Blake Lively is suing Justin Baldoni for a smear campaign and retaliation. In this episode, we take a look at the backlash she received in the public eye after she filed the lawsuit, and see how she handled the backlash.
00:02:55.060Also, the night before, Ryan and Blake snapped a selfie with Chevy Chase.
00:03:00.340One of the people, actually, that Ryan Reynolds has been compared to this year because Chevy Chase is one of the people with the worst reputation in this town.
00:03:09.660And it seemed like he was the only person who was willing to take a selfie with Blake and Ryan.
00:03:14.980And according to sources, most people at that event, at the SNL 50, avoided being around Blake and Ryan.
00:03:23.220Then let's jump to March 7th, about a month later, where Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick were premiering their movie Another Simple Favor at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.
00:03:37.780Everyone had really high expectations for what she was going to do this time.
00:03:42.920And I don't think people were disappointed.
00:03:45.260It started with Anna Kendrick being asked what it was like to work with Blake Lively again.
00:04:04.640And there was so much sympathy pouring out to Anna Kendrick because people felt so sorry for her because she had to stand next to Blake Lively in all these photo calls and do interviews with her.
00:04:17.020And there were rumors that the two of them were feuding already after the first Simple Favor.
00:04:25.660And then my favorite moment, which was when Paul Feig, the director's wife, posed as a fan, pretending that she wanted to have a selfie taken with Blake Lively.
00:04:38.620And it was so obvious because Paul Feig's wife was standing behind the barricade of the red carpet.
00:04:45.600She should, of course, have been on the red carpet with her husband, but she was standing there and smiling and looking like a fan.
00:04:52.360And they probably thought that we wouldn't notice, but we did.
00:04:57.000Even Daily Mail picked it up and did a story about it.
00:04:59.780How embarrassing it was that she doesn't have any fans anymore, so she has to get the director's wife to dress up as one.
00:05:08.280When the movie was premiering in New York City, Blake Lively brought her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and some other friends.
00:05:15.160Hugh Jackman was there and also Emily Blunt, disappointed.
00:05:19.940And there were so many little viral moments from their appearance together on the red carpet.
00:05:24.460But one of the things people noticed was that Blake Lively's dress had a yellow stain all over it.
00:05:30.880So there was a lot of locomotion around that.
00:05:33.460And also the fact that Ryan kept stepping on the train of her dress.
00:05:38.140And she kept waving in front of his face, asking him to, like, leave or do something.
00:06:30.560So that whole thing exploded and it was everywhere.
00:06:33.880And not only did people talk about this in the comment section, they actually reported the restaurant or the donut shop for not following health guidances.
00:06:45.720Daily Mail did the story here saying the major update in Blake Lively's donut shop stunt saga.
00:07:44.920Then on April 16th, this was a moment we can never forget.
00:07:49.940Time Magazine honored her on their Time 100 Most Influential list of people who influenced us in 2025.
00:07:59.520Everyone was shocked and everyone was like, how could this happen?
00:08:03.980And then we saw the letter from the person who actually wanted Blake to get nominated for this.
00:08:10.440And she said, this is Cheryl Ifill, and she praised Blake Lively for being a philanthropist and student of our country's most intraceable problems.
00:08:23.180And then she said that her and her husband contributed to NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 2019.
00:08:33.660Six years ago, they gave money to a fund.
00:08:36.460So that means that she should be the most influential person today.
00:08:41.820This is the biggest joke of the year, I think, definitely.
00:08:45.580And then the CEO of Time's 100 list was interviewed on the red carpet.
00:11:21.740She was interviewed, of course, in relation to her movie, Another Simple Favor.
00:11:27.020Of course, everyone had big expectations for this interview that she was going to answer some questions about this ridiculous lawsuit.
00:11:34.860And Seth Meyers asked her, and he said, you know, I understand you can't talk about this because you're in the middle of this legal drama, so you're not allowed to say much from your attorneys.
00:11:46.600But she said, you know, I can say a few things, and I'm going to say this.
00:11:51.000It's that this year has been full of the highest highs and the lowest lows of my life.
00:11:56.220And I see so many women around afraid to speak, especially right now, afraid to share their experiences.
00:12:04.860But I also acknowledge that many people don't have the opportunity to speak.
00:12:08.680So I do feel fortunate that I've been able to.
00:12:10.640And it's the women who have had the ability to use their voice that's kept me strong and, you know, helped me in my belief and my fight for the world to be safer for women and girls.
00:12:44.620And now that we know all the things that she's accused just enough, which is basically saying that her onesie was sexy, saying that a beanie was sexy and that a kiss lingered too long.
00:12:55.740But I think she actually took that back.
00:12:58.260She also took back the culture of hugging on set.
00:13:01.700Those are the only things she's mentioning in the lawsuit.
00:13:04.080And, of course, that he came into her trailer when she was breastfeeding.
00:13:07.620They forgot to mention that she sent him a text first saying, please just come to my trailer.
00:13:13.620And her message to all the girls were, of course, also that you can just take over the entire project from this person who says that your beanie is sexy.
00:13:21.580And then you can sue them for $161 million afterwards.
00:13:25.360So, of course, Seth Meyers also got a lot of backlash for inviting her onto his show and for giving her a voice.
00:13:34.300So he chickened out and he also made a joke about this a few days later.
00:13:39.460Murray is our show's head electrician and he works in front of a big old circuit board.
00:13:47.080He goes, I got my coffee on the circuit board and then a little rat ran across and I went to move my coffee and I knocked it over.
00:13:55.900When I knocked it over, I hit the switch.
00:13:57.880And I said, well, why did it even turn off?
00:13:59.760And he said, the comment section on the Blake Lively interview.
00:14:02.740Yeah, so he tried to just make a joke about it and hoping that people would forget.
00:14:11.020And I just checked and the comment section is still closed off on that interview.
00:14:14.480And Blake Lively hasn't been invited to any other talk shows ever since.
00:14:18.340Also, a little side note, something that happened in May was that Travis Kelsey, Taylor Swift's fiancee, unfollowed Ryan Reynolds on Instagram.
00:14:28.040And it was a big deal and everyone was writing about it and no comments from anyone.
00:14:32.120And then, of course, later in May, I'm not going to talk about the legal stuff here because I wanted to only make this about Blake Lively's own appearances, own actions and own words that gave her backlash in 2025.
00:14:45.760But we have to kind of mention this story that dropped about her trying to pressure Taylor Swift into supporting her publicly and what really happened there.
00:14:55.120Because Taylor Swift was obviously dragged into this lawsuit by Blake Lively herself and Taylor Swift's dad didn't really like that.
00:15:02.600So the story broke everywhere that it was Taylor Swift's dad who had leaked this to Brian Friedman and that they made a deal that if this could become public knowledge, Brian Friedman would not subpoena Taylor Swift.
00:15:18.720And so they withdrew the subpoena on Taylor Swift's.
00:15:22.740We are still waiting to see Taylor Swift's text messages because, as you know, the judge has ruled that those text messages are not protected, even though Blake Lively really wanted them to be.
00:15:34.360Judge Lyman said, no, those text messages are not off limits and they will probably tell us a lot.
00:15:40.280Then Blake Lively, of course, did a lot of stories on her Instagram and a lot of reels.
00:15:45.760I'm not going to mention all of those because every time she posts something, people have opinions about them.
00:15:50.760And every time people use it against her, like they recently did when she was just wearing this little towel doing her hair.
00:15:57.700And then she complained about people walking into her trailer when she wasn't properly dressed.
00:16:03.120Everything that she does gets scrutinized, but she keeps doing it.
00:17:58.940I understand that the nature of the text messages which she exchanged with Vivalier,
00:18:03.500who at the time was her best friend, are crucial in the case.
00:18:07.760Of course, because you do share things with your BFF.
00:18:12.440And I think if she didn't share anything with her BFF about being so traumatized on this set, that also says a lot.
00:18:20.360So no matter what those text messages says, it's a lose-lose for Blake Vivalier.
00:18:25.680And who can forget the note from the judge in regards to those Taylor Swift text messages.
00:18:30.400He said, given that Lively has represented that Swift had knowledge of complaints or discussions about the working environment on the film,
00:18:41.960among other issues, the requests for messages with Swift regarding the film and this action
00:18:48.360are reasonably tailored to discover information that would prove or disprove Lively's harassment and retaliation claims.
00:18:58.700Yeah, I just wanted to add at the end here, I read this really funny Reddit post the other day.
00:19:03.960I couldn't find it now, but I remember what it said.