A few days ago, I finally watched It Ends With Us, and it is quite easily one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen in my life. A nonsensical plot, one-dimensional characters, actors who are incapable of acting their way out of a paper bag – it was like a Lifetime movie with a bigger budget. The worst part was the ending, in which a victim of domestic violence uses logic to try to convince her abuser to leave her and their daughter alone and … it works?? Yeah, that would totally happen in real life. All I can say is that this abhorrent film does not deserve the months of drama swirling around it. Everyone involved in IEWU should be deeply ashamed and they all should have made a pact to never speak of it again. Instead, we got months of drama over the summer, and now Blake Lively is suing Justin Baldoni, who directed IEWU and starred as Ryle Kincaid. Blake is suing Baldoni for sexual harassment and waging a PR campaign against her during and after the film’s promotion.
Blake Lively is suing her It Ends with Us costar Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment. Months after rumors of behind-the-scenes discord on the set of the adaptation of the Colleen Hoover novel, the actress, 37, said in the lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, that Baldoni’s alleged behavior caused her “severe emotional distress.” (Baldoni, 40, also served as It Ends with Us’ director.)
Per the outlet, the lawsuit states there was a meeting held to address Lively’s claims and her demands for working on the film. It was attended by various figures, including Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds.
Some of the demands that were addressed, according to the lawsuit cited by TMZ, included “no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction,’ no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew’s genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake’s weight, and no further mention of Blake’s dead father.”
“No more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing by BL outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project,” were other demands mentioned in the lawsuit, according to TMZ.
According to TMZ, the lawsuit states that Sony Pictures, who distributed the film, approved of Lively’s requests. However, Lively claims in the lawsuit that Baldoni then took part in a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” her reputation soon after.
Bryan Freedman, Baldoni’s lawyer, tells PEOPLE in a statement that Lively’s lawsuit was to “fix her negative reputation.” He also said that her allegations are “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt.”
Freedman added that Lively caused problems on set of the film, which is currently streaming, “threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release.” Representatives for Lively, Baldoni and Sony did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Some of Lively’s accusations against Baldoni were previewed months ago, when well-informed sources insisted that everyone on set hated Baldoni (for unspecified reasons) and that Blake was hurt that Baldoni asked someone how much Blake weighed (Baldoni apparently has a bad back). We were also told that Blake thought Baldoni “lingered too long” during a kissing scene. I’ll admit, back in August and September, it felt like Blake and Ryan Reynolds were the ones targeting Baldoni. But if Baldoni was doing even some of the sh-t she’s now accusing him of, he absolutely created a toxic work environment. His on-set behavior was absolutely inappropriate, if any of this is true. It also feels like this might answer the questions I had about why Sony was going above and beyond to make Blake happy and give her everything she wanted, including allowing her to bring in her own editor to create a “Lively Cut” of the film.
As for the social manipulation part of Blake’s legal action… more information came out in the NY Times, which I will cover separately. All I’ll say in this post is that it looks like Blake has a really good case against Baldoni and his production company.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.
-
- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Celebrities attend the ‘It Ends With Us’ film premiere in London. Pictured: Blake Lively BACKGRID USA 8 AUGUST 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: JSML (JAMES SHAW) / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- New Jersey, NJ – **FILE PHOTOS** Did the kiss last too long? Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni share an on-screen smooch on the set of “It Ends With Us” on January 13, 2024. The “drama” between the two has been reaching a boil since the film’s release with fans speculating about how the stars of the hit film really feel about each other. Recent reports claim Blake felt ‘fat-shamed” by Justin while filming. *Shot on January 14, 2024** Pictured: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni BACKGRID USA 14 AUGUST 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: T.JACKSON / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- New Jersey, NJ – **FILE PHOTOS** Did the kiss last too long? Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni share an on-screen smooch on the set of “It Ends With Us” on January 13, 2024. The “drama” between the two has been reaching a boil since the film’s release with fans speculating about how the stars of the hit film really feel about each other. Recent reports claim Blake felt ‘fat-shamed” by Justin while filming. *Shot on January 14, 2024** Pictured: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni BACKGRID USA 14 AUGUST 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: T.JACKSON / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- New Jersey, NJ – **FILE PHOTOS** Did the kiss last too long? Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni share an on-screen smooch on the set of “It Ends With Us” on January 13, 2024. The “drama” between the two has been reaching a boil since the film’s release with fans speculating about how the stars of the hit film really feel about each other. Recent reports claim Blake felt ‘fat-shamed” by Justin while filming. *Shot on January 14, 2024** Pictured: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni BACKGRID USA 14 AUGUST 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: T.JACKSON / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- New Jersey, NJ – **FILE PHOTOS** Did the kiss last too long? Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni share an on-screen smooch on the set of “It Ends With Us” on January 13, 2024. The “drama” between the two has been reaching a boil since the film’s release with fans speculating about how the stars of the hit film really feel about each other. Recent reports claim Blake felt ‘fat-shamed” by Justin while filming. *Shot on January 14, 2024** Pictured: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni BACKGRID USA 14 AUGUST 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: T.JACKSON / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- New Jersey, NJ – **FILE PHOTOS** Did the kiss last too long? Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni share an on-screen smooch on the set of “It Ends With Us” on January 13, 2024. The “drama” between the two has been reaching a boil since the film’s release with fans speculating about how the stars of the hit film really feel about each other. Recent reports claim Blake felt ‘fat-shamed” by Justin while filming. *Shot on January 14, 2024** Pictured: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni BACKGRID USA 14 AUGUST 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: T.JACKSON / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- New Jersey, NJ – **FILE PHOTOS** Did the kiss last too long? Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni share an on-screen smooch on the set of “It Ends With Us” on January 13, 2024. The “drama” between the two has been reaching a boil since the film’s release with fans speculating about how the stars of the hit film really feel about each other. Recent reports claim Blake felt ‘fat-shamed” by Justin while filming. *Shot on January 14, 2024** Pictured: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni BACKGRID USA 14 AUGUST 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: T.JACKSON / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- ‘It Ends With Us’ World Premiere Featuring: Brandon Sklenar, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds Where: New York, New York, United States When: 06 Aug 2024 Credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com
-
- 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
-
- 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
-
- Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds hold hands while on a morning walk in New York City. Blake wears a handmade sweater from Farella, Krewe sunglasses and UGG x Opening Ceremony mules Featuring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively Where: New York City, New York , United States When: 23 Sep 2024 Credit: Elder Ordonez/INSTARimages
I hope she doesn’t get the Amber Heard treatment.
Funny you should say that… read the NYT article. Baldoni hired Depp’s PR team.
Well, if you look back at the comments on stories about this topic on this site, it’ll make you wonder. For a place that has so many ardent feminists, the comment section has a different tone.
I know we’re covering that article separately but everyone needs to read it. If this can happen to someone at Blake’s level, the Amber Heards should of Hollywood have no chance. Kudos to Blake for fighting.
@Mrs Robinson, I agree – not just the comments on articles this summer on this site, but the articles themselves as well, leaned heavily into Justin’s side, mostly bc people seem to
not like BL for various reasons.
But the hints were there then too: many of us pointed out at the time how suspicious it was that:
1) the women on the cast were *all* avoiding Justin – they would do promos with BL, but he was on his own for pretty much every event; and
2) his hiring JD’s crisis management team was sus: it seemed clear he needed to bring in big guns…you pick a DARVO expert bc you know you’ll want the option to DARVO your opponent too
But even then, with the writing on the wall, many even here wanted to blame BL and so did. I’m not personally a fan of hers, but there are also clearly enough people with anti-BL sentiments who were ready to pile on the attacks despite evidence to the contrary.
And it might be good for all of us to reckon with just how easily we will ignore signs of harm in favor of nit-picking the victim (“she wore too many florals for a DV movie!” Etc) to find fault with the victim.
(I say this recognizing that just bc I didn’t do it in this case with Blake, doesn’t mean I’m exempt: there are other celebrities who rub me the wrong way for whatever reason and I’m sure I’d do the same in those circumstances, so I’m not excluding myself from needing to reckon with the toxic way we all participate in harm by jumping to conclusions in the media, etc.!)
A comment posted literally at the same time as yours proves that from many, she will get that same treatment. Shameful.
I don’t believe a word of this lawsuit. Blake Lively was outed as a mega-b, we all saw those past videos of her being such a mean girl. Baldani owned the script & produced and she released her own cut of the movie. This is just her and Ryan Reynolds using their money to try and recover their horrid rep. I don’t buy it.
Not a subject, so you didn’t read a single line of the NYT piece. Go do that.
Read the piece. Also none of the videos were her being horrible. Occasionally tone deaf? Sure. But not horrible at all
You absolutely need to see the evidence. Holy $%&# it was bad and …so much if it. Blake has the receipts.
Blake retained the lawyer who won the $148M settlement against Rudy Giuliani in favor of pollworkers Shay Moss and her mom. She kept the receipts and lawyered up. Doesn’t matter that she’s an imperfect victim, you can still think she’s a b.
You realize both things can be true? She can be a mega-b and also a victim of horrendous sexual harassment. Newsflash, abusers don’t go solely after good, kind, sweet women. This insane expectation of a perfect victim needs to stop. It seems one needs to be saint and never do wrong in life in order to be believed that someone abused you…
She can be a mean person, or a tone deaf one, and still be the victim of sexual misconduct and harassment and a media smear job. I’m glad she decided to speak out because if ANY of this is true (and I believe her), his team was right to drop him as a client. No woman should be treated like that, and BL has so much clout and it did not protect her— imagine if she was a starlet who really needed the job?
They both suck so…
“They both suck” isn’t a valid argument as to why it’s OK for someone to be sexualy harassed and/or abused. Blake might be cringe, problematic and lacking awareness and none of that would justify even half of the things he did. I’ll say allegedly, but I believe Blake. She and her team didn’t go in detail in the middle of Justin’s gross take down campaign, they took their time building this case and organizing evidence. I believe her and hope the case has a larger reach and effect benefitting other victims.
Blake and her team (especially her lawyers) gave a masterclass in methodically building her case, gathering evidence (with more receipts than I’ve ever seen in this type of case) and not succumbing to the temptation to speak out before filing her claim.
The hell? Being a predator isn’t the same as being an a*hole.
This part. Like, they can both be awful people but it doesn’t discount that Blake could have a case and be in the right here.
They both suck so – what? Finish your point.
Her continued celebration and glorification of the antebellum era which obscures the brutality of slavery and perpetuate myths about the supposed harmony of the time, has never being addressed. So i would be happy if both of them lose power. He may not be an ally but neither is she. She is in it for her self and treated people with less power thatn her awfully.
Has never been addressed? I keep hearing about it on virtually every single comment of people who jumped on the bullying wagon. Also: congratulations: the blur and smear PR machine worked on you. God forbid we refer to sexual abuse without screeching about the non-perfect victim.
@nicki – I don’t get the relevance of your comment. This is not about who loses power. It’s about the right to be free from sexual harassment and a toxic work environment. Predators and abusers use smear campaigns against their victims. I don’t think we need to add to their ammo. Lots of people have called out Blake for her behavior and no doubt more needs to be done, but that’s a different battle and is not relevant to this suit.
@Nicki – her ill-advised dip into antebellum culture has nothing to do with being sexually bullied and harassed on a movie shoot, then publicly castigated by her harasser. Nor does her long past snippy attitude to a interviewer. Those are totally separate and unrelated issues. She took her time and got her ducks in a row legally and professionally to pursue Baldoni’s bad behaviour and subsequent pleas of innocence. Let’s leave things that don’t have anything to do with this particular issue in in the past where they belong.
Victims aren’t ever perfect. There was some fishy about the way people ganged up on her. It felt orchestrated even though I’m sure a lot of people, mostly women, joined in innocently enough. It was vile though. And ironically they WERE manipulated by an abusive predator. I hope they’re looking in the mirror this morning.
And people are still out here trying to not believe her — even though she’s bringing serious receipts — just because they don’t like her. She can be a bit of an asshole and still not deserve the treatment she received. The details in her complaint are awful, and that NYT article about the PR company’s campaign is truly maddening. Imagine making it your life’s work to ruin a woman’s reputation so that she won’t be believed when she talks about the harassment she suffered. Gross.
Yeah, what she is alleging isn’t one person’s word. Anyone who thinks she is lying is not worth arguing. She brought receipts and she got all her complaints written at the time it happened to protect herself.
Its says Blake didn’t sue but made complaint and they got this guy text message. I’m not jumping into any conclusion yet, I hope this Justine sue blake see what is the real truth.
Yeesh – the woman on Baldoni’s “crisis management” sounds like a piece of garbage. Imagine that’s your job – “to bury someone”. Gross this world we live in sometimes. It does sound like BL did have to deal with some weird stuff though…
I’ve been following Gisele Pelicot’s story all week for some real inspiration from a truly remarkable woman.
Not a fan of plantation Barbie (disgusting) but the social media battering raised my spidery senses.
I knew I was right. Plus I am always suspicious of men who loudly proclaim themselves feminist. Sorry but I didn’t trust him and I believe every word of these allegations. This guy is trash!
I was lucky to be raised by a boomer father who loudly proclaimed himself a feminist while being openly contemptuous and distrustful of all women and treating his wife like a helpmate. (I’ve actually lost count of his divorces at this point). So I see through that crap like glass.
Agree on male feminists. It’s a tactic to get laid. Sad but true.
Afore mentioned father, I only recently learned, has been successful in the dating scene (he’s in his mid-70s now with 40something girlfriend) in large part by always bragging about his daughters and portraying himself as huge ally. I give this example for anyone who might not have yet been exposed to such a tactic. Be alert.
I’ve really enjoyed Baldoni and the head of his production company for all the work they do to promote positive masculinity. It’s so disappointing when “good ones” turn out not to be. He’s literally built his career on being a progressive who encourages men to overcome their own patriarchal bullshit. Uggggghhhhhhhhh. We never really know.
Liz Plank, the woman behind “Feministabulous”, “Hotties for Harris”, and “For the Love of Men”, a feminist book about how patriarchy harms men too – is also the co-host of the Man Enough podcast (by Baldoni and Jamey Heath). She posted yesterday “my toxic trait is believing in humanity”.
I know Blake is persona non grata around here and in most online spaces – but I believe her.
Two things can be true simultaneously. Blake is often problematic and she did not deserve this treatment, either the abuse or the smear campaign.
This is so interesting. Obviously it seems like ‘feminist’ Justin was a menace on set. But the Blake Lively hate team had so much material to work with. Like her bad receipts are so long. Obviously that doesn’t make ‘burying’ her right. It’s just interesting how much material they have on her. She has damaged her rep by her own actions further escalated by the publicity. She can sue and win her case with Justin. But she can never have the world look at her the same because we saw what she actually said.
But Meena, what did she actually do that is so bad? She gave a bad interview. So what? Take a look at red carpet interviews for the Oscars, for instance Hugh Grant and Ashley Graham. He was absolutely not playing nice, if was a thing for a day or two (as it should be) and then people moved on (again, as they should). I don’t see him vilified still. Could this perhaps have to do with him being a man, a charming English man with floppy hair, perhaps?
I don’t think the “receipts” the internet so gleefully pulled out about her are all that.
What Justin did is gross and unacceptable. Blake is perhaps more tone deaf. After she married on a plantation and created a clothing line based on antebellum fashion is problematic it’s been easy to see her through a certain lens. That with those older interviews don’t help her perception. However, she hurt no one but her own image. Being rich and out of touch is not a crime.
Exactly. I just commented in more detail about this below. Absolutely no excuse for what happened on set and he should be sued into the ground, but her own behavior is responsible for her reputation. Someone commented about it being only one surly interview she did, but according to Kjerstie Flaa, the reporter, after posting the video, she got a lot of feedback from other reporters who had bad experiences with Blake as well but won’t speak up because they fear being blacklisted. In a televised interview with Kelly Ripa, Blake gushed about her pregnancy and gave lots of details — on the same day that did her interview with Kjerstie. And in another interview she talked enthusiastically about the costumes in the film— both topics that kjerstie was burned for bringing up. Blake has one face for well-known main stream reporters and another for the lesser-knowns.
After reading the NYT’s article, I’m not convinced that the timing of Kjerstie’s revelation that she was treated so “horribly” that she wanted to “quit” her profession was merely a coincidence. And at a minimum, her claims were hyperbole. She showed her support for Depp during the Amber takedown. Is she a mouthpiece for Baldoni’s PR firm who also represented Depp?
The whole point is that a person’s reputation shouldn’t matter in whether they are a victim of abuse. Blake being rude in an interview doesn’t mean she’s lying about Justin’s abusive behaviors on set. Her being a victim of abuse on set doesn’t mean she wasn’t rude in an interview. But unfortunately, reputation can make a difference in court as we saw with Amber Heard. Which is where the doubling down and smear campaigns become insidious bc not all jurors can be relied upon to understand that having a negative reputation for unrelated things does mean they aren’t a victim. Unfortunately.
Melissa Nathan used to work for Matthew Hiltzik before strikng off on her own. These people are the brains behind the Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt responses.
Golly Gee, Please be aware that Kjersri Flaa has been pro Depp (anti Amber), pro Pitt (anti Angelina), and pro Baldoni (anti Blake). I linked to Pitt back in August under the article about this reporter’s experience with Blake. Her boyfriend, Magnus Sundholm, works for a Swedish tabloid, and they have a show in Swedish that tells all about Hollywood secrets. Please be aware that they report on their personal feelings about people in Hollywood instead of a reporting on the work angle, and this mirrors PageSix, TMZ, and British tabloid takes.
Melissa Nathan’s sister, Sara, works at the NY Post. (There’s a reference in this article from USA Today: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2024/12/21/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-sexual-harassment-smear-campaign/77132875007/) Jason Baldoni knows someone at the Daily Fail. Plus,
I would not be surprised to learn Kjersti Flaa has a friendly relationship with Melissa Nathan and her former boss. Plus, Jason Baldoni is married to a Swedish woman and spends time in Sweden.
@Meena – Are you really not getting that all of these “receipts” were put out to silence and discredit a victim of sexual harassment? Her being an imperfect person does not make their actions any less wrong.
This is crazy. My opinion at the time was if there was something heinous he did, Blake’s team would leak it, like the story of her weight being asked by him. Now, it seems like they didn’t leak it probably because of legal reasons. They needed to save it all for the lawsuit, which is very serious from what I have read. I still can’t believe, this guy thought he can sexually harass and intimidate Blake. She is married to Ryan, together they are worth billion at this point. There is no way this is the first time he acted as a predator, maybe he went after less famous / powerful women in the past. I hope, Blake and Ryan bury him and get all his money. I don’t know if his acts are above the threshold for criminal lawsuit?
Also, it might be a business decision to keep this info private until now. Who would go watch a DV movie directed and starred by a sexual predator? Maybe, Sony asked Blake to wait until they got their money from movie tickets. It is horrible, I feel so sorry for Blake.
Same. My opinion at the time was that it felt like initially there were sources going to People from Ryan and Blake and it was all very vague. I was like well what did he do? Why vague sourcing if there’s something actually there? It felt weird and made me question if there was anything there beyond personalities clashing. If he did something, what did he do? But now there’s actually concrete examples of what he did and it’s pretty bad. Like real bad. So if they were always preparing for a legal case that makes sense but wish it hasn’t gotten muddled with vague insinuations at the beginning. At the end of the day though it doesn’t matter bc now there are real examples. I’m curious to see what happens with the smear campaign part of the trial bc would the results have any ramifications for Depp or Pitt or any number of people who’ve essentially been doing the same?
@Jais, I would love this lawsuit to set a precedent for future cases where men use PR teams to harass victims. However, I don’t see how, if they didn’t lie blatantly. Amplifying bad stories isn’t illegal from what I know.
Your last sentence. Amplifying bad stories isn’t illegal from what I know. Right? I don’t think so. The pr team amplified videos or things that had actually happened, like the plantation wedding. Maybe if there is evidence that the pr team lied and purposely planted falsehoods. And maybe that’s where Ryan and Blake’s power comes in. If they were able to get that evidence somehow. Just shedding a light on this practice from high-profile people like Blake and Ryan could be a good thing. Wish there’d been more high profile speaking out for amber heard. And honestly Meghan has been enduring a smear campaign for years and years now based on nothing but lies. I’m sorry sure if Blake and Ryan will ever advocated against smear campaigns committed against other women but if they did Meghan would be one.
Edit- wish there had been more high profile speaking out for amber. Also, meant I’m not sure if Blake and Ryan will become advocates for women suffering from obvious smear campaigns but a few of those women are amber, Meghan the stallion, AJ and Meghan markle.
@Jais, Duchess Meghan is soo different from this. In Meghan’s case, yes there are social media attacks, but it is all lies. It is the same as Cardi B and she sued and won against youtuber spreading the lies on socials. If Meghan sued these youtubers, she also has a winnable case against that, because they can be proved in the court, they were lying on her name and that hurt her reputation. In Blake’s case, what is the lie? The current legislation doesn’t include this kind of attacks unfortunately. Maybe they can set a precedent for it, but I am not hopeful.
yep, that’s why I said Meghan’s smear is based on nothing but lies. That’s why I’m curious to see how the smear part of Blake’s case goes in court. At this point, unless they have evidence of a falsehood purposely amplified, I don’t know where it can go. And yet these smear tactics are similar, whether based on lies or truth. So can there be legislation that applies to just the tactics? Idk. I’m thinking No? I mean what would Musk do with himself if that happened?
I thought when the attacks on Blake Lively began and social media gleefully piled on that it was an orchestrated campaign. Things like her being a bit surly during an interview and not performing her promotional duties quite the way people wanted seemed too trivial for the amount of vitriol being flung around.
It was clear something had gone down because the other cast members, the author and the studio rallied around her.
But reading the docs show something much nastier than we knew about back then. Lively was subjected to sustained sexualized harassment and actually sexually assaulted on set under the pretext of improv during sex scenes. She had to take action to protect herself, her staff, and the other women on set.
She’s famous, wealthy, and connected and that still wasn’t enough to protect her from harassment on the set, and having her character and reputation torn to shreds afterwards. It’s grim.
We evicerated her on this site regularly when this first started .
I dont believe her anymore.
She wasn’t the producer and she éditée the film of someone else.
She made as if domestic violence was a party girl in théâtres. Very immature.
And the way she answers to journalists about her belly and so on.
I can’t stand her anymore.
So, she made up witnesses and text messages? Perhaps you should collect some facts before you choose not to believe someone just because you don’t like them.
Hmmm, seeing several of these barely coherent, clearly not English as a first language comments coming in. See also @IO and @Pumpkin above. We see what you’re doing. Also I believe her and I am thrilled to see he has been dropped by his agents. Go away.
Lol english is not first language and I’m asian and I regularly comes to this site for royal news. You sound very racist .
either you are working for Baldoni’s team, are so illiterate that you are unable to read and comprehend facts contained in a legal document, or you are a bot. Which is it??
When that story came out about the “lingering’ after the kiss that was when i decided we should wait to hear more because we could be dealing with real sexual harassment here. Him hiring johnny depp’s crisis team didnt help matters.
And Kaiser I think you are right; this does explain why Sony was so accommodating to her. Those allegations in the don’t list are pretty clear sexual harassment and Sony could’ve very easily ended up on the receiving end of a lawsuit so it explains why Justin was nowhere near her during press, why they allowed her to have so much control of the movie, and why they allowed Ryan to be so present during the filming. It also explains why Ryan was so present. If your wife comes home telling you her director is doing this type of stuff of course you’re going to show up on set and make sure he knows he cant pull that crap anymore.
She also does not sue Sony when in many cases they could have been a party to this lawsuit. The allegations are brutal even if half can be proven. It explains why most of the cast was on her side during the promotion.
The lawsuit also mentioned a marketing plan set out by Sony which veered away from the DV aspects. If the contract was to promote it that way, it made things worse for her at the time especially when everyone was saying she was tone deaf.
Several things can be true at once. She may have legitimate complaints about a toxic work set and about the campaign waged against her afterwards. But her own actions and attitudes don’t do her any favors either and gave Baldoni ammunition he needed for his smear campaign. I watched the infamous interview she did with Kjersti Flaa, a down to earth, unassuming entertainment reporter from Norway. Her behavior was awful and unjustified and affected the reporter’s confidence for years. Instead of owning it after the video came out, her publicist claimed that Flaa had made some rude remark before filming. So the reporter made another video saying there’s no time to speak to anyone in between interviews, because reporters are lined up one after the other to sit down with the celebrity for a few minutes. You basically show up and sit down and don’t have a chance to talk to the celebrity before hand. In the same follow up video, she also commented about the amount of feedback she got from other non-mainstream entertainment reporters who had similar experiences with Blake. So it wasn’t a one off. Then she did another video about how her boyfriend, a Swedish entertainment reporter was made — without forewarning — to drink one of Ryan’s alcohols by Blake during a 10 AM interview and to comment on it. Of course he could’ve said no but would have risked being blacklisted.
Her videos are great. She talks about both positive and negative experiences with tons of celebrities and shows clips. She had a similar situation with Anne Hathaway and after hearing that video, Anne Hathaway reached out and apologized and told her what had been going on for her [which she kept private] and they agreed to do another interview. That’s how it’s done.
She can be a jerk in an interview and still be a victim of sexual harassment. But being difficult in an interview doesn’t mean she deserved the now calculated media smear campaign against her relating to the movie.
Also that interviewer has worked with Melissa Nathan before for the Johnny Depp trial.
This is a great response. Blake could have been sexually harassed and the set could have been toxic. That doesn’t wipe away clean Blake’s attitude and behavior from her past. People can still dislike her and Ryan and she can still be a victim. People can still dislike the way she promoted a film about domestic violence. Nothing that happened on set makes it appropriate to sell hair care products and tequila. Or to promote this film as a fun girls night out or pair it with Deadpool & Wolverine. That part is on Blake, Ryan & Sony.
TheOriginalMia, did you read the whole NYT article? It clearly says Flaa has worked closely with the PR people trying to take Blake down. She did same thing with another well known person, can’t remember who it was.
I am ashamed to say I really got on the anti-BL train when this went down over the summer. I didn’t like her and had had a bad experience with one of her husband’s companies. I found them clueless, ultra privileged, super tone deaf. I assumed the BL pile on was due to lots of people feeling similarly. I TOTALLY missed that it was orchestrated. I watched Flaa’s video and actually subscribed to her channel. Last night I read the NYT article and then found and read the complaint BL filed on Friday. The complaint is even more convincing than what is covered in the article. Tons of actual proof via subpoena plus most things that happened on set obviously had witnesses who will likely testify. Justin is a scumbag. BL actually deserved none of this and I’m sorry to say that she and her husband actually conducted themselves super diplomatically and professionally considering everything she was put through including being exposed/ given covid. It also sounds like JB likely created a chaotic set and it is possible the allowing of her own cut was due to that, to save the film potentially (?). It reads as if no lawsuit would have been filed re harassment if JB had not decided to go on his PR tear. That they have decided to hand him his ass on a platter seems totally reasonable. I also didn’t realize Flaa had a history of support for male abusers. She has a new video out saying she would never compromise her journalistic integrity by colluding with PR people and didn’t know them. But the timing was off for sure- maybe she was just being opportunistic given the timing, which is also disgusting. Of course I have unsubscribed, once I heard about her Depp support. She is being purposefully stupid to have supported him because he is so “nice.” Yes, chica, abusers often seem to be.
I’m going to be fully honest here- I fell for it completely. I looked at what I’ve seen Lively do in the past, saw what stories Baldoni & team planted and thought “yeah, that tracks for what I think Lively would do”.
I still don’t care for Lively as an actress and I definitely side-eye some of her past projects/comments, but this is a good reminder for me that none of us are immune to propaganda.
The defense Baldoni’s lawyer gives sounds like things Lively was trying to do to avoid the ongoing abuse during filming. Here we have a guy making a film about domestic violence, but what he’s really doing is using the plot as a pretext to abuse and humiliate a female celebrity. This is not new, by the way. Alfred Hitchcock’s filmography was mostly made this way. Movie making has been this gross for a long time.
This is such a good point. It really puts him securing the rights to the story in a disturbing light, especially when he was apparently trying to add sex scenes that weren’t in the original script. And probably anyone other than Blake would have had no recourse whatsoever.
Same here. I wonder if he knew her problematic image would at first make the public side with him – thinking it may save him and thus he did what he did.
Whatever went on, I too fell for it. And what is mind boggling is (for me) she has been around Hollywood and with an established resume and is married to a Ryan (who I read is pretty powerful in Hollywood – not sure if it’s true) and yet he did what he did. Imagine those women who don’t have any credentials or a powerful man as incentive not to mess with her.
Crown Princess Victoria, future HoS of Sweden, was once groped at a public function by someone associated with the Nobel Price for Literature. Even the most privileged women are not safe from sexual harassment. Grim indeed.
I find Blake insufferable. But if what Baldoni did was true we all need to walk back how Blake was treated during that time.
Not ALL…. Some people actually saw how similar it was to the Amber Heard campaign.
I did not jump on the bullying bandwagon. It smelled fishy, like people were falling for an orchestrated campaign. Similar to what happened with Hillary Clinton and Meghan Markle. People need to stop doing that ffs.
Yeah, I went back and read comments under the articles for this film (you can find them on pages 1 and 2: https://www.celebitchy.com/category/Blake_Lively/), and I was one of the few that wasn’t attacking Blake. My main flag was that the cast mainly spported BL, the author was happy with her, Liz Plank bailed on Baldoni, and Melissa Nathan worked for Hiltzik on Depp and Pitt.
I didn’t realize there were more people than just Baldoni involved though.
And I also didn’t realize other female cast and crew were also being mistreated along with Blake.
I’m glad they were able to gather and drop receipts. What disturbs me is the amount of people still pointing out Blake’s unlikeability or how she promoted the film when this should be about the sexual harrassment she and others were subjected to.
Echoing what’s been said: 2 Things can be true- Blake is kinda off a jerk and not a great person whilst Justin did hire professionals to smear her reputation publicly. Essentially she had ample ammunition to provide to them and they used it. As far as the comments stating “If you hated on her months ago you were NEVER a feminist “-I’m guessing you follow the Taylor Swift guide of feminism. Please stop using the word feminism if you do not know what it means. Will be interesting what happens with the court case and the outcome for both Justin and Blake
The piling on and not understanding the concept of the Johnny Depp team (which was a known factor) is slightly unfeminist. Because it shows a lack of understanding how easy it is in patriarchy to destroy a woman for stuff that hardly has any impact of a man does it (or worse).
The same patriarchy house blake chose to marry and had dinner near slave house. Justine is awful and he needs to sued but let’s not whitewash blake lively and her white racist ass.
No one is stating that what occurred from that team didn’t benefit from the patriarchal culture. However the blind defending of female celebrities we “like” under the guise of feminism is something else. To state those who called out Blake’s bad behavior and questionable past as “anti-feminist “ is ridiculous and immature. Again ppl should not use the word feminism if they do not know what it means.
Some of these comments come thisclose to the “she was asking for it” response.
We now require victims to be perfect?
I haven’t seen anyone saying this. I have seen plenty of people saying they don’t like her but they believe her, and only a few saying they don’t like or believe her.
I believe her. I also think she wouldn’t stand a chance on this without Ryan Reynolds power behind her. And I say that sadly because it should stand on its own merits.
I totally fell for his hate campaign. Already had a bad taste in my mouth about her because everyone always brings up that plantation wedding and she’s pretty and a girly girl and you know we automatically judge women like that, come on, don’t deny it. So my first reaction to her suing him, was ‘this is so stupid and arrogant, and why so late? I did have a tiny hesitation for a little bit, but I remembered it seemed like the cast ganged up on him and he’s good looking in a trustworthy way, so I went right back to, of course he did nothing wrong. And usually I start with believing the woman. Then I skimmed that NY Times article. Wow, was I wrong! Really not happy with myself right now. I can see where I got played, can come up with all the excuses, reasons why, but it doesn’t matter. This is scary. We know this behavior happens, this abuse, this cover-up, this gaslighting, all the time. And I participated in it. Shame on me. In the future, I will hesitate for longer than a brief second, I will not just follow the mob’s opinion. And I hope at least one person reading this will do the same.
“Freedman added that Lively caused problems on set of the film, which is currently streaming, “threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release.””
Um, because she was being treated in a disgusting manner, Freedman, you tool. I have no love for Blake, but her allegations have a specificity, and I believe her. Justin is scum.
Reading the past articles from here and the comments at the time, wow. It is easy to see how the campaign worked.
Call me a cynic but this is equally a coordinated marketing/PR smear campaign. The NYT isn’t covering this story because they are trying to right a wrong; it’s being covered bcuz Blake Lively’s husband just had a billion dollar movie and her new found supporters want a piece of that. That’s all.
If this had been a genuine effort from Mrs. Reynolds to right a serious wrong, the first step would be to lodge a complaint with the studio or producers and in a post #metoo world, if they failed to take action, then the suit would include those folks too and would have been filed before the movie came out.
Blake absolutely lodged a lengthy complaint at the time. The public did not know. She lawyered up AT THE TIME, Ryan was there, and the list from that complaint is jaw dropping. This complaint happened while everyone was still working together.
Denguy, it’s best you read the content around the topic before you post.
No DenGuy. You have not gone through the evidence. There is so much documented evidence by very good lawyers that Baldoni is buried.
Read the NYT article or the 80 page case, if you can’t refute the extensive evidence you’re wasting reader’s time.
I’ve been waiting for this post!
I read the NYT article, watched some really good TTks that read the ENTIRE lawsuit (highlights, of course) and… My Goodness.
First – I am not going to say “oh I always knew” but I actually like Blake as an actress, as I’ve stated many times on this site before, I don’t think everyone needs to be Meryl Streep, so I take her for what she is.
Her being a tone-deaf person, is the same as me knowing someone is a tone-deaf person in real life… I am not their friend. So, I don’t follow her or her husband. But if a movie they make catches my attention, I’ll probably watch.
That being said – I took pause when the media came down on her. Mainly because I have the same stance towards JLO, who had been through worse this year AND I waited, and we know what happened next. And here we are again.
Reading through some of the comments since yesterday about this, really goes to show (quoting that Melissa from the PR firm) that people love to HATE on women. People have undeniable evidence in front of them, and most are like ” I can’t believe JB from Jane the Virgin could do this”, “I never liked her and I hope he shows us that she’s the horrible person I know she is”.
And I think that people use that interview from years ago, her plantation wedding stuff, to justify the main reason they love to hate on people like her and JLO: Beautiful, rich women, that have mostly (comparing to their peers) a scandal-free life and just like we don’t like those women in real life around us that “have it all together”, we don’t like them as famous people.
Just like we hated that hot girl or boy at school that was popular as we were being relentlessly bullied in life.
All this also made me feel extremely sad, as a woman, that we will ALWAYS choose men, especially good-looking men over any woman’s words, no matter the amount of evidence they bring to light. We’ve seen this time and time again, even with Cassie Ventura, we only believed her once we saw the video. Anyway…
I look forward to seeing how this evolves.
I’ve not watched all of the videos of the TV reporter from Norway. I did see her interview with Angelina. Jolie and it was a congenial interview. Has she been critical of AJ since then?
Srsly the number of “but she sucks” comments are deeply effed up.
I’m not a fan — I don’t hate her or anything, just not particularly into her projects and the plantation wedding was gross. (Though I think they or one of them has talked about regretting that.)
And I was definitely swayed by the “bury her” campaign waged by Justin’s PR team. But one part that gave me pause is that the whole cast was behind Blake.
I hope this shines a light on this practice to protect more vulnerable women in the industry. Amber Heard comes to mind, who I always believed. Can’t imagine her having to pay her wealthy and powerful abuser after being publicly trashed for months.
It’s a sign that the abuser’s PR worked, right? It’s like obligatory now, we have to amend our comments about the victim because she wore florals or something.
Thankfully I didn’t leave comments hating on her, because I leave a lot of room for what I may not know.
But yeah I thought was shitty that she promoted the movie in the way she did — by wearing florals and downplayed the DV — though now it looks like that that was actually the plan she was supposed to follow. I’m not going to pretend to have any insight into how that’s decided or by whom or how much control she had over it or whether maybe she didn’t want to rock that boat when she had more serious issues going on.
I thought that interview that surfaced was shitty.
None of this means she’s lying about the allegations. And she’s got serious receipts. The text messages between Justin and that gross PR team are so damning.
Also, I hope that anyone who hires that PR lady in the future is automatically doubted. She seems to specialize in “burying” female victims of abuse. What a disgusting human being.
It turns out that Blake was instructed to promote the movie with florals and downplay the DV.
The scariest thing about this situation is that a man who’s biggest hit was a medium rated CW show and a side hustle as a podcaster felt comfortable enough doing this to Blake lively who is famous, has a few mid range movie hits under her belt and is married to one of the big stars of the moment and a wealthy ad man. She is also in the inner circle of the biggest star in music. He didn’t see her social capital as a deterrent. If Blake isn’t safe then who is? It also 1) makes me wonder who else he has done this to and if it was much worse then his harassment of Blake. And 2) it’s clear when the internet names you as the b*tch eating crackers of the day there is not much you can do to stand against it. No matter how famous you are. And it is usually a woman that gets the disproportionate hit for low level things like Blake and jlo. A man only becomes enemy number 1 when he does super serious things like assault, and even then he will always find defenders. No matter how much the internet and people claim to be better educated in 2024 everyone including progressives still falls into these cracks of let’s burn the witch.
I remember back then, the thing that confused me was how every single woman on that production refused to stand for Justin. But I was shouted down (including on this site that is supposed to lean feminist) that it was Blake using her fame to silence and force the woman to follow her. And that Justin was the David going against Goliath even after he hired the Depp crisis team and was going to TMZ. I believe now as I believ then that Blake can be high handed with her fame but she has only ever been annoying. Why would she try to crater her own production that was being sold off her name and why would every other woman on the production as well as the studio help her do that? It just didn’t make sense.
Also I don’t get their complaint in the article about Blake refusing to promote. Blake’s overreliance on peppy flowers for a film domestic abuse while Justin was absent is what started the whispers. The film was also extremely successful for its budget and I believe got to number 1 or 2 even though the narrative was turning on her. She showed up. You don’t have to like her to admit she showed up even as the internet was yelling at her. Same as jlo another woman the internet has decided it hates.
There is likely at least one other woman on that shoot or at JB’s production company who was harassed by JB or his producer, including on other productions. There is always history with predators, you just have to look for it.
He always gives me the ick, ever since Jane the Virgin. That’s all.