One-year anniversary of when this article was published (currently behind a paywall). Thought it would be a nice time to revisit. More examples of entitlement, nepotism, workplace toxicity, cover-ups, and evasion of accountability from Blake Lively and her Klan.

Oh yeah, and also a reminder of her tone-deaf, racist, slavery aesthetic lifestyle website. So she could Preserve white supremacy and weaponize her white feminism.

Yet another perfect example of Blake Lively in all her mediocrity failing upwards.

One-year anniversary of when this article was published (currently behind a paywall). Thought it would be a nice time to revisit. More examples of entitlement, nepotism, workplace toxicity, cover-ups, and evasion of accountability from Blake Lively and her Klan.

Oh yeah, and also a reminder of her tone-deaf, racist, slavery aesthetic lifestyle website. So she could Preserve white supremacy and weaponize her white feminism.

Yet another perfect example of Blake Lively in all her mediocrity failing upwards.

Book Bonanza and Maximum Effort Meth Promo for IEWU aka Search for Ryan Reynolds' New Father

Other notable quote by Blake Lively about Brandon Sklenar: "I'm becoming pimp adjacent. Put on a short little skirt and get on that corner, Skelnar."

This clip randomly popped up on my YouTube feed. Jamey Heath smiling, kind, and respectful as always.

“We are pleased with the fact that this stage of this is now over.”

“Justin’s always going to be wonderful.” ❤️

“You’re doing your job, and I appreciate that.”

Link to full episode

Disclaimer:

I know the last part sounds like a bit of a downer, but it seems like everyone is well aware that the settlement can later be weaponized similarly to what happened with the 17-point agreement, so his team is likely being exceedingly careful with the wording.

Summary:

Kjersti Flaa reports insider claims about Justin Baldoni’s side being pleased with a deal that reportedly allows him to publicly speak about his experience, which they view as a win.

She says insiders connect this to why the phrase “deserved to be heard” was included in a joint statement, describing it as part of the negotiated agreement and a key line that drew public reaction.

She then relays additional claims that Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are viewed by some as having used detailed production-related demands in a prior agreement, which insiders suggest could be strategically relevant in later disputes.

She also reports concerns from sources that ongoing legal and reputational conflicts between the parties could continue, while noting that Baldoni reportedly believes telling his truth publicly is what ultimately matters, even as others around him are more cautious about how the situation may be used by the opposing side.

Here's the full episode. Kjersti Flaa is also part of the panel.

Summary:

Actor Adam Mondschein appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored to discuss the controversy surrounding Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively.

Mondschein described Baldoni as a deeply compassionate and service-oriented person he has known for around 20 years, sharing stories about volunteering efforts and charitable work long before Baldoni became famous. He said Baldoni’s values and sincerity are genuine, arguing that his openness and emotional nature made him especially vulnerable to the fallout from the dispute.

Addressing allegations related to a birthing scene in the film, Mondschein strongly disputed claims that Lively was nearly nude or placed in an inappropriate situation during filming. He stated that she was fully covered with a hospital gown, black shorts, and pregnancy prosthetics, and argued that the scene was conducted professionally. He also rejected claims that he was positioned inappropriately close to her during filming, saying the reality on set was far less dramatic than described publicly.

Mondschein said the controversy has been emotionally painful for Baldoni, particularly because it damaged a reputation built around advocacy, emotional openness, and encouraging men to be more respectful and vulnerable. He suggested Baldoni’s main mistake was becoming too emotionally invested in seeking validation during the filmmaking process, which ultimately left him exposed when tensions escalated.

He ended by saying he had been prepared to testify publicly about what he witnessed and implied that there is virtually no chance of a sequel involving both stars.

"Only on set a handful of times", Blake Lively claims. Ange Giannetti, in her deposition, says otherwise. She estimates visiting the set three times, for roughly three days each time. That's around nine days -- out of the sixteen days of production that Blake was on set during Phase 1.

"Ms. Giannetti learned secondhand primarily from Mr. Heath and Mr. Baldoni." Miss Lively conveniently forgets that she was the first one who reached out to Ange Giannetti to primarily complain about the 1st AD and, as an afterthought, about Jamey Heath showing her the post-birth video.

1: Blake Lively's Motion in Limine

2-4: Ange Giannetti's Deposition

5: Texts between Blake Lively and Ange Giannetti

6: Texts between Blake Lively and Ange Giannetti

7: Blake Lively's Deposition

"Only on set a handful of times", Blake Lively claims. Ange Giannetti, in her deposition, says otherwise. She estimates visiting the set three times, for roughly three days each time. That's around nine days -- out of the sixteen days of production that Blake was on set during Phase 1.

"Ms. Giannetti learned secondhand primarily from Mr. Heath and Mr. Baldoni." Miss Lively conveniently forgets that she was the first one who reached out to Ange Giannetti to primarily complain about the 1st AD and, as an afterthought, about Jamey Heath showing her the post-birth video.

1: Blake Lively's Motion in Limine

2-4: Ange Giannetti's Deposition

5: Texts between Blake Lively and Ange Giannetti

6: Texts between Blake Lively and Ange Giannetti

7: Blake Lively's Deposition

This clip is part of a longer video where Professor Jo from Prof Jo Explains and Lauren Neidigh from Court of Random Opinion talk about the settlement. I’d recommend checking out the full video.

Also, I think Prof Jo’s description of antisocial behavior applies to both Blake and Sociopathic Arsonist Ryan.

Summary:

Prof Jo discusses behavioral patterns she observes in the Blake Lively case and compares the alleged behavior to patterns seen in other deception-related cases, such as fabricated pregnancies (likely referencing the Laura Owens case) and stalking-related conduct. She emphasizes that these behaviors can exist on a broader continuum rather than as isolated or extreme categories.

She notes that while these patterns do not always escalate to serious violent crime, they can still involve significant manipulation, harm, and psychological impact. She frames this as part of a spectrum of antisocial behavior that varies in severity. She also cautions that her perspective may be influenced by working with a concentration of extreme cases in her legal practice, rather than representing the general population.

Overall, she characterizes the situation as a troubling case, particularly when viewed through the lens of these behavioral patterns. 

This is from a few weeks ago, right after the ruling, but I thought it was still worth sharing. Unlike the recent NY Mag hit piece on Justin Baldoni, this coverage by Lauren Conlin for LA Mag feels more accurate and not Ryan Reynolds–sponsored. Also, Lauren will also be attending the trial and providing additional coverage. 

Summary:

Blake Lively’s lawsuit just took a major hit, with the judge dismissing most of her claims and leaving only 3 out of 13 standing. The biggest shift is that the case is no longer about sexual harassment or a toxic workplace—those were thrown out entirely. What’s left is a much narrower argument about an alleged smear campaign, retaliation, and a limited breach of contract. A key reason for this collapse was the judge ruling that Lively wasn’t legally an employee, which undercuts a lot of the protections her case depended on—and that determination was based in part on her own statements.

From a practical standpoint, this looks like a strong win for Baldoni’s side. Without the harassment claims, the case loses a lot of its weight and emotional impact, and it’s now much harder to prove retaliation—especially since there was no formal HR complaint. 

Lauren Conlin also questions Lively’s public framing of this as some broader fight “for everyone,” arguing it now comes across more like a personal reputation dispute than a larger cause. The case is still going to trial, but it’s clearly a much weaker version of what was originally filed.

Or at least not deny that she has behaved like a bully?

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69510553/1429/26/lively-v-wayfarer-studios-llc/

I’ve spliced together two videos from Kenz: Part 1 and Part 2 

Kenz shares that she personally spoke with and was interviewed by a journalist from New York Magazine, and is comparing what she shared in that interview with what ultimately appeared in the published article.

Kenz points out that:

• The New York Magazine article presents itself as neutral but is actually subtly biased in favor of Blake Lively
• It undermines Justin Baldoni through wording choices and selective framing
• It omits key context that would make Lively look worse (content creators, “Vanzan,” DV-related criticism)
• It characterizes online critics as “internet obsessives”
• The journalist may have personal bias (alleged social connections, selective quoting, characterization of critics)

—

The article is currently behind a paywall, but I’ve included an excerpt below. I’m unable to share the full article due to the 40,000-character limit for Reddit posts.

u/Ok-Mess5058 has also made a post with screenshots of the full article.

Regretting Us Inside the depraved, no-holds-barred, mutually destructive battle between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively.

By Reeves Wiedeman, a features writer at New York Magazine 

I.

‘I Happen to Adore You, Justin’

The first time Blake Lively met Justin Baldoni was in December 2022 at the Tribeca apartment Lively shares with her husband, Ryan Reynolds. Lively was pregnant with her fourth child and considering what movie she might make next. Baldoni wanted her to star in his adaptation of It Ends With Us, the best-selling novel by Colleen Hoover, which tells the story of Lily Blossom Bloom, a flower-shop owner in Boston who slowly realizes that her seemingly charmed relationship with a handsome neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid is in fact an abusive one. Baldoni planned to direct the film and to play Ryle himself. They talked for three hours in Lively’s home and got along well enough that the next day Baldoni was able to send an excited text to colleagues at his production company: “Blake is in!!!!”

The early days of their collaboration were largely supportive. When Baldoni needed a personal trainer, Lively introduced him to hers; when Lively got strep throat, Baldoni suggested his “medical intuitive.” Baldoni moved the shoot from Boston to New Jersey, where Lively could be closer to her kids; when Baldoni missed his family in California, Lively invited him to fly to Los Angeles together one weekend so they could keep working on the script. After Lively gave birth and seemed to express some sensitivity about her postpartum figure, Baldoni tried to put her at ease. “You will look amazing,” he said. “I just don’t want you to stress about your body. It’s the last thing you need.” She thanked him but said that she also knew this was Hollywood. “As woke as we both are and work to be, this movie requires a certain aesthetic,” she said. “It’s a part of the job that we both excitedly signed up for. I don’t shy away from it because it’s not problematic.”

Their conversations seemed to show a pair of creatives figuring each other out and navigating the complex power dynamics between them — co-stars in a romance; actor and director; A-list celebrity and relative Hollywood nobody. “Been deep into writing, really fun with you in mind,” Baldoni texted at one point, before realizing that might not be the most politically correct way to describe working on a script about a relationship that descends into domestic violence. “Fun not right word 🙈,” Baldoni wrote. “Exciting 😊.” Lively told him not to worry. “You’re safe here,” she wrote. The exchanges could bounce between sincere and playful.

“Thank you for your collaboration,” Lively wrote. “I’m really proud of what we’re doing.”

“I like sentimental blake,” Baldoni said.

“Never met her.”

“I also like asshole blake … don’t worry.”

“I’ve met her. So have my suppositories.”

They also exchanged lengthy voice-notes. “I’m talking to you as a friend at this point more than anything,” Lively told Baldoni in one message. (“I adore your voice notes and look forward to them like Christmas,” he said.) Lively was hoping Baldoni could move up their shooting schedule a few weeks but didn’t want him to think she was trying to take advantage of their new friendship. Baldoni told her not to worry: “Even though we don’t know each other that well, I know your heart!”

Within weeks, Baldoni felt comfortable enough to send Lively’s husband what amounted to a mash note. “I asked Blake for your number well over a month ago and have wanted to text you for a while but my good ol nerves got the best of me,” Baldoni wrote to Reynolds. “I guess this is just an awkward text to say I’d like to be friends. (I’m happy there’s no check yes or no box).”

“You’ve hit the jackpot with B,” Reynolds wrote back. “Having her in your court behind the scenes, as a creative, is invaluable.” He was grateful for how smoothly things seemed to be going. “Being a stand up person is everything. And you’ve been just that since day one,” Reynolds wrote. “I happen to adore you, Justin.”

When the first day of production finally arrived, Baldoni thanked Lively for trusting him enough to take the part. “Let’s do this shit,” Lively said.

Two years later, in a deposition taken as part of Lively’s blockbuster lawsuit against Baldoni and his team, alleging that he harassed her on set and then retaliated when she spoke up about it, Lively would say she only slowly came to realize her discomfort with Baldoni. “There were things that he said and did where at the time, you don’t totally — you feel confused by someone’s behavior or words being at odds with who they say they are,” Lively said. “You start to see different pieces come together.” She thought back to their first meeting in Tribeca and found it odd that Baldoni volunteered that he was circumcised during a conversation about what decisions Lively might make if she gave birth to a boy. “I found it disturbing,” Lively said later. But Baldoni seemed nice, and Lively “hoped and assumed it would be an isolated incident.”

There would turn out to be many more, a seemingly endless cascade of gray-area moments in which it was hard to tell if Baldoni was a worrisome creep or a clumsy naïf — and whether Lively was a righteous victim or an oversensitive diva. As Lively’s nearly $300 million lawsuit heads to trial later this month, her attempt to define Baldoni as a predatory harasser who later waged a smear campaign against her has run up against his countereffort to define her as a bully who schemed to take control of the movie from him over little more than microaggressions. A judge recently threw out Lively’s allegations of sexual harassment on largely procedural grounds and dismissed a number of the original defendants in the case, which leaves a jury to decide on Lively’s claims of breach of contract and retaliation: that Baldoni, a team of publicists, and a shadowy digital operation ganged up to tarnish her reputation.

After many months of bitter fighting, both sides head into the trial wounded. Reynolds has suggested that Lively might never act again; Baldoni moved from California to Nashville. The thousands of emails, text messages, and documents that have come out through the case have aired dirty laundry while offering a revelatory picture of who actually wields power in modern Hollywood and how, and whether any modern celebrity can control the force of the internet. (This account is based on those court filings, exhibits, and depositions. The parties involved in the litigation declined to comment on the record.) Plenty of movies have been marred by disastrous experiences on set, but rarely have those experiences been so vehemently litigated and relitigated — in the press, in the courts, and online — culminating in what may end up being the greatest Hollywood shitshow of all time.

Scenes that were up close and personal were a point of contention between the co-stars on set. Photo: Backgrid (top); Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images

II.

‘I Am Fine Showing My Butt (Female Gaze)’

Baldoni, who is 42, was an unlikely candidate to become the creative brain behind the film version of It Ends With Us, a book so popular it outsold the Bible in 2022. Colleen Hoover’s audience is almost entirely women, which Baldoni is notably not. He was also a relative unknown when his production company, Wayfarer Studios, acquired the rights in 2019, having connected with Hoover through their mutual book agent before It Ends With Us became a COVID-era BookTok phenomenon. Baldoni had spent five seasons acting on the CW show Jane the Virgin and directed two feature films, but It Ends With Us had the potential to elevate him to another echelon in Hollywood. “If we get blake on this movie … holy shit,” Jamey Heath, Wayfarer’s CEO and Baldoni’s close friend, texted him.

Baldoni had also positioned himself as a different kind of man. In 2017, he gave a TED Talk titled “Why I’m Done Trying to Be ‘Man Enough,’” in which he encouraged men to rethink what masculinity means: “Are you brave enough to be vulnerable? … Are you strong enough to be sensitive … Are you confident enough to listen to the women in your life?” The talk went viral, and Baldoni went on to build a mini media empire centered on being a male ally: He wore a man-bun on his Man Enough video podcast and published a self-help memoir with the same name.

In 2019, Baldoni co-founded Wayfarer, which has described itself as “a Baha’i inspired organization,” a reference to Baldoni’s religion. Baha’i, which emerged in 19th-century Iran, has a few million adherents worldwide and emphasizes unity and harmony among religions. Baldoni started Wayfarer with Steve Sarowitz, a fellow Baha’i who is the billionaire founder of a human-resources company called Paylocity; Sarowitz invested more than $125 million in Wayfarer. “My purpose and intention in this insane business are simple,” Baldoni wrote to Hoover when urging her to let him adapt It Ends With Us. “Create impact by making content that helps us remember our shared humanity.” Hoover initially hoped that a woman would direct the movie, but Baldoni convinced her that he was up to the job. “He would be one of the few men I would be okay with directing it,” Hoover later said.

By the time Lively signed on to the film, she had been working in Hollywood for almost two decades, perhaps most famous for her roles in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Gossip Girl. She was friends with Taylor Swift, a Met Gala regular, and one-half of a Hollywood power couple. Reynolds had established himself as a bankable multihyphenate: Marvel superhero, lovable wiseguy, soccer-club owner, gin mogul. Lively told Baldoni that Maximum Effort, Reynolds’s marketing and production company, would “help as much or as little as you want” as they promoted the movie. “We work for free for the family,” she wrote to Baldoni. “It’s mafia style on this.”

Some of the first hints of tension between Baldoni and Lively emerged as they started working out the intimate scenes between their characters in the spring of 2023. Baldoni often said that he intended to shoot the movie “through the female gaze” and that he wanted Lively’s perspective on what she would be comfortable with. But Baldoni also had opinions of his own. He wanted the movie’s first sex scene to telegraph the shifting power dynamic between Ryle and Lily. “She’s in charge and then he takes over,” Baldoni wrote in a description of the scene. “Two strong personalities coming together as one.” His character would start “kissing his way down her torso … until his mouth finds that precious place between her legs.” His direction called for the camera to then close in on Lively as she “moans in ecstasy.” Baldoni’s notes about a different scene described what parts of their respective bodies he hoped to show. “I imagine side boob, and outline of butt in close ups (if she is comfortable),” Baldoni wrote. “I am fine showing my butt (female gaze).”

Lively expressed discomfort with a number of these proposals. In a nudity rider that she negotiated, she drew the line at any implication of oral sex, along with any nudity beyond “side breast which would be seen whilst still wearing a bikini.” Lively, who is 38, also didn’t want to perform an on-screen orgasm. “I’m too old for that,” Baldoni later recalled her saying. She told Baldoni that some of the scenes in the script, like one in which Lively would role-play as a naughty doctor, were starting to feel pornographic.

Baldoni said he didn’t want that. He told Lively that he had struggled with a pornography addiction for much of his life, so he knew the form and its dangers. (In an effort to change the subject, Lively told him she had never watched porn.) Baldoni said later that some of the scenes he wanted to shoot were ones that women, burdened by the male gaze, “have not seen on-camera.” For instance, he wanted Ryle to bring Lily to orgasm before turning down her offer to reciprocate by saying something like “Just watching you was enough.” In another scene, the script called for them to “CLIMAX … AT THE SAME TIME.” Baldoni cited personal experience in defending the scenes, telling Lively that pleasuring his wife without her doing the same for him had produced “some of the most beautiful moments” in their relationship. They also preferred to climax together; Baldoni asked if she and Reynolds ever did the same.

By this point, Lively was beginning to have concerns about their collaboration, and the co-stars found themselves in a gentle tug of war over the direction of the movie. A few months after signing on to the project, Lively texted her friend Taylor Swift to let her know that “this doofus director” was coming by her apartment to talk about the script. (A spokesperson for Swift said the subpoena of Swift’s communications with Lively was “designed to use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait.”) Lively had taken a pass at punching up a pivotal rooftop scene in which Ryle and Lily first meet and was trying to win Baldoni over to her version. Swift was planning to stop by, and Lively asked her to tell Baldoni she was “freaking out” over Lively’s rendition of the scene. “Having the greatest living story teller unknowingly echo to him how much you love what we’re doing, (giving him credit as if he wrote them with me) will go such a long way,” Lively said.

“I’ll do anything for you !!” Swift said.

During the meeting, both Reynolds and Swift praised Lively’s rewrite. “You were so epically heroic today,” Lively texted her friend afterward. “This clown falling for all of it. But also resisting it. You are the worlds absolute greatest friend ever. I won the lottery.”

“I WON THE LOTTERY,” Swift wrote back. “You are the COOLEST PERSON IN THE WORLD and you like me !!”

A few days later, Baldoni told Lively that the show of creative force had been unnecessary — he liked her script and “would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor.” Lively explained to Baldoni that, on previous projects, she had been dismissed and sidelined by directors who viewed her as little more than an actress. “Both Ryan and T have established themselves as absolute titans,” Lively said, and she felt lucky to have them as “creative barometers” and advocates for what she wanted. “If you ever get around to watching Game of Thrones, you’ll appreciate that I’m Khaleesi,” Lively said. “And like her, I happen to have a few dragons.” She told Baldoni that “my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. 😆”

A few weeks before the movie was set to go into production, Lively got a call from Don Saladino, her longtime personal trainer, whom Lively had recommended to Baldoni. Saladino told Lively that Baldoni had just called with an odd question: Could Saladino tell him how much Lively would weigh when they started filming? The script included a dance lift, and Baldoni said he had back problems.

Lively suspected an ulterior motive: Was Baldoni trying to pressure her about her postpartum appearance after all? She texted multiple friends about the incident, relaying that Baldoni had apparently expressed that his “low bone density” was a concern. (“Sorry but what the actual fuck?!?” Lucy Damon, Matt Damon’s wife, texted Lively after hearing the story. “He’s dead.”) When Baldoni came to Tribeca for another meeting, Lively confronted him. “I need nothing from you on this film as an actor or director,” Lively says she told Baldoni. “I only need one thing from you. Not to make me feel like shit.” Reynolds was at the apartment too. “How dare you fucking ask about my wife’s weight?” he said, according to Baldoni. At one point during the conversation, Baldoni’s eyes started to well up. Lively was unmoved. Baldoni was “an actual donkey” and “a bag of hot gas,” she wrote in a text. “Even though I know he’s a clown, it still hurts,” she went on. “Being a woman in this industry ️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️.”

III.

‘I Guess I Missed the Sexual-Harassment Meeting’

Filming began in May 2023, and the problems on set started almost immediately. When paparazzi photos leaked on the first day of shooting, fans online criticized Lively’s “frumpy” outfit so harshly that it spooked Sony, which was distributing the film. Baldoni stopped by her trailer the next day to talk about it. “I’m fucking terrified of saying the wrong thing,” he texted Heath, his friend and producer. Baldoni and Lively spoke for an hour and a half. Baldoni teared up again. Lively argued that he was being “gaslit” by Sony, according to Baldoni, and that the photos that leaked online were from a scene in which Lily had just been abused by Ryle. Looking hot wasn’t exactly the goal.

That night, Heath went to Lively’s trailer to schedule another meeting about the wardrobe issue. Inside, a makeup artist and hairstylist were removing Lively’s body makeup. Lively says she was topless and wearing nothing but a thong. Heath knocked and opened the door. All three women shouted at Heath not to come in — he said later that he heard the opposite — and the stylist grabbed a hair-cutting gown to drape in front of Lively. Heath insisted on having the meeting right then to stay on schedule; Lively told him to look the other way while the makeup artists finished their work. At one point, Lively says she looked up and saw that Heath had turned around and was looking at her in a mirror. “You need to leave,” she said. When Lively later talked to him about the incident, Heath apologized and, according to Lively, said that he simply liked to make eye contact.

A week later, Lively came to a rehearsal in a blue corduroy jacket she had taken from her husband. When she bent down to pick something up, the jacket opened and revealed a low-cut dress she had worn that day to make it easier to breastfeed. According to Lively, Baldoni said, “I like your outfit,” and gestured at his chest. Lively grabbed her coat to cover herself up. Later that day, she changed into another outfit for a scene in which her character wears a onesie to a sports bar. Baldoni asked Lively to remove a coat she was wearing over the onesie, which was zipped low enough to expose part of a lace bra underneath.

“Pretty hot,” Baldoni said.

“Not what I’m going for,” Lively said.

“Sexy?”

“Not that, either.”

Jenny Slate, who played Ryle’s sister in the movie, was standing nearby and stepped in. “We’re just not doing this anymore,” she said, explaining how uncomfortable it can be when a director starts talking about an actress’s appearance. “I guess I missed the sexual-harassment meeting,” Baldoni said, before walking off. He eventually apologized but believed it was a misunderstanding. He wasn’t ogling. He was a director talking to an actress about her wardrobe.

Both Lively and Slate were starting to question Baldoni’s public image as an enlightened man. On another occasion, Baldoni spotted Slate wearing a pair of black leather pants for a scene and told her she looked “sexy,” before quickly adding, “I can say that because my wife is here.” Slate also told Lively that Baldoni had been overheard complaining to a male actor, “Dude, I have to tell you something, but I don’t want to get canceled or lose my job. You can’t say anything on this set anymore.” (Baldoni has denied saying this.) After Slate shared some of her concerns with Alex Saks, one of the film’s producers, Saks texted Ange Giannetti, an executive at Sony, with a blunt assessment of the situation just two weeks into production: “I think we need to replace our director.”

Giannetti had just sat through a lengthy call with Lively about her own list of complaints. The set was chaotic and infused with quirks that both Baldoni and Heath, who was also Baha’i, had seemingly brought to the production. There was, for example, a lot of hugging. Justin Grey Stone, Lively’s manager, later described visiting the set and finding people gathered in “hugging circles” around Baldoni. Lively wasn’t anti-hugging per se, but she felt the set was loose and unprofessional and found that Baldoni would sometimes become moody if she rebuffed an embrace. When Lively’s attorney later asked Baldoni if he could estimate how many times he hugged Lively while making the movie, Baldoni tried to do the calculation in his head before giving up and saying, “I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.”

One of the last straws for Lively involved a scene in which she gives birth. Lively had expected to wear a hospital gown, but on set Baldoni pressed her to consider performing the scene as if she were naked. According to Lively, Baldoni said that it wasn’t “normal” for women to give birth with clothes on; his own wife, he said, had ripped hers off. This was news to Lively, who had given birth four times. They eventually reached a compromise: Lively would cover her breasts with a gown, with a prosthetic pregnancy belly exposed and a piece of black fabric covering her below the waist. The scene took several hours to block and film, and Lively later learned that the male actor playing the OB/GYN stationed between her legs, which were in stirrups, was one of Baldoni’s close friends. (Baldoni later countered that his friend was “a Shakespearean-trained actor with an MFA in Acting from UCLA.”)

The next day, Baldoni asked Heath for a favor: Would he show Lively a video from his wife’s home birth, which Baldoni said captured “his vision for the birthing scene”? Heath approached Lively while she was eating lunch and asked if she had a minute to look at something on his phone. When Lively saw a naked woman onscreen, she recoiled and told him to stop. She thought Heath was showing her porn.

By the end of May, the production was limping along. Lively wanted Sony to get involved, but Giannetti said her hands were tied: Baldoni’s company owned the rights and was in charge of the production, so any problems had to be reported to it. Giannetti also wasn’t sure the allegations called for an intervention. “I thought it was a shitshow,” Giannetti said later, but “those incidents alone were not reason to call HR.” Lively told Slate that she was doing her best to salvage “some degree of chemistry and camaraderie” with Baldoni. When Slate’s team reached out to her about doing some early publicity for the movie, she blanched. “I don’t want to do anything with Justin,” she texted. “Justin is truly a false ally and I’m unwilling to do anything that promotes the image that he’s crafting as a ‘male feminist’ … I have no words to describe what a fraud he is.”

Baldoni was ostensibly in charge but now found himself on the defensive. “Lots of big big challenges that perfectly line up with my biggest insecurities,” he texted a group of friends. He said that he was balancing “some very tricky personalities” and dealing with “poisoning of the well convos that could be putting me in a bad light.” Baldoni told Heath that Steve Sarowitz, Wayfarer’s financial backer, had offered to visit the set to “remind Blake who’s money this is” but that Baldoni had talked him down in an effort to not further inflame the situation. Giannetti couldn’t comprehend how far it had gone off the rails. “Just SO many things stacking up,” she texted Saks. “I cannot believe how they just keep on coming.”

IV.

‘Everyone Knows How Incredibly Well You Are Handling This Sicko’

When the Hollywood strikes of 2023 put It Ends With Us on hold, Lively left for London, where Reynolds was in the middle of working on Deadpool & Wolverine. Lively seemed relieved to be away from set, and the break appears to have given the couple a chance to channel some of their frustration creatively. The plot of Deadpool & Wolverine follows Reynolds’s sarcastic anti-hero into an alternate reality where he encounters various gonzo versions of himself: Dogpool, Kidpool, and, most prominently, Nicepool. Reynolds plays Nicepool with his hair in a man-bun, a sunny disposition, and a persistent wokeness that blinds him to his faults. At one point, Nicepool declines to join a fight because he has “low bone density.” When Nicepool mentions Ladypool, he says, “She just had a baby too — you can’t even tell,” before insisting it’s okay for him to say that because “I identify as a feminist.” Eventually, Ladypool, voiced by Lively, pulls out a pair of Uzis and unloads a barrage of bullets into Nicepool, who is standing in front of a flower shop. When Deadpool & Wolverine came out the following summer, just two weeks before It Ends With Us, Lively encouraged women to see the movie in part because it offered a commentary “about Nice men who use feminism as a tool.”

With production paused, Baldoni started working on an early cut of the footage he had shot thus far. Lively, meanwhile, asked Baldoni to send her dailies but was growing frustrated with how he seemed to be keeping her at arm’s length. “His entire sales pitch is how collaborative he is and how much he values women,” Lively told her agent, Warren Zavala. “Yet they’re not gonna allow me to see the movie?” One piece of footage Baldoni did send had made Lively nervous about where the movie was going. The scene involved a flashback in which a teenage version of Lily loses her virginity. While the script left most of the scene to the imagination, Baldoni’s cut ended with young Lily gasping at the moment of penetration. “What I saw was terrifying,” Lively told Zavala. “It made me wanna get outta the movie.” (Isabela Ferrer, who played young Lily, later said that after they finished filming several takes of the scene, Baldoni told her and her male co-star, “I know I’m not supposed to say this, but that was hot.”) Lively intimated to her agent that, given how things were going, she wasn’t necessarily inclined to be as helpful promoting the movie if Baldoni didn’t bring her more into the process. She might even pass on a Vogue cover. “I have my HR report ready also fyi,” she wrote.

The strikes finally came to an end in November 2023, and Baldoni and the film’s producers were eager to rush back to set. But the next day, Lively’s attorney sent an email saying that it should be “no surprise” that the production “had been deeply concerning” to Lively and that she had a list of 17 demands to be met before she would agree to come back. (No. 6: “No one will enter, attempt to enter, interrupt, pressure, or request entrance to BL’s trailer while she is in a state of undress.”) Among the demands was an objection to “any changes in attitude, sarcasm, marginalization or other negative behavior” in response to Lively calling out any on-set behavior — a prohibition, in other words, against retaliation.

Baldoni was nervous. He reached out to a group of male friends, many of whom were Baha’i, including Heath; the friend who acted as the OB/GYN; and the actor Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute on The Office. “These first few days have been torturous and up there with the worst of all of them,” Baldoni texted the group. He saw the 17-point list as “an effort to gain power over me” and said that Lively was threatening to leave the film. “We all know what this document insinuates — that i am / unsafe /sexually harassing etc etc etc,” Baldoni wrote. “We don’t believe she will leave or leak to press but this is her threat of a nuclear bomb as she knows this is the only way to get to me.” Baldoni named the text chain “Prayers and Support.” Wilson told him he would include Baldoni “in my daily Morning devotions.”

Several weeks later, Baldoni texted Danny Greenberg, his agent at WME, to let him know things weren’t getting any better. “Hey man, had a really really bad week,” Baldoni said. As part of the negotiations, Baldoni’s attorneys had agreed to “exclude the ‘thrust’ scene” involving young Lily. “I’m giving her a 95% of what she wants for peace but this is just a brutal experience,” Baldoni told Greenberg.

“This whole thing is insanity,” said Greenberg, whose agency also represented Lively. “Everyone knows how incredibly well you are handling this sicko.”

On January 4, 2024, the day before production was set to resume, Lively invited Baldoni to her apartment in Tribeca for a much tenser meeting than their first encounter. “Would appreciate any prayers for protection and strength / calm,” Baldoni texted his friends on the way there. (“Sitting now for some prayers,” Wilson said.) Baldoni arrived along with Heath, Giannetti, Saks, and Todd Black, a producer who had been newly hired as part of Lively’s 17-point list. Lively wanted to clear the air. Baldoni later recalled her saying that working on the film had been the worst experience of her life. She had an even longer list of grievances, some of which she read from her phone. No one would show her nude videos of other women, including their wives; no one would discuss their history of porn addiction or talk about their sex lives; no one would share whether or not they were circumcised. “No more private, multi hour meetings in BL’s trailer, with Mr Baldoni crying.” On several occasions, Baldoni had told Lively that he had psychically communicated with her father, who had died nearly three years earlier. Lively asked him to stop doing that.

Reynolds joined the meeting, too, and angrily told Baldoni the production had been a disaster that he and Lively were having to step in and save. Black said the encounter was “one of the harshest meetings he had ever been to.”

Baldoni struggled to defend himself. “The only way to describe it was an ambush,” he told his group of friends in a lengthy message he dictated from set the next day. “I had no words. I couldn’t formulate sentences. My brain was trying to defend itself when they were needing me to apologize for all of the ways I have fucked up and made her feel unsafe. Ryan was talking to me like a 5-year-old and scolding me.” Baldoni and Heath believed that many of the allegations Lively had leveled were simply misunderstandings or exaggerations. “She didn’t like Justin,” Heath said later. “She didn’t like that he cried.” But they wanted to finish the movie and felt there was nothing for them to do but sign the document agreeing to Lively’s terms.

By all accounts, the five weeks of filming in early 2024 had little of the drama that preceded it. “You’re coming into a different set,” Lively texted Jenny Slate as she prepared to finish her scenes. “You don’t need to hug anyone.” Lively had continued to assert herself on the movie, rewriting scenes she shared with Baldoni in ways that at least seemed to hint at their real-life drama. “This is a western. A standoff, albeit an intimate one,” she wrote to Baldoni and the film’s producers, describing a scene between their characters that she had punched up. “Them being locked into place adds to the tension. Trapped in truths.” Lively suggested that Baldoni wear clothes for a moment in which he was scripted to be shirtless and cut a kiss from another scene, which didn’t bother him. “The last thing I want to do is kiss this woman,” Baldoni said. He had begun to accept that he wasn’t in control of the movie and asked the producers to have their guard up moving forward. “By now,” he said, “we all know what she is capable of.”

Screenshots are from this article, which also references a post by u/Perfect-Split496

Screenshots are from this article, which also references a post by u/Perfect-Split496

"My message to anyone watching the movie is that I also have an alcohol line." 😂

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