February 5, 2025 • 36 mins
Aly & Shmitty break down the Justin Baldoni/Blake Lively legal drama & look at the bad side of fame. Is there such a thing as bad press?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Buns and Banter, a podcast buy work Busties
for work Busties. Hey, I'm Lauren and I'm Ali. We're
both morning show hosts for iHeartMedia.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
We're both millennials.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
And we're both trying to figure out how to build
the lives we dream about, dating, marriage, career, career and
being a mom.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
How to get through a week without crying.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Welcome to Buns and Banter.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
We're glad you're here.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Okay, first of all.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Wow, how many blonds does it take to put the
water chuck on the water cooler. It's my favorite job though,
of my I mean, we don't really have responsibilities and
duties here, yeah, but it is. It's my favorite thing
to do here is put the water on the thing. Really,
I didn't know you did that at least on our floor,
not on this floor, you miss.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
We are like, I'm kind of hard breathing because we've
got those I don't know who at Gordon Water. Shout
out to Gordon.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Water, Shout out to Gordon Water. Well, I'm sure is
nothing as high draded.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Not aware that the thingy is kind of broken, So
we just pulled the giant drum of water onto it
to realize that the spagets weren't working, so all of
a sudden, the thing just started spewing out water. And
we don't like to leave a mess because we're kind.
So here we are.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Dirty sink water because that was a hard piece of
water to get that it's not great, which they have
told us repeatedly not to drink because they don't know
what these pipes are made of. And this is an
extremely old building. So we're just we're taking our life
in our hands today.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Goal Wait, theer's crossed. I guess some kind of tapeworm.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I've never met someone who wants to get cholera as
much as you.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
It's not colera now, I'm all I'm nervous about the TV.
Make it it's way into Michigan, and I just know
my medical anomaly self. I've already I had whooping cough
in November if y'all missed it, I am an absolute
Laura Ingles Wilder in present day.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Would you like to know a fun fact about TB
tuberculos as I assume we're talking about right.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Please give me the fun fast.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
So do you know why Adirondack chairs are called Adirondack
chairs because they would take TB patients to the Adirondack
Mountains when they were sick, and that they would sit
them on those chairs outside in the fresh air to
recuperate and heal. So aday chairs. I know there's a
(02:16):
few pieces of info in there. I miss it so
high level. That's the things you learn on buns and banter.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Oh shoot, if that's gonna give me a trip to
the mountains where I just have to sit on my
ass and breathe, come on into my lung I don't.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I mean like I don't want the TB, but I'll
take the time away.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Oh my god, I feel I just feel very out
of sorts today. First we had the water situation. Now
we're talking TB, which I just feel like my lungs
love inviting a good illness. And I have to tell
you real quick because I feel like this is a PSA.
If you have bougie appliances. So I have a washer,
and this is so new to me because I've never
had nice new things like that. H So we have
(02:56):
a new washer and dryer. Maybe yours does this if
you like it with a really big load, right, I'm
trying to get all my clothes done. That's right. Take
the innuendo as you will. So I've got a big
load in there. And apparently as one does as one does,
I do not separate colors that do not do anything
adult like that. I'm a glorified child throwing clothes in there.
(03:19):
So I was so responsible. I'm like, I'm going to
do this tonight. That way i have everything ready for
work tomorrow, and I can put things in the dryer
and have warm pants for work, which is my favorite.
Ooh yeah. Sometime overnight the AI washer decided it was
not it was off balance, so it shuts the cycle
down and then it's like, hey, and Lizia. So this
(03:40):
morning I went to get nice warm pants or put
them in the dryer, and it was like, oh, hello,
could you just open the lid and redistribute the clothes
and the washing cycle will continue.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
We put a man on the moon and our washing
machine the moon can't figure out how to recalibrate and reorganize.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And I'm going on vacation, so I wanted everything clean.
So it was everything I own. So today I'm wearing
leggings from college. I found a treetops shirt that says,
keep Calman, head up north and I put on a scarf.
I think this belonged to an old roommate of mine
to try and pull the look together.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
You look amazing, So I'm just feeling very off.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
If you're watching YouTube right now, I promise that I
probably would wear something like this, but this is really
low key for me. This was this was AI's fault.
That's what I'm blaming it on.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
You look cute today.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I feel these like I don't know where I got these,
but they go all the way up to like my boobs.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
That's my favorite kinds. Oh, that's my favorite kind.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
No that high?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Oh god, I feel like I should have like an
afghan across my lap and be sitting on the davenport
because I'm one hundred and five years old. They're like
old man pants. I'm just having I'm having a time today.
This is I'm excited we were able to pod because
otherwise it's just going nowhere.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
But you're at it for some vacae, some warmer temperatures. Yes,
so you know what, you don't even have to worry
about leggings or long sleeves or vests or scarfs where
you're going.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
That's true. Good for you, Thank you so much. That
was absolutely planned. But I'm excited what we're gonna do
today because this was all your idea and I think
it was a really good one.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Well, I just you know what tipped me over the
edge because I've been following the Blake Lively Justin Baldoni
lawsuit woo that pertains to the movie It Ends with Us,
which is based off a book written by Colleen Hoover.
And we talked about the book, and you have the book,
but you didn't read it. I did read you did
I've read the book. Yeah, okay, okay, we can get
(05:45):
into that in a little bit. But I mean, this
is just like so fascinating to me because it has
been such a shit show from the very beginning.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
So and the beginning is it feels to me like
months and months and months and months ago. And I
guess when you talk the press tour, but the legal
side of this is only like a few weeks old. Really,
it's like mid December.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
And this is going to drag on for years because
one of the things that they're really worried about is
that this is going to a jury trial. I'll give
you a background of the lawsuit here or the several
lawsuits here in just a second. But one of the
things that I saw today was that they're worried about
all of the coverage tainting the jury pool. And I
was like, I can't believe that they are going to
(06:26):
have a jury trial for this.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
It's wild. And I've never heard a half gag order,
which was what So they were in front of a
district judge in Manhattan yesterday and at the same time,
and I feel like we hear this every time there's
a new piece of news. Both sides considered it a
victory weird, and I just I agree with you. I
don't know how you could possibly sit people that have
(06:50):
never heard about this, unless you're talking all boomers.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Like yeah, my oldest sister texted me last week and
she said, Okay, I have I've seen enough of this
Justin Baldoni, Blake Lively, shit, now I need someone to
sort through it all and explain it to me like
I'm five. And I was like, okay, Well, it's it's
a lot to keep up with. Yeah, it's day by
(07:14):
day updates. So if you're not familiar, here's the background.
Justin Baldoni directed and co starred with Blake Lively. This
is from Forbes, so I feel like that's pretty credible.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
That's a credible source.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I tried to look for something that wasn't like the
Globe or the Post or like US Weekly or something,
but Justin Baldoni directed and co starred with Blake Lively.
It Ends with Us, the movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover's
best selling book, which was released last August. Now disclaimer,
I have not seen the movie. I don't plan to
(07:44):
see the movie. Same I have not read the book.
I don't plan to read the book.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You have read the book.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Rumors of a rift developing between Lively and Baldoni during
post production began to emerge around the movie's release so
in August, and they were further funeral during the film's
press tour when Blake Lively appeared to avoid mention of
him in interviews, which was like kind of glaring. Speculation
emerged that there were disputes over creative control, and sources
(08:12):
told TMC Baldoni had fat shamed her by inquiring about
her weight, telling an onset trainer he wanted to avoid
injury while lifting her up in the movie. Baldoni and
Lively were never photographed together when they were promoting the movie,
Rumors of the feud grew, and Baldoni hired Melissa Nathan,
a crisis pr manager who represented Johnny Depp, Oh, that's right,
(08:34):
in his defamation case against ex wife Amberhard. According to
texts published by The New York Times, Nathan suggested plans
including quote full social takedowns by creating threads of theories
and planting pieces in the media of how horrible Blake
is to work with. That was like the beginning of this,
(08:57):
and I feel like that's when everybody kind of started
rallying around Blake, being like, this guy is a menace.
While Lively said the alleged smear campaign had caused severe
emotional distress for her and her family. She's married to
Ryan Reynolds in case you didn't know, I think they
have four kids, three or four, prompting her to back
(09:18):
out of hosting the SNL Season fifty premiere.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Hmmm.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
See, it's like something's fall through the cracks because there's
just so much of it.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, so I've got like the timeline here, I'm going
to run you through it. This starts February. No, this
is up until now February third, so this starts months
and months and months ago.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
It's it's wild. And I remember the first time doing
this in my celeb scoop on my shows was really
the New York Times article because we'd heard rumors. But
then you had the New York Times article and you're like,
oh wow, just like you said, people start rallying all this.
Baldoni immediately comes out and he's like, this is not
what it seems. Then you start to have co stars
(10:09):
from other projects they've worked on that get involved, other
Gossip Girl alums that didn't have great things to say.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
And see, that is the social media effect right now.
Celebrities are taking a more humanized approach to social media
where they're just like us and they talk about stuff
that we talk about on social media. So you had
all of these celebrities kind of coming to her defense
and like rallying around her. But then also you had
the ones that were like, I don't know, I haven't
(10:38):
had the best experience with her in the past.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Oh my gosh. That fuels it. And then you've got
the Times article and then what the next big thing
is that then she files her lawsuit that was two
point fifty two hundred and fifty million dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, yeah, and uh, I'm curious. I did not look
this up, but I would like to know how much
the movie made, because oh, that's a good point I heard. Again,
I have not seen the movie, but I have not
heard glowing reviews on the quality of the film.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
And this is really you're doing a lovely job, because
there was like, did this press tour all wrong? She
was like promoting her wardrobe and her hair care products
and things like that. There were so many other like
tangents off of this stuff. Yeah, every day it was
something like that.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Like around the time of the It Ends with Us premiere,
Blake Lively was the subject of intense criticism online targeting
how she promoted the film. And we all saw the
press tour, right, yeah, we the press tour was a disaster.
You could tell that every time she did press about
this movie, she was agitated. She was irritated. She was
taking it out on the people that were interviewing her.
(11:54):
Like it just there was something going on and you
could definitely tell, but we didn't know if it was
pertaining to the movie retaining to her personal life or
possibly something else. The opportune release of her hair care
line and other behaviors were like a huge talking point
of the things that she was promoting in this film
that just seemed like a movie about domestic violence. Yeah,
(12:16):
I don't know that this is necessarily your jumping off
point for launching your hair care brand.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
And not having seen the movie, but having read the book.
I mean, the entire thing is domestic violence. It's not
you know, building up to one big moment where she has,
you know, clarification about what's going on, and she has
this epiphany. The entire thing is about this really serious
subject matter.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
And in one promotional video, she encourages the audience to quote,
grab your friends, wear your florals, and head out to
see the movie, which was pretty instantly criticized because of
I mean, first of all, her tone. People were pissed
that she was like trying to sort of pass this
(13:01):
off as some like feel good girls night out chick
flick like no, and then people also claim she was
attempting to promote the movie as a light hearted love story,
cheapening the serious take on domestic abuse.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I mean, I was told when I posted that I
was reading that book last year. I had multiple women
DM me and go, it's really great, but here's your
trigger warning. That's how intense the book is.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, and then Baldoni took a completely different approach to
promoting the movie. He was very serious, like from the beginning,
he was very quiet, he was very demure when he
was doing press and on carpets, which they never did together.
They never did anything together, and Baldoni was praised for
how he handled the promotion of the movie. Lively was
(13:47):
also criticized for seeming to promote her newly launched hair
care line, Blake Brown, off the back of the film.
It was later revealed that the two were never supposed
to launch at the same time, So what happened there?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Oh, that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Duction delayed caused by the Hollywood strikes in twenty twenty
three also pushed the premiere of the movie, and it
coincided with the predetermined launch date of the brand. So
it just seems like they weren't supposed to launch at
the same time, but then the Hollywood strikes, so then
they had to launch at the same time. Push the
launch back, push the launch back.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
You know what, I mean.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Lively was also criticized for her reaction to an interviewer
in a resurfaced twenty sixteen clip. This is the one
that I've seen the most online where this is the
how's your bump? Right? Mm hmm, that's that one where
the interviewer Blake is pregnant at the time, and the
interviewer asks her, Hey, thank you so much for being here,
love to see you. How are you and your little bump?
(14:44):
And Blake was like, how are you and your little bump.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
And then refused to look at her and address her
again for the rest of the interview. It was I
think I can't remember who the other woman was. It's
not hyper parabo. Somebody different actually did like the entire thing,
and Blake just continued to look very irritated. But again
then you'll go into the comments and people are like,
this is taken out of contexts, this has been edited together,
blah blah blah. By the way, the movie grossed over
(15:10):
three hundred and fifty million.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Is that good these days?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Or I don't know, but two fifty from Blake and
then justin now counter swewing for four hundred million. This
does not seem like a success.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Okay, So, because this movie launched in August, I'm just
kind of fast forward to December because that's when all
of this really started ramping up. So December twentieth, Blake
Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department,
claiming Baldoni invaded her privacy by entering her makeup trailer
uninvited while she was undressed, pressuring her to lose weight
(15:44):
after giving birth, and a coordinated pr campaign with a
crisis firm designed to destroy her reputation. That was December twentieth.
The very next day, December twenty first, Baldoni was dropped
by his talent agency. Three days later, just number twenty
fourth Vital Voices, a nonprofit that focuses on empowering women,
rescinded an award it was originally going to give to
(16:07):
Justin Baldoni, who has made a career expressing his support
of women's stories and co hosted a podcast about masculinity
called Man Enough, which his co host pulled out of
the same day. YEP. Also December twenty fourth, Baldoni was
sued by his ex publicist, Stephanie Jones over an alleged
(16:28):
conspiracy to discredit her and steal her clients.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
And that stems I believe from the New York Times article.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yes, December thirty first, New Year's Eve, Blake Lively formally
files a lawsuit in New York Federal court against Baldoni,
his publicist, Wayfarer Studios, and other defendants for retaliating against
her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Also
(16:56):
on December thirty first. There's just so much, so like
there are multiple things happening every day and every day.
I don't know a lot about how that world works,
Hollywood in itself, but the legal aspect of things, this
stuff is not just reactionary, right, Like you can't just like, Okay,
someone filed a lawsuit against me, so I'm going to
(17:17):
file a lawsuit back and get that in on the
same day. Like this stuff takes a little bit of
pre planning, right. So same day December thirty first, New
Year's Eve, who knew this was going on? I was like, Oh,
I did dad on my couch while this was happening.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
I did.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Baldoni files a two hundred and fifty million dollar libel
lawsuit against The New York Times for reporting on Lively's allegations,
accusing the outlet of having coward to the wants and
whims of two powerful, quote untouchable Hollywood elites, referring to
Blake Lively and her husband ryled Reynolds, Ryan Reynolds.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
And he and then part of that lawsuit was him
going and saying, you took text messages edited, where they
were hitting, what they were about, how they were given.
You didn't publish all of the text messages, so a
lot of meaning and context was lost. Right.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
That was one of the interesting things about this was
that it was the back and forth and that game
of like chicken with the text messages. Like she had
him in her suit and he was like, no, release
all of them exactly, and.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
She was like.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Okay, and he was like, yeah, release all of them.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
He is He's been very I feel front and center,
like I do have the receipts and I am ready
to show all of them.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
So three days later, January third, Friedman tells today he
plans to file a lawsuit against Blake Lively after she
was subjected to sexually inappropriate behavior by Baldoni on the
set of their twenty twenty four film, but wouldn't say
exactly what the countersuit would allege, though denied Lively's claims
(19:00):
that Baldoni and his team launched a smear campaign against
the actress.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
So Friedman is Baldoni's main lawyer.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Got it ye. January seventh, Friedman appeared on Megan Kelly's
YouTube show to discuss Baldoni's plans to sue Lively into oblivion?
Did he really use those words? I think so wow?
And pushed back on several of the actress's allegations, accusing
Lively of not reading the source material for the film,
refuting claims that she was sexually harassed, and accusing her
(19:26):
of orchestrating her own smear campaign against Baldoni. The interview
also included newly released sound from a voice note from
Baldoni explaining that he was quote sent to the basement
of the film's premiere because Lively didn't want to be
anywhere near her or the rest of the cast didn't
want him near her. The rest of the cast.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Have you heard the voice note? It's it's it's wild,
he says. I believe. He says he's down and he's
down there with friends with family, like an hour and
a half yeah, and just sat down there. According to him.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
According to him, so up until now, this is very
much and I guess it still is. It's very much
like he said, she said, but I felt like the
pendulum was very much swinging in her favor and this
was going to be another one of those instances where
he's not going to get away with this, like it
ends no pun intended, but it ends here like this
(20:21):
is this is done.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
But then on January eighth, so literally a day later,
in an interview with Baldoni's attorney Brian Friedman, TMZ founder
Harvey Levin said about the co stars competing accusations about
online campaigns to damage one another's reputation. Both sides tried
to skew this story. We've been on the recipient end
of that. It has happened on both sides in the
(20:45):
Blake Lively Justin Baldoni war, both sides.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Like when you have TMZ acting as the mediator. Oh god.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Baldoni's lawyer responded by saying, that's good to know. In
recent days, the lawyer for Baldoni has denied Blake Lively's
allegations that she faced a smear campaign by his PR team,
claiming that her team was instead working to smear him.
January tenth, Paul fag fig Fag.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I think it's fig Actually, I think.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Paul Figue, who directed Lively's upcoming film A simple favor too.
Oh they're making another one of them with Anna Kendrick, right,
mm hmmm, huh. They didn't really leave that open for
a second, and I didn't think anyways. Sorry. He responded
to viral rumors about the film that it had been
shelved indefinitely partly due to the legal battle, calling it
(21:41):
total bs and confirming the film is finished and it
is coming out soon. I wonder how that shakes out,
because that was January tenth, and it's February now.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
You have not heard anything either about it.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Also January tenth, Deadline reports Baldoni's former publicist, Stephanie Jones,
who had sued the actor in a handful of others
defination and breach of contract in December, had issued subpoenas
to WhatsApp, signal and website hosts Hostinger and name cheap
digital publishing platform any Flip and chat pot chat bought
company gab Ai in attempts to discover who may have
(22:15):
been behind posts and websites aimed at harming Lively and
Baldoni's reputations.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Just can't trust anything online weird.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
January sixteenth, Baldoni files a federal lawsuit in New York
against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, her publicist Leslie Sloane,
and the firm Vision pr alleging his co star tormented him,
his family, his partners, falsely accusing him of sexual harassment
and using him as a scapegoat to dodge the narrative
(22:48):
press or the negative press surrounding. He also pushed back
on claims he sexually harassed her, instead claiming she calculatingly
devised fake stories to destroy his reputation. In Livelihood sees
control of the film he was directing and set out
to damage his career and Wayfarer Studios quote if they
did not bend to her incessant demands.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
WHOA you're still going?
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Yeah, still going?
Speaker 1 (23:16):
I know I haven't said a lot because there's still
so much more to cover. I guess.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
January twenty first, Baldoni's legal team countered Lively's claims that
he acted inappropriately while filming a slow dance scene for
the film by releasing a ten minute video from the
set that includes three takes of the same scene, which
Baldoni's team says is the entirety of the footage shot
for that scene, during which Lively alleged in a lawsuit
(23:42):
that Baldoni leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from
her ear and down her neck as he said it
smells so good. The footage shows a similar interaction where
where Baldoni is seen nuzzling her neck and she says,
I'm probably getting spray tan on you, to which he
(24:02):
respond it smells good. Lively's team says the footage fully
corroborates her account, and any woman who has been inappropriately
inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognize miss Lively's discomfort.
I haven't seen that video, Baldoni's lawyer said. The footage
proves both actors clearly behaved well within the scope of
the scene, with mutual respect and professionalism.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Because then later on you'll fast forward and find his
other allegation about the intimacy coordinator and the meetings she's
skipped out.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
On January twenty seventh, Daily Mail publishes a nearly seven
minute voice note. It says Baldoni sent to Lively at
two am during the filming of the movie, in which
he allegedly apologizes for not being open enough to script
changes that she made, admitting he is a very flawed man,
and makes a reference to her breastfeeding her then newborn child.
(24:53):
It's kind of weird.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
It's it because I listen. I think I listened to
almost the entire seven minutes of it, and I believe
what he was discussing is her talking about coming into
her dressing room and when she was unclothed and things
like that. And he is alleging that she invited him in,
that he had told her exactly what he wanted to
talk about, and then suddenly that changed for her and
(25:17):
put him in this negative light when he was doing
everything in his power to make sure that he wasn't
making her uncomfortable and was talking about things that needed
to happen with the movie as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Okay, I'd another update on January twenty seventh, like multiple
things every.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Day say I've been doing I mean every single day,
I was doing this on my shows. It was so absurd.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Lyman told Lively and Baldoni's lawyers to prepare for a
March ninth, twenty twenty sixth, trial date and set a
pre trial conference to discuss, among other things, complaints from
Lively's teams about the conduct of Baldoni's lawyer. Lively's lawyers
have claimed that Friedman, Baldoni's lawyer, is trying to paint
potential jurors by creating a website to release communication between
(26:01):
the two actors and documents from the set, and accused
him of making an endless stream of defamatory and extra
judicial media statements. Please make the website. We would love
a place where we can get all of this in one.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
So he did. He published it over the weekend this weekend,
this past weekend. I believe it's just called like because
that was what was a big topic in the court
hearing on Monday.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
January twenty ninth. Hollywood Reporter cites unnamed sources in reporting
that Baldoni has lost three jobs and hundreds of millions
of dollars since Lively first filed the suit against him
in December, and that an in the works pac Man
movie project he was set to direct is now in jeopardy.
(26:46):
January thirtieth, lawyers for Lively and Reynolds set in a
letter to Lyneman that they planned to move to dismiss
the lawsuit filed against them at a pre trial conference
scheduled for Monday February Yesterday, yes February first, Baldoni's team
published a website dedicated to supporting his lawsuit against Lively
(27:08):
and Reynolds that links to an amended complaint filed on
January thirty first. It contains a timeline of the events
outlining what he says happened on the set of It
Ends with Us, including corresponding text messages, emails, and a
statement Baldoni has said he was pressured into releasing by
Reynolds and Lively that would have seen him take the
(27:28):
blame for quote troubled production of the movie. He refused
to put out that statement. In addition, he released a
text message exchange with Lively that showed she chose not
to meet with an on set intimacy coordinator that he
had hired, leaving him to relay uncomfortable information from the
meeting on his own.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I'm trying to find the name of the website because
it's just so, it's.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Like February third, this is yesterday. New York Federal Judge
Lewis J. Lyman told lawyers for Lively and Baldoni that
he would move up the trial date set for March
twenty twenty six, if the case continued to be litigated
in the press. Lyman ordered both sides to adhere to
(28:16):
the New York Roles of Professional Conduct, which stops lawyers
from making public comments that have a substantial likelihood of
tainting a jury, but stopped short of sanctioning Baldoni's attorney,
Brian Friedman, despite claims from Lively's team that he has
gotten close to defaming her and has made extra judicial
(28:37):
statements about her and her character.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
The lawsuit info dot com he published everything over and so,
and now that judge was threatening to move the trial up,
it's like, okay, then you guys won't have the time
necessary maybe and you'll find a duram. We'll figure this
out out it is And all of that went own
in like six weeks. Incredible there, And there's so many
(29:06):
other things like what he was saying. His wife came
out in support of him. He had other people that
were showing text messages to them about things like when
he was trapped down in this basement at the Red
Carpet premiere. Colleen Hoover left Instagram. Yeah, Colleen left Instagram
because of all the commentary.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Because she couldn't handle it. And at first she had
been like really really supportive of Blake Lively, and she
had come out and said like she was great. She's
exactly who we wanted. She was exactly the person you
would want to be handling this type of content. And
I did think it was a little bit weird that
on both sides they had such a complete and succinct
(29:45):
record of everything that had happened and when it had happened, Like,
is that just like a normal thing people do on
movies now to protect themselves, which is just like, why
don't you I yeah, I guess I don't work in
the business, so I don't know. But I saw online
a person speculating that it was Justin Baldoni's wife who
(30:07):
had kind of sniffed Blake Lively out right away and said,
you need to make sure you'd document everything on this one.
It's so, of course, we don't know if that's true.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Right right. Taylor Swift was mentioned in a lawsuit, even
though she was not being sued, that there was some
conversation paraphrasing about Blake using her dragons to take him down.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
I don't care how close we are as friends. I
would I got a short list of people I would
take a bullet for.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
But if you were embroiled in a high profile lawsuit
and you were speaking about me as if you were
Kalisi and I was one of your dragons, I might
call you and be like.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
What the not? Not the look? Not the look. Even
though I did goes Clacy for Halloween one year, I
did have dragons, I would never not in a legal setting.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
I bet they weren't Taylor Swift and Ryan Reynolds.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
No, none at all, not at all. But there's so
much there.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
And then it came out that Taylor Swift was allegedly
again this is all speculation because Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
All speculative and we don't want to get sued, but.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Was possibly distancing herself from Blake Lively because she felt
a little bit used in all of this. And then
you know, we have seen Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds
together or separately with Taylor Swift at some NFL games,
and then all of a sudden, you know they weren't there.
Are they invited to this football game we got coming up?
(31:43):
Or won't they be there? That's one of the prop
bets I saw.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Oh really, well, that's interesting, And I mean, who even
knows what changes when this gets posted? Like right, our
pod usually hits on a Friday, we're talking about this,
and that could there could still be so much in
a couple days.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
So here's the question. You haven't seen the movie. I
haven't seen the movie. When there is this much scandal
around a movie, does it make you want to go
watch it even a little bit?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
It makes me want to watch it less right, It
really does. And I think that was an unintentional when
you hear this saying no, all press is good press,
no such thing as bad press, I very much disagree,
because most of the people I know and my friends
that we're gonna see it are like, I don't think
you could watch it anymore without feeling so cringey about
(32:40):
what is happening behind the scenes, especially given the subject matter.
If this is a comedy we're talking about, and it's like, oh,
the actors are fighting whatever funny movie, not this, not
this one, And I have absolutely zero desire. And Netflix
keeps trying to serve it to me. You love this,
you would love this. I'm like, I don't think I would.
Book was enough for me. This is really unfortunate because
(33:01):
I think it could could have been a really good movie.
It was a good book.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
And I haven't seen Blake Lively. I haven't seen paparazzi
photos of her. I haven't seen her photographed out and
about everywhere. So maybe she's just kind of chilling at
home and like taking some time to ride this out
because I'm sure it's overwhelming and I'm sure it's super stressful.
But I did see Ryan Reynolds was out the other
day and he was like photographed by a bunch of
paparazzi like signing, hey, sure's.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
The wit and surprised Hugh Jackman at his think he's
doing something on Broadway right now, and isn't that awful,
because like I looked at the video and I was like,
alhwa's trying so hard to be nice. But you also
have been in this industry long enough where you know
that it's very important to create a public image, especially
one that may have been tainted by whatever is happening.
(33:48):
Right I don't know, it's so it sounds terrible and
they both have kids too, and you're just like, damn,
you're in Google this sooner rather than later, just know everything.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I didn't think about that aspect of it.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
I always do with celebrities that have kids. I'm like, oh, okay,
good luck.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
And it's messy, and it's just like it's the spectacle
of the moment right now.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Do you ever feel bad about that?
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, Like the Johnny Depp and Amber heard stuff like
everybody was glued to the TV watching that and I couldn't.
I couldn't watch the trial because I was like, this
is like really sensitive information that they are talking about.
This stuff happened. When you're a celebrity like that, you
probably have to have such a tight inner circle, like
(34:39):
there are maybe a handful of people that you can
truly be yourself around, and you would hope that your
significant other, the person that you love and for all
intents and purposes will spend the rest of your life with,
would be one of those people where you can let
the mask down right and do and then all of
those things, all of those moments that you think are
like private and like they won't tell we have an
(35:00):
understanding then they're all public and anybody can watch that trial. Yeah,
that is just that is my not for me.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Where's thy marige for you all to realize what I'm
actually like? Yes, that.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Worst case scenario.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
It was a great rundown. Though well done it. I
know you researched that it.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Was all all out of it. I got a shout
out to Forbes. There's so much other stuff like surrounding this,
and it's like it is so day by day, but
it's so confusing and there's so much and that's because
there's so much happening every day, there's multiple things happening
in the course of twenty four hours. With this, it's
hard to keep up. So I wanted to like sift
through it for myself, but also so I could tell
(35:48):
my sister what was going on, like she was a
five year old.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
And once again, just so much money.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
And it's so much it's so much stuff happening, but
also nothing's happening.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Yeah, you should be a reporter on this. That's perfectly said.
So much is happening and yet.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
And yet nothing. I don't think this has moved forward
aside from the like I think one of the biggest
developments was the judge setting a trial date March of
twenty twenty six. Twenty six, y'all, more than a year away.
That's too much. That is too much runway for something
else to happen. Number one, It's just it's too much
time for PR companies to scheme.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Ooh good word right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah, spin or do whatever they need to do.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
It's wild anyway, now that your brain is also melting
out of your ears, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I kind of feel like it, Like I feel like
this isn't something that I want to take up any
brain space with, and yet here we are, but I
still don't want to see the movie.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Nope. Sorry, Netflix,
Welcome to Buns and Banter, a podcast buy work Busties
for work Busties. Hey, I'm Lauren and I'm Ali. We're
both morning show hosts for iHeartMedia.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
We're both millennials.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
And we're both trying to figure out how to build
the lives we dream about, dating, marriage, career, career and
being a mom.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
How to get through a week without crying.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Welcome to Buns and Banter.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
We're glad you're here.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Okay, first of all.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Wow, how many blonds does it take to put the
water chuck on the water cooler. It's my favorite job though,
of my I mean, we don't really have responsibilities and
duties here, yeah, but it is. It's my favorite thing
to do here is put the water on the thing. Really,
I didn't know you did that at least on our floor,
not on this floor, you miss.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
We are like, I'm kind of hard breathing because we've
got those I don't know who at Gordon Water. Shout
out to Gordon.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Water, Shout out to Gordon Water. Well, I'm sure is
nothing as high draded.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Not aware that the thingy is kind of broken, So
we just pulled the giant drum of water onto it
to realize that the spagets weren't working, so all of
a sudden, the thing just started spewing out water. And
we don't like to leave a mess because we're kind.
So here we are.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Dirty sink water because that was a hard piece of
water to get that it's not great, which they have
told us repeatedly not to drink because they don't know
what these pipes are made of. And this is an
extremely old building. So we're just we're taking our life
in our hands today.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Goal Wait, theer's crossed. I guess some kind of tapeworm.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I've never met someone who wants to get cholera as
much as you.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
It's not colera now, I'm all I'm nervous about the TV.
Make it it's way into Michigan, and I just know
my medical anomaly self. I've already I had whooping cough
in November if y'all missed it, I am an absolute
Laura Ingles Wilder in present day.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Would you like to know a fun fact about TB
tuberculos as I assume we're talking about right.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Please give me the fun fast.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
So do you know why Adirondack chairs are called Adirondack
chairs because they would take TB patients to the Adirondack
Mountains when they were sick, and that they would sit
them on those chairs outside in the fresh air to
recuperate and heal. So aday chairs. I know there's a
(02:16):
few pieces of info in there. I miss it so
high level. That's the things you learn on buns and banter.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Oh shoot, if that's gonna give me a trip to
the mountains where I just have to sit on my
ass and breathe, come on into my lung I don't.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I mean like I don't want the TB, but I'll
take the time away.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Oh my god, I feel I just feel very out
of sorts today. First we had the water situation. Now
we're talking TB, which I just feel like my lungs
love inviting a good illness. And I have to tell
you real quick because I feel like this is a PSA.
If you have bougie appliances. So I have a washer,
and this is so new to me because I've never
had nice new things like that. H So we have
(02:56):
a new washer and dryer. Maybe yours does this if
you like it with a really big load, right, I'm
trying to get all my clothes done. That's right. Take
the innuendo as you will. So I've got a big
load in there. And apparently as one does as one does,
I do not separate colors that do not do anything
adult like that. I'm a glorified child throwing clothes in there.
(03:19):
So I was so responsible. I'm like, I'm going to
do this tonight. That way i have everything ready for
work tomorrow, and I can put things in the dryer
and have warm pants for work, which is my favorite.
Ooh yeah. Sometime overnight the AI washer decided it was
not it was off balance, so it shuts the cycle
down and then it's like, hey, and Lizia. So this
(03:40):
morning I went to get nice warm pants or put
them in the dryer, and it was like, oh, hello,
could you just open the lid and redistribute the clothes
and the washing cycle will continue.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
We put a man on the moon and our washing
machine the moon can't figure out how to recalibrate and reorganize.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And I'm going on vacation, so I wanted everything clean.
So it was everything I own. So today I'm wearing
leggings from college. I found a treetops shirt that says,
keep Calman, head up north and I put on a scarf.
I think this belonged to an old roommate of mine
to try and pull the look together.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
You look amazing, So I'm just feeling very off.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
If you're watching YouTube right now, I promise that I
probably would wear something like this, but this is really
low key for me. This was this was AI's fault.
That's what I'm blaming it on.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
You look cute today.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I feel these like I don't know where I got these,
but they go all the way up to like my boobs.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
That's my favorite kinds. Oh, that's my favorite kind.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
No that high?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Oh god, I feel like I should have like an
afghan across my lap and be sitting on the davenport
because I'm one hundred and five years old. They're like
old man pants. I'm just having I'm having a time today.
This is I'm excited we were able to pod because
otherwise it's just going nowhere.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
But you're at it for some vacae, some warmer temperatures. Yes,
so you know what, you don't even have to worry
about leggings or long sleeves or vests or scarfs where
you're going.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
That's true. Good for you, Thank you so much. That
was absolutely planned. But I'm excited what we're gonna do
today because this was all your idea and I think
it was a really good one.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Well, I just you know what tipped me over the
edge because I've been following the Blake Lively Justin Baldoni
lawsuit woo that pertains to the movie It Ends with Us,
which is based off a book written by Colleen Hoover.
And we talked about the book, and you have the book,
but you didn't read it. I did read you did
I've read the book. Yeah, okay, okay, we can get
(05:45):
into that in a little bit. But I mean, this
is just like so fascinating to me because it has
been such a shit show from the very beginning.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
So and the beginning is it feels to me like
months and months and months and months ago. And I
guess when you talk the press tour, but the legal
side of this is only like a few weeks old. Really,
it's like mid December.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
And this is going to drag on for years because
one of the things that they're really worried about is
that this is going to a jury trial. I'll give
you a background of the lawsuit here or the several
lawsuits here in just a second. But one of the
things that I saw today was that they're worried about
all of the coverage tainting the jury pool. And I
was like, I can't believe that they are going to
(06:26):
have a jury trial for this.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
It's wild. And I've never heard a half gag order,
which was what So they were in front of a
district judge in Manhattan yesterday and at the same time,
and I feel like we hear this every time there's
a new piece of news. Both sides considered it a
victory weird, and I just I agree with you. I
don't know how you could possibly sit people that have
(06:50):
never heard about this, unless you're talking all boomers.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Like yeah, my oldest sister texted me last week and
she said, Okay, I have I've seen enough of this
Justin Baldoni, Blake Lively, shit, now I need someone to
sort through it all and explain it to me like
I'm five. And I was like, okay, Well, it's it's
a lot to keep up with. Yeah, it's day by
(07:14):
day updates. So if you're not familiar, here's the background.
Justin Baldoni directed and co starred with Blake Lively. This
is from Forbes, so I feel like that's pretty credible.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
That's a credible source.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I tried to look for something that wasn't like the
Globe or the Post or like US Weekly or something,
but Justin Baldoni directed and co starred with Blake Lively.
It Ends with Us, the movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover's
best selling book, which was released last August. Now disclaimer,
I have not seen the movie. I don't plan to
(07:44):
see the movie. Same I have not read the book.
I don't plan to read the book.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You have read the book.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Rumors of a rift developing between Lively and Baldoni during
post production began to emerge around the movie's release so
in August, and they were further funeral during the film's
press tour when Blake Lively appeared to avoid mention of
him in interviews, which was like kind of glaring. Speculation
emerged that there were disputes over creative control, and sources
(08:12):
told TMC Baldoni had fat shamed her by inquiring about
her weight, telling an onset trainer he wanted to avoid
injury while lifting her up in the movie. Baldoni and
Lively were never photographed together when they were promoting the movie,
Rumors of the feud grew, and Baldoni hired Melissa Nathan,
a crisis pr manager who represented Johnny Depp, Oh, that's right,
(08:34):
in his defamation case against ex wife Amberhard. According to
texts published by The New York Times, Nathan suggested plans
including quote full social takedowns by creating threads of theories
and planting pieces in the media of how horrible Blake
is to work with. That was like the beginning of this,
(08:57):
and I feel like that's when everybody kind of started
rallying around Blake, being like, this guy is a menace.
While Lively said the alleged smear campaign had caused severe
emotional distress for her and her family. She's married to
Ryan Reynolds in case you didn't know, I think they
have four kids, three or four, prompting her to back
(09:18):
out of hosting the SNL Season fifty premiere.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Hmmm.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
See, it's like something's fall through the cracks because there's
just so much of it.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, so I've got like the timeline here, I'm going
to run you through it. This starts February. No, this
is up until now February third, so this starts months
and months and months ago.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
It's it's wild. And I remember the first time doing
this in my celeb scoop on my shows was really
the New York Times article because we'd heard rumors. But
then you had the New York Times article and you're like,
oh wow, just like you said, people start rallying all this.
Baldoni immediately comes out and he's like, this is not
what it seems. Then you start to have co stars
(10:09):
from other projects they've worked on that get involved, other
Gossip Girl alums that didn't have great things to say.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
And see, that is the social media effect right now.
Celebrities are taking a more humanized approach to social media
where they're just like us and they talk about stuff
that we talk about on social media. So you had
all of these celebrities kind of coming to her defense
and like rallying around her. But then also you had
the ones that were like, I don't know, I haven't
(10:38):
had the best experience with her in the past.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Oh my gosh. That fuels it. And then you've got
the Times article and then what the next big thing
is that then she files her lawsuit that was two
point fifty two hundred and fifty million dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, yeah, and uh, I'm curious. I did not look
this up, but I would like to know how much
the movie made, because oh, that's a good point I heard. Again,
I have not seen the movie, but I have not
heard glowing reviews on the quality of the film.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
And this is really you're doing a lovely job, because
there was like, did this press tour all wrong? She
was like promoting her wardrobe and her hair care products
and things like that. There were so many other like
tangents off of this stuff. Yeah, every day it was
something like that.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Like around the time of the It Ends with Us premiere,
Blake Lively was the subject of intense criticism online targeting
how she promoted the film. And we all saw the
press tour, right, yeah, we the press tour was a disaster.
You could tell that every time she did press about
this movie, she was agitated. She was irritated. She was
taking it out on the people that were interviewing her.
(11:54):
Like it just there was something going on and you
could definitely tell, but we didn't know if it was
pertaining to the movie retaining to her personal life or
possibly something else. The opportune release of her hair care
line and other behaviors were like a huge talking point
of the things that she was promoting in this film
that just seemed like a movie about domestic violence. Yeah,
(12:16):
I don't know that this is necessarily your jumping off
point for launching your hair care brand.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
And not having seen the movie, but having read the book.
I mean, the entire thing is domestic violence. It's not
you know, building up to one big moment where she has,
you know, clarification about what's going on, and she has
this epiphany. The entire thing is about this really serious
subject matter.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
And in one promotional video, she encourages the audience to quote,
grab your friends, wear your florals, and head out to
see the movie, which was pretty instantly criticized because of
I mean, first of all, her tone. People were pissed
that she was like trying to sort of pass this
(13:01):
off as some like feel good girls night out chick
flick like no, and then people also claim she was
attempting to promote the movie as a light hearted love story,
cheapening the serious take on domestic abuse.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I mean, I was told when I posted that I
was reading that book last year. I had multiple women
DM me and go, it's really great, but here's your
trigger warning. That's how intense the book is.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, and then Baldoni took a completely different approach to
promoting the movie. He was very serious, like from the beginning,
he was very quiet, he was very demure when he
was doing press and on carpets, which they never did together.
They never did anything together, and Baldoni was praised for
how he handled the promotion of the movie. Lively was
(13:47):
also criticized for seeming to promote her newly launched hair
care line, Blake Brown, off the back of the film.
It was later revealed that the two were never supposed
to launch at the same time, So what happened there?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Oh, that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Duction delayed caused by the Hollywood strikes in twenty twenty
three also pushed the premiere of the movie, and it
coincided with the predetermined launch date of the brand. So
it just seems like they weren't supposed to launch at
the same time, but then the Hollywood strikes, so then
they had to launch at the same time. Push the
launch back, push the launch back.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
You know what, I mean.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Lively was also criticized for her reaction to an interviewer
in a resurfaced twenty sixteen clip. This is the one
that I've seen the most online where this is the
how's your bump? Right? Mm hmm, that's that one where
the interviewer Blake is pregnant at the time, and the
interviewer asks her, Hey, thank you so much for being here,
love to see you. How are you and your little bump?
(14:44):
And Blake was like, how are you and your little bump.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
And then refused to look at her and address her
again for the rest of the interview. It was I
think I can't remember who the other woman was. It's
not hyper parabo. Somebody different actually did like the entire thing,
and Blake just continued to look very irritated. But again
then you'll go into the comments and people are like,
this is taken out of contexts, this has been edited together,
blah blah blah. By the way, the movie grossed over
(15:10):
three hundred and fifty million.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Is that good these days?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Or I don't know, but two fifty from Blake and
then justin now counter swewing for four hundred million. This
does not seem like a success.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Okay, So, because this movie launched in August, I'm just
kind of fast forward to December because that's when all
of this really started ramping up. So December twentieth, Blake
Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department,
claiming Baldoni invaded her privacy by entering her makeup trailer
uninvited while she was undressed, pressuring her to lose weight
(15:44):
after giving birth, and a coordinated pr campaign with a
crisis firm designed to destroy her reputation. That was December twentieth.
The very next day, December twenty first, Baldoni was dropped
by his talent agency. Three days later, just number twenty
fourth Vital Voices, a nonprofit that focuses on empowering women,
rescinded an award it was originally going to give to
(16:07):
Justin Baldoni, who has made a career expressing his support
of women's stories and co hosted a podcast about masculinity
called Man Enough, which his co host pulled out of
the same day. YEP. Also December twenty fourth, Baldoni was
sued by his ex publicist, Stephanie Jones over an alleged
(16:28):
conspiracy to discredit her and steal her clients.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
And that stems I believe from the New York Times article.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yes, December thirty first, New Year's Eve, Blake Lively formally
files a lawsuit in New York Federal court against Baldoni,
his publicist, Wayfarer Studios, and other defendants for retaliating against
her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Also
(16:56):
on December thirty first. There's just so much, so like
there are multiple things happening every day and every day.
I don't know a lot about how that world works,
Hollywood in itself, but the legal aspect of things, this
stuff is not just reactionary, right, Like you can't just like, Okay,
someone filed a lawsuit against me, so I'm going to
(17:17):
file a lawsuit back and get that in on the
same day. Like this stuff takes a little bit of
pre planning, right. So same day December thirty first, New
Year's Eve, who knew this was going on? I was like, Oh,
I did dad on my couch while this was happening.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
I did.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Baldoni files a two hundred and fifty million dollar libel
lawsuit against The New York Times for reporting on Lively's allegations,
accusing the outlet of having coward to the wants and
whims of two powerful, quote untouchable Hollywood elites, referring to
Blake Lively and her husband ryled Reynolds, Ryan Reynolds.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
And he and then part of that lawsuit was him
going and saying, you took text messages edited, where they
were hitting, what they were about, how they were given.
You didn't publish all of the text messages, so a
lot of meaning and context was lost. Right.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
That was one of the interesting things about this was
that it was the back and forth and that game
of like chicken with the text messages. Like she had
him in her suit and he was like, no, release
all of them exactly, and.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
She was like.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Okay, and he was like, yeah, release all of them.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
He is He's been very I feel front and center,
like I do have the receipts and I am ready
to show all of them.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
So three days later, January third, Friedman tells today he
plans to file a lawsuit against Blake Lively after she
was subjected to sexually inappropriate behavior by Baldoni on the
set of their twenty twenty four film, but wouldn't say
exactly what the countersuit would allege, though denied Lively's claims
(19:00):
that Baldoni and his team launched a smear campaign against
the actress.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
So Friedman is Baldoni's main lawyer.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Got it ye. January seventh, Friedman appeared on Megan Kelly's
YouTube show to discuss Baldoni's plans to sue Lively into oblivion?
Did he really use those words? I think so wow?
And pushed back on several of the actress's allegations, accusing
Lively of not reading the source material for the film,
refuting claims that she was sexually harassed, and accusing her
(19:26):
of orchestrating her own smear campaign against Baldoni. The interview
also included newly released sound from a voice note from
Baldoni explaining that he was quote sent to the basement
of the film's premiere because Lively didn't want to be
anywhere near her or the rest of the cast didn't
want him near her. The rest of the cast.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Have you heard the voice note? It's it's it's wild,
he says. I believe. He says he's down and he's
down there with friends with family, like an hour and
a half yeah, and just sat down there. According to him.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
According to him, so up until now, this is very
much and I guess it still is. It's very much
like he said, she said, but I felt like the
pendulum was very much swinging in her favor and this
was going to be another one of those instances where
he's not going to get away with this, like it
ends no pun intended, but it ends here like this
(20:21):
is this is done.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
But then on January eighth, so literally a day later,
in an interview with Baldoni's attorney Brian Friedman, TMZ founder
Harvey Levin said about the co stars competing accusations about
online campaigns to damage one another's reputation. Both sides tried
to skew this story. We've been on the recipient end
of that. It has happened on both sides in the
(20:45):
Blake Lively Justin Baldoni war, both sides.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Like when you have TMZ acting as the mediator. Oh god.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Baldoni's lawyer responded by saying, that's good to know. In
recent days, the lawyer for Baldoni has denied Blake Lively's
allegations that she faced a smear campaign by his PR team,
claiming that her team was instead working to smear him.
January tenth, Paul fag fig Fag.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I think it's fig Actually, I think.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Paul Figue, who directed Lively's upcoming film A simple favor too.
Oh they're making another one of them with Anna Kendrick, right,
mm hmmm, huh. They didn't really leave that open for
a second, and I didn't think anyways. Sorry. He responded
to viral rumors about the film that it had been
shelved indefinitely partly due to the legal battle, calling it
(21:41):
total bs and confirming the film is finished and it
is coming out soon. I wonder how that shakes out,
because that was January tenth, and it's February now.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
You have not heard anything either about it.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Also January tenth, Deadline reports Baldoni's former publicist, Stephanie Jones,
who had sued the actor in a handful of others
defination and breach of contract in December, had issued subpoenas
to WhatsApp, signal and website hosts Hostinger and name cheap
digital publishing platform any Flip and chat pot chat bought
company gab Ai in attempts to discover who may have
(22:15):
been behind posts and websites aimed at harming Lively and
Baldoni's reputations.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Just can't trust anything online weird.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
January sixteenth, Baldoni files a federal lawsuit in New York
against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, her publicist Leslie Sloane,
and the firm Vision pr alleging his co star tormented him,
his family, his partners, falsely accusing him of sexual harassment
and using him as a scapegoat to dodge the narrative
(22:48):
press or the negative press surrounding. He also pushed back
on claims he sexually harassed her, instead claiming she calculatingly
devised fake stories to destroy his reputation. In Livelihood sees
control of the film he was directing and set out
to damage his career and Wayfarer Studios quote if they
did not bend to her incessant demands.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
WHOA you're still going?
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Yeah, still going?
Speaker 1 (23:16):
I know I haven't said a lot because there's still
so much more to cover. I guess.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
January twenty first, Baldoni's legal team countered Lively's claims that
he acted inappropriately while filming a slow dance scene for
the film by releasing a ten minute video from the
set that includes three takes of the same scene, which
Baldoni's team says is the entirety of the footage shot
for that scene, during which Lively alleged in a lawsuit
(23:42):
that Baldoni leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from
her ear and down her neck as he said it
smells so good. The footage shows a similar interaction where
where Baldoni is seen nuzzling her neck and she says,
I'm probably getting spray tan on you, to which he
(24:02):
respond it smells good. Lively's team says the footage fully
corroborates her account, and any woman who has been inappropriately
inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognize miss Lively's discomfort.
I haven't seen that video, Baldoni's lawyer said. The footage
proves both actors clearly behaved well within the scope of
the scene, with mutual respect and professionalism.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Because then later on you'll fast forward and find his
other allegation about the intimacy coordinator and the meetings she's
skipped out.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
On January twenty seventh, Daily Mail publishes a nearly seven
minute voice note. It says Baldoni sent to Lively at
two am during the filming of the movie, in which
he allegedly apologizes for not being open enough to script
changes that she made, admitting he is a very flawed man,
and makes a reference to her breastfeeding her then newborn child.
(24:53):
It's kind of weird.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
It's it because I listen. I think I listened to
almost the entire seven minutes of it, and I believe
what he was discussing is her talking about coming into
her dressing room and when she was unclothed and things
like that. And he is alleging that she invited him in,
that he had told her exactly what he wanted to
talk about, and then suddenly that changed for her and
(25:17):
put him in this negative light when he was doing
everything in his power to make sure that he wasn't
making her uncomfortable and was talking about things that needed
to happen with the movie as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Okay, I'd another update on January twenty seventh, like multiple
things every.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Day say I've been doing I mean every single day,
I was doing this on my shows. It was so absurd.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Lyman told Lively and Baldoni's lawyers to prepare for a
March ninth, twenty twenty sixth, trial date and set a
pre trial conference to discuss, among other things, complaints from
Lively's teams about the conduct of Baldoni's lawyer. Lively's lawyers
have claimed that Friedman, Baldoni's lawyer, is trying to paint
potential jurors by creating a website to release communication between
(26:01):
the two actors and documents from the set, and accused
him of making an endless stream of defamatory and extra
judicial media statements. Please make the website. We would love
a place where we can get all of this in one.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
So he did. He published it over the weekend this weekend,
this past weekend. I believe it's just called like because
that was what was a big topic in the court
hearing on Monday.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
January twenty ninth. Hollywood Reporter cites unnamed sources in reporting
that Baldoni has lost three jobs and hundreds of millions
of dollars since Lively first filed the suit against him
in December, and that an in the works pac Man
movie project he was set to direct is now in jeopardy.
(26:46):
January thirtieth, lawyers for Lively and Reynolds set in a
letter to Lyneman that they planned to move to dismiss
the lawsuit filed against them at a pre trial conference
scheduled for Monday February Yesterday, yes February first, Baldoni's team
published a website dedicated to supporting his lawsuit against Lively
(27:08):
and Reynolds that links to an amended complaint filed on
January thirty first. It contains a timeline of the events
outlining what he says happened on the set of It
Ends with Us, including corresponding text messages, emails, and a
statement Baldoni has said he was pressured into releasing by
Reynolds and Lively that would have seen him take the
(27:28):
blame for quote troubled production of the movie. He refused
to put out that statement. In addition, he released a
text message exchange with Lively that showed she chose not
to meet with an on set intimacy coordinator that he
had hired, leaving him to relay uncomfortable information from the
meeting on his own.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I'm trying to find the name of the website because
it's just so, it's.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Like February third, this is yesterday. New York Federal Judge
Lewis J. Lyman told lawyers for Lively and Baldoni that
he would move up the trial date set for March
twenty twenty six, if the case continued to be litigated
in the press. Lyman ordered both sides to adhere to
(28:16):
the New York Roles of Professional Conduct, which stops lawyers
from making public comments that have a substantial likelihood of
tainting a jury, but stopped short of sanctioning Baldoni's attorney,
Brian Friedman, despite claims from Lively's team that he has
gotten close to defaming her and has made extra judicial
(28:37):
statements about her and her character.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
The lawsuit info dot com he published everything over and so,
and now that judge was threatening to move the trial up,
it's like, okay, then you guys won't have the time
necessary maybe and you'll find a duram. We'll figure this
out out it is And all of that went own
in like six weeks. Incredible there, And there's so many
(29:06):
other things like what he was saying. His wife came
out in support of him. He had other people that
were showing text messages to them about things like when
he was trapped down in this basement at the Red
Carpet premiere. Colleen Hoover left Instagram. Yeah, Colleen left Instagram
because of all the commentary.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Because she couldn't handle it. And at first she had
been like really really supportive of Blake Lively, and she
had come out and said like she was great. She's
exactly who we wanted. She was exactly the person you
would want to be handling this type of content. And
I did think it was a little bit weird that
on both sides they had such a complete and succinct
(29:45):
record of everything that had happened and when it had happened, Like,
is that just like a normal thing people do on
movies now to protect themselves, which is just like, why
don't you I yeah, I guess I don't work in
the business, so I don't know. But I saw online
a person speculating that it was Justin Baldoni's wife who
(30:07):
had kind of sniffed Blake Lively out right away and said,
you need to make sure you'd document everything on this one.
It's so, of course, we don't know if that's true.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Right right. Taylor Swift was mentioned in a lawsuit, even
though she was not being sued, that there was some
conversation paraphrasing about Blake using her dragons to take him down.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
I don't care how close we are as friends. I
would I got a short list of people I would
take a bullet for.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
But if you were embroiled in a high profile lawsuit
and you were speaking about me as if you were
Kalisi and I was one of your dragons, I might
call you and be like.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
What the not? Not the look? Not the look. Even
though I did goes Clacy for Halloween one year, I
did have dragons, I would never not in a legal setting.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
I bet they weren't Taylor Swift and Ryan Reynolds.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
No, none at all, not at all. But there's so
much there.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
And then it came out that Taylor Swift was allegedly
again this is all speculation because Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
All speculative and we don't want to get sued, but.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Was possibly distancing herself from Blake Lively because she felt
a little bit used in all of this. And then
you know, we have seen Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds
together or separately with Taylor Swift at some NFL games,
and then all of a sudden, you know they weren't there.
Are they invited to this football game we got coming up?
(31:43):
Or won't they be there? That's one of the prop
bets I saw.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Oh really, well, that's interesting, And I mean, who even
knows what changes when this gets posted? Like right, our
pod usually hits on a Friday, we're talking about this,
and that could there could still be so much in
a couple days.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
So here's the question. You haven't seen the movie. I
haven't seen the movie. When there is this much scandal
around a movie, does it make you want to go
watch it even a little bit?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
It makes me want to watch it less right, It
really does. And I think that was an unintentional when
you hear this saying no, all press is good press,
no such thing as bad press, I very much disagree,
because most of the people I know and my friends
that we're gonna see it are like, I don't think
you could watch it anymore without feeling so cringey about
(32:40):
what is happening behind the scenes, especially given the subject matter.
If this is a comedy we're talking about, and it's like, oh,
the actors are fighting whatever funny movie, not this, not
this one, And I have absolutely zero desire. And Netflix
keeps trying to serve it to me. You love this,
you would love this. I'm like, I don't think I would.
Book was enough for me. This is really unfortunate because
(33:01):
I think it could could have been a really good movie.
It was a good book.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
And I haven't seen Blake Lively. I haven't seen paparazzi
photos of her. I haven't seen her photographed out and
about everywhere. So maybe she's just kind of chilling at
home and like taking some time to ride this out
because I'm sure it's overwhelming and I'm sure it's super stressful.
But I did see Ryan Reynolds was out the other
day and he was like photographed by a bunch of
paparazzi like signing, hey, sure's.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
The wit and surprised Hugh Jackman at his think he's
doing something on Broadway right now, and isn't that awful,
because like I looked at the video and I was like,
alhwa's trying so hard to be nice. But you also
have been in this industry long enough where you know
that it's very important to create a public image, especially
one that may have been tainted by whatever is happening.
(33:48):
Right I don't know, it's so it sounds terrible and
they both have kids too, and you're just like, damn,
you're in Google this sooner rather than later, just know everything.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I didn't think about that aspect of it.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
I always do with celebrities that have kids. I'm like, oh, okay,
good luck.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
And it's messy, and it's just like it's the spectacle
of the moment right now.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Do you ever feel bad about that?
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, Like the Johnny Depp and Amber heard stuff like
everybody was glued to the TV watching that and I couldn't.
I couldn't watch the trial because I was like, this
is like really sensitive information that they are talking about.
This stuff happened. When you're a celebrity like that, you
probably have to have such a tight inner circle, like
(34:39):
there are maybe a handful of people that you can
truly be yourself around, and you would hope that your
significant other, the person that you love and for all
intents and purposes will spend the rest of your life with,
would be one of those people where you can let
the mask down right and do and then all of
those things, all of those moments that you think are
like private and like they won't tell we have an
(35:00):
understanding then they're all public and anybody can watch that trial. Yeah,
that is just that is my not for me.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Where's thy marige for you all to realize what I'm
actually like? Yes, that.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Worst case scenario.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
It was a great rundown. Though well done it. I
know you researched that it.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Was all all out of it. I got a shout
out to Forbes. There's so much other stuff like surrounding this,
and it's like it is so day by day, but
it's so confusing and there's so much and that's because
there's so much happening every day, there's multiple things happening
in the course of twenty four hours. With this, it's
hard to keep up. So I wanted to like sift
through it for myself, but also so I could tell
(35:48):
my sister what was going on, like she was a
five year old.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
And once again, just so much money.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
And it's so much it's so much stuff happening, but
also nothing's happening.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Yeah, you should be a reporter on this. That's perfectly said.
So much is happening and yet.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
And yet nothing. I don't think this has moved forward
aside from the like I think one of the biggest
developments was the judge setting a trial date March of
twenty twenty six. Twenty six, y'all, more than a year away.
That's too much. That is too much runway for something
else to happen. Number one, It's just it's too much
time for PR companies to scheme.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Ooh good word right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah, spin or do whatever they need to do.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
It's wild anyway, now that your brain is also melting
out of your ears, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I kind of feel like it, Like I feel like
this isn't something that I want to take up any
brain space with, and yet here we are, but I
still don't want to see the movie.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Nope. Sorry, Netflix,
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