Blake Lively

[Theremedy]

Evidence is emerging about a coordinated smear campaign against Blake Lively after she was sexually assaulted and harassed on the set of It Ends With Us.

The claim is that her co-star and Director of the movie Justin Baldoni engaged in unwanted sexual behaviour during intimate scenes. Such as “improvised” kissing and biting of her lip. That he whispered inappropriate comments in her ear during filming and was a general all round creep.

Also that the film’s producer Jamey Heath showed her sexual photographs of his wife.

That both of them would walk into her trailer while she was changing.

She complained to the studio at the time and requested an intimacy director to be present during sex scenes. She also got protections written into her contract, such as no improvisation during sex scenes. She started to request her husband (Ryan Reynolds) presence on set.

During the promotion of the movie all the above was spun on social media into a tale of her being unreasonable and a diva. Obviously nothing was mentioned of the behaviour of the men. She was contractually instructed not to talk to deeply about the theme of the movie (ironically, domestic violence) and to keep interviews light. This was spun into her making light of DV and victims.

I remember seeing the stories at the time, and she really was made out to be a bitch.

Now, in a law suit BL has filed we can see text messages between the publicists and a PR firm that were brought in specifically to smear BL. They appear to admit to orchestrating the whole thing and we can see in writing that the PR firm confirm the behaviour and can’t quite believe how well the smear campaign worked. As one of the messages says “it’s quite scary how much people want to hate women” [sic]

Scary indeed.

This is awful. There was thread yesterday saying how she is just trying to save her failing career etc , really bad victim blaming.

I think the PR team are the same team that worked for Johny Depp.

I very naively hadn’t even thought at the time that it was possible that Blake was under attack to cover up a man’s abuse.

I didn’t think too deeply into it but my general opinion was that she was a bit of a diva, and I had no interest in her or the movie at the time. Yet it still reached my algorithm and gave me an opinion of her.

I have learned a huge lesson from this about the lengths that whole groups of people will
go to to protect one (no even famous or important!) man. Real money has been spent to make her look bad in a coordinated effort by many people. I am shocked at how well it worked, I never saw a soul question it or stick up for her at the time.

So many people (I’m guessing mostly men) have been complicit in trying to cover Baldoni’s awful behaviour and trying to get BL cancelled. If this can happen to a big star like her, imagine how unknown actresses are being treated on a regular basis. I’m glad BL is fighting back.

I never understood why she got so much backlash. Mountains were made of molehills specifically just to hate her.

I feel sorry for her, being in the limelight is undoubtedly hard to navigate and try not to be taken out of context on a normal day, let alone when someone has a vendetta against you.

I fell for it too. Largely based on what people on mumsnet were saying.

I hope she wins this one.

Whether you have an opinion of her or not, this is very concerning.

I remember the TikTok videos hailing Justin Baldoni as some sort of God and slating her for not taking it seriously enough. I thought it was odd at the time because I'd never heard of her or the film and was not interacting with the videos, yet kept getting the content.

It is very depressing that even today a woman must be a saint, perfect in every way, in order to be believed.

Or cared about.

Shades of "what were you wearing" isn't it?

Same here, I got lots of content about this on SM but all I knew of her was her met gala dress and I had never heard of the movie or her co-stars before. Yet my TikTok was story after story about what a bitch she is, and I wouldn’t linger on the stories or interact. If anything I would swipe within a few seconds as I really wasn’t interested. I have no idea how they managed to get into the algorithms like that?

Posted too soon.

It shouldn't matter even if it was true she was unkind in an interview once.

It shouldn't mean that she shouldn't be believed.

But it clearly does.

Hey, this woman said something mean. Look. Here's proof she said something mean once.

This means that you can't believe her when she tells you what a man did to her.

Wow. I find this really shocking. I remember seeing lots of stuff on social media a while back about Blake Lively. I felt like I'd missed a story because it seemed the whole world hated her but I wasn't sure why.
Now it all makes sense and it fits that the same PR company smeared Amber Heard.
It's a terrifying development in how women can be silenced, blacklisted, and have their careers and reputations trashed all with a few well placed tweets.
How on earth can any woman in BL's position fight back if she knows the PR machine will use social media to destroy her?

The irony of making a film about abuse but being abused in doing so.

Once again men walking all over women to satisfy themselves.

I remember at the time thinking it seemed very tone deaf of her to be trying to push happy 'floral' messages about a film about DV. Now we know the film company instructed the cast to market the film that way.

The film set sounds beyond vile. As you say @OolongTeaDrinker if BL can be treated like this, how are both cast and crew with less power being treated?

Have you got a link for this please?

Thanks for posting, it's very interesting

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGdhbVKyb/

This TikTok from the NYT is a good starting point.

I agree it’s horrifying. I don’t remember thinking a lot about it at the time either which isn’t good. I don’t even think she was that bad in the interview that was supposed to prove how awful she is. She was pregnant and slightly overreacted to a comment about her bump and what clothes she was wearing in the films. She had probably been asked sexist questions all day by that point.

Have to admit I found the PR around the film quite distasteful and did probably shoulder more of that on BL than anyone else (god knows why on reflection, just from the shit headlines I guess) but really hope she c. Get her name cleared, it sounds awful.

It sounds like she confided in her husband, and he is definitely A-list and probably one of the biggest male stars at the moment? With the resource of him and I imagine the sway he has in Hollywood it’s even more alarming that this campaign worked. I believe there was something said by him and Hugh Jackman in defence of her, but I’ll have to try and find it.
The PR company must have gone so hard for any positive comments or doubt to be silenced, because I’m certain it must have existed.

And just to add, it's awful that not only did she suffer abuse, but actually was the one that came out of it with her reputation diminished, so unfair (and sadly likely not uncommon).

I had actually wondered if this was the case with DP at the time as I kept getting all these weird videos popping up on FB despite having no real interest one way or the other in BL and the film. It certainly seemed to be some kind of paid campaign.

I am hyper aware about this sort of thing though since Depp and Heard. At the time of the trial (and even now) I was gobsmacked at the treatment of Heard, the ludicrous allegations (doing coke in front of the judge ffs) and the incredible dismissal of Depp’s behaviour despite the bundles of evidence to the contrary.

But the odd thing about Lively is the things she’d been accused of were just so benign in the scheme of things. Like dredging up that interview from years ago where she was off about the pregnancy question.

I'm not much of a film watcher but I remember some of the negative press about Blake. It makes sense now.

I assumed at the time she was maybe a bit tactless (re comments about seeing the film) and there's always been this diva image around her. We shouldn't have to be pleased it's getting called out because it shouldn't be happening. But good for her standing up to it. It's only way this type of behaviour will stop.

I was shocked when I read this too, I had noticed the sudden uptick in hate toward BL. As others had said it appeared to come out of nowhere and was jarring. I don't follow anything related so to see it was unexpected so I assumed I had missed something but wasn't interested enough to dig.

No matter what though her reputation will never fully recover. Too many people will refuse to admit they were played and will dig in. I was reading comments yesterday that they always hated her etc, etc. But their comment history suggests otherwise.

All that power and support but she is still up against it.

As one of the messages says “it’s quite scary how much people men want to hate women” [sic]

Fixed it for them.

I must say, I had noticed this too. Suddenly so many "pieces" about how she is rude, selfish, mean to people and tone deaf. Although all these things seem relatively minor, if you edit them all together it adds up to paint someone in a really bad light.

I just thought a damn had burst and people finally saw her for who she really was. Then again, comedians were making jokes about Lively for years, mainly saying that she has no talent. So it's not like she was exactly loved or admired, though she was successful.

However, I think a smear campaign makes much more sense, giving the timing of all the negative press.