Flaawsome Talk with Kjersti Flaa - Lawyers Weigh In： SHE FELL For JUSTIN !？!

00:00:00.000 But I thought it was very interesting that both these lawyers were like, oh, this is what happens.

00:00:10.160 Hi and welcome to Blossom Talk.

00:00:11.800 I'm Cereshty Floor, journalist, Hollywood truth teller and your voice of reason in a town built on delusion.

00:00:18.220 Is Blake Lively's lawsuit being used as a horror story for entrepreneurs and brands?

00:00:24.680 It surely looks like it.

00:00:26.640 Also, we have to look at these text messages that were just released between Blake Lively and Jenny Slate.

00:00:33.340 When they're talking behind Colin Hoover's back, these were dropped just before the settlement.

00:00:40.200 How did we miss this?

00:00:41.640 Also, let's look at this headline from UK Business Times.

00:00:45.740 Truly sickening.

00:00:47.580 Why the end of Justin Baldoni's lawsuit is only the beginning for Blake Lively.

00:00:54.840 And I found this amazing thing on Reddit today, pointing out all the 50 things that Blake

00:01:01.400 Lively lost and still they're claiming this astonishing victory.

00:01:06.260 I can't wait to share them all with you.

00:01:08.400 And this morning I was listening to the podcast of Mark Garagos and Matt Murphy, those two

00:01:14.060 seasoned Hollywood attorneys who have represented so many celebrity clients.

00:01:19.460 And today they had Heather McDonnell on, a TV personality here in the US.

00:01:23.400 and she presented to them her theory that Blake Lively had fallen for Justin Baldoni

00:01:29.680 and their reaction was priceless.

00:01:32.920 Okay, so let's get into it.

00:01:34.280 I just listened to this podcast, so I'm going to start with that

00:01:36.640 because I thought it was quite interesting how these attorneys reacted to Heather McDonald's theory.

00:01:43.640 It's not really her theory.

00:01:45.260 I think Candace Owens was actually the first person to talk about this.

00:01:48.340 how she thought that Ryan Reynolds was jealous and how Blake Lively had fallen for it was really

00:01:55.760 smitten by Justin Baldoni. So Heather presented this idea to these two seasoned lawyers and they

00:02:02.480 were ecstatic about it thinking oh my god this makes so much sense. Have you seen some of those

00:02:09.220 dailies Heather um where it shows them like in a dance scene okay and she may be the world's

00:02:14.420 greatest actress and i as you know i support victims but she looks so into it and i you're

00:02:21.280 the first person i've heard articulate that theory um of all the commentary good theory have you been

00:02:27.700 talking about this on your show i was just gonna say i haven't heard this yet this is the first

00:02:32.620 one that really resonates with me that i that i that just says wow this really makes sense in

00:02:39.560 terms of everything that unfolded. Yes it's kind of weird that they hadn't heard that theory before

00:02:44.960 but I also love how they reacted to this saying that this really makes sense. Heather pointed out

00:02:50.900 that voice memo. Remember that voice memo that was leaked I think about six months ago that

00:02:56.300 Justin Baldoni sent to Blake Lively. I think it was 2 a.m in the morning and he had this scruffy

00:03:01.920 sexy voice hey blake it is uh two in the morning um hopefully this does not wake you up wow there's

00:03:10.080 so much i want to say to you and i hope that we can um uh facetime or or see each other in person

00:03:17.440 um soon and get to talk more but i'm just gonna send you a few thoughts and hopefully it's not

00:03:22.500 gonna be more than a few minutes and a lot of people pointed out how sexy he sounded in that

00:03:27.780 voice memo and Heather said that you know maybe maybe Ryan found that voice memo and that's when

00:03:33.900 he flipped and to me this still makes so much sense because there is no explanation for Ryan

00:03:40.420 Reynolds rage if it wasn't because he was jealous or if he actually thought that Justin Baldoni

00:03:46.820 hurt his wife and there is no reason to believe that he actually thought that he was so furious

00:03:53.180 at Justin that he created a character just to mock him so yes I think there's still something to it

00:03:59.720 I don't know if we're ever going to get to the bottom of this but I thought it was very interesting

00:04:03.100 that both these lawyers were like oh this is what happened they also spoke about the dancing scene

00:04:10.220 here and how Blake Lively at first you know she didn't think there was on any audio on the dancing

00:04:16.340 scene so in her first complaint Blake said this she said that on another occasion Mr. Baldoni and

00:04:22.360 Miss Lively were filming a slow dance scene for a montage in which no sound was recorded. Remember

00:04:29.140 that? She didn't think there was any audio in that clip, in that dancing scene. Mr. Baldoni

00:04:35.200 chose to let the camera roll and have them perform the scene, but did not act in character as Ryle.

00:04:40.880 Instead, he spoke to Miss Lively out of character as himself, which of course he had to do because

00:04:47.240 he was the director of the movie so Blake was expecting him to talk to her as rile while he

00:04:53.060 was directing the movie I don't know this is so ridiculous but anyways they say at one point he 0.73

00:04:58.580 leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck and he said it smells so

00:05:05.220 good and then of course as you know Justin Baldoni released that clip released the dailies where we

00:05:11.740 could hear what actually went on in that scene. So then Blake had to change her second amended

00:05:18.680 complaint and where she said, on another occasion, Mr. Boldoni and Ms. Lively were filming slow dance

00:05:26.220 scene for a montage scene, meaning that none of the sound recorded while filming the scene

00:05:31.860 was meant to be used in the film. Isn't that interesting how her lawyers were just twisting

00:05:40.280 the truth when they were caught in lying here i'm sure blake lively told them that there was no audio

00:05:45.940 no worries we can make up whatever we want to in this scene because you're never going to hear

00:05:50.840 what actually happened because they didn't record audio because i guess she thought that she had

00:05:55.960 seen all the dailies but maybe she hadn't or maybe justin just sent her the dailies without the audio

00:06:03.580 i don't know and then they're explaining here that music was intended to play over the action

00:06:08.980 nonetheless microphones were live to pick up room tone but not conversations or dialogue to be used

00:06:15.680 in the film the scene in the script specifically described dancing without dialogue and did not

00:06:21.040 include any intimate conducting or kissing they're supposed to fall in love how can they not be

00:06:26.320 intimate when this is supposed to be two people falling in love something that also the judge

00:06:31.420 pointed out while he dismissed all of this claim saying hey i couldn't see anything wrong with this

00:06:37.200 If this happened on a factory floor, he said in his ruling, it would have been a different

00:06:41.820 scenario, but it didn't.

00:06:43.220 And then they said Mr. Baldoni did not provide notice or seek consent for any intimacy in

00:06:48.220 advance, which we also know that he did because now we heard the audio and he said, I'm going

00:06:52.740 to take my hat off and then I'm going to lean in and try to kiss you.

00:06:55.860 And Blake say, OK, fine.

00:06:57.460 Yeah, all these little discrepancies is so funny to look back at now that we have the 0.97

00:07:02.040 whole picture and again it just makes Blake's attorneys look like fools okay so let's look

00:07:08.900 into this text exchange that was just released just the same day I think as the settlement so 0.85

00:07:14.060 everyone was just looking at the settlement screaming like what's happening and then in the

00:07:17.840 meantime there were some other evidence that were actually dropped on the docket and here is a

00:07:23.220 message between Blake and Jenny Slate I think this was just before or around Book Bonanza it was on

00:07:30.260 may 19th 2024 so about two years ago now so first they keep love bumping each other here this is so

00:07:38.280 funny uh it's almost like they believe their own words jenny is saying to uh blake honestly it

00:07:44.980 really works and you your performance broke my heart broke it i hope you're so proud of yourself

00:07:52.200 for your beautiful work and then she says do i legit look like the get off my train guy from

00:07:57.880 ghost because that's what I see when I remember my face on screen. She needs some validation here

00:08:04.020 obviously that she's beautiful and she's amazing and she's a talented actress and then Lively says

00:08:10.540 unsubscribe you are so breathtakingly beautiful in this movie and in real life. Forget your

00:08:18.680 performance who cares you are shot through the heart stunning. Literally in every moment you come

00:08:26.440 on screen whoever I'm watching with audibly coos and you're even more divine in real life

00:08:33.620 if people would have told me something like that I'd be like okay yes right um we need a reality

00:08:41.280 check here yeah it's so interesting to me to read about all this love bombing they do with each

00:08:45.700 other and then Blake adds another one and your performance is next level incredible then Jenny

00:08:52.080 Slate says I woke up thinking about this scene where Lily says I love you over and over again

00:08:58.280 it's so intense and you feel your fear so visually viscerally it's such a testament to you as a

00:09:04.860 performer that you could say one phrase over and over and mean so many different things and that

00:09:11.640 the audience can understand so deeply in their hearts it's just heartbreaking and it's genuinely

00:09:17.580 such a powerful performance and then she's saying thank you to all the love bombing I think that

00:09:24.540 Blake Lively just threw at her earlier saying thank you babe thank you I do truly love my new

00:09:30.340 haircut and I'm so happy about our scenes especially in the movie okay do they have all the

00:09:36.560 scenes but anyways then Jenny says Colleen seemed a bit frosty to me did I do something to upset her

00:09:43.180 and then Blake responds that's her personality talking about Colleen being frosty which is why

00:09:51.160 I was always so disconnected from her and spooked by her she was always really nervous to be there

00:09:57.780 because she felt like Justin and co would be upset even though she reached out to me to come

00:10:05.040 so I think this is about the book Bonanza thing that they were there and Colleen was a bit worried

00:10:11.960 that the Wayfair parties would be a little annoyed with her because she invited everyone but him,

00:10:17.180 but Justin. But anyways, I find it interesting that Blake is saying here that she was

00:10:22.520 disconnected and spooked by Colleen Hoover. So there you go. That was that friendship. As I said

00:10:29.620 the other day, Colleen Hoover has deleted all photos with her and Blake on her Instagram and

00:10:35.520 the same goes for Jenny Slate. And then Blake is actually responding to something else that

00:10:40.380 jenny is mentioning here about the scene saying that you mean so much to me thank you that was a

00:10:45.140 bold swing i took there because his version is an action sequence with like a stunt fight there

00:10:50.820 but this is the only one that felt right he didn't understand on the day or in the edits but it's

00:10:57.100 based on something my mom experienced and the i love you that she shared with me always stuck with

00:11:02.660 me so blake wanted to put her on spin on things as you know she took over this movie but as i also

00:11:08.580 spoke about the other day. All those edits that Blake Lively suggested that Colin Hoover loved

00:11:14.340 basically got removed from the movie at the end. So it wasn't really Blake's version or Ryan

00:11:21.460 Reynolds' version that was showed to an audience. It was Justin Baldoni's version with a few small

00:11:26.980 edits here and there. Anyways, let's look at this article on Inc.com where it says that Blake Lively

00:11:32.300 and Justin Baldoni's feud ruined a $100 million brand. It's a crucial lesson for every founder.

00:11:39.720 Markets don't care if you're right. They care if you're liked. Good point. As you know, Blake

00:11:45.900 Lively claimed a lot of losses, big losses to her brands because of this smear campaign that she

00:11:54.440 thinks that Justin Baldoni launched against her, which we now know is not true. And it says here

00:11:59.800 the Blake Lively Justin Baldoni legal fight is primarily a Hollywood he said she said story

00:12:04.440 but as a founder it should be read as a cautionary tale about what happened to your company if you

00:12:10.680 lose public favor I don't agree at all that it's a he said she said story because this involves so

00:12:17.340 many more people than him and her and it's basically to me she said he had the evidence

00:12:24.960 to prove something different so it's not a he said story because he had all the evidence so we

00:12:31.040 know actually where the truth is but anyways it says here before the feud with Baldoni Blake

00:12:35.600 Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds were well-liked A-listers thought of as down-to-earth

00:12:40.880 nice I don't know if they were down-to-earth nice but I think a lot of people thought that

00:12:46.340 Ryan Reynolds at least was nice they were also hot brand ambassadors Ryan built and sold aviation

00:12:51.760 Jin to Daigio for $610 million in 2020 and Mint Mobile to T-Mobile for $1.35 billion in 2023.

00:13:02.520 Blake Brown Beauty was slated to be Target's biggest hair product launch ever in 2024. But

00:13:09.080 when accusations started flying, the internet went to work. Videos and text messages were discussed

00:13:14.080 and dissected on social media. And the next thing you know, Blake and Ryan were disowned by fans who

00:13:20.260 had adored them just days before. And they're talking about the fallout here, which was brutal.

00:13:25.480 And it says that Blake Brown plunged over 87 percent and the brand became valued at 15 million

00:13:33.380 dollars instead of 100 million dollars, which they forecasted. And Aviation Gin and Mint Mobile

00:13:40.300 saw weakened sales and pulled campaigns. Lively's legal team claimed reputational damages of 300

00:13:47.200 million dollars so Ryan Reynolds saw weakened sales as well and his brands pulled campaigns

00:13:53.980 who knew I feel like I see Ryan Reynolds on those mint mobile commercials everywhere still but

00:13:58.960 anyways none of the products the promotions or the packaging had changed the only thing that

00:14:04.080 changed was that what she what was said on social platforms reputation used to be something you

00:14:11.060 could manage with a rolodex of journalists and a stash of tasteful gifts now it's a load-bearing

00:14:16.700 wall in a building that a random 22 year old named Brayden can take a sledgehammer to between

00:14:23.060 his second and third Red Bull. Here's what to do. And then they have this list of what you can do

00:14:28.360 to make sure that you don't end up like Blake Brown here. It says here the bottom line is don't

00:14:34.640 think of building a brand as doing good PR or marketing. Imagine that 87% of your sales might

00:14:39.840 evaporate if someone posts a body language breakdown video. Yeah someone actually did that

00:14:46.100 also with my video my little bump video they did a body language breakdown of it but anyways and

00:14:52.020 it says here that then treat reputational resilience and responsiveness as if running

00:14:57.400 a nuclear reactor in a street mall where the cooling system is whether people currently find

00:15:02.760 you likable so yeah this is a cautionary tale for everyone also who is working with celebrities

00:15:09.460 if there is a big scandal surrounding a celebrity that can be the death of your brand and yes here

00:15:16.960 is another proof thank you Varshti for sending me this saying I'm at a local Target in Maryland

00:15:22.300 and notice Blake's products on clearance what's funny about it is that they're covering her name

00:15:27.780 with the clearance labels so as you can see Blake Brown is for sale for $4.24 they really just want

00:15:38.420 to get rid of these products and the fact that they're actually covering her name with the label

00:15:44.660 as well says a lot. Okay so let's look at this other article in International Business Times UK

00:15:50.860 saying that truly sickening why the end of the Justin Baldoni lawsuit is only the beginning

00:15:56.480 for Blake Lively. A courtroom truce has done little to silence the storm now threatening to

00:16:02.320 define Blake Lively's comeback. So they're basically talking about Justin Baldoni and the

00:16:10.200 NDA that he refused to sign. The fragile piece now looks anything but quiet, a source told Star

00:16:18.840 Magazine that Baldoni is preparing to tell his side of the story, describing it as inevitable.

00:16:24.700 Justin is free to speak on this and tell his side of the story. As I spoke about yesterday in my

00:16:29.620 video. Blake was the one who really pushed for the NDA and I'm so happy they never get into that.

00:16:37.180 I mean Baldoni's side here had all the power in this settlement agreement of course because they

00:16:42.620 knew that they had all the evidence to prove her wrong and she had so much more to lose because if

00:16:50.320 she lost at trial that would be of course even more devastating for her. So they have a sourcer

00:16:56.200 saying that this has already cost her so much money and created so much stress the idea of

00:17:00.940 letting him now control the narrative is really is truly sickening to her of course as you know

00:17:08.520 she had the opportunity to already tell her side of the story which she did in the new york times

00:17:13.280 and now it's his turn and no matter what she's going to come out with now which is her side of

00:17:20.160 this story it's not interesting to us because we already know what i think is really interesting

00:17:25.800 now that most people want to hear about is how Justin Baldoni has managed to take the high road

00:17:32.220 this entire time and how it has affected his family and what really happened on that set

00:17:38.520 because we really haven't heard that in his own words yet we only seen it in legal papers but I

00:17:44.600 really wanted but I really look forward to hearing him talking about it and how it was for him

00:17:50.720 personally i also want to hear what it was like for him personally when ryan reynolds when ryan

00:17:56.100 reynolds was yelling at him at their loft in tribeca and all these details i am sure will

00:18:02.140 come out very soon okay lastly i have to mention this because i saw this on reddit today and i

00:18:07.260 think it's amazing because it's so true it says that blake lively's astounding victory as you

00:18:12.860 know her attorneys have been on this victory tour lately and this person on reddit it is on it ends

00:18:19.740 with us lawsuit reddit thread and they're saying here that she has 50 undeniable lawsuit loses

00:18:26.320 and here they're counting up all the things that she lost one being zero dollars recovered from

00:18:33.680 defendants in settlement two tens of millions spent in legal fees three 10 out of 13 claims

00:18:40.220 dismissed including all sh allegations four justin jamie all individual defendants dismissed from the

00:18:47.920 lawsuit before settlement. 5. Settlement two weeks before trial after publicly demanding her

00:18:54.120 day in court. 6. No appeal clause locks in Judge Lyman's forthcoming 47.1 ruling regardless of

00:19:02.280 outcome. 7. Covered Van Zandt lawsuit revealed publicly exposing how she obtained text messages

00:19:09.540 used in the CRD complaint and New York Times article. 8. Gag order request denied. 9.

00:19:17.460 Content creator subpoenas withdrawn.

00:19:20.780 10. Claims against Jed Wallace dismissed twice,

00:19:23.900 formally removing him from the New York case.

00:19:27.660 And then they mentioned the reputational damage here.

00:19:31.340 Millions spent on crisis PR,

00:19:33.700 significant worse public standing than before she filed,

00:19:37.480 virtually no support from celebrities and industry insiders,

00:19:41.820 advocate for women framing replaced by cautionary Hollywood tale label

00:19:47.180 that I just mentioned.

00:19:49.000 Astounding victory has been mocked publicly. 1.00

00:19:52.240 As you know, her attorneys came out and claimed victory

00:19:54.680 and everyone was like, what are you talking about?

00:19:57.900 Then overwhelmingly negative comments on all social medias,

00:20:01.860 news articles and posts.

00:20:03.680 And then adversarial media landscape with mostly negative headlines.

00:20:08.340 And it goes on.

00:20:09.280 Comment section locked on both her and Ryan Reynolds' Instagram accounts.

00:20:12.780 And then branding experts publicly calling her tone deaf.

00:20:16.480 former Hollywood director on the record saying Blake is persona non grata and then Disney studio 0.96

00:20:23.900 executives who worked with her saying this lawsuit has ruined her in Hollywood and it goes on to her 0.76

00:20:30.000 career damages Blake's own legal filings claim she lost between 39 and 143 million dollars

00:20:36.820 Blake Lively's lawyers projected 132 million in lost earnings over the next five years

00:20:43.800 and hasn't acted since another simple favor no filming currently shooting no all announced

00:20:51.240 movies project stalled and her producer credentials questioned after pga letter unsealed

00:20:58.400 cancelled hosting the first episode of snl 50th season per crd complaint and lawsuit yeah she

00:21:05.420 actually claimed that she was asked to host the snl 50 and she i don't know what happened there

00:21:12.120 but she didn't do it, and she's blaming that, of course, on Justin Baldoni.

00:21:15.980 And then there's the brand damages, which are the Betty Buss quietly shut down in 2025.

00:21:21.220 Blake Brown sales dropped 87%.

00:21:23.760 Blake Brown severely underperformed.

00:21:26.800 Multiple corporate events for Blake Brown canceled.

00:21:31.640 Betty Boo's sales declined sharply.

00:21:34.460 Return partners like Kroger were spooked by the controversy

00:21:37.840 and blamed Blake per internal Betty Buss documents.

00:21:41.120 Yes, we've gone through that. All these brands were spooked by her, saying we can't work with her because she's bad for our brand. 0.99

00:21:47.880 Then branding experts citing morality clauses as a risk for any remaining partnership.

00:21:53.580 And then they go through all these text messages that were exposed, meaning that she, of course, lost friends over it.

00:21:59.700 And they're mentioning her own texts and emails and to public records, including Taylor Swift, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Ryan Reynolds, communication with WME, Sony and others exposed. 0.99

00:22:09.920 Sony executives privately calling her an effing terrorist, an epic level stupid. 0.98

00:22:17.080 Internal Sony assessments that she's orchestrated all this drama in a total unsavvy and amateur way that backfired. 1.00

00:22:24.660 Cast and executive depositions in public record.

00:22:28.220 Scott Swift, Taylor's father, reportedly turned over evidence of Lively's team alleged extortion attempt.

00:22:34.300 I really wish we could have seen what really happened there or learned what really happened.

00:22:38.580 And, you know, when Brian Friedman filed an affidavit saying that he had spoken to someone

00:22:43.080 that turned out to be Taylor Swift's father, and we learned that Blake Lively had tried

00:22:47.580 to blackmail Taylor Swift into supporting her in public.

00:22:51.120 And if she didn't, she would release all their private text messages.

00:22:55.340 We've seen some of those private text messages now, but it would be fun to see more, I have

00:22:59.400 to admit.

00:22:59.880 And then they go through her relationship and social capital damage, mentioning Taylor

00:23:04.560 Swift's friendship, that it's been damaged.

00:23:06.620 Gigi Hadid quietly distanced herself.

00:23:09.620 Blake absent from Gigi's 30th birthday.

00:23:13.000 Cara Delevingne reportedly no longer in contact.

00:23:16.160 Sophie Turner reportedly no longer in contact.

00:23:19.640 Travis Kelsey reportedly distanced and unfollowed Ryan.

00:23:23.340 Industry insiders on record advising her to go quiet and spend time with family.

00:23:28.960 One producer publicly suggested she do a villain role and lean into the baggage.

00:23:34.400 I remember reading that I was like who is this producer anyways I don't know if that is a good

00:23:39.380 idea and then Hollywood reporter openly asking who wants to work with her and then number 50 here

00:23:46.240 reports that Hollywood agents are loath to work with litigious actors who cause them to go over

00:23:54.140 budget and then this person is asking how is any of this a win very good question we have to ask

00:24:03.900 Blake Lively's attorneys again I think how this is a big win for Blake anyways that's it from you

00:24:11.240 guys I hope you enjoyed this episode thank you so much for watching and if you haven't yet please

00:24:16.220 subscribe hit the notification bell so you never miss an episode of Flossom Talk and I'll see you soon

Flaawsome Talk with Kjersti Flaa - May 15, 2026

Lawyers Weigh In： SHE FELL For JUSTIN !？!

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