Blake Lively in texts to Justin Baldoni: ‘I’m Khaleesi…I happen to have a few dragons’

On Thursday, Justin Baldoni sued/countersued Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and their publicist. In his 179-page complaint, Baldoni provides a lot of text messages between himself and Lively before and during the It Ends With Us production. He also includes texts and emails with other producers and actors. In one mind-numbingly hilarious section, Baldoni and his team are increasingly concerned during the production that Blake Lively has never read the source material, Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name, and that Blake is Googling information about her character. I bring that up because Blake took it upon herself to rewrite some scenes, alongside her husband Ryan Reynolds. At one point, Blake invited Baldoni to her Tribeca penthouse, and Blake, Ryan and Taylor Swift gave Baldoni a hard sell on why he should use all of Blake and Ryan’s rewrites. Afterwards, Baldoni and Lively exchanged texts and she referred to herself as the Khaleesi (from Game of Thrones) and suggested that Ryan and Taylor Swift are her dragons.

Justin Baldoni claims Taylor Swift was involved in backing Blake Lively’s vision for It Ends With Us when he resisted some rewrites. Among the claims made in his 179-page complaint, Baldoni, 40, alleges that Swift, 35, and Reynolds, 48, pressured him into accepting one of Lively’s rewrites for the film. Christy Hall is credited as the screenwriter who adapted Colleen Hoover’s blockbuster novel.

In the pre-production phase, Lively allegedly asked to “take a pass” on the film’s rooftop scene, where her character Lily Bloom meets Baldoni’s Ryle Kincaid for the first time. Baldoni was “reluctant” to let her “rewrite this key scene,” per the complaint, “but “agreed to take a look at what she put together.”

Baldoni claims her version was “dramatically” different from how it was originally written, and after his “exceedingly mild resistance,” Lively “went silent for multiple days” and later said in an alleged text message that his reaction to her rewrite “didn’t feel great for me” — or to Reynolds and what Baldoni characterizes as “another megacelebrity friend.” A text message included in the filing reveals that “influential and wealthy” celebrity friend to be Swift.

Baldoni claimed he was “summoned” to an earlier meeting with Reynolds at their New York City penthouse where the pop superstar arrived and “began praising Lively’s script. Baldoni understood the subtext: he needed to comply with Lively’s direction for the script.”

Per the complaint, Baldoni felt he didn’t need “Reynolds and her megacelebrity friend to pressure him,” so he texted her that while her changes made the scene “so much more fun and interesting” he “would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor,” adding a playful emoji. Lively allegedly responded by comparing herself to the Game of Thrones character Khaleesi and that Reynolds and Swift are her two “dragons.”

Another alleged text from Lively included in the filing shows the actress referring to Reynolds, with whom she shares four kids and married in 2012, and Swift as her “Dance Moms level stage moms.”

“They are embarrassingly effusive,” she added per the alleged text messages, calling herself the “luckiest m—–f—er on the planet” to have them as her supporters and “most trusted partners. She allegedly added, “I think they wanted you and me to see how they felt about [the rewrites] because they’ve been by my side for far too many experiences where I’ve been overlooked.”

Lively, in the alleged text message, said to Baldoni: “If you ever get around to watching Game of Thrones, you’ll appreciate that I’m Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons. For better or worse, but usually for better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. you will too, I can promise you.”

[From People]

Even before the lawsuits started happening, back when Blake and Justin were separately promoting IEWU, the story about Ryan rewriting the rooftop/balcony scene came out, because Blake spoke about it openly in the press. People side-eyed it even then – why was Blake getting her husband to do an “unauthorized” rewrite on a crucial scene without the director’s knowledge? That was before we knew Blake was the Khaleesi and that Ryan and Taylor are her dragons. Separate from the allegations of sexual harassment, the way Blake and Ryan were throwing their weight around would have been a huge nightmare for any production and any director. And bringing Taylor Swift in to pressure Baldoni? LMAO.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images, Avalon Red.

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116 Responses to “Blake Lively in texts to Justin Baldoni: ‘I’m Khaleesi…I happen to have a few dragons’”

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  1. Eurydice says:

    I can’t tell you how grateful I am to Taylor Swift for inserting herself into this story. I know the timing is off, but if they could somehow drag Travis Kelse and the KC Chiefs into it, then we’d really have an operatic farce.

    • seraphina says:

      You took the words write off out of my mouth! This $hit$how is a movie begging to be made!

    • Mightymolly says:

      Operatic farce. Snort! This is absolutely the distraction I need right now. 🤣

    • Renee says:

      This courtcase about to embarrass all parties involved….I am ready with popcorn.

    • Deering24 says:

      🤣🤣🤣 Yep, sure didn’t see that coming…

    • AnnaSP says:

      I can’t imagine Taylor would be thrilled about being dragged into this. She’s shaken the mean girl image, but it’s coming right back around. Almost like…karma. Is it still the cat purring in your lap?

      • Tess says:

        IF – a big IF – all those emails are true, those emails painted Lively, her is husband and her friend as putting all the pressure, if not bullying Baldoni to do what Lively want him to do, then bragging about it. Lively seemed to be using the power of big celebrity of her husband and Taylor to make Baldoni submit to her demands. Spoilt woman whose celebrity power got to her head and her emails seemed to confirm it – IF those emails are in fact true.

  2. Barrett says:

    Seems like delusional,rich methodss in which she was going about professional processes to rewrite scenes. I have no doubt she has faced challenges as a women in the industry but she isnt evolving to handle them professionally and directly herself. I am sure there are professional agents, managers, etc who could be partnered with her when she is proposing ideas and not bringing in her husband and friend (who is like one of the most popular creative, pop musician right now). I feel conflicted like the struggle is real for women but we need to handle things directly and maturely for change.

    • Mayp says:

      💯💯💯

    • Tess says:

      IF Blake’s emails are to be believed to be real and true, then, those emails showed Lively to be exercising not only her huge ego, and to ask Baldoni, almost ambushing him by having Reynolds and Swift there to put pressure on Baldoni, if not bully him, into submission was nasty to me. She is going for an ego maniac vibe the way she employed her husband and he friend to make Baldoni agree. Not nice at all.

      • HillaryIsAlwaysRight says:

        Baldoni hired Lively for the name dropping opportunities / connections / PR that would come with her – her famous friends, a top box office husband, a major pop star best friend. He’s only complaining about being put in the same room with RR & TS now because Lively made his abuse public. I’m sure at the time he was more than happy to come meet one of the most famous pop stars in the world.

        And silent re-writes happen in films all the time. That’s what Carrie Fisher did for most of her writing work – fix scripts.

  3. Chaine says:

    Haha, this Khaleesi stuff is so cringe. But is it worth a lawsuit for $400 million? No, it’s the kind of thing you recount to your friends and laugh about with them for two minutes the day after it happens. And it’s nowhere near as offensive as making your employee perform a nude scene with your bff who is not even an actor sitting between her legs staring at her vaginal

    • Smart&Messy says:

      My thoughts exactly. The whole thing sounds like the extention of the campaign against her reputation via a lawsuit. It makes her sound cringey stupid (for good reason), but not any less of a victim.

      • Megan says:

        I think Blake is cringy and stupid and she and Ryan behaved in a very unprofessional manner, but that doesn’t give Baldoni’s the right to sexually harass her. Like one does not equal the other.

      • Tess says:

        IT actually made Lively sound like an ego maniac bully, who knows she has the power using her husband and her friend to make Baldoni agree to her demands. She did not sound like a nice person at all.

    • Kitten says:

      Ugh seriously shiver at how gross that was.
      And while the situation Baldoni’s lawsuit describes here is…beyond cringe and wholly believable given what we know about Blake and Ryan, it’s quite telling that his team is focusing on the writing and production of IEWU and not, ya know, the evidence she has of his inappropriate behavior. Very “look over here and talk about this” and judging by most of the comments on this site, it’s working.

      • Becks1 says:

        As was said in the other post – that’s because this is not his defense to the sexual harassment lawsuit.

      • Kitten says:

        His lawsuit alleges she knowingly invented false sexual harassment claims meant to destroy his reputation and bury the negative press attention she received surrounding the film’s release so he does address it though?

        He just dismisses it out of hand and puts the focus on her and her husband being tyrants to work with.

      • Becks1 says:

        @Kitten I think a lot of people on here are just confusing legal terms. I said in the other post that of course this is a general PR defense to her lawsuit. But its not the official defense/reply. That will be filed separately in that case. I say that because one of the issues the legal experts on here have with his lawsuit is that it doesn’t explicitly defend against all of the claims in BL’s lawsuit.

        That’s because that reply will be a separate filing in THAT suit.

      • Kitten says:

        Yes that makes sense, Becks–thanks for your insight.
        But it is obviously a deliberate legal tactic (and a smart one at that) to go on the offense first. If he had put out his reply before his countersuit then he’d be forced to address and defend against all of her claims which won’t be a comfortable position for him to be in.

      • Arhus says:

        Exactly, seems difficult to work with, but that is not lawsuit-level material.

      • Meg says:

        Is it just us who feel like this lawsuit is excessive and he won’t win? Or does Justin know this is BS but he hopes in the process all that’s being revealed from the lawsuit will paint Blake in a negative light and affect future career options for her? And Ryan frankly
        Bringing Taylor into this feels like he hopes they’ll settle quickly because she won’t want to be dragged into this

      • StillDouchesOfCambridge says:

        I’m glad to see the truth. The khalessi part is so fckin criiiiinge. So bully blake lively, as we already knew, wants what she wants and puts pressure over her colleages/director by flauting rich powerful people she knows so Justin understands that his livelyhood might be on the line and if he listens, he might profit from it. This sounds very very abusive. Ancient methods. Wow. Unprofessional. A clown show. I don’t think she’s gonna get her reputation back from this. She has so much more to lose.

      • Cee says:

        This isn’t in response to her suit this is his own suit against her, RR and her PR person.

        2 separate things.

        Both need to prove their allegations.

    • Nivz says:

      Chaine, this is not true based on his filing. The dr was played by a professional actor, who also happened to be known to Baldoni.

      It’s the second time I’m reading this claim about the dr, the other one was on a related story, and I read it on one of the pages of the filing, couldn’t tell you exactly which one.

    • ML says:

      Thank you, Chaine! JB according to BL’s lawsuit also spoke about a porn addiction, sex without consent, his (other male cast and crew allegedly too) penis, orgasm with his wife… so let’s concentrate on how the story is different from the source material and cringy use of language?
      Lots of movies veer away from the source. Snow White the Disney version is different from the tradwife necrophilia of Grimm. Disney changes lots for happy endings. Charlie and the Chocolate factory became Willy Wonka’s movie. Bridgerton the books have changed in the Netflix series–this happens all the time.
      As for Khaleesi, check out JB’s proposal to his wife. Also cringy.

    • Mtl.ex.pat says:

      @chaine – EXACTLY this. Straight out of the DARVO (and MAGA for that matter). Mock the victim, distract with smokescreens and get everyone to forget the real issue. Of course with internalized misogyny women are programmed to jump at any reason to disbelieve the woman and give the man a “break”.
      It’s not a single issue universe – Blake Lively can be cheesy, problematic and egomaniacal AND a victim of sexual harassment. The former doesnt cancel out the latter.

    • Turtledove says:

      “And it’s nowhere near as offensive as making your employee perform a nude scene with your bff who is not even an actor sitting between her legs staring at her vaginal”

      Ummmm..what? I definitely missed something.

    • CruzMom says:

      He actually addresses that specific event in the complaint. Apparently she (or her attorney) wrote the allegation in a way that suggests she was only wearing a small piece of fabric, but the language actually referred to what actors often wear in those scenes. And she was actually wearing black boxer briefs, a pregnancy suit and a hospital gown, and the actor that played the obstetrician was highly trained and qualified for the role. Anyway, BL may have genuinely felt vulnerable or exposed, or JB could be lying or omitting key details, but if what he is saying is true, then this would probably not be considered SH legally (which must be both subjective and objective).

  4. T says:

    Now that we’ve seen unaltered text messages from him, are people still claiming that he had power over her or are they finally going to admit that she was the harasser who had power over him? She was so arrogant in her power that she outed her husband as a scab. Ryan was so arrogant that after his wife’s behavior, he thought that he could bully Justin into allowing him to buy his rights for the additional books. Are you going to open the discussion on why certain women are supposed to be believed although evidence proves that they may be lying?

    • Kitten says:

      You mean the texts that are screenshot with no timestamp that have clearly deleted texts in-between? You mean the ones where his team says that they’re gonna do everything they can to bury her and then abruptly switch to “no don’t do anything mean” over and over again as if they suddenly realized it’s not smart to put that shit in writing?

      In stark contrast Lively provided her texts via an extractor program, all of which are date and timestamped. It’s almost like one person is providing texts for an internet audience and another is actually abiding by typical standards of the court.

      • T says:

        The full text conversation will be released in the discovery phase. This isn’t a gotcha issue for me. We’ll eventually find out who released the unaltered texts.

    • ML says:

      T, Please read the legal documents. You’re spouting pure JB PR.

      • T says:

        I’ll let you read both documents. I was raised in a family of lawyers. I have critical thinking skills. She hasn’t provided any concrete evidence that makes her believable in my eyes. She filled a complaint for public opinion to be released by the NYT. Now she’s filing a lawsuit. Justin has provided enough evidence to contradict her. Blake lied in her complaint and on video about multiple issues that she complains about. No intimacy coordinator. Lie. They showed her pornography. It was a birthing video use to plan a scene because she refused to meet with an intimacy coordinator. Lie. Yet it was so bad that nobody had provided a complaint to SAG? There is no mention that her agent, attorney, or manager was on set to advocate for her. The only person that we know of was her husband who we find out wanted to buy Justin out of the future book rights. I’ll let you start putting the current facts together. There is audio and video contradicting her. She appears to be the aggressor with power and she re-enforces it in the email that she sent him. She uses her relationship with Ryan and Taylor to get what she wants. I think Ryan and Blake will settle because during discovery phase their SAG violations will come to light which is going to cause them even more problems.

      • Mtl.ex.pat says:

        @T -you say you come from a family of lawyers. Are you suggesting their knowledge rubbed off on you or something?What a peculiar thing to say. Are you a lawyer?

      • Hannah1 says:

        @T —Totally agree. Based on what is already out, the direction this will take as further evidence is revealed seems clear. Lively is doing a disservice to all women who actually experience a power imbalance and need to deal with SH and SA. But she doesn’t care about them any more than she cared about victims of DV.

        One point: as I understand it, JB’s lawyer said she was shown a STILL from the birthing video and managed to characterize that as ‘pornographic’ SH.

        And @Mtl.ex.pat — yes, one can absorb a lawyer’s way of analyzing arguments, claims and evidence by being constantly surrounded by them and their discussions. Happens in other fields as well. You can absorb general methods as well as specific knowledge e.g. coming from a family of plumbers or car mechanics or doctors

    • luciophe says:

      I totally agree with you, at some point we have to believe that both men and women can lie and abuse their power. If sexual harassment was the issue, why was the penthouse meeting about the rewrites. We can’t just believe women blindly when we know that is sometimes weaponized when women make public mistakes.

    • Jab says:

      Thank you for saying. The Blake defenders will blindly fight for her and scream “Read her complaints!!!” Yet no actual evidence is provided. When Justin shows receipts after receipt in his lawsuit against NYT the Blake defenders seem to have not gotten the chance the read his lawsuit. Instead they scream “he’s not defending himself against the sexual harassing tho!!!”. As other ppl with legal background have pointed outout-he hasn’t provided his defense on those claims because that’s a separate case which no doubt he’ll provide a defense for. But no-Blake defenders will not wait to see and let the evidence speak for itself…

    • Cee says:

      She can be a nightmare to work with and use her power to get whatever she wants, with her husband’s backing of course, and he can still be a harrasser.

      There are now 2 separate suits and they both have to prove the allegations against the other.

      Let’s hold our breaths. 2 things can be right at once – she pressured him and grasped for control of the film, and he created a toxic environment too.

    • Karmaflower says:

      My question is per the dates or timestamps in any evidence JB’s counter suit details/alleges did he establishes if her on set behavior that she was being sexually harassed by him as stated/alleged in BL’s suit start BEFORE or AFTER he chose not to go with the unsolicited rewrites he was (imo) unprofessionally invited to BL’s house where unbeknownst to him RR & TS were present and verbally in favor of her rewrites? He should have been told she was having TS there & her friend, and he should have been allowed to bring a plus one. They could have had a lovely dinner. She could have said professionally she really loved this rewrite, and given him time to read it & set up a meeting in a professional setting. If all of her behavior started after he said no (especially if he was or felt pressured to read it there) it’s not that I don’t believe her allegations. I have to hear her side. But I’m also going to see dates, times, the shoot schedule daily, the specific complaints made by her & when, & to whom. If there is even a sliver of proof to even ONE of her claims, I side with her, but professionally believe she needs help speaking up, reporting everything in a timely manner, some training in people skills or on set stuff w her agent or her representative agency to protect herself moving forward. I would never dismiss a claim of SH without hearing both sides. I’m not on the jury or in that state. They should both be glad of this.

  5. sevenblue says:

    This reminds me of some of his PR people were discussing to add Taylor Swift into the narrative they were disseminating against Blake on social media (Blake is a mean girl hanging out with other mean girls like Taylor). I hope, the swifties make him eat glass, that is all I am gonna say.

    • FancyPants says:

      I’m willing to bet Taylor Swift would like to be excluded from this narrative.

      • Atticus says:

        Fancypants – 1000% agree on this point. Will be interesting to see if Taylor’s pap walks with Blake suddenly become less frequent…

      • sevenblue says:

        @FancyPants, Taylor experienced the sexual harassment and the legal process of getting sued by the harasser herself. I am sure, she is supporting her friend in this.

    • Nivz says:

      It’s really early in the morning, and I don’t really like it, but the tide is turning in my own head, and clearly, for some others too.

      It’s hard to break away from a believe women approach, but jeez, he is refuting her accusations in his filing more than adequately and my arguments against him are ringing a little hollow.

      And I’m starting to feel uncomfortable with people calling him an abuser or that he “smeared” her.

      • Andy Dufresne says:

        @Nivz, I’m with you on this one. Nevertheless, no one will come out of this unscathed.

      • sevenblue says:

        @Nivz, I mean you can think that. You can also look at almost all the women working with Justin are supporting Blake and denouncing Justin. I am not gonna feel bad about a man who is actively smearing Blake. Spoiler alert, Blake has always been a sh*tty person, but people grew a collective hate-boner for her after the smearing campaign began. So, yeah it is working like a charm.

      • Arizona says:

        @Nivz he hasn’t refuted any of her claims in an acceptable manner. he showed her a video of his wife giving birth – even in the context of it being information about a scene, that IS sexual harassment. not to mention, she’s given birth four times, I think she understands how it works lol.

        it also doesn’t touch on the fact that ALL of her costars on this film, make AND female, have wholly supported her in these claims (including the guy who played her other love interest that specifically told people to read her complaint).

        people, including the commenters on this site, are falling for the exact same playbook that has been used on Meghan and Amber, simply because they were predisposed to dislike Blake (and Taylor, for that matter), and it’s ironic that they don’t even recognize it.

        I have always been pro-Blake and pro-Amber online, and much like during the Depp trial, me social media is now flooded by people trying to convince me Blake is the problem. almost like the PR firm is using the same tactics that worked for them last time.

        it takes a modicum of common sense to see this for what it is. Lainey at LaineyGossip has a much more comprehensive and inside baseball analysis of this situation.

      • Andy Dufresne says:

        @Arizona, at some point both men and women have to be accountable for their actions. Both can lie and abuse their power. We need to use our critical thinking and not just side with Blake just because she’s a woman.

      • Cee says:

        @Arizona – this is a SEPARATE suit, this is not a response to HER suit against HIM.
        The concerns and allegations are of a different nature.

      • StillDouchesOfCambridge says:

        @sevenblue I find that the colleagues supporting blake in this case is irrelevant. None of them have come forward, the support is based on who follows or unfollowed someone on IG. The criiiinge kalheesi comment was probably not the first time she uses her power to sway, scare ot bully people in the business on her side to get what she wants and to make people nervous about what could happen if they’re not on her side…

      • Kitten says:

        Agree that both men and women can abuse power but it’s rather sexist to accuse women of siding with Blake solely because she’s a woman and not because she’s provided a pretty solid evidence trail documenting JB’s behavior on-set.

        And the thing is, he’s been open in the past about his p*rn addiction so what she says here is easily-believable– whether or not her team can provide witnesses to corroborate that particular allegation. IMO if she can credibly prove that he did that or some of the other more serious allegations then he is at best unprofessional and at worst, a sexual harasser. All this talk about how this is his lawsuit and he hasn’t yet responded to her claims of sexual harassment blah blah blah…. yet a shocking number of people here have already decided that he doesn’t have to answer to those claims for them to be Team Justin.

        I’ll wait to see how he addresses EACH sexual harassment allegation because his lawsuit merely dismisses them as false and an attempt to smear his reputation. Sorry but that doesn’t effectively disprove every single allegation in her lawsuit.

      • sevenblue says:

        @StillDouchesOfCambridge, not just actors, his podcast partner (a woman) also dropped him. One of the actors came forward and urged people to read Blake’s lawsuit. It is apparent they are all supporting her in this. We weren’t there. Imo, they were told not to speak on it in public since Blake was planning to sue him.

      • Arizona says:

        @Andy Dufresne I didn’t just believe her because she’s a woman, because I am fully aware that women will also lie and manipulate. I believed her based on what she has put out there versus him.

        I recommend that you read both Lainey and Pajiba’s analysis of this, and how this filing is essentially full of gossip so people will continue to believe she’s just a mean girl…as you are doing. it’s classic DARVO. here he is, trying to convince you he’s the real victim while also sidestepping the very real sexual harassment claims. it’s also classic tactics for this PR firm.

        also @StillDuchess, Colleen Hoover, Jenny Slate, and Brandon Sklenar all released statements after she filed her lawsuit in support of her. Brandon in particular urged people to read the full filing. so this is not just people deciding to unfollow him.

    • ML says:

      SevenBlue, It is from his PR. It was one of their crisis plans to attack BL.

    • GJ says:

      @sevenblue This is exactly from his and his PR’s team playbook from last summer where he made his intentions known ( he wanted to “bury her”) and his desire to bring Taylor into his PR campaign. And I’m confused as to how Taylor bullied him. Is it solely based on comments made to him from Blake about how Taylor liked her rewrites? Or did Taylor deal with Baldoni directly and expressed her thoughts about the rewrites in a bullying fashion? And how do these alleged allegations against Taylor support a legal cause of action that Blake engaged in civil wrongdoing?

  6. Savu says:

    Speaking on this one thing and this one thing only: it is SO CRINGE, omg.

    • Smart&Messy says:

      It is cringe!! Bringing in Taylor is super juvenile for everyone involved. I’m not entirely surprised that Blake and Taylor would do this, but Ryan?? What was he thinking allowing TS to meddle like that and in his presence too!!
      That said, I’ve been waiting for it to come to the gossippy part. I was not interested in following the legal drama.

    • Becks1 says:

      yeah, taking this tidbit and just considering it on its own – outside of the multiple lawsuits etc – and omg it is so cringe. She brought Taylor Swift in as a kind of “look at what powerful friends I have” move?!?! oh lordy. Reynolds I can understand more – he’s a hollywood star, he’s her husband, it sounds like he was too involved in this but lets accept the wording that he was there to make sure Blake was taken seriously and heard and not pushed around (remember this meeting is before the “big” one where he “berated” JB) – but Taylor Swift being there was purely to intimidate JB into letting Blake have her way.

      oh my. Messy messy messy.

    • Kitten says:

      Is it too strong to call it nightmare fuel lol?

      Regardless of the fact that I believe this guy acted inappropriately on-set, it is really hard to read about a meeting where Taylor Fucking Swift was brought in to essentially consult on a movie she has virtually no involvement with. And if his depiction is true, I can understand why he’d be resentful because what he describes definitely feels like a professional ambush.

  7. Steph says:

    Don’t actors get the scripts before signing the contacts? If she didn’t line the scene she should have brought that up before she signed on.

    • Jais says:

      I don’t think it always happens like that and scripts change. But seeing as they were rewriting scenes, I can see why he would have wanted them to read the source material. At the end of the day, it’s separate from the SH claims though and doesn’t disprove them.

    • Veronica S. says:

      They get pages or initial drafts, but those always change. There’s plenty that works in a written medium that may not translate to screen. Rewrites are the least surprising thing to happen to a script, though I’d say particularly so with Colleen Hoover since the source material is pretty weak to begin with. I’ve ready enough of her books to say the writing ranges from mediocre to bad.

  8. LeonsMomma says:

    Christy Hall is the screenwriter. So Blake’s wanting to be heard as a woman lessens (to me, at least) as she is also walking all over another woman. I think Christy Hall is wisely staying out of this (as far as I can tell.) But it has to be humiliating to find out that the star and her husband are rewriting your work and the edits also are an alteration of her work (It happens all the time to screenplays, I know, but I think to have it revealed so publicly has to be hard.) Colleen Hoover, the author of the book, seems so much of a fan girl that if Blake/Ryan had completely rewrote everything from book and screenplay, she would still be fawning all over them.

    This, though, does not take away from the harassment Blake felt — but tbh, I am beginning to wonder if she was manipulating the situation. (And that thing about Nicepool is just messed up.)

    • Dizzy says:

      Blake “didnt read the book” Lively is now what I’ll call her.

      • IFoxi says:

        Don’t forget about Elijah “didnt read LOTR before starring as Frodo” Wood. And many, many other actors. It’s really not a big deal.

    • Lucy says:

      Literally no one thought Nicepool was Baldoni until he filed all this. The fact he can’t see that he’s a cliche, and that Nicepool felt pointed to him because he’s a cliche and a narcissist is pretty telling. Maybe Ryan did repeat stuff he said verbatim, but who would know that? There were no headlines about nice pool being patterned off of anyone, it’s a gag in a much bigger movie. Baldoni and Blake might have both met their nemesis in each other, but I’m still on the lady’s side because he is DARVO ing so hard.

    • AD says:

      Bingo! You hit the nail on the head. That is what I thought too. Her machinations was all with one goal so her husband can buy the rights to produce sequels.
      She is not coming across as a sympathetic character but a terror to work with. Throwing her weight around with intention of intimidating someone. Now I know why he got himself a PR firm. The rumors started before the movie was out. Would I do the same thing? Yup!
      I

      • likethedirection says:

        That’s not at all how book rights work. I have worked on many similar deals. Either Justin’s company already optioned them, in which case the option will eventually run out — even if he *purchased* the rights they will run out, but after a longer period. This is to protect authors from someone purchasing their books and then not actually developing them. Or the rights are available, and Blake and Ryan can option or purchase them.

        Now, if Justin does have the rights to the sequel, which I think is likely, he could definitely run out the clock such that enough time will pass that a sequel no longer seems financially viable. Whether the lawsuits between Blake and JB could give Colleen Hoover ammo to wriggle out of the option such that Blake can pick it up is above my pay grade. (Again, assuming that JB has the rights currently.)

      • Mirror says:

        He does have the right to the sequel and ryan in oct of last year said that he would like to buy it from justin but justin is refusing to sell it to them. Ryan has the habit of stealing deadpool from his director.

  9. ariel says:

    How DARVO works
    Deny: The person denies the accusations made against them.
    Attack: The person attacks the accuser to make them look bad.
    Reverse Victim and Offender: The person pretends to be the victim and makes the accuser seem like the real problem.

    And a lot of people fall for it.
    This is about sexual harassment.
    Not about how “annoying” the victim is.

    He does not refute- just says it was a misunderstanding or it never happened.

    It makes me sad how many people are excited to tear a woman down.

    • sevenblue says:

      lol. Even his PR team said how easy people are tearing a woman down and they were the ones orchestrating it 😭😭

      • superashes says:

        Yeah. It is wild to see comments parsing how she went about a screen rewrite on here and chastising her to do better, with people just blowing past the fact that this guy (A) pretty clearly harassed her on set to the point he had to sign a list of conditions to resume filming (which he now seems to be claiming he was bullied into signing), and also (B) went on to gratuitously hire the PR Team for Johnny Depp in an effort to “bury” her online specifically because he thought it was possible his harassment of her could potentially be made public and he wanted to discredit her in advance. People knowing these things are just ignoring them in service of mocking her over cringe texts. This is just sad, sad. NGL. On this website of all places.

        Now he is suing her for what? Playing some weird game of 4-d chess? One where she somehow tricked him into acknowledging misconduct so that she would later be able to sue him for his specific task of hiring a PR firm to ruin her reputation? She predicted he was going to do all that?

        None of his lawsuit hangs together unless you accept as fact that he legitimately was inappropriate, and this idea that she isolated an entire cast and crew makes no sense. Did she also somehow get his podcasting buddy to side with her as well? All in service of some ambiguous takedown play that was rolled out in anticipation of him later hiring PR gurus to damage her online? The whole thing is ridiculous.

        All this kind of reporting does is achieve the task he hired his PR firm for in the first place, which was to have breathless scattershot reporting of random interesting details specifically to give the internet a million reasons to poke fun at her. Because they know that the time spent poking fun at her over cringe Khaleesi nonsense is time not spent considering the fact that this guy is credibly alleged to, among other things, have (1) admitted to her that he didn’t always get consent from women before sex, (2) pretended to channel her deceased father, (3) had his billionaire funder go on set and just remain there, while she was naked from the waist down and begging for someone to give her more cover,

      • T says:

        Am I missing something? I thought I read the text from his PR people basically joking about how social media has turned against her without them getting involved. The hate against her was organic because of her behavior. They were focused on protecting him from the narrative that her team was portraying about him. The text from her complaint and his NYT lawsuit conflict. Hers is a snippet of the full conversation. Who is ready to apply the same narrative to Blake? She was the one possibly harassing him. Her team was the one working to defame him because she didn’t get her way. She used her husband and friend to manipulate Justin. Justin wouldn’t sell his rights to the follow up books so they convinced his agent to drop him and filed a complaint to damage his reputation. Now, he’s the victim of a smear campaign and instead of staying silent decided to fight back.

    • GJ says:

      @Ariel, @sevenblue This is right out of his and team’s playbook from this past summer. His allegations might be fun gossip fodder for some but it doesn’t rise to civil wrongdoing. What he describes is a dysfunctional work environment but not behavior that rises to being legally actionable.

    • megs283 says:

      Right, why are we giving him the time of day? Blake has some serious allegations against him involving sexual harassment and intimidation. This is a nothingburger. She’s an actress, and she is dramatic. Water is wet.

  10. Amy says:

    Hard to think of anyone who reminds me less of Khaleesi than Blake Lively

  11. T says:

    Am I missing something? I thought I read the text from his PR people basically joking about how social media has turned against her without them getting involved. The hate against her was organic because of her behavior. They were focused on protecting him from the narrative that her team was portraying about him. The text from her complaint and his NYT lawsuit conflict. Hers is a snippet of the full conversation. Who is ready to apply the same narrative to Blake? She was the one possibly harassing him. Her team was the one working to defame him because she didn’t get her way. She used her husband and friend to manipulate Justin. Justin wouldn’t sell his rights to the follow up books so they convinced his agent to drop him and filed a complaint to damage his reputation. Now, he’s the victim of a smear campaign and instead of staying silent decided to fight back.

  12. Mrs. Smith says:

    ALL of this is so hilariously bad and I love it. I can’t wait for more text message reveals if we’re already getting ‘I’m Khaleesi’ (OMG what?!). 🤣🍿🤣🍿

  13. Sandy C. says:

    Read the whole lawsuit! The fact that Blake and Baldoni were friendly enough to write cutesy texts, including Blake mentioning SUPPOSITORIES unsolicited, is wild! So much going on here!

  14. julie jules says:

    Khalessi LMAO these celebs are hilarious. 9/10ths of them are just straight up insane. Not serious people.

  15. Chelsea says:

    I was expecting the tone of these texts to be more aggressive or threatening given the headline but instead it’s just cringey. This is obviously not the way you should go about getting your ideas across but I feel like the point of this stuff about Ryan’s presence is to give people the perception that they wanted Justin out of the way so she made up harassment claims with Sony to get more control but there is nothing I’ve seen in any of these news stories to suggest her disagreements with him over the script reached that level. All of the correspondence seems cordial; it doesn’t really appear that Ryan in particular became hostile until after some of the complaints that she had about Justin’s comments and extracurriculars on set happened. This all just seems to be attempts to muddy the water on her character which is obviously working on a lot of people (like it always does against women).

  16. FashionMaven says:

    I see a LOT of new commenters I’ve never seen here who are definitely drinking the Baldoni DARVO kool-aid. A lot of us have been here watching celebitchy’s coverage of the smear campaign against Meghan Markle by the royals and their media for years and we can see it here too. Maybe some of yall Baldoni-sympathizers are genuine, but I don’t think so.

    I refuse to fall for his propaganda. These texts are one sided, with zero timestamps and out of context. It’s cringe, yes, but how does that equate to sexual harassment? Never mind that the women from Baldoni’s own company have sided with Blake.

    God the misogyny in some of these comments grasping and reaching at “Blake was cringe so I don’t believe her!” is a gross indictment of our society. No wonder Trump got re-elected, 🙁

    This is a WEAK smear attempt by Baldoni and I hope the courts bury HIM.

    • jbones says:

      Yah, it’s obvious there are some JB PR posts today.

      However, I also don’t think anyone should be shamed for having an opinion that’s fueled by concerns of Blake’s character. Is she shitty enough to twist truths to become a SH victim? A video of a live birth is not pornography, for example.

      We shouldn’t have to believe ANYONE just because they were born with a vagina. That’s discrimination and it’s not rational.

      • Arizona says:

        showing someone a nude video that they do not want to see at their workplace is absolutely inappropriate and sexual harassment, regardless of if it’s someone giving birth or not. surely we can understand how that’s not okay.

        I’ve been an HR Director for over a decade now and this would ABSOLUTELY classify as sexual harassment if she was uncomfortable. not to mention, he didn’t need to show it to her to explain things. not to mention, she’s given birth FOUR TIMES. it’s not like she doesn’t understand how it works.

  17. Flamingo says:

    I know there are going to be a thousand posts and a thousand different opinions on them. But a lawsuit is just giving the ‘best of’ for the plaintiff. So, I don’t put too much weight on what they just want the public to see.

    I just want a trial, and I want it livestreamed. And my jaw will hit the floor if Taylor Swift is called as a witness.

    Both sides have their story to tell. It’s a messy, grey area mudslinging. And I am here for it. God, I wish I could be a juror on that trial if it goes that far and not settling between the parties involved.

  18. Sasha says:

    As a woman and former victim my question is: why not rephrase from “believe women no matter what” to “take all accusations seriously and investigate fully”? I have never been okay with the way this has been portrayed. I’m iffish on Lively’s claims but still think they should be investigated of course. But I’m not going to tear down this man Baldoni either without the full facts. It’s so wrong the way this is playing out from all sides. All parties involved are awful. On a side note, they’re both doing an amazing job at destroying their careers. I hate that Swift was brought into this because she’s insufferable and exhausting.

  19. Robert Wright says:

    Could anyone explain how the writing credits went from “My husband wrote the rooftop scene” to “I wrote the rooftop scene”? Lying about this before any of the public allegations were made is suspect to me.. doesn’t that show that she is willing to lie publicly about things? I mean, if she wants the credit for writing that scene so much NOW, why was she so willing to give it to her husband then? And I have to say that if you brought Taylor Swift in as an intimidation tactic, it would work on almost everyone. No one survives an encounter with her fans. That stuff never ends, not even after decades….

    • CruzMom says:

      Pet JB’s complaint, BL told JB she rewrote the scene at the time, then publicly stated RR rewrote the scene during an interview.

  20. Monlette says:

    A script in Hollywood is not set in stone. It is more of a rough draft. There is almost always rewrites and improvising during shooting. Most actors don’t even bother to learn their lines for this reason.
    (In fact some projects don’t even have scripts when they start shooting. It’s like “let’s film Brad Pitt skydiving from the Statue of Liberty to show investors.)
    So if it was clear from the script the actress would have to do something that she would find objectionable or would damage her career, such as full nudity or racist language, she would object, but demanding that scenes be fine tuned to her liking, is typically not done until after signing.

  21. Ann says:

    I suggest everyone read LaineyGossip’s article on the situation which provides much better coverage than anything above
    https://www.laineygossip.com/internet-responds-to-justin-baldoni-lawsuit-against-blake-lively-ryan-reynolds-exactly-as-he-hoped-it-would/80502

    • Kitten says:

      Great read-thanks for sharing!

      Forgot that BL’s suit claims that they will prove that other female actresses had their own negative experiences with JB.

      “Especially since, as previously noted, so many of those unnecessary details he includes in his filing are tailored to the appetite preferences of those who already hate Blake. They believe she’s power-hungry, throws her influence around, insensitive, and stupid. So in his lawsuit he’s serving up gossip that feeds that hunger.”

      Lainey predicted this comment section lol.

    • sevenblue says:

      Lainey is so two-faced giving Meghan Markle as an example of the organized negative social media campaign while publishing twisted articles about her with derangers talking points.

      • Jais says:

        I mean…

      • Meredith says:

        I find Lainey pretty fair regarding Meghan. I think she started out fawning a bit more and got called out for it because they knew each other from Toronto, so she may have over corrected a tad to show she is unbiased. That’s the lens through which I read her posts about Meghan.

      • Arizona says:

        I honestly think the way people react here to the slightest criticism of Meghan is… odd. Lainey doesn’t fawn over her but she’s rarely critical of her. it’s okay to understand there’s nuance.

        and I agree that Lainey’s coverage of this issue is much more balanced than here, which is disappointing.

      • sevenblue says:

        @Arizona, I am not talking about the articles Lainey wrote, but she publishes the articles written by others full with lies and DM points. There is a clear line between being critical and contributing to the lies told about a person for years now. That is why it is ironic she is making a point to point out the negative campaign against Meghan (while defending a white woman, may I add) and getting clicks with publishing hateful articles about her. Kaiser wrote articles criticizing H&M’s actions, that is not the same with the articles on Lainey’s blog.

      • Jais says:

        To me, it’s fair to criticize but a gossip site has to be careful about repeating narratives from a smear campaign, in Meghan’s case especially from the BM. What applies to Blake has to consistently apply to Meghan. There are times Lainey has criticized but it hasn’t necessarily been a tabloid talking point and fine I might agree or not agree but that’s fair. But there have also been times where articles on that site have repeated tabloid talking points from the smear campaign in regards to the Sussexes. Look, nothing’s perfect and I don’t think it should be haters v fans but if I see an eye-rolling narrative that clearly originated from a tabloid I’m gonna say something🤷‍♀️

      • Golly Gee says:

        @Meredith, Lainey has made a point of saying that she has met Meghan only once at a dinner and they talked for about 10 minutes mostly about beagles.

  22. Veronica S. says:

    So is he actually going to address the harassment claims or continue deflecting? Or are we just going to keep playing into the strategy of him taking things out of context to make her look bad so he can get away with not being pressed further on the issue?

    Like, show me that full text conversation, piece for piece, leading up to that exchange. She’s wealthy and out of touch, sure. He’s still not convinced me he’s the victim, though.

    • Ray says:

      He literally goes point by point over the 17 items in his lawsuit. Headlines won’t tell you the whole story. Not everything is as juicy as Taylor Swift as a dragon.

  23. T says:

    Can we discuss the double standard. When Blake claimed that Justin inappropriately kissed her, everyone was on board with saying he harassed her. Now that we found out that she was the one kissing him inappropriately, you don’t believe he was harassed. When Blake used her billionaire friend and husband to intimidate Justin, no push back. Now that Blake is accusing Justin’s billionaire backer of supporting him, he continues to harassing. She claims there was no intimacy coordinator. He’s a harasser. We find out there was an intimacy coordinator but she refused to meet with her and she was caught lying. He still harassed her. She claim that she was naked and exposed with only a thin fabric covering her and his friend was looking at her. He harassed her. There is video evidence through the daily that contradicts her by showing that she was actually wearing a bodysuit, black shorts and a hospital gown. He still harassed her. She smears him. It’s ok. She accuses him of smearing her; he’s harassing her. She’s well known, has more industry connection, makes demands of him and yet we’re supposed to view her as the victim. Even after reading her email basically implying that her powerful husband and friend are her dragons, she’s supposed to be the victim. There has not be negative press about him until he worked with her.

    • sevenblue says:

      She is not smearing him, she is suing him. He started the smear campaign with the Depp’s PR team he hired. That is not what an innocent man does, that is what a guilty man does in order to discredit his victim.

      • Jais says:

        Hiring Depp’s team has always been a sketchy red flag move. I mean I’m assuming there are in fact other pr teams in the business. A guy who claims to be a feminist does not work with the people responsible for what Depp did to Amber imo.

    • Veronica S. says:

      Almost like it’s a common PR tactic to purposefully amplify certain dramatic gossip pieces to deflect from more serious allegations, eh?

      We’ll see how this pans out in court. I started out assuming this was just two egotistical Hollywood stars knocking heads, myself, but at the core of this battle is a fundamental contradiction: a man who claims to support women and be a feminist who hired a PR machine that specifically exploited social media misogyny to take down his female costar.

      At turn end of the day, you can argue Lively may be overstating things, you can argue that she’s an ass (it’s Hollywood, so she probably is), but that fundamental fact of his own actions, specifically in contradiction to what he claims to stand for, remains. It tells me a lot about him, about the kind of man he is, that feminism is only convenient to him when it doesn’t involve a woman he dislikes.

  24. LittleSilverBoulder says:

    Amplifying cringe content is playing directly into Justin’s hands. His filing is a “gossip goldmine” on purpose – to flood the media with examples of Blake being hard to root for because if she’s not likable then the consensus seems to be she’s not believable. His team has poisoned the well and this site is passing out glasses of water. Don’t drink it.

    • Meredith says:

      Yes. My take: he’s trying to win the PR battle because he knows the facts are against him in the harassment lawsuit. Classic tactics— hopefully at some point they will stop working but I’m not convinced we are there yet as a society. Generally I think jurors are VERY good at their duties but when litigants are famous it can create unconscious or conscious bias.

    • Arizona says:

      yes. Amber being “unlikeable” was also why it was so easy for people to decide SHE was the actual abuser. it’s BS.

    • MoxieMox says:

      Couldn’t agree more.

  25. Celeste says:

    Why would anyone want to work with any of these people ever again after all this? If a fraction of what either of them is saying is true then that’s all the info you need to stay away. It’s all just gross.

  26. Liz says:

    Idk, Baldoni was pressured by Lively from the very beginning, he knew who was involved (Swift and Reynolds) and he still sexually harassed her? I mean only if he had nothing left to lose ….

  27. Yawn says:

    Ryan R and Blake are not going to come out of this very well. They’re already set for life; now, do a us a favour and stop making your crappy films! (Ryan can be a decent actor in dramatic roles but he wants those hits and picks horrors, including Deadpool.)

  28. Denguy says:

    At the end of the day, Khaleesi was killed because of her destructive thirst for power.

  29. MoxieMox says:

    He sexually harassed her to the point they needed a signed document outlining appropriate behavior during production… and she had Taylor Swift tell him her script ideas were great.