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 judge very harshly every actor in Hollywood who has defended Polanski, as well as the ones who fall over themselves to work with Woody Allen (the most overrated filmmaker of the past century by a mile).

It just shows what people are willing to do/ignore for fame. Awful, toxic industry.

She had a really successful nose job and hooded eyes corrected - it really worked on her. Then she got to be Leo's girlfriend / companion - Leo's mum didn't like her - now she's with RR.
It's still the plastic surgery that is the real achievement what a transformation and got her to be Lady Wrexham.

YES 👏🏻 👏🏻👏🏻

That was a fascinating podcast, highly recommended!

Too many people to reply to.
When she was younger, Taylor Swift was a dream to work with.
Now, TS is surrounded by her people, which invariably changes things.

It reminds me very much of late 80s Madonna to big, global, fame Madonna. I have only worked with Madonna since the early 00s, by which time the machine surrounding her was huge and she became understandably guarded.
The Spice Girls were a similar story.

IMO it is important to note that TS does make an effort to learn names, remember you, speak to people politely.
However, she is no longer the sweet, down to earth girl she once was. Of course she isn't. Now she has millions, if not billions, of fans. TS could work all day, every day and it could never satisfy everyone.

It is inevitable that a woman (particularly a woman), who grew up in the industry, and has sometimes been treated abysmally, would employ people as a first defence.

To any TS fans, I would say this: Tree Paine is one of the best PR people in the business. Anything you read or watch which comes from larger sources e.g. People magazine, has been put there by TP.

Go back to anything TS pre 2015, when TP had started to run her publicity. (TP started to work for TS in 2014).
Look at the anomalies, e.g. TS's treatment of younger female artists, her payments to Eras tour workers vs what else was happening in the entertainment industry at the time.
Who does TS surround herself with socially?
What is the political situation in America?
Read her lyrics.
It's all there.

FWIW I liked TS before, in person I like her now. However, she did not become a billionaire by being nice.

Besides, isn't the trope of women having to be nice to everyone, all the time, something we have to stop expecting? We do not expect it from male artists and I know many male artists who started out as a-holes and only got worse.

I once read a detailed analysis of the 'work' she has done. She's basically had everything. Her face as we see it is a surgeon's creation.

Shes had a nose job which is very common, stuff to open the eyes (don’t actually know a HW celeb who hasn’t done this) & some filler (again very normal), she’s not got a new face!

Oh & teeth but do they count?

FWIW I liked TS before, in person I like her now. However, she did not become a billionaire by being nice.

Is it even possible to become a billionaire if you’re nice?

I don’t actually know how you don’t get screwed up mentally by TSs level of fame.

You're right. Other than multiple procedures on her eyes, nose and teeth, as well as botox and fillers, her face is completely natural.

I can’t with this becoming a “she’s only good looking because of plastic surgery” narrative. That’s deeply misogynistic and irrelevant.

She’s been clumsy on the press tour and her interview from 2016 was bad. But this has been blown up way more than it “should” have been, and it feels surprising.

There’s a highly regarded YouTube channel that has estimated she’s spent close to £200k on plastic surgery. She has changed every feature (multiple eye jobs, AT LEAST one nose job, veneers, lip filler). She has got a new face arguably.

how does misogyny come into it?

@notallbloom thank you - you made some good points and thankfully, this is nowhere near as bad as what I was expecting … so I’m secretly relieved. Perhaps I’m being a little naiive but I think politeness costs nothing no matter where you find yourself in life. BL does not seem to have received that memo.

👀

Sad we aren't discussing RR's face on here, only his wife's face. I think that interview is two women wanting to be asked professional questions about a movie they work in, and getting asked personal and feminised questions. She's pissed off, and I think that's probably understandable.
The wear floral for a Dv movie is a bad pr stunt though, and hypocritical of BL to be supporting that.

It doesn't.

There were tons of comments about Tom Cruise's jacked up face after his appearance at the Olympics closing ceremony last weekend.

And given that Blake Lively is a mediocre actress at best, and owes her career largely to her looks, I don't think it's irrelevant either. The work she's got done is fantastic and whatever she spent on her face has been a great investment, so good for her. But it's still a valid topic for discussion.

You're right. Other than multiple procedures on her eyes, nose and teeth, as well as botox and fillers, her face is completely natural.

Well her face shape & bone structure is still hers tbf 😆

Celebrities’ true character always seems to come out in the end. Ellen DeGeneres, Jennifer Lawrence, Adam Levine.

Always interesting to hear about what they’re like behind the expensive PR, especially as the general public always feel like they know them personally. I think it’s good to have a reminder that they’re just flawed humans like everyone else.

There’s a highly regarded YouTube channel that has estimated she’s spent close to £200k on plastic surgery.

I want the eye thing they all have, can’t afford it clearly 😆😆

RR looks like Penfold from Danger Mouse

What did Jennifer Lawrence do?

• 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).

Why would objecting to either of these things make someone anti-BL?

@ThatChirpyLurker it's misogynistic because no-one on this thread is writing about the amount of 'work' any male artists have had done.
There are very few male artists who haven't had things done, to give one example; why are so few men in Hollywood bald? Or balding?

If my face was my fortune and I was very wealthy, I would spend a lot of money to look fabulous too. I cannot be judgy about BL, or anyone else, for that.

BL did not start her career by being plucked from obscurity, her father and all of her four siblings, are actors.

I don’t know how I feel about it all, to be honest.

The interview with Parker Posey was SO awkward. But I can see why opening an interview with, “Congratulations on your little bump!” might have been taken badly. Maybe she was feeling self conscious about her belly and had tried to disguise it (to be honest, I wouldn’t have been able to see that she was pregnant) and having the fact she had a bump pointed out at the start of her interview irked her. Why the need to give an unsolicited comment about another woman’s body? Why not just say, “congratulations, I’ve heard you are expecting!” or something that didn’t bring her body into it?

”Congratulations on your little bump!”

”Congratulations on YOUR little bump!” seemed to very much be making the “don’t comment on MY body if you don’t want me to comment on yours’” point. Albeit very impulsively and a little too aggressive! But perhaps it was the last straw in a long line of unsolicited body comments. I don’t happen to be someone who thinks pregnant women are fair game for physical appearance comments. Who knows, maybe she was worried her bump was too little and had been given some worrying news about baby’s growth.

Or maybe she wanted to talk about her work, and the film she seems to be very proud of.

Which explains why immediately following up the comment on Blake’s body with a comment about her character’s wardrobe irked her even more. Hence the, “would you ask the men about their costumes?” comment which made the interview even more awkward.

I think Parker Posey was just as rude and there was no need for the two of them to waffle on and on without giving the interviewer control of the interview. They were deliberately shutting her down and wasting her time slot. The lack of eye contact was very rude. But the interviewers face was also like stone, and I feel she has shown herself up too. Look at great interviews dealing with difficult celebs….Parky and the like. Or Beth Rigby handling difficult politicians with humour and confidence. If you’re going to make an unsolicited comment about a woman’s stomach, follow it up with a vacuous question about costumes, make no effort to steer the conversation, sit there with a face like a slapped arse and then put it all on the internet with the tagline, “The Blake Lively Interview that Made Me Want To Quit My Job”…maybe interviewing ego driven celebs isn’t for you?

The Blake Lively/Anna Kendrick interview with the same Journalist, was very difficult to watch. I’m neurodivergent and due Anna Kendrick’s blank faced sarcasm and her never giving a straight answer, then Blake joining in with the ruse, I found it very difficult to take in. They deliberately made it awkward and it was rude of both of them. Obviously some sort of exclusionary Mean Girls inside jokes going on, which was unprofessional and disrespectful to the interviewer.

Honestly, (bearing in mind that I am neurodivergent here), it came across to me that all four of the women involved in these interviews have atrocious social skills. Three of them being determined to exclude and alienate and one of them enabling others to stop her doing her job. I’ve had to fight all my life to be included…there are skills you can learn and working in such a tough industry you need a very thick skin.

With regard to TS, I recognise a lot of myself in her when I watch her longer interviews and some candid videos online of her interacting with fans. I know armchair diagnosis is frowned upon on MN but I would bet a large sum of money on her being AuDHD. It takes one to know one, often. Her “rude” interactions look a heck of a lot like being caught off guard in an unmasked moment or not having a script for certain situations. Her “diva tantrums” look like meltdowns to me. Obviously my opinion only. But it’s a pretty strong conviction that I hold.

Also - if we're going to be bitchy about PS, Ryan has had eyes done recently, too.

I think the girl gang (bad blood) that ts formed with bl etc and the whole Katy perry fallout showed everything that's toxic with them. I'm no kp fan either especially as she attended a certain predators island.