“Blake Lively faces criticism during alleged PR campaign as Hollywood stands by her in feud over It Ends With Us”

Hollywood is coming out in support of Blake Lively today, as she accuses her When It Ends With Us costar Justin Baldoni of orchestrating a smear camaign against her with a PR representative who boasted ‘we can bury anyone’.

When It Ends With Us was released in August this year, this is the string of negative incidents involving the actress, 37, that started to be discussed online – from being testy and sarastic in interviews to marrying her husband Ryan Reynolds at a plantation property in South Carolina.

There were also complaints from fans about her promo interviews for It Ends With Us in which she plugged her haircare brand instead of addressing the movie’s domestic violence storyline, and it seemed that these ‘tone deaf’ comments were what was fuelling an organic online backlash. 

However, her legal team now claim the film’s director and Blake’s co-star Justin Baldoni, 40, allegedly launched a smear campaign against her to ‘destroy’ her reputation. 

This was orchestrated by crisis management expert Melissa Nathan, whose previous clients have included Jonny Depp, and his PR team, which also included publicist Jennifer Abel.

Allegedly, Ms Nathan planted and advanced negative stories about Ms Lively online and engaged in a tactic known as ‘astroturfing’: when comments are posted online to appear as if they from the public, when in fact they are posted by an organisation.

Ultimately, Lively’s legal team believe Baldoni tried to retaliate against her harassment complaints by ‘battering her image, harming her businesses, and causing her and her family severe emotional harm’.

In text messages in court documents seen by the Mail, Ms Nathan assured a member of Baldoni’s team: ‘We can bury anyone.’

Rumors of a rift between the film’s leads began to swirl amid its press run, after eagle-eyed fans noted a frostiness between the pair on the red carpet.

But Lively was wary of Baldoni even prior to filming, according to her legal complaint, and claimed they clashed over him trying to add ‘gratuitous’ nudity and sex scenes to the movie.

The message was in response to Abel’s text, which said Baldoni, ‘wants to feel like she [Lively] can be buried’.

‘Of course – but you know when we send over documents we can’t send over the work we will or could do because that could get us in a lot of trouble,’ Nathan responded, adding, ‘We can’t write we will destroy her’.

She followed up the message with another which read: ‘Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands. You know we can bury anyone but I can’t write that to him. I will be very tough.’

Now, Justin and his PR team are accused of ‘astroturfing’ the actress – a term used to define a deceptive practice of publishing comments that appear to come from the public but actually come from a particular group. 

During the film’s production, messages flooded platforms like Reddit rehashing her past dramas with claim’s that Blake is a ‘meanie’. 

Here, Femail reveals the mini controversies that led Blake’s reputation to be tarnished in the lead up to It Ends With Us.

CONTROVERSY OVER WEDDING VENUE 

Amid all the drama in August, Blake and Ryan Reynolds’s controversial wedding venue location resurfaced. 

In 2012, the Hollywood couple said ‘I Do’ during an intimate ceremony at Boone Hall Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina.

It is one of America’s oldest working plantations. In the 19th century, it was owned by Henry and John Horlbeck, who were in the brick business, building many of the public spaces in downtown Charleston using bricks from the plantation.

Boone Hall Plantation also famously appeared in Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling’s 2004 movie, The Notebook.

The couple were subsequently criticised for glamorising a place where slaves once suffered and died.

In May 2020, eight years after the wedding, Ryan and Blake donated $200,000 to the NAACP. 

In addition to the donation, they issued a statement, which read in part, ‘We’re ashamed that in the past we’ve allowed ourselves to be uninformed about how deeply rooted systemic racism is.’ 

During the height of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in August 2020, Ryan revealed his regrets for the wedding venue in conversation with Fast Company.

The Deadpool actor called the choice of location ‘something we’ll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for’.

He said: ‘It’s impossible to reconcile. What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy.’

‘Years ago, we got married again at home – but shame works in weird ways. A giant f***ing mistake like that can either cause you to shut down or it can reframe things and move you into action,’ continued the action star.

‘It doesn’t mean you won’t f*** up again. But repatterning and challenging lifelong social conditioning is a job that doesn’t end.’

By 1850, Boone Hall was producing four million bricks per year using 85 slaves. Since the 1950s it has been owned by the McRae family, who opened the 738-acre estate up to public tours in 1956.

12 feet by 30 feet slave cabins still remain on the property, and today, there is house information about the slaves who lived there.

The cabins, occupied by sharecroppers through the 1940s, were in use well into the 20th century.

‘UNCOMFORTABLE’ INTERVIEW

A journalist deepened the media storm surrounding Blake when she revealed that her interview with the actress made her want to ‘quit her job’.

Kjersti Flaa, 51, branded her interview with Blake the ‘most uncomfortable situation she has ever experienced’, saying she considered leaving the industry after the 2016 interview with Blake went awry.

She uploaded a clip of the awkward encounter to her YouTube channel titled: ‘The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job.’

Blake and fellow actress Parker Posey had sat down with Kjersti, who is originally from Norway but now lives in California, back in 2016 to discuss their film Café Society.

But when Kjersti congratulated the actress, who was expecting her second child with husband Ryan Reynolds at the time, on her pregnancy, things immediately turned tense.

Blake seemed completely unamused with the comment, and replied with a sarcastic quip.

‘First of all, congrats on your little bump,’ Kjersti, who is the founder of Content Now TV, gushed.

‘Congrats on your little bump,’ Blake fired back, as the interviewer giggled nervously.

‘What about my bump?’ Parker joined in, standing up to show her behind to the camera.

Kjersti, who appeared thrown off by Blake’s response, then sat their awkwardly as the two ladies joked about their various ‘bumps’ together.

The atmosphere intensified when Kjersti asked the women her first question.

Since the movie took place in the 1930s, Kjersti asked if they enjoyed wearing old-school clothes in the film.

But Blake didn’t like the query, and as Parker started to answer, she interjected, ‘Everyone wants to talk about the clothes but I wonder if they would ask the men about the clothes.’

‘I would,’ Kjersti promised.

Again, the ladies started talking to one another rather than to Kjersti, as they discussed some of their favorite outfits worn by men in the movie.

The uncomfortable interview went on for another few minutes, before a defeated Kjersti wrapped it up. 

‘Sitting down with Blake Lively and her co star Parker Posey for Café Society is the most uncomfortable interview situation I have ever experienced,’ she wrote in the caption.

‘Is it not OK to congratulate someone on their pregnancy or to ask another woman about costumes she is wearing in a film?’

The resurfaced interview quickly caused a storm and sparked fierce backlash against Blake.

People flocked to the comment section, with one person branding the star as ‘rude’ and another calling her behavior ‘weird and uncalled for.’

‘She and her husband talk about their kids all the time and you can’t congratulate her on her pregnancy?’ one person wrote.

‘That was such weird and uncalled for behavior, I’m sorry you had to sit through that. You kept your composure so well.’

‘The way she replied, ‘Congrats on your little bump.’ Yikes how rude,’ someone else agreed.

‘Wow, this is disappointing to watch. I’m very turned off by Blake and Parker’s behavior,’ a fourth comment read. 

‘It lacked tact… but more so Blake, were just extremely rude and lacked any class here.

‘Shame on her. You did excellent keeping it together. The only true lady in that room.’

‘Asking about wardrobe for a period piece movie is a normal question. I’m so sorry they treated you this way,’ a fifth said.

Two years later, the pair’s path crossed once again when Lively was joined by her A Simple Favor costar, Anna Kendrick, who she was rumored to be feuding with at the time. 

While promoting the 2018 thriller, Lively kicked off their conversation by warning Flaa that she just walked into ‘an entire therapy session.’

‘We’ve saged the room,’ Lively teased, after Kendrick tensely muttered they can ‘drop’ whatever they were talking about before cameras began rolling. 

Kendrick, then said ‘sorry’ for something, as Lively started to laugh and picked up a pastry to break the ice. 

‘We’re gonna eat some chocolate croissants,’ the mother-of-four said as Flaa laughed. 

Flaa started the interview by remarking on how different their characters are in A Simple Favour, telling Lively that her character seems like ‘the most confident woman in the world’ while Kendrick’s is ‘very insecure.’

‘In real life, it’s the other way around,’ Kendrick joked. ‘I constantly have to call Blake and be like, ‘It’s okay, you’re good at giving interviews. I promise people like you and respect you.’ 

Kendrick then quipped her pep talks were the ‘reason’ Lively got out of bed in the morning. 

‘Anna is just an egomaniac, as you can see,’ Lively said with a deadpan voice. 

In another attempt to get a sincere answer to her question, Flaa asked if they women were good at giving themselves compliments. 

The question led Lively to perk up slightly and she responded by saying it felt ‘good’ when Kendrick praises her.

The mother-of-four proceeded to admit that she does struggle with confidence and previously judged her own mother for being ‘so confident.’ 

‘Which I think is not fair,’ she reflected. 

Before ending the interview, Lively mused that they only got people to come to this press junket by bribing them with alcohol and cupcakes.

‘There’s a lot of free stuff on your way out,’ Lively told Flaa. ‘You can take some of the furniture from the hotel room, charge it to Lionsgate!’ 

As she attempted to ask one last question, Flaa realized that they had run ‘out of time.’ 

Kendrick then made a ‘Wah-wah’ noise as Lively went to shake Flaa’s hand, without making eye contact.

After Flaa complimented Lively’s jewelry, the performer complimented hers back.

Lively tells the reporter: ‘I was admiring yours right.’

The saga continued yesterday when Flaa fought claims that the allegations she made against Blake were part of a smear campaign designed to defame the star. 

‘Just wanted to put it out there. I have nothing to do with Justin Baldoni and his smear campaign against Blake Lively,’ Flaa said on Threads just hours after the New York Times report was aired, revealing Lively’s suit to the public.

‘I see that things are starting to snowball and people start thinking that I had anything to do with the smear campaign against [Lively],’ she continued.

‘I also read the article in the New York Times this morning. I’ve been reading through the lawsuit and I see there’s been so much dirty work going on behind-the-scenes.

‘I just wanted to say I had nothing to do with it.’

Referring to messages that showed Baldoni’s team seemingly waging a then-secret smear campaign against Lively in response to her allegations, Flaa added: ‘I would never take part in anything like that. That’s such an insult to me.’

On YouTube, she released a more-than nine-minute video attempting to distance herself from the alleged plot further.

‘I don’t want a part of this,’ she said. ‘I showed how Blake Lively was behaving in my interview, and that’s it.

‘When I read the text messages that was going back and forth between Justin Baldoni’s PR team, I was as shocked and appalled, like everybody else.’

KATE MIDDLETON ‘PHOTOSHOP’ JIBE 

Blake posted a heavily edited picture to promote her line of drinks following Kate Middleton’s photoshop gaffe.

Starting in January, Kate was scrutinised more than usual when palace officials announced that she was hospitalised for abdominal surgery. They said she would not appear for public engagements until Easter.

Her decision to keep details private fuelled a social media frenzy. The release of a photo to mark Mother’s Day was later withdrawn by news agencies across the world after it was deemed to have been too heavily edited.

However, Blake marketed her drinks brand on Instagram using the photo editing scandal. 

Lively wrote in the caption: ‘I’m so excited to share this new photo I just took today to announce our 4 new @bettybuzz & @bettybooze products! Now you know why I’ve been MIA.’

The Town star sat beside a warped swimming pool in a warped chair, her hands are belonging to someone else, a lemon is in midair and other drink cans sit oddly on the table.

‘It’s not nice to bully someone when they are already low, shame on you,’ one person wrote.

‘So disappointed. Imagine if this was you, recovering from surgery at home and people mocking you,’ said another Lively fan.

‘Oh, bullying another woman! Especially a mother who is recovering from a major surgery…Very classy act from you… Think about what your BFF sings about Karma…,’ wrote another while referencing her friendship with Taylor Swift.

In the wake of Middleton’s announcement of her health crisis, Lively wrote on Instagram: ‘I’m sure no-one cares today but I feel I have to acknowledge this.

‘I made a silly post around the ‘photoshop fails’ frenzy and, oh, man, that post has me mortified today.’

Lively’s original post has since been taken down. 

FRIENDSHIP BRACELET 

During the August screening of It Ends With Us, Blake met backlash after opting out of wearing a bracelet gifted to her by a fan.

A TikTok shared via AlloCiné showed the brief encounter between Lively and the supporter at the August 8 premiere. 

‘Oh my gosh, thank you so much,’ Blake said as she took the present before adding, ‘I’m going to put it [away] because it doesn’t go with my outfit, but I will wear it later.’  

The mother-of-four also told the fan the gesture was ‘so sweet.’ 

Lively, who is married to Ryan Reynolds, was clad in a glamorous, silver, strapless dress covered in ornate multicolour floral accoutrements.

The star, who famously does not work with stylists, added a coral-pink feather boa, draping it around her arms. 

Her co-star Isabela Ferrer, who plays the younger version of her character Lily Bloom, also received a bracelet from the fan.

Ferrer immediately slipped the piece around her wrist. ‘Thank you! Oh my god, I’m going to put it on. Thank you so much!’ the actress reacted upon being presented with the bracelet.

While some claimed Blake’s exchange with the fan was perfectly ordinary, hateful messages also filled up the comment section slamming her decision not to wear the bracelet, with one claiming she was ‘giving off Regina Georgia vibes’. 

A second person added: ‘It literally went with her outfit just fine’. 

‘Oh my god Blake,’ a second person added. 

Referring to Blake’s star sign, a third wrote: ‘I literally cannot with Virgo’. 

BLASTED OVER ‘TONE DEAF’ IT ENDS WITH US PROMO

Viewers slammed Blake for her ‘tone deaf’ and ‘shallow’ promotion of It Ends With Us.

Adapted from the popular Colleen Hoover novel of the same name, the production follows Lily Bloom (Lively) as she finds herself in an abusive relationship with neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni).

Despite the film’s serious theme, the promotional tour sold a different story — as it focused largely on It Ends With Us’ flowery, romantic elements as well as Lively’s creative involvement.

Lively appeared to acknowledge the criticism by publishing a statement to her Instagram Story along with a violence against women PSA.

‘Thank you to everyone who came out to show that people WANT to see films about women and the multitudes we hold. It Ends With Us is a story of the female experience. All the highest highs, and lowest lows. And we are so proud of it,’ penned the Gossip Girl alum.

She continued: ‘We have been in celebration of this film and of getting a message so important out there to the masses.

‘Thank you all for embracing @itendswithusmovie with the same love, pain and joy we had sharing it with you all.’

Lively wrote her message overtop an interview clip from the London premiere of It Ends With Us, where she described her character as a ‘survivor’ whose life isn’t ‘defined’ by the harm that was done to her.

‘This move covers domestic violence but what’s important about this film is that she is not just a survivor and she’s not just a victim,’ she told BBC News on Friday. ‘And while those are huge things to be, they’re not her identity. 

‘She defines herself and I think that’s deeply empowering to remind people that no one else can define you. No experience can define you, you define you,’ Lively explained.

In a follow-up post on her Instagram Story, Lively shared statistics relating to domestic violence in the United States and provided fans with a link to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

‘1 in 4 women aged 18 and older in the US alone have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime,’ her statement began.

‘Intimate partner violence affects all genders, including more than 12 million people every year in the United States. Everyone deserves relationships free from domestic violence.

‘The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides confidential support 24/7/365,’ wrote Lively, who then linked access to the hotline.

She also encouraged those who need ‘immediate help’ to ‘text ‘START’ to 88788.’

At the same time, Lively faced flack for her light-hearted interviews about the film despite its serious message.

She was blasted as ‘shallow’ and ‘tone deaf’ for her part in a recent chat with co-stars Jenny Slate and Isabela Ferrer and It Ends With Us author Hoover.

The four women discussed their dream jobs and their zodiac signs, but there was no mention of domestic violence during their chat.

Social media users were quick to criticize the interview for asking breezy questions despite the serious nature of the film.

Blake kicked off the interview by asking her costars what their professions would be if they hadn’t chosen acting or, in Colleen’s case, writing.

Colleen said she’d want to be a chef while Isabela explained that she’d be ‘riding horses all the time.’

Jenny then revealed that she was terrified of horses, explaining that their hooves and ‘butts’ made her uncomfortable.

Everyone erupted in laughter as she added, ‘Their butts are shiny, it kills me. Ponytail out of the butt, it’s crazy.’

After that, Blake asked each of them to share their zodiac signs so they could figure out ‘how compatible they are’ with one another.

Next, she asked, ‘What would be a good addition to the human body?’ ‘I would like another arm. Three hands working the keyboard? Wow,’ Colleen answered, while Jenna pondered that she’d love some wings.

‘We didn’t talk about our movie at all. Thanks for joining us,’ Blake concluded. ‘I think that will sell the film,’ Jenny added with a laugh.

Blake shared a video of the interview to her Instagram account, which she captioned with, ‘Becoming friends with [Jenny Slate] and all of these women [Colleen Hoover and Isabela Ferrer] is the best thing to come out of [It Ends With Us] for me.

‘And that’s saying A LOT because I couldn’t be more proud of this film. I’m gonna be sad when marketing is over and I don’t have excuses to sit on my couch dressed up with you ladies.’

Outraged viewers flocked to the comment section to criticize them, ‘I’m very confused. You missed the entire purpose of the movie. I’m sad and disappointed,’ one person wrote. ‘This is a movie about abuse, can you promote please appropriately?’ another asked.

Someone else added, ‘Blake is only here for the fashion and that’s all. She ain’t interested in the message this movie brings. Shallow.’

‘As someone who has read the book, as someone who liked Blake, and as a DV survivor… to say that this is so disappointing would be an understatement,’ a fourth comment read.

A fifth said, ‘This is the most tone deaf thing I’ve ever seen. This movie is about domestic violence, why are you promoting it like it’s a Barbie movie?’

‘When are you gonna talk about domestic violence? Trying to play this movie off as a fun romcom is wrong and disgusting,’ a different user scathed.

‘We don’t wanna hear about shows and your new hair care routine we wanna hear about the victims and how prevalent domestic violence remains in society. You have been given a platform, use it.’

‘The way you’ve chosen to market this movie is a real shame and feels like an insult to DV survivors,’ someone else said. ‘Really disappointed and hard to believe the author would support it.’

‘Very disappointed in the way you are promoting this movie. I loved you as an actress but won’t be watching any of your movies anymore,’ another person declared.

‘You are being tone deaf about domestic violence. This could of been a huge opportunity to bring awareness to DV and you choose to blatantly ignore it.’

‘As a well meaning fan: this Girl Talk session reinforced multiple stereotypes about women, and doesn’t address the single most important theme in your film: domestic abuse,’ a different angry viewer wrote.

‘You can use this moment for a felonies reckoning, to make some difference in countless lives, to encourage and support women to speak up.

‘But you’re focusing on flowers and hair-care and outfits. Women are more than this, we deserved better from you.’

Others said they were ‘team Justin,’ referencing an alleged feud between Blake and the actor.