Blake Lively is still talking. She’s still promoting The Age of Adaline, which is already out in theaters. It’s made more than $15 million so far domestically. Which is not Marvel money, but it’s somewhat respectable for Blake in her first film role in years. The press around Blake would make you believe that she’s this major movie star, up for all of the big roles, battling it out with Angelina Jolie, Cate Blanchett and Scarlett Johansson for the juicy parts. The reality is… she’s an ambitious TV Girl with a great publicist. Which goes pretty far, but not Jolie/ScarJo territory. Anyway, Blake has a new interview with Stylist – you can read the full piece here. I’ve carved out some highlights of just a some stuff I found interesting. Like, I couldn’t care less about Blake’s thoughts on e-commerce, even though she’s now an “expert” because of Preserve. My highlights:
Motherhood surprises: “Just realising that it is all going to be OK. I remember leaving the hospital thinking: ‘I have no idea what I am doing. I have a life in my hands and I’m not equipped to do this, because I don’t have the knowledge I need to take care of the most precious, fragile thing in the world.’ It felt like being a passenger on a plane and being told: “By the way, now you are going to be piloting the plane.” But then you take her home and you figure it out. Sometimes you don’t figure it out and even that is a whole new experience.
She’s making people wait: “It is tough because when you are looking at your child and she’s laughing, it’s hard to do anything else. And it means making people wait while you feed your baby. That sucks, because everyone thinks you are just being a diva. My parents are pretty much the nannies…They haven’t moved in, but they visit for long periods of time and then they’ll go away and make us beg them to come back.
Looking forward to aging: “Right now I am really looking forward to getting older. The older I’ve got, the more enriched my life has become, from a great childhood with my family, to moving to New York, getting married and having a baby. But ask me in 10 years when I get my crow’s feet… or maybe two years, oh my god! I have learned that until you experience something, it’s hard to get on your soapbox and talk about it.
Whether she’s ‘old-fashioned’: “Yes I am. I only listen to old music. I love Billie Holiday, Chet Baker, Edith Piaf and Josephine Baker. I love fashion of times past, I like modern trends too, but I’m not good about keeping up with them.”
The idea of being a stay-at-home-mom: “It is great to be a mother and a professional and a wife and a daughter, but to choose only one of those things is also incredible. I love being with my niece and baking with her; I also love it when my niece wants to get out there and take the boys down. We’ll take them down together in a game of soccer or go-kart racing. I like being a woman and everything that means for me.”
The changing landscape for women: “Look at what is happening with Hillary Clinton, it’s something to be very proud of. It’s so uplifting. But the fact that we have to be proud of this advancement is a bit upsetting. I think whatever side you stand on, the fact that there’s never been a woman leading this country where there are women leading households and leading companies, is a bit upsetting. What makes people think a man is more equipped to do that than a woman? Nothing.
Her dream: “I have a dream to go to Harvard Business School and one of these days I will do that… in my spare time!”
Harvard Business School? Eh, weirder things have happened. What I find funny is that before Blake launched Preserve, she teased it in many, many interviews and promised that it would be unlike anything we had ever seen, that it would be utterly unique and special. And then when she launched her site, it was just a run-of-the-mill shopping site for twee-precious-hipster stuff, interspersed with poorly written mini-essays about how quaint it was when people could still own slaves. And all of the press around Blake this month, as she promotes her film, has basically said that Preserve is just a budget version of Goop. Every single interview name-checks Goop!! It’s amazing. So yeah, maybe she needs some additional education. Or something.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Goop n.2…even more annoying than the original.
But you can actually find stuff on GOOP and the site’s pleasant to look at (even though I’d never buy a $500 tea towel). Preserve’s colours are all wrong and the frames are annoying. And the essays are SO overwritten. Too busy and too much “authenticity” for me. Blake’s a super consumerist. Too much. Martha Stewart, her idol, is at least practical, not randomly whimsical.
Oh yes, Preserve’s writing is so contrived!
Oh, brother.
Right? Sometimes I wonder why celebrities with no post-secondary education at all, namecheck the biggest and best schools as though it’s just a question of finding time to show up. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure Harvard Business School is hard to get into, and the admissions department won’t just put you on the list because you were once on Gossip Girl.
Yes I agree. She thinks because of her name and her “company” (which is all the work of other people and her just bringing in some ideas, and the company STILL sucks – it has no core identity and the website sucks on a UX level) she’ll get accepted right away. I sure as hell hope she isn’t getting in there. Many people her age and younger have accomplished tons of shit ON THEIR OWN WITHOUT ALL THAT CASH and are never accepted. I really want to go but it will probably remain a dream for me.
Tyra Banks graduated from Harvard Business School’s extension program for business executives but she loves to say she graduated from the university, which is not true. Perhaps Blake Lively has applied to the same program but is tweaking to get people talking.
I wonder if she realizes you have to actually have a bachelors degree before you can attend Harvard Business School, which is a graduate program?
Angelina Jolie as a star is in a realm of her own.
Funny enough, ScarJo used to be constantly compared to her former co-star, the Oscar winning Natalie Portman. Right down to people saying she copied Portman in bagging a French husband.
(Wonder why the comparisons are now with TV girl Blake)
I’ve never read anyone or Blake herself imply she was on that level
The closest was Jennifer Aniston as in a TV Star, with great hair, who starred in some high profile films.
But it makes good copy I suppose.
For a little while there, her name was in the mix for some of the most high profile female parts (her agent was clearly taking the Jessica Biel approach). At one point she was even reading for Gravity, when ScarJo was not only going for it as well but was still married to Ryan Reynolds.
Blake apparently has a lot of personal charisma, which must really help her make connections but doesnt seem to translate into other media.
her PR people were very hard at work in 2010-11 implying exactly that, that she was some soon-to-break-out star who was on the level of actual Oscar nominees/breakout stars like Carey Mulligan and Emma Stone, one audition away from the big one etc etc. But most of the attempts to make her happen in Hollywood died down after JLaw, Rooney Mara etc came on the scene.
As for ScarJo, the comparison pretty much comes from the fact that they married the same man at different points in time.
Well it’s not like she’s a great actress or anything so I say go for it if that’s really what she wants.
Lol!
I don’t mind her. Her site is too much trouble to navigate. Just show me the stuff, I don’t need to hear why I should be charmed by it. I either will be, or I won’t. She seems naive, but that’s not the worst thing you can be.
I don’t know, I kinda love the nautical Tommy Hilfiger flag, ALMOST as much as beige bootie shorts.
I wish I had a cringing emoticon.
I always thought this was the “cringe” emoticon… 😁
That an MBA program, right. If not, I can see her busting someone’s kneecaps to take their spot. 😉
Does she even have an undergraduate degree? Does she even know she can’t get a masters without a bachelors? My head hurts.
From what I just read she has no college at all. She went right into acting after he school. Fine, her choice. But maybe take a few undergraduate level classes before you make pronouncements that you want a Harvard MBA.
lol @originaltessa you’re killing me over here.
LOL! Can you imagine! She sends the paper work (half a$$sed because she does not have all the requirements – as @minx wrote she does not have an undergraduate degree – that we know of) and gets a “We are glad to inform you that you got in!” Just because school now a days are having $$ problems to keep their U’s open ….
Harvard to me is overrated. Read an article a while back about PHD candidates not being able to finish because they can’t find (after 10 years) a Prof. to back their thesis….
@minx – does Harvard only have an MBA (as opposed to BA) for business? Because I read that she wants to go to their business school, not MBA specific. I know a few people who have completed the Harvard Master’s of Business program, but not anyone who has an undergrad degree, but I wouldn’t expect to living outside the US.
I don’t begrudge her wanting to have goals outside of acting and hope that she can pursue it someday. It’s definitely not easy, but the narrative in the US right now is that everyone deserve the opportunity to get a degree, so I can see why people like Blake think it is easily accessible. Then again, I don’t think she’s afraid of hard work.
HBS doesn’t do undergrads – only MBAs and a few PhDs.
HBS has those short courses that anyone can get into. I think Tyra Banks did it.
Yeap! They have the summer program too.
Ok, fine, but can we not call that Harvard Business School? That’s like saying you’re playing in the Masters because you’ve taken a golf lesson at Augusta National. It’s not the same thing.
Thank you! Yes!
Hahahah. You are so on point!
When I read Blake’s comments I thought immediately of the short courses offered by Harvard Business School and not the actual MBA program.
The actual MBA program there is filled with a lot of very accomplished people and I laugh my ass off picturing Blake in group work projects with them.(Group work is a big part of business school)
Actualky id she takes dome if thw courses as a nonmajor and excell at them, she may find a short cut to get into the HBS program.
Well, actually, the 43rd president was accepted into the MBA program so I wouldn’t say money and connections are worth nothing when it comes to getting in. But the thing is, and I might be wrong about this, Blake didn’t even go to college. Her business experience would be likewise limited. I think Dubbya had a lot of corporate and biz experience.
I believe Tyra considers herself a HBS graduate. The course is offered through HBS.
Tyra was in the Exec Ed program. They are not thought of as HBS graduates, but they do pay a hella amount of moolah to attend the various programs that are run by Exec. Ed.
Well, I hope she does. Anytime a woman desires to pursue a higher education is great because there are many out there who don’t have that opportunity.
My Thoughts Exactly.
I completely agree.
Well said. I Can’t understand why she’s being criticized on this.
She’s being criticized because it appears that she doesn’t understand that she needs an undergraduate degree to get a graduate degree. She hasn’t attended college yet, so that would be the first step. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Lively
@Arabella – I don’t read an MBA in her comment, though. Unless it is in the actual interview but not the quote above. I just read that she wants to get an Harvard education in business.
I am not familiar with the undergrad degrees at Harvard, so I do not know if their BA and MBA in business have different names, but if they don’t her comments about Harvard business school aren’t lofty. And Harvard should have a “School of ___” title to differentiate between the certificate/diploma and the full BA and MBA programs if they are less prestigious than the BA and MBA. It’s akin to people with Engineering technician certificates walking around calling themselves engineers. It bugs.
There are no undergrad Business degrees at Harvard.
ETA, though not sure about the Extension School – I know they have some Business type courses.
Because HBS is a graduate school offering only MBA and Phd degrees. You have to actually get a bachelors degree at an actual university before you’d even be considered for the program. BL has not attended any university. And no one graduates from HBS “in their spare time”, it’s a program that people invest their whole lives into for 2-3 years. There are extension/correspondence classes that Harvard offers regarding business (NOT associated with HBS), but they are not for any kind of college credit and anyone who can afford them (like Tyra Banks) can take them.
@ava7 It’s definitely associated with and offered by the HBS. Just look up any of the exec programs at exed dot hbs dot edu. Looks like a nice little earner for the HBS too. Tens of grands for a few weeks. So it IS something you CAN do in your spare time.
+ a million billion. People have so much damn hate for this girl it’s unreal.
I agree. Her missteps seem pretty minor is respect to the intensity or level of dislike. I’m not a big fan but I feel badly for her sometimes. I’m going to see her movie this weekend. It’s being carried on her name so good for her for hustling. This could lead to more opportunities for her if it does well.
I think she seemed pretty down to earth in this interview, and even humble…just trying to figure it out like everyone else.
Well, she certainly has the money, so why not? Plenty of celebrities like to talk like they’re experts, so I’d rather see her actually back that up with an education.
I think she shouldn’t give up acting just yet. One Goop is enough.
There is a potential for her in romcoms, because I never thought I would like her in “The Age of Adaline”, but I did. I think Blake did a good job in this film.
The script was as vanilla as it usually is in romcoms like this, no need to compare it with “Benjamin Button”. And I think all the actors tried to squeeze the best out of their characters (Harrison Ford was so good!) although they were written to be very one-dimensional.
Blake was good, especially in the first part of the film. She was able to pull of the hidden pain, being reserved and sophisticated, yet isolated and afraid.
Didn’t you just post this exact same thing in the other Blake Lively thread?
What bugs me about this film is that it’s not bad but it cast the wrong person in the lead role. It actually has the potential to be a decent film but it falls short of that because Blake just doesn’t radiate charisma or really breathe ANY LIFE into the role. I kept wishing someone like Emily Blunt had been cast. It’s crazy to think we’re meant to believe this woman – Adaline – has lived through wars, inventions, births, deaths, etc and yet she is about as blank as a new born baby. There’s no life to her. There’s nothing going on. And that part isn’t intentional – it’s just how uncharismatic Blake is as an actress. Surely, she could have done a better job… I actually thought she was perfectly OK in the first Sisterhood movie and The Town. She’s by no means a top tier talent but there are plenty of C-list actresses leading films, so why not Blake? I think by now she knows she will never rank with the best of them so a Nicholas Sparks doppelganger film is probably the right career move for her.
I got the impression that the “no life” thing was intentional. At least it worked for me, but I agree with you 100% that someone like Emily Blunt would have made this role something spectacular.
And I didn’t quite get the chemistry between the main characters although I like Michiel Huisman. I think his role was very one-dimensional and didn’t give him much to play with. His acceptance to Adaline’s secret didn’t convince me at all.
I haven’t seen thins film, so maybe she would be great for that role, but Emily only works for me when sheplays cold characters. She has no warmth in her, at least not to me.
@kennedy I agree with you and I think Blake has acknowledged that her acting isn’t that great recently anyway. I wasn’t expecting Meryl Streep but the film really was underwhelming and the main problem was both the acting and the script. It’s basically a heavily produced chickflick. I thought the references to astronomy were corny and didn’t quite work in terms of how they were trying to put a “cosmic” scope on Adaline’s experience/lifespan. Like you said, the film and concept had potential.
I agree blake was good in the movie which I, a blake apologist, even thought was gonna be strenuous to watch.
and @rory if @TeresaMaria did post that in another thread i’m sure the conversation either called for it or she’s just tired of everyone dragging the poor woman for really no good reason at all, except for besides being cute with a GREAT pr team and having a questionable “etsy” like blog site.
IMO
LDUB, thanks!
I guess I tend to have a soft spot for Blake for no obvious reasons. And I don’t consider her great actress or anything, but I do believe everyone deserves a chance
@TeresaMaria
Oooooooh, that sentiments upsets some around here.
Inserts Whoopi Goldberg *you in danger girl* gif
@Jegede
I think I can handle it as I have a lot of faith in CB which has proven to be one of the best gossip-commentary sites over the years. We agree to disagree and life goes on.
Blake deserving a chance or not …
@TeresaMaria I like her too, she’s not going all supermom on us and doesn’t pretend to have some kind of secret knowledge us peasants don’t have. She’s probably not a very deep person, but not everyone needs to be.
If you want to see the better version of this film watch “Orlando” with Tilda Swinton.
Well, that was a good performance indeed!
I feel like the outfits for her press tour were just horrifyingly fug. Granted, they were catching, but damn…
lol reminds me of Legally Blonde!! ‘I’m going to Harvard!’
love her. but this made me LOL.
Yeah, except the Elle character in Legally Blonde actually did graduate from a college AND pass the necessary exams before declaring to everyone that she was going to a Harvard graduate program!
She’s such a fraud lol. Everything about her is so calculated. It was funny when Gossip Girl creator called her out on lying about only because she was promised she could attend classes at Columbia.
+ 1
+1
Her whole image is so obviously constructed, and she lies about the weirdest things. The Columbia classes as the reason she took Gossip Girl, the claim about her father being an “English professor” when she was launching Preserve and trying to claim it was cleverer and good at copy/not your average lifestyle blog….. such pointless things to lie about, too. Let’s not even get into the whole antebellum mess.
And her fans will then claim she’s “harmless” and rail at anyone who calls her out by saying “she provokes such strong emotions”.
Ditto!
Agreed! You know I didn’t despise her until recently when I saw her on Seth Meyers. OMG! She name dropped at least 5 people in that interview under the guise of “self-deprecation” and it was just disgusting. As in “Omg, I’m such a dork! When I was dining with Anna Winter and Karl Lagerfeld at the Ritz in Paris where Coco Chanel once lived…I didn’t know which fork to use for my escargot!”
Yep, it is fake humble brag! If I remember correctly, in some entry here Celebitchy compared Sandra Bullock’s humble brag to Blake’s one…Sandy’s relaly humble, Blake fakes it and it shows.
The only time I found her interesting was when she was dating decaprio. I STILL want to know what happened. Any deets on that?
The consensus was that she was using him to make Ryan Reynolds jealous, and it worked.
I don’t think she was using him to make Reynolds jealous, but it looks like she was very smart about the Reynolds situation: he was married so she stepped back and let him figure out what was going on in his marriage and carried on with her own life. DiCaprio ended up looking like a placeholder, which I don’t think he could have been much else because she didn’t need him enough to put up with him, his friends, and his cheating for too long (unlike the models he typically chooses). And she pretty clearly wanted to be with Reynolds.
@Magpie:
I don’t think Reynolds had anything to do with the relationship
By all accounts they genuinely liked each other.
Blake (like Amanda Seyfried, Emma Stone, Selena Gomez and many many more) publicly admitted to having a huge crush on Jack Dawson, the reality of dating him was somewhat different I guess.
They were dating long before people knew. They were secret sightings of them together at NY museums, the MET Gala and LA joints. Before they ‘came out’ in Cannes
Leo was probably stepping out on her with Aussie models when he was there filming Gatsby in Sydney. Leo being Leo, had wandering eye, same way he stepped out on official girlfriends Gisele, Bar and poor Toni (who suffered the ignomy of being called a stalker at the tail end of their relationship). But Blake exited stage left quickly.
@Jegede I respectfully disagree. I think she liked Leo but he was sort of a B option at best for her.
When she filmed the Green Latern with Reynolds set gossip at the time indicated she was very into him(but he was married at the time). Also there were reports that Scarlett did not love their “friendship”. Finally, I remember reading at the time that Ryan was annoyed(threatened?) Scarlett being all about the career and that he wanted to settle down and have a baby. And there was Blake with him on set, baking treats, walking her dog, taking cooking classes with him, clearly into him and more domestic than his wife.
To give Blake credit, it seems like she backed off and they didn’t cross any lines, and that Ryan and Scarlett tried to fix his marriage but it seems likely to me that when he was eventually free, she was still into the idea of it. Ryan started casually dating(not Blake), then Blake started dating Leo and was spotted everywhere that summer. Then suddenly she is in Boston, visiting her ‘friend’ Ryan on-set and she and Leo are done the week after.
To me, it reads as if she was into Leo but Ryan was always the big what if / first choice
@Sunny –
Thanks for this.
I would disagree though in that she and Leo were actually confirmed done before she showed up on the Boston set with Ryan.
In fact the exact same time she was being papped in Boston, Leo was being very publicly papped in a vest on the Sydney veranda with the Italian model Madelina Ghaena (sp).
The Aussie press called Leo out on his sudden about-turn since he had avoided that very spot since he had arrived in Sydney but was suddenly pictured there.
I think there were definitely hurt feelings over how it ended, and a tit-for-tat going on between them at the time.
I agree it was probably Leo’s wandering eye that ended it. Plus the distance. I just checked out her instagram and she had about post about Titanic or someone drowning – it’s the photo from the Adaline car accident shot when she and the car are in the water.
that outfit in the first pic….my first thought was “why does she have the Flag of Sweden wrapped around her?”
Omg that’s exactly what I though. I skimmed the article looking for a reference or reason the headed to the comments to see if it was a “thing”.
Blake, girl, wearing a flag won’t get you into Harvard. (We smaht)
Living the life you want is the best revenge. Blake, you just keep on doing what makes you happy.
True Dat!
Doesn’t one need a degree before they can go to Business School?
If she wants to get her MBA from Harvard Business school she needs an undergraduate degree first. I read she wanted to go to Stanford when she was in High School, but show business drew her in another direction. I think she says a lot of things in public that don’t mean anything. I guses she needs to let the world know how smart she is by throwing out these Ivy School names.
Yes this is true but she can take classes in management (which includes managerial finance, enterprise management etc) at Harvard Extension.
engh! She might as well .. is not like anyone wants to see her acting TBH … this Costume Change Parade Movie is only her first since 2012 soooo Yeah
Why do these starlets always name-check Harvard when the mention a desire to go to (pretend) school? You never hear them say, “I’m looking forward to getting an MBA from Stanford in my spare time.” Have to believe these other universities have “degree” programs for celebrity tourists, too.
It might be easier for a celebrity to buy their way into Harvard.
didn’t James Franco go to USC? And then slept through his classes?
I guess Harvard is the first name that comes to mind for a lot of people when they think ‘prestigious university’.
You guys don’t seem to understand that Harvard has classes that basically anyone can take. It’s called Harvard Extension/Continuing Education.
I call the Extension School the Harvard University Benevolent Fund as it only costs Harvard staff $40 per class to attend. So, basically, you can get your Masters degree (from Harvard!) for under $500!! And yeah, I’ve taken a slew of classes there.
They live in a parallel universe that’s uncertain and it makes them feel insecure. You always hear actors talk about lack of certainty. And it’s competitive. I get the feeling Blake’s speaking out of a sense of insecurity.
Reminds me of interviews with dozens of actors (including Brat Pitt) who say that if they weren’t acting they’d have been an architect! As if just anybody can be accepted into an architecture program (yes you actually have to go to college and pass physics and whatnot) and become an architect.
But Brad Pitt actually did go to college and was two credits away from college.
I really don’t understand the hate for this woman. She has a dream of going to Harvard. She didn’t say she was going. And yes out of HS she was going to attend Stanford. People criticize her for saying it but could you possibly believe that she’s actually I don’t know smart? Can that not be a thing or something?
And then she gets criticized for talking about her baby all the time….well if the interviewer asks her about her baby she’s going to say something. Blame the people doing the interviews who can’t come up with something other than her baby.
Lastly, if you read other interviews by her, she states that she is very cheeky and sarcastic. The interviewer even said that they wish they could be winky faces in the article. If you’re not sarcastic or don’t get dry humor then she is going to come across as an a*shole which it appears is how many people on this site appear to take her.
She seems harmless, honestly. Her new movie was actually really good and she conveyed what it would be like to de detached from the world emotionally while still living in it perfectly.
Keep doing you, Blake. Nothing wrong with being ambitious!
Thank you!
You do know the name of the site is Celebitchy, right? If it was Celenicely we would all be knocking each other out to say the nicest things about celebrities.
I know what the website is called. Not everyone is going to like every celebrity/person. However the hatred on this woman is unreal. I’m still trying to figure out what she did wrong for everyone to hate her so much. I’m guessing having dreams, aspirations and trying to reach them is a big no no.
I don’t see the hate you see.
Looks like a mixture of comments to me.
The same old who get high in their feelings in Blake posts, and repeat their agenda driven rumours as facts in every Blake post, does not reflect Celebitchy. JMO
Exactly. People get so damn mad about her, it’s just weird. She is very much like Aniston in the sense that she’s very basic and inoffensive yet seems to enrage so many.
Hi Kitten. Its the usual suspects as you see! lol
Actually she DID say that she would go to Harvard Business School..”one day”…and in her “spare time”, never mind that she hasn’t attended any college and HBS is an extremely competitive graduate school And she SAYS she had planned on going to Stanford after HS, but she never got accepted to Stanford, soooo, there’s that. She also said she thought she would take classes at Columbia while filming Gossip Girl, but no actual acceptance at Columbia has been mentioned.
I am failing to understand what your point is. I wanted to go to Columbia and I wanted to go to Stanford as well. I didn’t get to for whatever reason. And millions of people are in the same boat. So why can’t she say I have a dream of going to Harvard or I wanted to go to Stanford or I wanted to take classes at Columbia? Like why is there something wrong with that? Or are actors not allowed to talk about wanting to get an education? As if she’s the first person in the world to ever say “I want something” and then it didn’t happen.
I like Blake and she’s pretty and I’m sure a good friend, good daughter, good wife, and loving mother. But her interviews in print are so meh. Maybe in person some of those remarks came off better or cuter and just didn’t translate to print. She’s not awful and she’s not great. She’s just a nice girl. I don’t see Preserve lasting unless it gets an overhaul.
Sure Blake, I have a dream my ex will pay me alimony. Not gonna happen.
Omg – I just watched Town and Blake was SO very annoying in it. Pursing loose lips and swaying to and fro with a beer in hand – doesn’t make a good actress! Even John Hamm was squirming in a scene with her. Go away Blake.
It makes me laugh when actors say they want to go to college. Remember the James Franco college fiasco? They make so much money they don’t need to sit in a class for years, like the rest of us.
Bruh….she ALREADY has crows feet. Not bashing her or anything, just lol’d at that comment.