARimages
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- World Premiere Of ‘It Ends With Us’ at AMC Lincoln Square Theatre Featuring: Justin Baldoni Where: New York, United States When: 06 Aug 2024 Credit: Darla Khazei/INSTARimages
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- World Premiere Of ‘It Ends With Us’ at AMC Lincoln Square Theatre Featuring: Justin Baldoni Where: New York, United States When: 06 Aug 2024 Credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages
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- Celebrities attends Sony Pictures world premiere of ‘It Ends With Us’ at AMC Lincoln Square Theater in New York Featuring: Justin Baldoni Where: New York, New York , United States When: 06 Aug 2024 Credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages
I love TikTok because it’s full of younger people who just don’t give a flying F for your hair care line, Blake!
It’s amazing to watch. They are also blasting her because she said in an interview that she is not the kind of actor who you can just dress and put words in her mouth and make her transform, she has to produce the movie as well.
So yeah, she belittled actors for the very thing that is their job, acting and transforming, and confirmed by herself she can not act.
It’s probably beside the point but I really cannot stand her acting, it is literally unwatchable
My Gen Z daughters love Gossip Girl so I’ve watched a few episodes with them. Every time BL’s character is on, it’s like nails on a chalkboard. Crappy actress.
Leighton Meester carried Gossip Girl and this is a hill that I will die on
@Neners that is absolutely correct and it’s a shame her career didn’t take off.
I didn’t watch GG but always found Meester to have that “it girl” quality.
@Laalaa says:
“I love TikTok because it’s full of younger people who just don’t give a flying F..”
Funny, but this is precisely the reason I cant stand most of tiktok: its full of know-nothings who prove the adage: “he who knows not and knows not he knows not………………. is a fucking idiot.
This. I was irked by the JLo crap back in the spring — and I am not even a fan of hers. It’s fine if people wanted to critique her new music, her film, or how out of touch she was with her underselling tour. But the conversation jumped the shark because TikTokers wanted to focus so much on the authenticity of her bodega order. Some acted like the orange drink she referenced wasn’t real (it was) or that she was a phony because she didn’t say chopped cheese for her sandwich order (it didn’t get big until the early 2000s, when she was famous at that point).
And as mentioned below, no one had it worse than Amber Heard (yes, I realize Depp paid for a disinformation campaign.) At the end of the day, Gen Z and TikTok are no different than previous generations leveraging other platforms to participate in a trendy pile-on with no interest in nuance to the conversation.
There is an equal amount of this kind of crap on reddit, Instagram, Quora (this one is really bad for Meghan hate), Facebook. During the Depp/Heard trial my Instagram feed was full of reels demeaning her (not by my choice which I have suspicions about). All age groups and websites participate. People are meaner, misinformation is ripe and algorithms are used to promote discord.
I think Blake and Ryan are going to be the ones need a PR crisis team after this – she’s being ripped to shreds on SM for this (and the MSM has started reporting on it). Her attempts to whitewash a story about DV into a ‘summer movie’ with promoting her drinks and hair care brands (plus all the bragging about who she’s married to and besties with) is not going down well – she wanted her big Barbie moment and she’s ending up with egg on her face. Given the popularity of the book and author the movie was always going to be successful.
The studios will think twice about hiring her after this debacle – its making them money but her (and her husbands) rep has taken a big hit as he’s also being dragged.
Nah I think BL will be fine. The movie is a huge hit, that’s all the studios care about. The sequel will go into reduction asap.
Lol no. Actors talk about being in meetings in Hollywood and social media will be brought up because they want to cast people with larger followers and popularity. Lol social media matters
it’s funny, I distinctly remember everyone on social media ripping Amber to shreds as well. did we use that as evidence she was in the wrong? no. is it just that people don’t like Blake here?
Exactly!!! I don’t know why the TikTok response is being treated as a genuine gauge of public opinion rather than a possibly coordinated attack.
Beyond that, many of the women involved in the project, including Jenny Slate and Colleen Hoover, have distanced themself from JB. That’s an awfully interesting piece of evidence.
Blake can be grating and also perhaps not in the wrong…
@Megan that’s how I’m feeling. if only the men seem interested in engaging with him, that says something. and I don’t think it’s that Jenny Slate and Colleen Hoover are worried about pissing Blake off.
I’m pretty ambivalent about Blake in general, but just because she’s kinda bland and tone deaf doesn’t mean she’s always in the wrong.
@Arizona Because, unlike Amber, Blake has a history of profiting off of racism and now DV. Amber does not deserve to be compared to her.
That being said, Justin’s hiring of this team is pretty suspicious.
@Sigmund saying she has a history of profiting off of DV because she did a movie in which its portrayed is a weird take. so no one should do movies that feature DV because they’re profiting off it??
the plantation wedding was awful, but they have both apologized and donated money to funds in response to it, so I’m not sure what anyone wants from that anymore. I think her short lived blog or whatever it was falls under the category of tone deaf. I don’t even like Blake that much but I think we’re reaching.
the reaction to this seems to be because people don’t like Blake, which was, ironically, a big part of why people turned on Amber so easily. and everyone’s still ignoring why none of the other women involved in this film seem to like Justin either. Jenny Slate did backbends to avoid saying his name when asked how is was to work with him.
The fact that all the female actors have distanced themselves from Justin is a red flag for me.
If this were really BL just bullying JB, I think these other actors would have found a more professional neutral ground (for instance, some movie PR person would have pointed out it is in the film’s favor to split up the promo events a little more evenly, rather than everyone vs. JB, etc.)
And it’s entirely possible that whatever went down wasn’t just with Lively, and that it is not her story to tell, and that’s why she’s been vague about it (IOW, if it involved JB and one of the other actors, who maybe doesn’t want details hashed out in the court of public opinion, etc.)
I’m not saying Blake is blameless and I obviously have no insider knowledge. But it is weird to me to see that in this case a social media pile-on means Blake = Bad/in the wrong here, but we are blatantly ignoring that none of the women involved in the film seem comfortable with Justin.
I just don’t think we have the fully story (and we may never, and it may not be our business), so I’m curious why this site and so many commenters are leaping to pick sides without any real details.
There was plenty of information about Depp being abusive— we don’t have any of that here. The director is the one talking with sensitivity and a feminist perspective about IPV in this instance.
Colleen Hoover is the author of the book and has other books she wants made as movies. She’s going to side with Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds because they have way more power than the director, most of whom have never heard of.
And the books handle DV pretty poorly. This should be a serious drama not a rom com but the marketing sure as hell doesn’t show that.
And best selling books don’t mean good books. Look at the garbage of the fifty shades books. They made money too but were still awful on a ton of levels.
The plantation wedding showed a sign of poor judgement and deciding to make movies out of this problematic book also shows poor judgment.
I would be very curious to see how the edit Baldoni made is different from the one Blake and Ryan got done.
@Megan – Colleen Hoover said she was taking herself of social media entirely due to the perceived conflict. I haven’t seen her diss Baldoni at all. She seemed happy with him doing the book based on her mother’s life, and I believe he has rights to the sequel. The whole thing looks like a mess to me and it looks like the reason is Blake Lively. She’s standing in front of a pop-up flower shop to promote the movie. She encourages women to dress flowery to come to her rom-com movie. She’s colored her hair for the movie, and, oh, have you heard of her hair color line? Blake something something. Plus she’s mixing drinks at the flower shop with her Buzzy Blakey canned mixer line. Oh, and some drinks use her husband’s gin. Have you heard of Ryan Reynolds?
As for Jenny Slate, the NYT reviewer (IIRC) called her moments on screen weirdly comedic in this not-a-rom-com movie.
My guess? Blake Lively wanted a Barbie moment because I suspect she saw America Ferrera become a producer and gain an Oscar nod, and she thinks she can do the same. The thing is, America came up scrapping and working hard and still does. I guess they wanted a Barbiehaimer moment, but the original was organic, and honestly, Deadpool didn’t need the help. But trying to pull that off with a film on Domestic Violence is wild! Staring Blake Lively? Come on!
You mean Margot Robbie right? America was in the Barbie movie but she wasn’t a producer. Margot Robbie did produce it. America did get lot of her attention for her “big speech” in the Barbie movie about the role of women in a patriarchal society which… I didn’t find exactly groundbreaking because it was stuff I had already seen and heard before and found it kind of overhyped. But I guess for a lot of men and younger women it was eye opening.
America is producing Im Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. That’s what I had in mind.
It’s tacky from everyone involved. It’s a shame everyone is releasing dirt on everyone else.
Blake is giving me Taylor Swift at the height of her Girl Squad Mean Girlishness, he seems hapless at best.
A bad rift onset looks especially bad for a DV movie! OMG!
That’s what I wanted to say.
No one looks good here.
And honestly BL and RR are really less nicer then they want us to believe.
But no one is a saint.
My take on this is that this guy signed BL on this project, then she brought her husband around ( which as far as I know) had no official role and he started throwing his weight around and writing her lines and basically meddling just because of his star power.
if that’s the case I would be pissed as well.
Bringing your husband to work to do your job and your director and your screen writer’s job is insane. Just because he’s Ryan Reynolds doesn’t make it cool. Blake seems superficial and immature
I am interested to know why the whole cast isn’t talking to JB though.
Up to this point whenever Baldoni was interviewed about the movie, he praised Blake Lively. Whenever Blake Lively is interviewed, she praises Ryan Reynolds. Not the whole cast ‘unfollowed’ JB, just less powerful ones who want to be on the ‘right’ side when it’s over.
I agree. And I don’t think it’s a stretch that the guy didn’t have the best response to being walk all over like that and perhaps pissed off some of the other cast members. But I also don’t think it’s a stretch that everyone is siding with the people who have the money and the star power and that JB is pissed at all of them.
I saw the movie last night and it manages to whitewash the abuse storyline even more than the actual book. Blake should have just done a different movie that was actually a romcom if that’s what she wanted.
I hate read the book, (wanted to see why it’s so popular), if that’s the case its really bad because the book was problematic AF.
I’m really starting to wonder if there’s truth to the rumours that there were two edits and the one that was released was Blake’s version because from interviews Justin seemed to want to do the DV storyline justice.
***SPOILER***
I thought that the movie really minimized the abuse. In the books when he burns his hand and hits Lily he blames her and he also blames her when he pushed her down the stairs, that doesn’t happen in the movie. In the movie he isn’t concerned about his surgeon hand at all. Made me uneasy because at least in the book it showed him as super toxic and as a gaslighter. It kinda felt like the movie was going for an “oh, he’s not that bad and he was sorry” sort of angle…which is so, so problematic and in no way helpful for people to see that minimised.
Am beginning to think Blake and Ryan think this is some sort of award baity movie for Blake given the subject matter and likely cut it in a way that makes her the star to show off her ‘acting’ talent. The entire promotion for this movie has been centered around her and her husband.
It might be a financial success but she is never gonna win any awards for her acting / producing. She’s no Margot Robbie.
Oh definitely! She’s actually fine as an actress in a romcom and should lean into that instead of trying to turn it into some prestige drama that it is not. She will 100% mount an Oscar campaign for it.
Huge red flag for me with Baldoni. Melissa Nathan worked with Matthew Hiltzik. This is Depp-Pitt territory.
I’m team women on this. No way everyone just drops contact with JB and he hires a CRISIS team, not a PR but a crisis team, if whatever happened was not bad. No way.
I’m now also wondering, given what Amber Heard went through, if this is partly happening to Blake via Melissa Nathan.
that’s what I’m saying. why have we universally decided that Blake is the problem and the other women (Colleen, Jenny) are just following suit because Blake is “too powerful” rather than stepping back and thinking it’s odd that the only cast members still following him happen to be male.
you don’t hire a crisis PR team unless you suspect things are going to get worse for you.
Ryan came on to “help” because it was during the writer’s strike. He was scabbing.
Collen got cancelled last year because her son sexually assaulted a girl and she tried to silence his victim
Agree. I have been waiting to see proof that Justin did something bad and….he just did. Now there is an online bully circle going around Blake Lively and it’s gone from lighthearted to misogynistic and gross.
Agree. Look is Blake’s promotion awful and shows no understanding of the issue? Yes. But the fact that everyone is on her side paired with this being the team Justin hired means that he is on the wrong side of this
Not everyone is on her side though- only the author, Jenny, and the girl who plays the younger version of Blake’s character in the film. They have been the only ones who have not mentioned his name. They are also the ones who also stand to gain more by standing with Blake because they would be the ones who would be part of the prequel movie if made. Everyone else has mentioned his name in interviews, they are just not being covered. They are also the ones who have partake in the whole romance movie aspect promotion, apparently the other actors have all talked about DV in their interviews but is not being covered as much cause they want to portray this as a Justin vs Blake showdown.
If does seem weird he decided to hire this particular team though but I dont know enough about how those work in Hollywood. Like, what are the options?
Im also team women. Maybe everyone sucks, but until proven otherwise, I will stand with women, and no, it is not BL only. Read he was friends with the author, then boom, she unfollowed him on ig…
A bit more information. The Hollywood Reporter mentions that Melissa Nathan started her company in June (the article is from June 20). If you click on it, check out her list of clients…
And apparently, according to Glamour, Justin Baldoni’s female podcast host, Liz Plank, has not been near him since mid June. She avoided him during the IEWU premiere. (Another woman who has worked with him is avoiding him.)
A lot of commenters here are pointing out that Justin Baldoni doesn’t have as much clout as Blake and Ryan. According to the Glamour article, Blake and Justin attended the premiere at two different NY theaters. Blake with most of the cast and family and friends. Justin was with Sony, his company and his wife. Somy has A LOT of money and his company is worth a lot of money as well. My take is that he is not an underdog at all.
The first information that came out is that he made her feel uncomfortable (presumably with her postpartum body). In retrospect, that sounds like it comes from his PR, not hers. The woman in this movie seem to feel like he was borderline abusive.
Melissa Nathan’s company specializes in scrubbing the internet. And my guess is that there might be NDAs involved, which is why we haven’t heard exactly what happened.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/the-agency-group-pr-communications-firm-melissa-nathan-1235925976/amp/
https://www.glamour.com/story/justin-baldoni-blake-lively-it-ends-with-us-cast-movie-drama-rumors-explained
This should be among top comments. It is not about liking BL, but whether he’s an actual jerk or worse. Tnx ML for posting this.
Thank you, ML. I agree with your detailed assessment.
Why would Jenny Slate and Colleen Hoover distance themselves from him? All because of Blake? I am going to give WOMEN way more credit than that.
I’m not demonizing Baldoni as no one knows what happened. BUT I’m definitely not demonizing Blake Lively and pretending all of the other female co-workers and castmates who distanced themselves from Baldoni aren’t making their own informed choice.
What happened to BELIEVE WOMEN? Hmmm…..
Yeah but didn’t he have a great reputation from jane the virgin? Like he publicly put the work in, had a podcast about toxic masculinity? It just seems… strange. But it could have been all for show 🤷♀️
how many men publicly supported the Me Too movement who were later outed as gross? 🤷
I still think it’s a big ask for us to side with ANYONE without information about why we’re doing it. If they’re scrubbing the internet, what are they scrubbing? I haven’t heard a whiff yet. It may be true that Something Happened, but I don’t know what to be mad about!
I keep coming back to that Jenny Slate red carpet clip. She dodged that question so hard that it felt to me like she doesn’t want any record of her speaking Justin’s name in a positive context. To me, that and his podcast co-host seemingly disaffiliating from him are the biggest indicators that something bad went down with him.
We don’t even know if it was actually Blake who led the charge on the mass unfollowing. She makes a big deal about being a “crown straightener” online and has gone out of her way to include and hype up her beautiful, younger costar, Isabela Ferrer (i.e. she’s avoiding the trope of being jealous of the young starlet and, instead, is working to get her even more attention). She even sweetly grabbed Brandon Sklenar’s girlfriend to join them for a photo at the premiere. I just don’t buy that she’s some dictator behind the scenes trying to grab all the attention and success for herself.
Yeah, it’s pretty gross hiring that team. I do wonder if it’s one of the few that would be willing to go against Blake and Ryan and their combined pull? Not as an excuse rather an explanation. This whole story isn’t something I expected to come out from this film.
Oh no. Big no to this pr team. Nope. Hiring someone that worked with Depp to smear amber heard. Nope. Yesterday I was unimpressed with the vague statements being leaked to People presumably by Blake and Ryan. Like I said, if something happened, say it and be clear. Whispers are not cool. But today I’m wholly unimpressed by this hiring choice by Justin.
If he had been in the wrong (bully, abusive, belligerent), that info would have leaked months ago and tied into the actual theme of the movie (domestic abuse). Blake wanted Zendaya and Margot Robie themed red carpet looks that tied in with the floral theme of the book while glossing over the actual content of the books. Promoting her new haircare line was more important than making a meaningful statement about DV and generational trauma. Blake and Ryan are major power players at the moment and this book had a sequel. Colleen Hoover has many mediocre books out that deserve no more than a lifetime or hallmark movie, but would make more $$$ with the Blake/Ryan (and subtle Taylor Swift) machine releasing them theatrically. I wonder what was said to the cast behind the scenes? I think he got shafted and hope his career survives this, but the Depp campaign against Amber Heard was gross. It seems like the TikTokkers are putting her in her place.
Hiring the PR crisis team seems more like a response to the power that Blake and Ryan have in controlling the narrative. Unlike Depp, where it had been known that he was a drug abuser, alcoholic, late on set and just a mess in general, there hasn’t been anything concrete about this guy. And just because the author who stands to profits from more movies doesn’t side with the director, I don’t think that is evidence of anything. If this is just innuendo then it’s a hit job. And the second edit which downplays the domestic violence in the story is not really a pro woman move.
Any of our USA Celebitchy film crew (esp Writers) able to confirm/deny that Ryan worked on the script during the Writers strike? Please. We’re hearing all kinds of stories. I’m not on TikTok, X or Instagram so hearing 2nd & 3rd hand accs on set and the group chats. TIA
Production began in May 2023, shut down when the WGA strike started, and resumed in January 2024, so I’m not sure where those accusations about Ryan are coming from, honestly.
Well, well, well. For those denying he was being iced out, here we are.
I saw that clip of him shifting uncomfortably while Blake was blabbing on and on.
What a PR mess.
TikTok represents a culture who are making new rules.
I fear it will be eliminated due to the very real threat of digital spying by the CCP.
And the owners are refusing to
divest and have filed a lawsuit against the US.
I would love to know the odds.
If Justin did something bad on the set, something serious, Blake has enough backing in Hollywood to just come out with the facts. This gossip backstabbing, while the movie is being promoted, is not that.
Smart of Justin to protect his career and reputation, hopefully he will not let his crisis team go the Depp route.
While the crisis management firm’s representation of Depp is hugely problematic….I doubt you can find a single crisis management agency in LA, NYC, DC, Chicago, SF etc that hasn’t represented someone that is problematic. People that are problematic hire crisis managers. People that aren’t problematic but are in problematic situations hire crisis managers. Like, Justin Timberlake, Lori Loughlin, Felicity Huffman, Alec Baldwin, Ellen, etc all hired PR crisis mangers. The list is probably more extensive than we even realize and there are only so many people that do that job.
Just like a lot of the same women go to the same plastic surgeon, or have the same divorce attorney, etc – I think he had limited options. I am sure Blake Lively hired someone too, and that person has also likely represented someone horrible at some point.
Anyway, not really defending him or the PR woman, just stating that he likely had limited options. Could be he approached others and they said “no thanks.”
lol I think everyone you listed besides Felicity and Lori are actually problematic, though.
Felicity and Lori are also problematic.
The fact that he hired this team specifically speaks volumes to me.
I hope this team does not plan to drag Blake through the mud like Amber. Ryan Reynolds will be coming out of his corner ready for a fight and I would definitively not want to be on the receiving end of that battle.
I’m going to side eye the Johnny Depo PR agency. Blake isn’t the perfect victim, but it’s telling which Pr firm he hired and that all the women side with her.
Blake and Ryan are scummy.
Two things can be true : Lively has mean girl energy and Baldoni went full method acting during filming and annoyed the hell out of everybody on that set.
Blake who defended Wood Allen and played dumb about Weinstine you mean that Blake. Blake that had her wedding at a plantation that Blake right????
Affleck was defended by Weinstein after Rose accused him of knowing EVERYTHING.
Let’s not pretend Lively has some power to take down anyone, with or without Ryan. He’s not really not a Clooney or Damon or Costner.
Some men in HW can getaway with anything. None of the women can. And i am not Blake’s fan. I liked Gossip Girl, mainly due to fashion and Leighton.
Pitt is still dragging Angelina, who has the star power of a legend. It could be either everyone sux or this guy acted like an arse.
OMG I had forgotten about her movie with Allen ! I think that it’s kind of her aim to have all of the shady things just being forgotten.
I hope it’s nothing more than beef between ambitious people with different visions for a movie.
But, the fact that neither the cast nor the book’s author want to interact with him makes me go hmm.
And then the hire of that particular crisis management team makes me go hmm even more.
That author seems more than a little problematic herself.
Blake and Ryan have way more power than Justin, if not ALL of the power. Unlike his former Jane the Virgin co-star Gina Rodriguez, I hadn’t heard anything negative about him. If he is employing this PR firm it must be getting really bad for him.
I have not read the book but I do know it’s about DV. The way Lively is running around in her ugly florals does not speak to that being the story.
He said in an interview, I think it was the Today Show. He hopes Blake directs the sequel. I know shade, when it’s wrapped in a compliment. She wanted control over the tone and direction of the movie. And probably thought as one of the producers. With the power of Ryan behind her. She would take lead, and Justin pushed back. I do believe all the issues started in post not filming.
For the story, I still think she wanted to focus the movie on Lilly and Atlas and minimize the DV to a subplot. And Justin wanted to focus on the DV and dynamics between Lilly and Ryle.
Blake wanted star crossed romance like Twilight and Justin wanted something a bit more authentic.
Hiring the depp people- tells me a lot about this guy.
And maybe this is just my bias- but- a lot of internalized misogyny in the comments on blake lively.
Is the tone of the promotion totally wrong- absolutely.
But, everyone including Jenny Slate will not even mention the director- that tells me something else.
And don’t get me wrong, i’m not saying we have to love and agree with everything a woman says/does because she’s a woman- but – people seem disproportionately angry at the woman in this situation. And caping for the man who the entire cast has washed their hands of.
yeah, the woman is annoying therefore the man must be in the right is not exactly a novel take. replace “annoying” with your adjective of choice (slutty, stupid, too young, too old) and it’s the same old story.
The only people not talking about Justin is Blake and that actress that plays young Lily. The guy who plays Atlas spoke good things about Justin. Hasan Minhaj still follows him. Justin has never had a bad behavior allegations against him. And he has directed two movies. He is in good terms with them. Well, Blake has enough power in comparison to Justin that she doesn’t need to resort to sources fed BS to people, page 6, perez Hilton, daily mail and TMZ. Blake started this. Justin didn’t hire a PR crisis manager until Blake went full destroy him mode on him. The choice of PR firm simply tells me he felt he was being targeted in a way that could impact his career and wanted people that have proven track record in handling nasty PR war. The client list of the firm is irrelevant. Blake has worked with actual predators in the industry and sang high praises of them, she called Woody Allen empowering. Justin could very well be the problem but Blake isn’t helpless. She can speak directly. That’s the reason people are weary to take her side.
All these interviews about centering women, unlearning toxic masculinity, and discussing the DV and this is the firm he chose?
So Justin chose this film and Blake Lively to be an asshole when he wasn’t one when he directed 5 Feet Apart, Clouds or acted in Jane The Virgin. He chose the Ryan Reynolds’s wife to be a bully finally of all people. He has to be dumbest of all dumb people if it is true. Now, here’s the thing, Justin has literally not a single person to back him if cornered in Hollywood and he allowed Ryan to meddle with the film by Blake’s own admission. Like Justin didn’t talk about it to press, Blake did. Once the backlash grew for Blake, I mean she was already getting heat for her tone deaf promotion but the Ryan Reynolds bit made it worse is when the smear campaign began against Justin. The only thing specifically being said about Justin is that he asked a trainer about Blake’s weight because he was worried of hurting his back lifting her up which offended her and a kissing scene that Blake thought went long. I don’t know the order of events. But my brain tells me, the weight comments came first. Its clear that its not peaches behind the scenes. But I refuse to blame Justin alone for it. It makes 0 sense. Justin has been hinting at vaguely about not having much creative control in the film he is the director off and Blake was stupid enough to boldly tell the world it is exactly that. If she is fighting dirty, why can’t he?
Perhaps it wasn’t her he was the ass too. Perhaps it was an assistant or a crew member. There are a lot of people that work on a movie set.
Multiple things can be true at the same time.
1. The team he hired for a PR crisis management is not a reflection on him as a person it’s a reflection on how will they do their job. To suggest otherwise is silly people hire the best if they got Johnny Depp out of a mess they’re probably the best. Also, PR crisis firms tend to deal with people who are less than great because it’s PR crisis.
2. Just because The women unfollowed him does not translate to him being abusive. It also doesn’t translate to him not being annoying. It could just be they didn’t like him because you don’t like all your coworkers and you don’t necessarily want to follow them on social media. Had they all been professional and had the common sense God gave a goat they would’ve waited till after the movie had been promoted to do this so as to avoid all of this mess.
3. Blake is a bad actress and sort of a dingbat and the fact of the matter is the way she’s promoted a movie that is about domestic violence has been offensive offputting and wrong to tie this in to her hair Caroline they are tequila or whatever the crap their hocking is disgusting and people are going to be mad and so it isn’t this Oh people are siding with men. They’re looking at the person who’s pushing the narrative of. We’re telling a story about domestic violence and being sensitive to that and going, that seems like the better person in this scenario has clear heads and she seems to have a different agenda.
4. Everyone involved is being wildly unprofessional because no one would’ve given a damn if they were following or unfollowing if they waited until after the movie had been promoted and finally Ryan Reynolds should not have been involved in this. That’s weird.
Excellent comment.
100%
As far as Blake’s acting, I have not been impressed at all in the few things I have seen her in after The Town. But I always go back to that role, in which I just thought she was really good. Could have been the director in part.
In trying to sort through this mess, I had never heard of David Baldoni before this, but I have seen him in a couple of interviews, and I was impressed with his well-chosen words and his attitude of respect for the material. I was just impressed with his attitude and careful presentation. It was as respectful as it should be. And he is the director, and his company opted for the material.
On the other hand, I thought just the – I’ll call them costumes – that Blake was wearing were confusing to me, and I thought they were ridiculous, and not in tune with the theme of the movie, and not respectful to the subject matter. I also thought her interviews were manic and confusing. I read that she had her own cut of the movie made, and I thought that was disrespectful. If you want people to hire you in Hollywood, I’m not sure that is the route to go. That is not being an ensemble or team player.
I have not read of any abuse by David B, I have only seen him acting appropriately. I have not heard of any abuse by Blake, I have just seen it. So I came upon this, thanks to CB reporting, completely unbiased, but I now think Blake is out of line. If she thinks he was abusive, she can say so, and it still would not mitigate her misconduct. If she did come out and say that he was inappropriate or abusive, I would be behind her, but how does that make rewriting lines, recutting the movie, and redirecting attention to completely showcase her and her desires rather than DV ok? It just looks like brat behavior to me to hijack a movie. I mean, apparently the scriptwriter didn’t know that Ryan had rewritten some of the dialogue. Is Blake so desperate that she can’t make a good movie about DV, and foresee a future where there will be OTHER opportunities for her? She’s at least part of the problem, and I don’t see where other studios would look at this and want to hire her as an actress or producer. Are she and her husband powerful right now? Yeah. So are a lot of others.
I feel like the weight comment to Blake is what set her off? It seems absolutely reasonable for Justin to want to know how much she weighed if he needed to lift her.
There was a weird comment in the deadpool movie where Nicepool comments that Blake looks awesome and you could never tell she had a baby, was that skewering something Justin said?
I won’t be seeing this movie because I don’t appreciate anything I’ve heard about how the DV aspect of Blake’s cut has been treated.
I enjoy Blake in movies like A Simple Favor. Justin publicly seems to have comported himself just fine. I love Jenny Slate and hope she makes bank with this film.
Eh, that coming from TMZ doesn’t look great though.