Unsurprisingly, Blake Lively covers this week’s issue of People Magazine. She filed her complaint with the California Civil Rights Department just before Christmas, and it’s more than likely that she will end up suing Justin Baldoni, his production company, his publicist and his crisis manager. It’s also quite likely that Baldoni will file a lawsuit against Blake and her team in the new year, at least that’s what they’re telegraphing. People’s cover story is mostly a recap of where we are now, including a comprehensive summary of Blake’s case, with Baldoni’s lawyer interjecting here and there. It also includes a summary of everyone lining up behind Blake. Including People Magazine, but they were always going to take her side. Here’s the part which came from Blake’s team:
The whole ordeal has been a nightmare for Lively, who shares children James, 10, Inez, 8, Betty, 5 and 22-month-old son Olin with Reynolds, 48. Behind closed doors, says the complaint, she has suffered “grief, fear, trauma, and extreme anxiety” in the alleged campaign’s aftermath.
She is seeking unspecified damages from Baldoni and Wayfarer for “intentional infliction of emotional distress” and “interference” in her other businesses, like her Blake Brown haircare company, which launched in early August and suffered a decline in sales by “56-78%” amid the bad press and negative social media comments, Lively’s lawyers claim. “The Baldoni-Wayfarer astroturfing campaign forced each of Ms. Lively’s businesses to go ‘dark’ on social media in August,” according to the complaint.
A Lively source says putting together the legal case has been painful but necessary work. “Blake along with her team have been working on this lawsuit for months. It’s truly been so ugly for her. And insanely stressful. She’s never dealt with anything like this before,” explains the source.
What happens next? Lively’s legal team is currently evaluating her options while awaiting a decision from the California Civil Rights Department, which has 60 days to notify her if they will investigate the matter.
“If they find some barrier to it, a lot of times they’ll step in and try to mediate a solution with the employer,” says legal expert Gregory Doll, a California attorney who is not involved in the case. “If not, they’ll give her what’s called the right to sue letter, which means that she can go to court now and submit her claim there.”
If she does sue and she and Baldoni don’t settle beforehand, they’d head to a trial. “The most likely cases that don’t settle are the ones like this where it gets intensely personal between two people,” he notes.
Baldoni could countersue as well, something Doll says is very likely due to the bitter back and forth between the two legal teams: “Based on what I have observed, it’s almost guaranteed that he will file a counterclaim,” he predicts.
But no matter what happens, Lively has a vast support system of family and friends who have her back — especially her husband.
“Ryan is always her rock,” says a Lively source, who adds that the actress has been focusing on her family after filing the complaint. ”For now, she’s said what needed to be said.”
I’m on Blake’s side about so much of this situation, but this caught my eye: “like her Blake Brown haircare company, which launched in early August and suffered a decline in sales by “56-78%” amid the bad press and negative social media comments, Lively’s lawyers claim.” If Blake Brown launched in August – which she did on purpose to promote her haircare line alongside It Ends With Us – then what metrics are they using to determine that sales of Blake Brown went down? Declined compared to what? You can believe Blake and be on her side and still think that there are some really interesting legal issues contained in this complaint.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.
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- Blake LIvely pictured attending the ‘It Ends With Us’ – Photocall held at the IET London, UK . 8 August, 2024 .,Image: 897005344, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Alan D West / Avalon
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- ‘It Ends With Us’ Junket at the Four Seasons Hotel Downtown in Tribeca Featuring: Blake Lively Where: New York, United States When: 04 Aug 2024 Credit: INSTARimages.com
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- Blake Lively (L) and Brandon Sklenar seen at CBS Mornins in Midtown on August 05, 2024 in New York City. Featuring: Blake Lively, Brandon Sklenar Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 05 Aug 2024 Credit: INSTARimages.com
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- ‘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
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- ‘It Ends With Us’ World Premiere Featuring: Justin Baldoni, Emily Baldoni Where: New York, New York, United States When: 06 Aug 2024 Credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com
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- Celebrities attends Sony Pictures world premiere of ‘It Ends With Us’ at AMC Lincoln Square Theater in New York Featuring: Justin Baldoni Where: New York, New York , United States When: 06 Aug 2024 Credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages
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- Celebrities attends Sony Pictures world premiere of ‘It Ends With Us’ at AMC Lincoln Square Theater in New York Featuring: Justin Baldoni Where: New York, New York , United States When: 06 Aug 2024 Credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages
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- 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
They’d just be benchmarking against industry standards for similar celebs with hair products to get that data and percentage I would assume.
I’ve been team Blake this entire time. Bad interviews are whatever, I’m not perfect either. I’ve behaved poorly some days at work. We aren’t the best or worst thing we’ve ever done. When literally no one from the production followed Baldoni or said a good word about him throughout the presser and they stayed with Blake, I figured it was going to end up in legal.
It sucks though part of the marketing strategy was her hair care launch, it will always be associated now and tainted. It will probably shutter in not too long. I can’t imagine who is buying it.
I don’t think, we can just assume someone being left out from a Hollywood production means they did something bad. We have seen multiple stories about people excluding one person because they don’t get on with the flow. Topher Grace was excluded by the 70’s show actors. We later learned that it was because he wasn’t bowing down to Danny Masterson, who is a convicted rapist now. In this case, Blake is the wronged party and she has all the evidence required to prove her case fortunately. But, she is also more powerful than Justin in the industry. Lack of reporting on what he did and the difference in their status made me think that Blake was power-tripping, not necessarily her bad interviews. I was wrong and I hope both Blake and her husband make sure this predator will never work in Hollywood. That would be using their power for good.
Isn’t one of Baldoni’s partners a billionaire? And execs from Sony were with him, the director, at the premieres. I’m not sure there is as big power imbalance between BL and Baldoni as people have said there is.
“But, she is also more powerful than Justin in the industry.”
Hard disagree. She wasn’t powerful enough to stop the horrible harassment on-set, during the publicity period, or in the time since.
They thought nothing of harassing her and were confident that they’d get away with it. That doesn’t sound like power at all.
She’s better known, but that doesn’t equal power.
So I agree that being unfollowed does not necessarily mean we can assume a person DID something. Until BL formally accused JB of something, there was no way of just assuming oh it must be SH. Now as for the power imbalance…JB being the producer and director was no small thing. The fact that BL was able to document and do everything by the book is where I think she was able to use her and her husband’s power. And good for her. I’m not sure an unknown in the business would have felt comfortable or confident enough to do that.
I do not see BL as more powerful than JB, SevenBlue. His friend Sarowitz (richer than BL and RR together) offered JB $100 million to sue her. He had TMZ, the NY Post and the Daily Fail on his side. He was her employer. Sony did not back BL when she ran into problems on the set of IEWU, and the Sony executives (money and power) attended JB’s IEWU premier, not BL’s. There’s an odd push to say that Blake or Blake and her husband are more powerful than Justin, but they’re more known. Being more famous is not the same as being more powerful.
Justin is currently going to Daily Mail, while Blake’s side is published by NY Times, Vanity Fair. Of course, Blake is more powerful in the industry. Not everything is about money (which Blake and her husband also have), connection matters, which Blake has plenty. Of course, being on the right side is also helping her case.
SevenBlue, since she filed that legal complaint, Blake has gained the upper hand. The past few months, she did not. If she had not gotten those texts and emails to back up her story, she would not be in as good a position as she’s been this past week either. Justin Baldoni’s smear campaign has definitely damaged her reputation. The NYT and VF weren’t helping her out a fee weeks ago.
@ML, it is obvious that Blake was silent because she was preparing for the lawsuit. If she wanted her side out there after Justin’s team went after her, she could put articles out by the big publications. I also guess that Sony asked her to wait until they made their money from tickets. Otherwise, it would be hard for them to advertise the DV movie directed by an alleged predator.
I dont like BL or RR at all. If I watch a movie with them, it is in spite of them and not for them.
That said, her claims of sexual harassment and hostile work environment seem very credible. I hope she is compensated.
However, the claims of social media manipulation ring hollow to me. It takes almost nothing for people attack a celebrity on social media. Sorry but it’s part if the game. I really wish she would stop conflate the two issues, it actually detracts from her complaint for me. Her business launch failed because people dont like her.
Almost nothing is not the same as nothing and her complaint alleges that JB and his PR firm orchestrated a purposeful release of stories intended to generate bad press; without that release, there would be nothing there to spur the social media attacks.
@Mimi this wasn’t an organic SM hate campaign though, this seems to have been a coordinated effort similar to the SM manipulation campaign against Meghan Markel (and with some of the same people involved) & Sophie Turner. The campaign against Turner failed spectacularly because it was so obvious and they tried to impugn her in a way that was suddenly diametrically opposed to what was “known” about her, and let’s be honest, Turner was lucky enough to have good will on her side from having played Sansa Stark
The PR campaign run against her – and there was one – was in retaliation for her speaking up. If every time a woman speaks up about someone being a creepy sex pest on set through the proper channels they have a PR campaign run against them, that’s not exactly a great outcome, and is a massive disincentive for any woman to do so.
Sure, Blake gave them stuff to work with… but just because I have a pile of lumber in my yard doesn’t mean anyone can come along, pour oil on it and strike a match.
She has to show monetary and/or emotional damages from the retaliation. It would be hard to show that she lost roles because of the retaliation because of the nature of Hollywood casting, so she waited until she could show a causal link between the drop in her beauty line sales and the negative PR.
I mentioned yesterday that I have been an employment lawyer for 20 years. I read the complaint, Samantha Jones’ complaint, and a lot of the press about this. Blake’s legal team knows what they are doing.
For me, I found it odd that there was such a dramatic, methodical message being put out about him in contrast to her, despite the fact that he’s lesser known to her. It felt manufactured, especially with him hiring a PR agent. Lively may be privileged and out of touch like many celebs, but she’s not stupid, IMO. She wouldn’t be taking this to court without proof.
When I was a teen I was sexually assaulted by my boss at my first job. Years later I was subjected to a workplace where men regularly watched porn at their computers. I took issue and was resented for it. Anyway, it really sucks. It undermines and destroys your soul. I’ll keep saying it. Workplace sexual harassment is the most important thing in this situation and the starting point for everything else that’s happened.
This whole case makes me wildly angry. And the half hearted support for the complaint is just pure misogyny. ‘I don’t like her but…’, ‘she does a bad interview but….’ – there is one interview from that dick reporter and anything is just whining about commercialism (lol, in the Hollywood industry!!!).
Kate Beckinsdale had a similar response to you detailing all the sexism, assault and retaliation she faced through her career. It’s just sad, and a cycle, and women everywhere will treat this as Blake’s problem and not see it as a needed unveiling and correction needed in the industry.
And people saying ‘but Blake is powerful due to her hubby blah blah’ nonsense. She could be married to a bank …. generationally pushing boundaries, sexism and power plays are the nastiest ways of keeping women down.
I agree with you, and some of the comments just on this article are proof of just that.
I was 16 at my first real job and had no idea that I was being sexually harassed when the district manager would come in, stoke my hair, talk about how pretty I was, and how if I smiled more he could move me to the register instead of the kitchen. It made me feel gross but I had been treated that way by men since I was 12 and had no idea I could do anything about it. I am so glad a new generation of women is standing up for themselves.
I hate to say it, but being married to Ryan Reynolds (and probably associating with his agency, Maximum Effort) has probably given Blake access to industry experts with info on launching product lines like this. The numbers seem a little fishy to me, but I’m inclined to trust them until she gives me a reason not to.
The two oldest children can read all the garbage that’s been thrown at their mother before this and during this time period. This has to be traumatic for them as well. Could Ryan Reynolds sue on their behalf?
Part of the reason w/e social media campaign against her was so effective was because she herself was making all these weird movies in conjunction with a film about domestic violence. Like…she launched a haircare line and an alcoholic/non-alcoholic drink line in tandem with this film and people rightfully were like….girl, what?
It feels even more egregious that she went through this experience and came out of it thinking…let’s make light of this movie, wear flowers, sell some mocktails and do our hair!
I absolutely feel for her regarding the SA allegations. I just don’t like seeing these two things lumped together and the source of all wrongs being Baldoni, the abuser…Interestingly, I’d like to know if her drink company (or any other companies she owns) also suffered losses during the same period or if they are just mentioning her haircare company.
I agree with you. She’s the clearly wronged part here but that doesn’t mean all the problems in her world are due to JB. Promoting her hair and alcohol brands during promotion of a film about DV were unforced errors. We have to get to the places were we can acknowledge there’s no good guy or bad guy but two flawed people and one of them is still a jerk for what they’ve done.
I keep seeing any criticism or general dislike of BL be called sexism and it doesn’t help women when we do that. She actually did get married in a plantation, she did pretend to be Cherokee, she did run an antebellum website and on and on and on. JB took advantage because he’s a gross creep but that stuff is a valid reason not to like her personally even if you’re standing with her as an abuse victim.
I agree wholeheartedly. She DID defend Woody Allen, she DID defend Harvey Weinstein. She DID humiliate that reporter for no reason. It’s ok to be team no one. It’s ok to be team safe working conditions.
If you read the actual lawsuit, she was not the one who decided to launch her haircare line at that time. Target determined the date a year in advance.
The beverage line was launched years ago, not during this film release.
If you read the entire complaint that she filed, her team lays out why she was doing all of that at the time. Her company launch was on the books for a long time and the release date of the film was set later, and she had no control over that date because she wasn’t the studio or the financier. She also explains that the cast had to follow a particular marketing strategy from the studio which told them to play down the DV aspect of the film and focus on the idea of strength and determination and moving on. She was following the marketing team’s plan that all of the cast had to follow. Justin decided to change that plan but only for himself.
It really is all in the complaint and I wish people would read it because it would answer a lot of questions.
Yeah but it’s kinda weird to pretend that she didn’t have a say in the marketing strategy. She was one of four producers on that film-surely if she disagreed with how it was planned to be marketed she could have had some influence.
That being said, I’ve read the full complaint and it’s vile. I agree with Mimi above that the PR tactics are less of an issue for me in that this all feels like standard Hollywood sliming. I think the complaint is a bit heavy-handed in detailing the impact on her life of one admittedly gross PR campaign waged against her. I’m sure it hurt her and gave her anxiety-no doubt-but it didn’t ruin her career like Depp v. Heard.
But it IS gross how he and his team proceeded in light of Justin’s behavior on-set and how that blatantly contradicted his carefully curated feminist ally image. Just makes Justin look like the disingenuous, opportunistic piece of shit he is.
Reading through his team’s attempt to manipulate the female audience by using feminism or anti-feminist accusations in light of Baldoni’’s past comments about male toxicity etc is PHEW, just beyond contempt. So in this scenario I am 100% Team Blake.
Blake’s legal complaint states that the launch date of her hair care line was scheduled for August more than a year before the release date for the film was selected, and the film release date was not selected by her. Also an exhibit in the complaint was the marketing plan for the film that everyone signed onto. Talking points, floral wardrobe, all of it came from the marketing plan. Marketing people decided that. Justin also operated from that same marketing plan until he saw that Blake was being criticized for it, and saw pivoting away from the plan would work to his advantage (this is in the communications between him and his publicist/crisis managers.)
Launching a hair care line to coincide with a movie about DV is odd and not a good look. For her to say Baldoni ruined her reputation is a little bit of a stretch. She should focus on the harassment claims, which is where she is getting more support.
Idk, absolutely there should be a huge focus on the SH that happened on set but the pr moves that happened later just feels like it’s was continued harassment. They go together. Continuing to harass someone online that he had already sexually harassed on set is pretty messed up.
I said this up thread because people keep bringing this up. Her legal complaint explains this in detail. The entire cast was given a marketing plan to follow which specifically told them what to talk about and not talk about, and DV was to be avoided per the studio. Justin changed that for himself only. Also the launch of her products were set before the studio decided on the release date of the movie and she had no control over the release date since she wasn’t part of the studio or a financier.
My mistake then. Whoever came up with the whole “make the pr lighthearted” idea should be embarrassed. I’m not saying all the promotion for the movie should’ve been a downer but the studio (or whoever) really missed an opportunity to put a spotlight on a serious subject.
D, you and I are on the same page: the page of people who have actually read the complaint.
I encourage more people to read it. It may seem daunting at 80 pages, but it is actually very readable. It’s a pretty straightforward accounting of events, and doesn’t involve complex legal argumentation. It’s also no like reading 80 pages of text, since the cover page and the main body text are 62 pages, and included in that are quotes of text message chains in graphical format with key points repeated as in-line quotations or paraphrased. The remaining 18 pages are Exhibits A through D, which are also already quoted from and discussed in the main body text.
You can find a link to the complaint in this Lainey Gossip post, which is also worth reading https://www.laineygossip.com/what-blake-lively-lawsuit-against-justin-baldoni-tells-us-about-ourselves/80428
@Jen -THIS! Everyone should read the entire complaint before commenting to understand the whole scope of the complaint. It was eye opening for sure.
Well, it will be interesting to see his counter suit, which I assume will focus on her side’s PR moves as well. I don’t know, in the end, I think this will only damage them both as these cases always do. They drag out and nasty accusations muddy the water. The heart of the claim has already been overshadowed by all the PR moves, which are really not the point in all of this but that’s what everyone has latched onto.
Similar to politicians: You can say whatever you want on tv, a rally, twitter, or a debate. There are no consequences for not telling the truth or making stuff up. What you CAN’T do it is straight up lie inside the legal system.
Blake is the first one to enter this dispute into a court of law. It’ll indeed be interesting to see what Justin’s side comes back with when folks get under oath and not just backend PR deals with social media bot farms.
I expect the countersuit will be one giant man whine saga. The facts will probably amount to: “Her husband unfriended me after I insisted on watching his wife get dressed and described my penis to her, and added a bunch of sex scenes to the script at thr last minute—can you believe thay nonsense”. “She said she would leave the set if I didn’t stop harassing her, which forced me to threaten to sue her for damage to the mivie company and delay if she did so — and then she had the gall to not get scared and capitulate to my penis like other women have! Can you believe this B?” Or “She damaged my reputation by pointing out I am an asshole. So unfair.” “Some insta models have blocked me now so it’s harder for me to get action cause they know who I really am due to her!” I’m SURE in his mind he’s a victim.
He is clearly still winning the media war. This man sexually harassed her and the details are disgusting. But no one mentions this. Instead, she was RUDE in an interview! She promotes her own business!! How dare she!
Justin’s PR team have laid a trail of woman hating bread crumbs and people blindly follow it.
It’s just another example that no matter how successful you are, no matter who you married, no matter how much you’re worth, women are STILL not believed over men.
This isn’t just about Baldoni’s sexual assault and improper conduct, it’s about the retaliation Lively received for speaking-up about the misconduct.
It was VERY smart of her and her team to have a meeting, with witnesses, specifically stating that her terms were that she was not to receive any retaliation for speaking up about the misconduct.
That specific detail means the lawsuit will have a better chance at achieving a better outcome.
I guess this is a lesson to us all – It’s not enough to speak-up, we really have to protect ourselves and be specific about the terms and penalties for retaliation.
I know I am not alone in saying that the retaliation can sometimes be just as bad as the act of misconduct itself.
I am really heartened by how many women are standing in solidarity with Lively and sharing their own stories.
The question is, did Justin hire the PR firm and attempt to smear Blake because she accused him of sexual misconduct, or did Justin hire the PR firm because Blake refused to do publicity with him and people were starting to ask why.
If Blake can prove the first premise, on a balance of probabilities, then she is likely to win her retaliation / breach of contract lawsuit. However, if one were to examine the timing and circumstances under which Justin hired the PR firm, it appears that it is more associated with Blake’s refusal to do publicity with Justin. If so, then Justin hiring and directing the PR firm to “bury Blake” is not linked to the alleged sexual misconduct. Blake’s team will have difficulty linking Justin’s actions during publicity to the presumed on-set intimacy issues.
Justin’s biggest mistake then, but saving grace now, was that he was the Jack-of-all-trades on set. He was the writer, producer, director and co-star. He was in charge of everything. So when Justin asked Blake to appear nude in the birth scene, what hat was he wearing, or was that him personally wanting to see Blake nude? This kind of stuff is easily defensible when you consider that Justin was in charge of the “look” of the film.
Knowing how hard it will be for Blake to link the PR campaign to the alleged sexual misconduct, you’ve got to wonder why Blake’s team bothered to go ahead with this. Beside being motivated by the loss of profits from her side-hustle, Blake is calling Justin out as a hypocrite: “Justin supposedly is an advocate denouncing violence against women, but look at what he’s doing to me. He launched a smear campaign and wants to ‘bury me’.”
So what do you think? Is this pot calling kettle black? My suggestion: Read the pre-cursor complaint! You’ll find it very helpful in understanding the facts and motivation of this pending breach of contract civil lawsuit.
From what I understand, the studio was in support of Justin being separated from the rest of the cast during the publicity junket, and also encouraged everyone to not go heavy handed with the DV angle during publicity by a marketing team. By the way, the director doesn’t control the marketing, the studio does.
One could argue that Justin was already a problem for the studio by the press tour and was separated for multiple reasons, and that HE was the one who didn’t follow the prescribed marketing strategy, because it benefitted himself to do so.
Justin got a PR firm after things started to go south with him during filming, after the meeting in which Blake brought up her misconduct and retaliation concerns. In other words, he was on a sinking ship of his own making and hired pros to get ahead of it, in case anyone spoke poorly about him during the press tour (they did not). So then he used the PR firm for their second strategy – to discredit Blake, including allegedly leaving comments on online platforms and forums.
As to whether Justin had control of everything on set – not quite. There are still boundaries. And if one or more staff feel uncomfortable and report it and work to find solutions to work through it, you sure as hell can’t retaliate and punish them for speaking up against you. Which what he allegedly did.
@Zann Bee: You ask, “did Justin hire the PR firm and attempt to smear Blake because she accused him of sexual misconduct, or did Justin hire the PR firm because Blake refused to do publicity with him and people were starting to ask why”?
It’s really the same thing, because the answer to the “why” (“why are they doing publicity separately”) in your latter scenario loops back to the sexual misconduct. You basically asked, “did Justin hire the PR firm and attempt to smear Blake because she accused him of sexual misconduct, or did Justin hire the PR firm because Blake refused to do publicity with him and people would read that as an accusation of sexual misconduct”?
Blake’s legal complaint includes a Scenario Planning document from Justin’s crisis management PR firm (Exhibit D.) The document explicitly states their goal and plan to protect Baldoni, Heath and Wayfarer’s reputations in the event that Blake or her team were to “make her grievances public,” by “getting ahead of the narrative.” The point was to discredit her before she might go public. They knew what those “grievances” were. The separate publicity was not a mysterious slight to them, or petty high-school-coded ostracism like they led us to believe. The crisis management plan was absolutely in response to her having raised complaints of sexual harassment.
“It also includes a summary of everyone lining up behind Blake. Including People Magazine, but they were always going to take her side.”
I disagree. Today, we learned that AJ is finally going to be 100% divorced from BP. There is no question she was abused by BP physically, emotionally or financially during their marriage and since the plane incident. The children have publicly supported their mom and not their dad for years. People definitely took BP’s side during the past eight plus years, not AJ’s or the kids’.
Baldoni had part of the same team as Pitt behind him. People was not as much on Lively’s side since August as it was supportive of Baldoni up to the weekend before Christmas this year. Yesterday, the article from People on this site was about how Baldoni’s lawyer, Freedman, is going to aggressively sue and uncover “the truth.” Freedman is Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson’s lawyer, too. People doesn’t seem to place as much store in the BL legal filing and NYT Twohey article, because it certainly wasn’t denigrating this lawsuit. Plus, People works closely with JB’s PR and crisis managers.
She’s stressed also because she knows she’s made huge PR blunders and she’s worried about all this media cover on the Blake brand. Someone else who’s been treated by a colleague like she’s been treated by Justin B (I read the complaint in full) would be plain furious – at least I would be – and completely focused on justice. But Blake has a bit of uncertainty and stress because she knows with the plantation marriage and horrible interview behaviour (I’m don’t follow her news and am a casual celeb goss reader and I can recall three bad incidents: (1) the “baby bump” one; (2) the “put my address out there one” (the interviewer was clearly asking her how her fans can start a conversation with her about domestic violence and related issues to raise awareness and not asking her to provide her personal phone number (but, hey, even Ashton Kutcher could summon a dedicated mobile phone number for texts for different social media and fan-engagement activities)); and (3) the one where she snapped at the interviewer for asking her what she was wearing (Blake, your film promotional tours rely heavily on your fashion parades), her brand is tenuous and she’s has had a lucky ride.
Just my observation. I 100% believe Blake and am on her side and there’s little doubt she was treated horribly. I would have drawn boundaries way earlier; I’m not blaming the victim but wondering how someone so seasoned in HW put up with all this – after reading her complaint in full. But then abusers and bullies can be super skilled at pushing and blurring the lines and victims can be in over their heads without realising it.
Team Blake even acknowledging I really don’t like her as a person. That Justin B guy is GROSSNESS encapsulated. (Casting his friend as the obstetrician?! Asking all those personal/sexual questions?!)
Yeah, she tried making formal complaints, tried taking it to Sony (who said, ‘we’re just the distributor, Wayfarer owns this, so you have to go through them,’) and it didn’t work because Baldoni and Heath, the perps, were also Wayfarer, the bosses. She was running out of corrective tools to take corrective action. I think it was only after the interruption of the strike, where she’d been away from set for a period of time that she probably couldn’t face going back without essentially an ultimatum: this is what it takes for me to finish this.
An open trial is what’s needed here. If Baldoni is being railroaded, discovery is the only way the public can be sure of that. If Blake’s allegations are true, the same stands. Blake, is giving many, including me, “My dog stepped on a bee” vibes.
I think so many things can be true at the same time. I know a lot of people get frustrated that the campaign that JB ran is working because lots of people don’t like her and therefore choose not to side with her over it. Which I can see, but I disagree. I think she was absolutely a victim and he was horrible. And I hope he doesn’t work again in Hollywood. He just gives me angry man vibes. And at the same time, I don’t buy the whole “Sony made me do the marketing this way story”. No. I’m sorry but anyone can see from miles away that promoting a hair alcohol line and dressing up a DV story as a “girls night out” is a totally bad idea. The fact that she brought her husband on board and did what she could, I find hard to believe that she couldn’t have pushed back on the marketing. I honestly think she didn’t care or realize how bad it looked until after, and now she’s trying to claim it was a studio decision yadda yadda. I dunno. I feel like she could have pushed back and refused. There is no owning on her part at all that it was poor taste to do this, more of “this affects my bottom line” and that’s where I get turned off. I recognize she’s a victim and she doesn’t have to be perfect but I feel people should be allowed to have different opinions about the situation without instantly getting dragged for them. I sincerely hope JB never works in Hollywood again as he should and wish the best for her.
And another comment from someone who did not read the full complaint.
Here’s where her complaint fails, in my opinion- it should focus only on the sexual harassment, not the social media stuff. I frequent the celeb gossip subreddits, and Blake wasn’t well liked long before this movie even began filming. People were hating as soon as it was announced, when the first pap shots were released, when it started filming again after the strike. People have used her friendship with Taylor to justify their Taylor dislike, there’s always a round of hating when she does the stupid “happy anniversary” posts that prick her husband’s massive ego… she isn’t viewed favorably at all. I think it’ll be hard to prove that the SM backlash was orchestrated when the general public already didn’t like her. The only weird thing that I could point to as planted was the rude interview clip- that popped up out of nowhere. Otherwise, it was the same rehashed issues that come up whenever she does something.