Flaawsome Talk with Kjersti Flaa - January 01, 2026


Hollywood says： GO AWAY, BLAKE !!


Episode Stats


Length

18 minutes

Words per minute

169.38284

Word count

3,073

Sentence count

219

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Blake Lively and Justy Baldoni are back in court, and this time it s a soap opera. Is it time to call it quits? Or is it time for a new season of .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
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00:00:44.940 Hollywood had enough. It's over.
00:00:47.800 Yeah, we floss some talk.
00:00:52.940 Hi and welcome to Flossom Talk.
00:00:54.700 I'm Sashdi Flohr, journalist, Hollywood truth teller,
00:00:57.160 and your voice of reason in a town built on the illusion.
00:01:01.460 Happy New Year's, everyone.
00:01:04.480 As you can see, I'm sitting here trying to dress up a little bit for you guys.
00:01:08.540 And I've also changed my background a little bit.
00:01:10.920 I'm moving things around in my studio to see what fits best.
00:01:14.260 And I actually do like this layout.
00:01:16.420 I think it's a little bit calmer and maybe looks a little more professional.
00:01:19.560 So, anyways, let me know what you think in the comment section.
00:01:23.600 And also, if you have other ideas, I'm always open for input and improvements.
00:01:28.920 Anyways, I hope you guys have some great plans for New Year's and that you're looking forward to 2026.
00:01:34.340 We were going to celebrate with some friends, but then they got sick.
00:01:37.000 So, then we're just going to be here by ourselves, dressing up for each other and Oscar and welcoming 2026 with open arms.
00:01:44.920 Anyways, Hollywood has spoken again.
00:01:47.940 And now they're calling Blake Lively's lawsuit a soap opera.
00:01:54.900 This is from The Hollywood Reporter, which is pretty major.
00:01:58.200 They were the ones who made that list a few days ago with the biggest winners and losers of 2025.
00:02:04.240 And Blake Lively was also on that list.
00:02:07.040 And today, they made a list of the biggest Hollywood bummers of 2025.
00:02:12.500 And you won't believe what they're saying about Blake Lively.
00:02:15.560 So, my big question now is, how is a jury ever going to believe anything Blake says when no one else does?
00:02:22.240 Also, in this episode, I wanted to look a little bit about how the media chose to cover this case
00:02:27.720 and how that has changed from when Blake Lively sued Justy Baldoni in December of 2024 until today
00:02:36.120 and how embarrassing this is for them.
00:02:39.500 Anyways, let's get into this Hollywood Reporter article.
00:02:42.720 So, it says here the biggest Hollywood bummers of 2025.
00:02:46.140 And then in a year of serious crisis, there was no shortage of minor annoyances from the decline of Squid Game
00:02:53.520 to the rise of Tilly Norwood, that AI actress, to the unending Lively Baldoni soap opera.
00:03:01.720 And then there's stories about other things, other big bummers of 2025 in Hollywood.
00:03:06.040 And then it says here, everybody in the Blake Lively Justy Baldoni saga is horrible.
00:03:12.020 I mean, that is pretty harsh.
00:03:15.860 I don't think everyone's horrible.
00:03:17.660 But I do think that we've seen the worst coming out in some people.
00:03:22.360 And we've seen how incredibly hypocritical Hollywood really is
00:03:27.200 and how many cowards there are with no moral compass.
00:03:31.800 Anyways, it continues to talk about this legal feud like this.
00:03:36.180 The only clear winner in the Blake Lively versus Justy Baldoni courtroom saga
00:03:40.860 was collective schadenfreude.
00:03:44.360 And that schadenfreude is not on Justy Baldoni's behalf.
00:03:48.800 We know that for sure.
00:03:50.620 They continue,
00:03:51.420 What began as a celebrity dispute ballooned into a rolling public demonstration
00:03:57.540 of how not to behave on set, in the media, or under oath.
00:04:04.200 Each new filing somehow made everyone involved look worse.
00:04:09.260 Choosing sides became impossible.
00:04:11.780 I don't think so.
00:04:12.960 It's not impossible.
00:04:13.920 I think it's very easy for people to choose a side here.
00:04:16.360 Although I'm not saying that Justy Baldoni's side is perfect in any way.
00:04:20.800 We've seen things, we've seen they say and do things as well
00:04:24.060 that I think could be questionable sometimes.
00:04:26.660 But I think everyone knows where the truth lays here.
00:04:29.940 And there's no more discussion about this SH.
00:04:33.860 It just kind of disappeared.
00:04:35.420 No one's talking about Blake Lively as a victim anymore.
00:04:38.940 Anyways, they continue.
00:04:40.500 Choosing sides became impossible.
00:04:42.200 And by the end, the prevailing emotion wasn't outrage or sympathy, but fatigue.
00:04:49.380 The kind that comes from watching very rich, very unpleasant people
00:04:54.840 litigate their privilege in public.
00:04:57.720 Yeah, one thing that we've learned from this is definitely how celebrity privilege and big
00:05:05.440 egos can cost you millions and millions and hundreds of millions of dollars.
00:05:11.680 And I think the summary that both sides came out with last week when Blake Lively's lawyers
00:05:17.740 were just talking about how she's staying strong through all of this.
00:05:21.580 And it was all about me, me, me.
00:05:23.300 And she's being a victim while Baldoni's side was saying,
00:05:27.240 hey, there's other things going on in the world.
00:05:29.020 And we really appreciate the support that we're getting.
00:05:31.680 But yes, there are other things that are more important than this lawsuit.
00:05:35.260 Yes, this is where Hollywood stands right now.
00:05:37.180 As I said, Hollywood Reporter did another report last week where they basically called
00:05:41.680 Blake Lively a laughingstock.
00:05:44.060 And now this story as well.
00:05:46.300 Ryan Reynolds must be furious right now.
00:05:49.580 Anyways, as I said, I wanted to focus a little bit as well on how the media has covered these
00:05:54.360 lawsuits from the beginning of when Blake Lively filed this in December of 2024 until now.
00:06:00.420 Because as you remember, after that New York Times article, everyone jumped on this.
00:06:04.260 It was a big scandal.
00:06:05.840 And the headlines were everywhere portraying Blake Lively as a victim of SH.
00:06:10.920 And of course, his smear campaign.
00:06:12.540 And everyone was shocked and had so much sympathy and empathy for Blake Lively that it was even
00:06:18.740 possible to create an untraceable smear campaign like this.
00:06:24.660 Until we learned, of course, there were more sides to this story.
00:06:28.100 Not only did we see Justin Baldoni's receipts coming out at the time when he sued them,
00:06:32.520 but we also have seen throughout this year, throughout discovery and more and more evidence
00:06:36.940 being unsealed, that there were a lot of twisted facts involved in all the reporting
00:06:42.300 we could see in mainstream media.
00:06:44.260 I've been covering a lot of the articles covering this story here on my channel.
00:06:48.360 And one of the things that I noticed especially is how the media was focusing on all the legal
00:06:53.740 stuff in the beginning.
00:06:54.880 And now it's all about scandal.
00:06:56.960 It's all about these little cherry-picked facts that they find from the evidence that
00:07:00.800 they can blow up and make headlines from.
00:07:03.920 People magazine was very pro-Blake in the beginning.
00:07:06.960 But then I feel like as soon as Taylor Swift entered, they kind of changed their ways a little
00:07:12.700 bit.
00:07:13.340 For them, it's always been important to be on good terms with the big celebrities.
00:07:17.820 Because that gives them sometimes exclusive interviews.
00:07:21.040 And this time it was so obvious after Taylor Swift's dad revealed that he was the source
00:07:26.920 of the information that Blake Lively had tried to pressure Taylor Swift to support her in
00:07:32.020 public.
00:07:32.560 When that story hit, all of a sudden People magazine started shifting a little bit.
00:07:37.640 At least that's what I noticed.
00:07:39.320 And the last four or five months, I think we've seen them being much more balanced in their
00:07:44.680 reporting on this.
00:07:45.740 Although I have to add that they do still pick up those stories that I'm sure Leslie Sloan 0.82
00:07:50.800 or someone else from Blake Lively's team is feeding them to make Blake Lively look wholesome
00:07:55.580 and like a good mother and good wife and very relatable.
00:08:00.820 Also, TMZ in the beginning was so pro-Blake Lively.
00:08:04.280 And they did publish a lot of misinformation.
00:08:07.440 Something they actually admitted to as well.
00:08:10.000 One of the stories I remember was when they said that there was another person who was
00:08:15.000 willing to testify against Justin Baldoni.
00:08:18.420 Another person from another project.
00:08:20.820 Remember, there was so much talk about that.
00:08:22.500 And then we realized it was Claire Ayub, this female director, who did another project with
00:08:28.960 the Wayfair parties.
00:08:30.460 And she ended up having some kind of disagreement with Baldoni.
00:08:34.780 But there was nothing else there.
00:08:36.320 And then she had recorded this conversation that we all got to hear.
00:08:39.600 And we know there was nothing there.
00:08:41.040 But anyway, TMZ said that she was willing to testify.
00:08:43.960 The thing is, she couldn't have testified because she had nothing to do with this case.
00:08:48.640 And they should know that.
00:08:50.960 But still, they said another victim is willing to testify, which was just BS.
00:08:56.260 They also said that Travis Kelsey was showing love for Blake Lively because he published this
00:09:02.180 podcast episode talking about traveling, that sisterhood of the traveling pans, a movie that
00:09:07.240 Blake Lively did a million years ago.
00:09:09.340 And then they realized that, oh, that was an old podcast that was re-uploaded.
00:09:13.960 And they did come out and talk about it, but still so sloppy.
00:09:18.500 And another thing they did, which I thought was really suspicious, is that they said that
00:09:22.100 Justin Baldoni had missed the deadline to appeal his case.
00:09:25.500 We know that's not true.
00:09:26.960 And also thinking that Harvey Levine, the editor of and the owner, I think, of TMZ, he's a lawyer.
00:09:35.020 He knows these things.
00:09:36.500 Yeah, there were so many things like that that was published on TMZ that made people think like,
00:09:41.180 hey, what's the deal here?
00:09:42.840 Are you like in cahoot with someone here?
00:09:45.820 In their live stream, it seemed like they were not on Team Blake at all.
00:09:50.180 So I don't know where they stand.
00:09:51.660 And I just hope that they can do some more due diligence in 2026 before reporting on things
00:09:57.220 because misinformation like this spread so fast and people don't come back to see if there's
00:10:03.520 any updates on an article or if it's been corrected.
00:10:06.560 The industry magazines have been very pro-Blake as well, especially Deadline, all their articles.
00:10:13.500 I've been like, what?
00:10:14.600 And Variety, except that Variety did a story on the content creators who were being subpoenaed by Blake Lively.
00:10:22.600 I did really like that.
00:10:23.780 They interviewed me for that story.
00:10:25.560 And The Hollywood Reporter has been a little more balanced, I think.
00:10:28.560 They did this story that was huge and got a lot of attention when it dropped about how Justin Baldoni and Jamie Heath
00:10:34.700 and the rest of the Wayfair parties brought Baha'i Faith into the set of It Ends With Us.
00:10:39.280 And that's where things started, like that's where the friction came from.
00:10:44.340 I don't really think so.
00:10:45.760 What we know by now, I don't see that there's any truth to that, really.
00:10:50.160 They were talking about this culture of hugging, which kind of just disappeared as well,
00:10:55.400 especially since we know that Blake Lively is a big hugger as well.
00:10:58.820 But I think the main reason this story got so much attention was because of the illustration
00:11:02.360 that they made of Blake and Justin and then Ryan Reynolds' nice pool and Brian Friedman there.
00:11:10.720 And Blake Lively was so upset by this.
00:11:14.300 One of her spokespeople said to Daily Mail that the framing in this picture is outrageously insulting
00:11:20.620 as it plays into every sexist trope about women who dare file a workplace complaint,
00:11:27.420 turning them into the aggressor and suggesting they deserve the retaliation that comes their way.
00:11:33.660 Surprise, surprise there.
00:11:35.660 And then, of course, you have all the fashion magazine, all the women magazines.
00:11:38.480 They're just kissing ass. 1.00
00:11:39.920 And all their stories about Blake has been like fluff pieces about her outfits
00:11:44.620 and about her hair care line and whatever products she's trying to sell.
00:11:48.880 So I think the outlets mainly that has been telling the truth,
00:11:52.240 basically, is Daily Mail and sometimes Page Six as well.
00:11:55.880 It's interesting to think that New York Times broke this story last year
00:12:01.300 and they haven't done really any follow-up stories.
00:12:04.340 I think they did one story when Justin Baldoni's lawsuit was dismissed,
00:12:07.820 but they haven't followed up on anything in this legal case.
00:12:11.700 And that is very telling.
00:12:13.300 I remember when LA Times did the expose of the Golden Globes
00:12:18.340 based on my lawsuit and my legal filings.
00:12:22.160 And they did follow-up stories like every single day for like six months after that.
00:12:29.020 It was huge.
00:12:30.420 So when you break a story like that and then choose not to follow up,
00:12:34.200 that says everything.
00:12:36.420 I think all the speculations people had in the beginning
00:12:39.240 because they were reading between the lines
00:12:41.380 because Blake didn't really tell us the entire truth.
00:12:44.020 She just cherry-picked some text messages 0.91
00:12:46.400 and painted a picture that she wanted to sell us. 1.00
00:12:50.540 And I think a major problem now is that all of these facts are really undisputed.
00:12:55.220 The things that Blake Lively accuses Justin Baldoni of,
00:12:57.980 he's not denying it.
00:12:59.700 He's just saying that they are ridiculous.
00:13:02.760 And that is what people are starting to realize.
00:13:05.220 And that is why all these Blake Lively supporters are just disappearing.
00:13:09.200 It's funny now, looking back, I was a part of four documentaries in 2025.
00:13:14.320 One on HBO Max, one on Hulu, one on Discovery Plus,
00:13:18.640 and then one for Andy Signor over at Popcorn Planet that he is planning,
00:13:22.960 I hope, publish in 2026.
00:13:25.620 Anyways, all of these three documentaries were really leaning towards Blake Lively's narrative.
00:13:31.920 Some of them extreme, some a little more balanced.
00:13:35.300 But now that we've seen so much from the depositions and the evidence being unsealed,
00:13:40.760 it makes all of them look ridiculous.
00:13:44.280 And of course, no one is going to admit that they were wrong.
00:13:47.440 So instead, now they're just trying to ridicule the entire situation.
00:13:52.140 And that's exactly what the Hollywood Reporter is doing here.
00:13:55.040 They're not saying like, hey, we were wrong.
00:13:57.000 We reported on this as a serious allegation
00:13:59.800 and something that really needs to be taken seriously and looked at.
00:14:03.020 And now everyone realizes that, oh, we were fooled.
00:14:07.160 Now they're just looking at this as a lot of mess and they want it to go away.
00:14:11.660 Because this case can do a lot of damage and has already done a lot of damage in Hollywood.
00:14:17.480 We don't know yet how this will affect SAG in the future.
00:14:20.900 They were supposed to step in here.
00:14:23.060 SAG was nowhere to be seen.
00:14:25.220 It was obviously Blake Lively's responsibility to get in touch with SAG
00:14:29.060 and tell them what happened on this set, but she didn't do that.
00:14:32.620 But still, SAG should have some sort of responsibility here.
00:14:36.600 They're supposed to protect people.
00:14:38.620 Same goes for Producers Guilds of America and Directors Guilds of America.
00:14:42.800 Where were they?
00:14:44.120 I spoke about that the other day as well.
00:14:46.280 How are they going to have to change their rules now
00:14:49.060 to prevent something like this from happening again?
00:14:51.740 To prevent a situation where a big actress can come in and take over an entire movie
00:14:58.320 and then sue the director afterwards for all his money.
00:15:02.140 And also for the studios here.
00:15:04.220 How are they going to deal with this?
00:15:05.800 As we know, Blake Lively walked all over Sony and took away their power as well.
00:15:11.200 So how are the contracts going to change?
00:15:13.840 Also for new directors, up-and-coming directors who want to work with bigger stars.
00:15:19.020 They're going to be terrified.
00:15:20.140 And as we now know, a lot of actresses have come out and complained
00:15:24.900 about these intimacy coordinators that are all over the place,
00:15:29.000 all the time, ruining the shoots for them.
00:15:31.800 We know Gwyneth Paltrow talks about it.
00:15:33.560 Jennifer Lawrence has talked about it.
00:15:35.740 Cameron Diaz has talked about these intimacy coordinators
00:15:38.720 and how they really feel uncomfortable with them being present.
00:15:42.700 Also something that obviously is related to this lawsuit.
00:15:46.840 Yeah, I think this has told us a lot about Hollywood itself.
00:15:49.520 How dirty it is.
00:15:50.540 And also how publicists works.
00:15:52.740 I did not know how dirty it was behind the scenes.
00:15:55.780 I'm as shocked as everybody else learning about how things went down behind the scenes.
00:16:00.420 Now let's hope that 2026 is going to give us some real answers
00:16:04.760 now that more and more evidence will get unsealed.
00:16:08.420 I can't wait for the media to finally pick up the story about Van Zandt.
00:16:12.960 No one has really mentioned it except Daily Mail and Page Six.
00:16:17.540 And there was actually an article in Deadline about Van Zandt,
00:16:20.380 but they managed to put a negative light of Justin Baldoni anyways,
00:16:24.300 with the headline reading,
00:16:25.860 Justin Baldoni damns Blake Lively for abuse and sham lawsuits,
00:16:29.740 seeking text smear campaign evidence.
00:16:32.220 Nothing to hide.
00:16:33.520 Actress lawyers declare.
00:16:35.800 Yeah, so they were covering it,
00:16:36.920 but they weren't really throwing any shade at Blake Lively.
00:16:39.600 They reached out to her lawyers.
00:16:41.240 And as you know,
00:16:41.880 her lawyers defended using that sham company
00:16:45.080 to file that sham lawsuit
00:16:47.040 to get to the text messages on Jennifer Abel's phone
00:16:51.060 and then give it to the New York Times.
00:16:53.220 They say this is completely normal.
00:16:56.120 Everyone does it.
00:16:57.700 Yeah, let's hope that 2026 becomes the year of truth.
00:17:02.280 I am so excited for more of the truth to come out.
00:17:06.320 And I'm so excited to get into this new year with you guys.
00:17:10.400 You are amazing.
00:17:12.000 You made my 2025 so beautiful.
00:17:15.760 So thank you.
00:17:16.560 Thank you for doing that.
00:17:18.060 And even though I'm here talking about these awful things
00:17:21.120 that people do to each other,
00:17:22.600 I think that there's still so much we can learn from this.
00:17:24.980 And to also remember to be respectful of each other.
00:17:27.980 And then sometimes when you get in a situation
00:17:30.480 where you have to pick between right and wrong,
00:17:33.320 always trust your gut feeling.
00:17:35.940 You know what the right thing to do is.
00:17:38.340 And as we've learned from this case,
00:17:39.880 a lot of people probably didn't follow their gut feeling
00:17:43.140 and they thought,
00:17:44.300 hey, what can I gain from this?
00:17:47.300 And I'm a big believer in karma.
00:17:49.640 And I think everyone at the end will get what they deserve.
00:17:53.160 Anyways, that's it for me for 2025.
00:17:55.600 I wish you all a happy new year.
00:17:58.420 And if you haven't subscribed yet,
00:18:00.140 please do that and hit the notification bell
00:18:02.460 so you never miss an episode of Flossom Talk.
00:18:04.300 And I'll see you next year.
00:18:06.100 Bye.
00:18:06.460 Yeah, we've lost some talk.