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.

Absolutely @Nanana1, if I wanted a the real scoop there are people I can ask. I'm not asking because, as my OP eludes, there are at least two sides to every story. Even within the industry, it will take months for the real story from each side to be known.

I'm posting about it because it is unusual for a large film to have a huge, and very evident, cast rift. I am honestly interested in what other people think about it.

I’ve always wanted to love RR and BL
but I heard some awful things about them and the way they treat people a few years ago and half believed them, the past few days have just cemented for me that they are probably not very nice people.

Agree with that; the book is shit with lazy writing

I don't know why either of them would go along with that. This isn't being described as two creative individuals disagreeing about a film because they're both so passionate about it.

This is more, he's being made out to be a chauvinist and she's being portrayed as vapid, as well as uncaring about the subject of DV.

Maybe getting people talking about the film is more important than the stuff round their reputations though.

RR is out to make money, he bought Wrexham because it’s the easiest route into the EPL. Yet he tries to make out that’s shucks, he just a nice guy doing nice things for the lovely locals. It’s just a business deal like any other.

I don’t get why it’s now the done thing to pretend you aren’t out to make money or global domination. I’ve noticed this with Margot Robbie, I like her but she is obviously very business savvy and fiercely ambitious but she plays it all down and it’s very much “shucks how did I get here, I’m just like you” 🙄

My thoughts for what they're worth are, the book was shit. I couldn't get past the first couple of chapters. Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are terrible actors. He basically plays himself in every movie I've had the displeasure of seeing him in. They have clearly benefited from some great pr for years given how mediocre they are.

Blake Lively has some audacity launching a hair care line given how dry and unkempt her hair is.

I know nothing of Justin but his hiring of Johnny Depps former PR person doesn't speak well of him - they're doing an amazing job on his behalf though given how Blake Lively is being dragged all over social media.

I imagine the truth lies somewhere in the middle and it was a clash of arseholes.

The faces her and her co star pull at the end of that interview are bizarre as well. There must have been something that happened before to irritate them (even if it was something that they were unreasonable to be irritated by, there must have been something, because the faces are like "wow can you believe this interviewer")

I'm posting about it because it is unusual for a large film to have a huge, and very evident, cast rift. I am honestly interested in what other people think about it.

Im surprised they didn’t just grin & bear it for the photos etc. I’ve never heard of JB before so can’t comment much on that side.

Yea I always got the impression BL wasn’t very nice.

She has made some extremely odd comments in recent interviews to promote the film. There's the breezy "wear your florals!" to watch a film about domestic violence, showing up late to an interview and gushing about her water bottle (wtf?) and shoehorning in references to her new Blake Brown hair line. It's far more entertaining to watch the facial expressions of her co-stars than listening to her random warblings.
Her PR team have got to be face-palming.

Thank you for the info OP - please keep posting.

I'm intrigued by this as I was an old Gossip Girl fan (though it got silly by the end), starring BL, then I also really loved Jane the Virgin (with Baldoni, though I wouldn't have said he was my favourite in the show). I follow them both on Instagram. Baldoni has always posted a lot about causes that are dear to him, including toxic masculinity, his wife, topics related to his projects - eg cystic fibrosis. My impression is that he's worked hard post JtV to carve out a producing/directing role and he was the one who bought the rights to the (albeit terrible) Hoover book.

I suspect if you are the director and this is your passion project, you're going to get annoyed sometimes by the A list star who thinks she's in charge. It wouldn't surprise me to hear mild stuff about Baldoni here. It would surprise me to hear anything huge about him (though it's within realms of possibility of course). I have heard he's pro-Israel, though I know another member of the JtV cast is too so that wouldn't be a surprise, though not great (from my point of view).

I wonder if they basically thought he was a nobody and BL could just take over? He's tried to stand up for himself and the cast have had to pick sides, so they've gone for the one with the most star power.

I sort of 'quite liked/didn't really care' about BL prior to this. I knew she was quite young when she got famous. But I did raise an eyebrow at her 'funny' posts about Kate Middleton. Then she seems pretty rude/up herself in these interviews. I totally get they must be boring to do, but it's part of the job and they must know that English is not always the first language of the interviewer - I think she could've been kinder.

In other words, I'm rooting more for JB until more info comes out.

And yes it's just gossip but I'm fascinated by it!

Why does Blake Lively have to be nice?
Co stars don’t have to like each other, they aren’t friends.
Why are successful women so disliked

I have 'some skin in the game'.

You're coming across as very rude.

Why does Blake Lively have to be nice?

She doesn’t but RRs image is certainly nice guy done well. People hate hypocrisy.

Nobody has to be nice. But if you're a famous person relying on your image and you decide to behave like a witch on camera, the consequences are on you.

It looks like from the outside, that the director wanted to focus on this as DV story and that it’s an issue about male violence- but that’s isn’t marketable- so BL got RR to rewrite to make it about female empowerment and floral dresses on red carpets.

And not being nice has consequences when you try and market your image so people buy your products.

I never used to mind BL but after all the recent news and seeing this interview:

This made me side with JB. The look on Brandon's face here after the first question says it all really

Agree

@nuttyroche2 - chill out. I'm bloody glad OP has started a thread on this. It's a free speech site where loads of us waste time. Back off

@notallbloom and is TS the same as or similar to BL? Like someone upthread insinuated, birds of a feather certainly do seem to flock together.

I’m curious why the media is absolutely gunning for her right now.

She seems to be on the defense from the get go in the interviews which are currently going viral. Which seems odd given she is literally doing publicity.

I do hate how the media created this narrative for Blake where she is this untouchable goddess whose shit doesn’t smell. She’s an average actress and only stunning post surgery.

@Birdsrule successful women do not have to be disliked at all, in truth, the women stars I work with tend to be much more pleasant than the men.

To give you one example relevant to this thread; Margot Robbie was always kind, funny and professional, although she was often exhausted. She has not changed, or grown a demanding ego since achieving greater fame, sorry @Nanana1. When I am asked to work with MR, I look forward to it. She makes everyone's job easier.

Oh no… not TS is bad! She comes across so well!

But I agree, BL has come off very badly in this. Disastrously. She seems to have no idea on how trauma affects people and is treating this like the Barbie press tour. This will be tough to recover from.

I didn’t watch Gossip Girl, so my only impression of BL before this is that she’s TS’s bestie and has four cute kids.

Feels like a JLO take down moment…..but I think that passed for JLo because of her marriage falling apart and people feel a tad sorry for her.

That won’t happen with BL because she’s a smug marrried. Top comment on the DM is she won’t work again