Ep 17 The Vanzan lawsuit could ruin Blake Lively's entire case
Episode Stats
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Summary
Tashina Flohr talks about the latest in the Lively vs. Van Zandt Lawsuit, and the fallout from it. She also talks about a recent interview with Glenn Powell and why he doesn t want to be photographed with Ryan Reynolds.
Transcript
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his face is toxic and he said people are having a visceral reaction to this person.
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Hi and welcome to Flossom Talk. I'm Tashdi Flohr, journalist, Hollywood truth teller,
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and your voice of reason in a town built on delusion. So it's Friday, it's my podcast day
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where I try to talk about other things than just divulgating Blake Lively's legal feud,
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but it's very difficult today because there's been so many filings. The docket is flooding with
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new documents and some of them are very interesting. There's a lot going on in this
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Van Zandt sham lawsuit. Remember those text messages that somehow ended up in Blake Lively's
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lawsuit and in the New York Times? The way that those text messages were retrieved was very
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questionable. And now Van Zandt is being subpoenaed and there's a big mess. Also in
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this episode, I'll go through some of the stuff going on with those signal messages. Remember
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those messages that Blake Lively's team is convinced is about the smear campaign and they're trying to
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get hold of them and it's so much back and forth. This is going to delay this trial so much what's
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going on right now. Anyways, I wanted to start this episode with this video, this interview that
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I saw with Glenn Powell yesterday. I don't know if you've seen it yet, but he's on this podcast
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talking about this person that is cancelled in Hollywood and that he wanted to avoid taking a
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photo with this person at an event. He said that this person was recently cancelled. Okay, so this is
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what he says. And just the question, who comes to mind when you hear him talk about this? One of the
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things that I, I'm not going to say who it was, but there was, I was at a party and I, I, you know,
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showed up to the party and there was somebody that had basically been on the ropes in terms of sort of
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getting cancelled. And this person had made a lot of, some of my favourite movies. And I was like,
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oh, like, this is, this is great. Like, and he came up and he said, nice to meet you. So I was like,
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oh dude, big fan. And then a photographer said like, hey, can we take a picture of the two of
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you guys? And this person was recently cancelled and it was like, it was, it was like, not good.
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I was a fan of their work, but not a fan of their, their choices. Right. Uh, so I was just kind of
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being nice. But then when you, you're there, want to take a picture with you, I realized very quickly
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how like, I was like, ooh, I don't know if this is a good idea. He clearly clocked that I was like,
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this is probably not a good idea. And I realized I was like, this guy, his face is toxic. You know,
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like going out in the world, like people are having a visceral reaction to this person in
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terms of the bad choices they've made. I, thinking about it, it's like this year,
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I can't really come up with anyone this year that was cancelled, maybe Russell Brand. I don't know
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if that was this year. But the one thing that stood out for me and what he was saying is that
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he met this person at a Hollywood party. And who would get invited to a Hollywood party
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if you really cancelled by the industry? Look at someone like Will Smith. Have you seen
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any pictures of him at any Hollywood parties the last couple of years? No. And he doesn't
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want to say this person's name. If this person was, if this person was really cancelled, it
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wouldn't be an issue for him to mention him by name. But he didn't want to do that. And
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what I think when you've seen the backlash that people have gotten from taking photos with
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Ryan Reynolds, I totally see where he's coming from. Just Hugh Jackman as an example,
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he was guilty by association by being friends with Ryan Reynolds. He was out there supporting
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Ryan Reynolds. He was photographed with him and Blake Lively. And it really turned on him. His
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Instagram was blowing up with negativity, not only because of that, also because of his divorce and
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all that stuff. But the fact that he was friends with Ryan Reynolds really gave him a lot of
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criticism from people. And I remember, I think it was Channing Tatum who posted a photo with Ryan
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Reynolds and everyone was just like crazy in the comment section. And as you know, Ryan Reynolds
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has to close off the comment section on everything he does. If it is an advertisement with maximum
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effort, if it is just showing up at an event and receiving an honoree or an award, he's turning off
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the comment section on everything that he does. To me, that is a person that is cancelled in the
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public eye. I think this is Ryan Reynolds. Let me know who you think it is. He said also that he's
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a fan of their work, but his face is toxic. And he said people are having a visceral reaction to this
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person. I can't come up with anyone else right now that this is happening to, but Ryan Reynolds.
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Just remember what happened when he showed up at the Toronto Film Festival. Everyone was attacking
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him. He was headlines everywhere when he was being rude to this kid. Now it seems like he swapped out
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Hugh Jackman, by the way, with Rob, his Rexham partner, the one who's invested in the Rexham football
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team with him. Because now he's bringing him with him everywhere. He just brought him, for some reason,
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I don't know why. It doesn't make any sense that he brought him to a screening and a Q&A for his
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movie, the documentary that he produced about John Candy. What is he doing there? He had nothing to do
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with the movie. He's just like, hey, I have a friend and his name is Rob. I don't remember his last name
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now. But anyways, he is Ryan's new BFF now that Hugh Jackman is out of the picture. So yeah, again,
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let me know what you think if Glenn Powell is talking about Ryan Reynolds here. So let's talk
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about the bombshell in the docket, you guys. So remember Van Zandt, the company who just decided
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to sue 10 anonymous people? And then they ended up getting hold of Jennifer Abel's phone. And then it
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turned out that the owner of that company was Blake Reynolds. And the CEO of that company is Ryan
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Reynolds. And they used this lawsuit to subpoena Stephanie Jones, who used to work for Justin
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Baldoni. And through that subpoena, they got hold of Jennifer Abel's phone, who was about to leave
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Stephanie Jones to start her own company. And somehow, miraculously, these text messages ended
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up in the New York Times and in Blake Lively's complaint. And funny enough, this entire lawsuit
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that was filed against these anonymous people were dropped just the day before Blake Lively
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filed that CRD complaint. So when this came to light a while back that this was the way,
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this was the method that they had used to get hold of Jennifer Abel's phones to get hold of the only
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evidence that they have, Blake Lively's team came out and said that this is just normal.
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Everyone does these kind of things. And it's just really normal. But here's the thing.
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So Stephanie Jones got hold of Jennifer Abel's phone already in August. This lawsuit wasn't filed
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until September 27. So what was that phone doing in those three or four weeks or even longer when it
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was in Stephanie Jones possession? Was she actually accessing all the private information of one of
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our employees? Did she find these text messages and then alerted Blake Lively and then conspired with her
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on how she could access these text messages legally. And another thing that I found so shady about that
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is why was Jennifer Abel's phone the only one that was confiscated in this lawsuit? Why weren't there other
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employees' phones? Like Stephanie Jones, she's the one that owns the company that represents Justin Baldonio,
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represented him at the time. Why wasn't her phone confiscated by Van Zandt? The only reason I could
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find for that is that she was conspiring with Blake Lively. Anyways, as I said, it's so obvious.
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So Tuesday next week, the Wayfair party and Justin Baldoni's team is supposed to depose
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Van Zandt. And a representative from Van Zandt is supposed to show up and tell the truth. And this
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5060. Okay, so let's dig back into this. As I said on Tuesday, Justin Baldoni's team and the Wayfair
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parties are supposed to depose someone from Van Zand, the company that Ryan Reynolds is CEO of,
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the company that they've been trying to hide, desperately hide this entire time because they
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know what they did was truly shady and maybe even illegal. So Van Zand has agreed to be deposed
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by the Wayfair party, but they're saying that they only want to talk about things that happen after
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September 27th, which was the day that they actually filed this lawsuit against these 10
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anonymous people to get hold of Jennifer Abel's phone. And the thing is, that's not really that
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interesting. What's interesting here is what led up to that lawsuit. And the truth is that Van Zand
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filed this lawsuit saying there was a contractual breach somewhere. They didn't say that this had
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anything to do with Blake Lively's lawsuit against the Wayfair or any SH complaints or any retaliation
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campaign. They were not being honest about what they were after. And also when you subpoena someone
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that has to give information about another party, that party should be informed that party was Wayfair
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and Justin Baldoni and they were not informed. Anyways, now they're arguing back and forth about this
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date. And now the judge has said to Justin Baldoni's team that they have to refile this because they
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didn't do it the right way. I feel like Judge Lyman is just trying to find little loopholes here so he
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can support Blake Lively because what this information would bring could be catastrophic to Blake Lively.
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It could really bring down her entire case because if this, because if these texts were obtained
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illegally, she can't use them and she has zero. She has absolutely nothing. The one text message
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that's been quoted over and over again is that Melissa Nathan said, or was it Jennifer Abel? One of
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them said, sorry, I don't remember which one said that we can bury anyone. And that's what Blake Lively
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has based this entire lawsuit on this retaliation campaign or this smear campaign. The big question
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here is why is it so important for Van Zand not to talk about what happened before they filed this
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sham lawsuit? Why can't they be open about that? What are they hiding? They're obviously hiding a lot
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of things. And I really hope that the Wayfair party has enough time now to refile this and do it the exact
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way that the judge is telling them to do this. So they have time to get his approval, to ask them
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questions before September 27, before this deposition is taking place on September 30th,
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which is on Tuesday. I don't know why they keep delaying all these things. Why hasn't all of this
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stuff happened so much earlier in the process? Why are they pushing everything to the end of the
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discovery phase, which is at the end of this month? They only have like four days left. As I said,
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this is such a big mess. Also in question here is who is going to represent Van Zand in that
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deposition? Ryan Reynolds is the CEO. I don't know if there's any other employees here because that Van
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Zand company has no real business. They don't really do anything. It's just a shell company. So it's
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either him or maybe some lawyers that are working for the company. I don't know. I think Ryan Reynolds
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is going to try to avoid this as much as possible. And also, why was his company, he's the CEO of this
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company, he's responsible for this company. Why was his company playing such a big part in this lawsuit
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that had nothing to do with him? Right now, this is a civil case, as you know. But could this end up being a
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criminal case because of all of this? Because if the Wayfair could prove that Ryan used a shell
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company to funnel stolen data, that's pretty serious. And that's basically what he did. I'm so
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curious to find out what happened leading up to that subpoena, the conversations that they had between
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them. You know, Stephanie Jones was really pissed off with Jennifer Abel because she wanted to leave the
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company and start her own. And that's where this feud between them started. And of course, she should
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be loyal to her client, which was at the time, Justin Baldoni. She was not loyal to him. She was not
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loyal to her to her own employee. She was loyal to Blake Lively and Leslie Sloan and Ryan Reynolds.
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Why? This is really bad for Stephanie Jones as well, because we know that there was a period of time
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that she was in possession with Jennifer Abel's phone. And she didn't have the legal grounds to
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have that phone at the time. And if there's any information that the Wayfair can get hold of
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that proves that Stephanie Jones shared that information before that subpoena was filed on
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her company, that could put her in a lot of trouble. All right. And then we have the signal messages.
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This is also so messy. So Blake Lively's team have been trying to get hold of these signal messages
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that have been like group chats that's been happening between Brian Friedman and the Wayfair
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parties and other parties, because they think that that is the evidence that they're looking for,
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that they will find evidence for the smear campaign in there. So the Wayfair parties have said all the
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time that they have given them what is relevant for the case. And they're saying that there's a lot
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of text messages that are privileged. They're personal or they're privileged because of attorney
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client privilege. And Blake Lively saying, we're not interested in your excuses. We want to see
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everything. And whatever you're not showing us, you need to prove the reason that there's a good reason
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for you not to show us those text messages. So Lively's team is pointing at 7,529 messages that
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they're saying that they want access to. So far, they've gotten 523 signal messages. And they're
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saying that, of course, some of these other messages might be important to us. So now what Wayfair
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party has to do is to log all of these 7,000 messages and explain why each of them should be
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privileged. This could take so much time. Just imagine the billing hours for doing something like
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that. 7,000 messages. Every message has to be filed into a system and explained why Blake Lively's team
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shouldn't be allowed to see it. The judge hasn't ruled on this yet. But when he does and if he does
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and if he sides with Blake Lively, which he most likely will do, then this is going to be a nightmare
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for the Wayfair parties. I understand why the Wayfair parties don't want to share all this information
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in the first place. Maybe they're not hiding anything that could be relevant to the case. But if they've been
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talking about Blake Lively in a bad manner or, you know, I'm sure they don't really like her at this
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point and there are a lot of messages that are expressing their feelings around her, they don't
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want that to be public. And I think those are the kind of things that they've probably been hiding in
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here that they don't want Blake Lively's team to see. Yes, anyways, the signal saga continues. Let's see
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what the judge says this time. And yeah, stay tuned. Also, Ryan Reynolds has been busy running around
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promoting John Candy, the movie, and now he's bringing his friends into the occasion as well.
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He brought his friend Rob, I can't remember his last name still, but he brought him on stage
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the other day. So he's been booking this tour promoting his movie that he he just produced the
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movie. He didn't direct it, but he produced it. And now it's, of course, all about Ryan Reynolds.
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So this whole tour is called Ryan Reynolds with friends. And it's his picture everywhere. He's in
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front of everything. It's just so narcissistic. But anyways, thanks, Glenda, for pointing this out to
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me. She sent me that the cocktail menu that was at one of these events, and it looks so similar to
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what the cocktail menu looked like at It Ends With Us. Remember that cocktail menu that Blake Lively
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had, where people were saying, like, why are you making cocktails about a DV movie? And one of the
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cocktails were named after one of the abusers in the film, Ryle. I don't know the meaning behind
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Ryle, you wait. But it doesn't give me a good taste in my mouth. Also, it ends with Buzz
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playing on the title of a DV movie, making it into a movie about booze. I mean, this got a lot of
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backlash as well back like a year ago when all of this happened. And now Ryan Reynolds made a drink
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menu for the John Candy movie for a person that is dead. Yeah, like Glenda is saying here, you know,
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maximum effort didn't learn anything. Remember, this is a movie to honor a comedian that's passed,
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and Ryan Reynolds is using the opportunity to push aviation gin. Isn't it just amazing? I'm sure
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John Candy's family feels great about that. And interestingly enough, on all the venues that
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Ryan Reynolds is touring with this film, you can't record or take any photos. It says absolutely no
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photos or recording of any kind. Why is that? That never happened to the Q&As, the Deadpool Q&As,
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or the Time Magazine sit down. It was never rules like that, that you can't take any photos or any
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recordings at any time. Yeah, this tour is just about Ryan Reynolds monetizing on a dead comedian
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and using his image and his legacy to try and clean his own. Anyways, I got really deep into the rabbit
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hole yesterday and I did some research and I found something really amazing about Ryan Reynolds that I'm
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going to talk about in my episode on Sunday. So please stay tuned for that. It's going to be
00:23:33.620
really revealing, I promise you. Anyways, you guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I wanted to end it
00:23:39.860
with a recommendation. I watched this TV show that I finished last night that I just found so thrilling.
00:23:46.360
So if you like crime and dark, dark, dark materials, this TV show is amazing. It's German and it's called
00:23:54.640
Dear Child and it's on Netflix. Yeah, I just thought I'll throw it in there. I always love when people give
00:24:00.460
me recommendations for good TV shows. So there you go, Dear Child. Anyways, thank you so much for watching.
00:24:06.300
I really appreciate your support. You're amazing. And if you haven't subscribed, please do check if you've
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been unsubscribed and resubscribe if you want to and hit the notification bell. Hype, like, share,
00:24:20.100
comments and all that good stuff. And I'll see you in my next one. Bye!