Blake Lively, RR & It Ends With Us drama

[notallbloom]

Have NC because I freely admit that I have (limited) skin in this game, I am not entirely neutral.

This tells the story of the rift better than I could video here more about JB here JB info

Have worked for Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds in the UK, they are ...erm not my favourite slebs to work with. BL can be nasty to staff, her I'm all for women thing would be great, if she wasn't awful to them in reality. RR sometimes apologetically, always sides with BL, as his wife.
However, she does have 4 young DCs, so has spent much of the last decade pregnant, or post partum, which is enough to make anyone tired and therefore appear 'difficult'.

As I am senior in my role, stars have to treat me with some decency. Even so, the mask slips, I do everything I can to make their time in the UK as comfortable as possible, whilst placating the staff they upset, I will not work with them if I can avoid it.

Justin Baldoni directed It Ends With Us, I do not know JB.

Anti JB side (note there isn't much information about what JB has done wrong):
• He was difficult on set.
• He was acting and directing, diluting his ability to do both.
• He has hired a the firm of PR crisis manager who helped to improve Johnny Depp's image during the Amber Heard trial.
• JB has a pro 'good' men podcast called Man Enough, largely it is positive. Unfortunately he had Drake Bell on the podcast and did not question his accountability for previous SA.

Anti BL side:
• BL is trying to give the film a Barbie moment, encouraging audiences, for a film about DV, to wear florals.
• BL has objected to two things; she says JB fat-shamed her on set and, in one scene kissed her for too long (no suggestion that the kiss itself was inappropriate e.g. tongue).
• BL & RR made a cut of the film, which emphasises the rom-com of the story, rather than the DV.
• BL has corralled the author, Colleen Hoover and the cast to 'unfollow' JB on social media.
• RR rewrote a scene for the film without being asked by the director in doing so, RR broke the writer's strike.
• The cast have not been doing any press or standing on the red carpet at the premieres with JB.
• BL is using the film promo to also promote her new hair brand.

It may be that JB was a massive a-hole, or it may be that BL was a 'mean girl' and used her considerable power to influence the rest of the cast to be unpleasant to JB.
The truth could lie somewhere in the middle.

This is everything I know, I did not work on the film, or the promotion of it, so far.
I am able to agree that I have direct experience of seeing what BL and RR are like IRL, whereas I do not have the same experience of JB.
I'm prepared to accept that JB is the villain here.
I do not have any further information about this situation, if any comes my way I will, without breaking my contractual obligations, write about it here.

I can head to bed - in a while - happy in the knowledge that Sandra Bullock is a decent sort. Huzzah!

How would you have responded to that?
What would a PR approved response have been?

A PR response would have glossed over/side stepped the bit about coming up to her & put the focus on helplines, charities etc.

@notallbloom I just wanted to say thank you for this thread. I’m finding it really interesting and would love it if you would do an AMA when you have time.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday.

I agree, it was a stupid question. What did he mean "how should people approach you?"

But I'm just surprised that someone who has probably had to answer stupid questions for 20 odd years now didn't have a better answer.

Something like "well I'm always honoured when someone tells me that they've been moved by something I've worked on. We've been lucky enough to work with some great DV charities as part of making this movie, such as [insert charities]. They have some great resources and people far more qualified than me to offer all sorts of support, and the best way that we can help victims is to talk about the issues, and raise awareness for these charities, and I'd encourage anyone who feels like they need it to reach out to one of these charities."

No, it doesn't really answer the question but it was such a stupidly phrased question. But he was asking about people affected by DV, so it warranted a more sensible answer because even if the question was silly, the topic wasn't.

I don't think her response makes her an awful person or anything. I just found it surprising that she didn't have a sort of semi-prepared speech for any question about victims of DV. It just continues the theme of the DV not really being talked about in the promotion of the film.

@BehindTheSequinsandStilettos you depersonalise it and take the heat out with a factual response.
E.g. thank you for asking, that is such a good question as the subject of this film is so important. For anyone who feels they need help with any of the issues raised by the film you can go to www.--- or call 008000000. The people who work there listen, they understand and they do a fantastic job etc, etc.

I can’t watch anything with Nicole Kidman for this reason-I feel incredulous when I watch her, like “am I the only one who sees this, maybe I’m the problem”!

I think TS is a fascinating character. I have never heard of her having ‘diva like tantrums’ as a pp asserted, and I don’t believe she does. She is reputed to be a very savvy businesswoman and Tree Paine an exceptional PR. TS is allegedly very smart. We only get to see what she wants to show or portray, and recent lyrical references to fans who dislike her relationship choices as being ‘vipers’ was interesting yet not enough to seemingly make them take a step back. TS does seem to actively try to shun bad publicity so it will be interesting to see what happens if this BL negativity continues, given their visibly public friendship status.

There was a film on Netflix recently with NK and Zac Efron (sadly recently needed facial reconstruction after major accident) and it was a mindfuck. Both were unrecognisable. Although of course not a choice for poor ZE.

@notallbloom would love any more insight you have on TS.

She never has been caught up in a massive scandal. She's always polite in interviews. Hardly any behind the scenes gossip about how she's a nightmare to work with (e.g. Like the infamous rude JLo stories you hear).

I do question her role in all the album variants and the price of her tour tickets - especially the vip ones which cost up to £800 for essentially a box of posters. I imagine she justifies it by believing that people wouldn't pay it if they didn't want to.

I believe she is "nice" but a flawed person like anyone else. She also doesn't seem to keep great company which can be telling.

Man I'd love to have a private conversation with her just so I can test my spidey senses.

@IcedPurple

*But Blake had already confirmed her pregnancy, hadn't she?

So congratulating her on it was just a nice gesture on the interviewer's part. It's not like she was speculating out loud.*

She didn't congratulate her on her pregnancy though, she commented on her body. There's a difference.

The interviewer has given her take on it. She was congratulating her on her pregnancy. She said she was using it as a nice opening to the interview and is still baffled as to why she was offended. Her body shaming her stomach back was more offensive.

Obviously "little bump" is synonymous with "pregnancy"

It was 2016! Wokery wasn't peak then

Also not the interviewer's first language

Also BL was sat down so no body on show...it's not about the bump itself fgs

I really like RR, enjoy his movies and loved him on welcome to Wrexham. Don't know BL too well but have been reading the media storm and watched a few of her old interviews.

She really did mess up by not using her platform as an actress in a movie about dv, to highlight the plight of dv victims and use it to raise awareness world wide. Whether that was her of her PR, it was a really poor thought through plan.

RR wasn’t the film star he is now in 2011. Personally I think she is more attractive than him. BL seems very close with her siblings.
Nobody who watched the trailer could think the film was a rom com.

@LettyToretto you don't know it wasn't about the bump though. I had gestational diabetes and had a huge bump and excess fluid . I frequently got commented from 5 months on, about how many weeks I had left when I had months. Equally I know women who were full term being commented on how small their bump was. There's a huge difference on commenting about the pregnancy and the bump. I'd have been fine with just congratulations on my pregnancy without being specific about my body. I gave birth 13 years ago so hardly woke! Perhaps BL was fed up with people commenting on her little bump when she was practically full term.

That's true

BL was just a disproportionate bitch to her

The interviewer has said it was clear she was about 8 months pregnant.

That's a reach.

Even if you think the choice of words was awkward, the intention was clearly good. "Bump" was obviously not meant in the physical sense, more as a way of saying 'pregnancy'. It certainly wasn't worthy of such an obnoxiously rude response, much less the juvenile mean girling from the two of them during the whole interview.

You only have to look at them to see who was in the wrong. The poor interviewer looked as though she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her, while Blake and her co star were happy to chat and grin inanely at each other.

maybe
'well I'm perhaps not the best person to ask so I'd advise any woman suffering from DV to contact...'
or 'It's really important to not feel shame and talk about these things so I would suggest talking to whoever you can, whether that's your family, friends, a colleague, anyone you trust, or alternatively there are support agencies like....'
or 'as much as I'd love to help there are people much better qualified to help, such as.....'
or if you HAVE to go with humour "well you know me, I'm always talking, but in this instance I would recommend contacting...."

Literally off the top of my head and I've not had 15 year experience in the industry and extensive training with a PR firm...

I do think that it's a weirdly-worded question and don't blame her for wanting to say "Um actually I don't want to invite thousands of complete randoms coming up to me to tell me emotional details of their private lives" but surely "Do not attempt humour in response to questions about abuse" is celebrity media training (or even just normal person basic common sense) 101?

I do think RRs face is looked more worked on than his wife’s prob because he is older and the Botox looks strange now.

RR and BL are both complete fame wh*res - him even more so and I think he encourages the friendship with TS due to this.

Think BL tries to do RR’s (pretty unbearable) deadpan humour but comes across worse - maybe because she is female and expected to be nice.

Think it is a little silly that there is so much seriousness and weight attached to the film that is based on a truly terrible book. Obviously DV is a serious issue but this is a shallow portrayal to the core - it is more of a put on your florals movie. Not that unusual for fluffy material to include some serious
issues but does not mean they need to be taken as serious hard hitting portrayals.

Agree with pp who suggested TS is on the spectrum - think BL is the popular girl she wanted to befriend in HS and go to football games with. Not TS’s most endearing quality and she is better around other people but that seems to run deep for her…

That’s what crossed my mind too. Could it be why she may have a difficult time taking about the DV side of the movie?
often times the charismatic charming guy is the one who hides a double identity and it does come as he’s trying too hard to be likeable

I bloody love Taylor (and I'm going to see her tomorrow!!)

But I definitely agree we only see what we're allowed to see of her.

There's a semi-recent clip of her (maybe in the last 5 years) of her talking to a TV host (is it Jimmy Fallon?) and he says oh your Mum sent us a video of you after your laser eye surgery. And she's like "what? my Mom did what? It's going to be shown on the television" or similar.

Anyway, it's a really sweet video of her bumbling around in a jumper and crying because she took the wrong banana or something. I'm sure the video is genuine.

I just don't believe - for one moment - that her Mum just sent a video in and her PR knew nothing about it and the cynic in me wondered if it was done deliberately to cover for some other kind of eye surgery in a kind of 'Taylor has been quite public about having lasik' kind of way' so there's nothing to see here

Like I say, I love Taylor I just think her image is very tightly managed.

@putyourhandsintheairok I agree about that Taylor eye surgery clip, but I've always assumed that's the case for basically all clips shown on celebrity chat shows. Someone goes on Graham Norton, and he brings up some embarrassing thing they did as a child or early in their career and the celeb goes "oh gosh, you don't have a photo/clip do you, how embarrassing". But I've always thought those were pre-agreed.

In short: RR is a salesman and is out to make money. He knows what his audience wants, how much they are willing to spend, and how to give it to them. He is great at it. Is he a good actor - no, he is limited. That’s why HJ is in Deadpool because HJ is a fantastic actor.

BL: is a pretty and boring performer. I was surprised that she got a role playing a character that would had to have some depth. She is not lead material. Her biggest PR issue is she tries to do the same style of RR humour, but as she isn’t him it comes across as mean and fake. I do not doubt she is a Grade A bitch behind the scenes, anyone who gets that much attention from Anna Wintour must think there shit doesn’t stink.

JB: have only seen his TED talk, which appeared sincere but he is an actor. I think he bit off more than he could chew from the acting/directing and handling those two. He was smart to get a PR company who have been pushing the shit behaviour from BL to the surface.

Yes, I agree they're probably all pre-agreed. But in Taylor's case there have been rumours for ages that her previously very hooded eyes have been operated on to widen them up cosmetically.

I don't care either way and I don't judge her if she had surgery, I just thought that casting a story about lasik into the world would be a really good way to cover up if there was a cosmetic reason for surgery.