SHOCKING FACE-OFF in COURT !!!
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Summary
Did Ryan Reynolds just leave his wife in court today? Did Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively come to a settlement? Is this a coincidence or is this part of a smear campaign? Also, Radar Online is again reporting on Hugh Jackman leaving Ryan Reynolds behind, and not wanting anything to do with him anymore.
Transcript
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Did Ryan Reynolds just leave his wife all by herself in court today?
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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 today is a big day. Blake Lively
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and Justin Baldoni both arrived in court in New York and they're supposed to come to some sort
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of agreement, to some sort of settlement. I doubt that's going to happen, but let's look at how
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they arrived today. Justin Baldoni hand in hand with his beautiful supportive wife Emily and Blake
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Lively arrived by herself. Where is Ryan Reynolds? And is she wearing his suit? Also, let's look at
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potentially what's going on inside the courtroom today. And we have to talk about this new lawsuit
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that was just filed. Is this a coincidence or not? The Hollywood Reporter blew this up on their front
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page today. It sounds like Melissa Nathan and Brian Friedman is involved in another smear campaign.
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This is very suspicious. Also, Radar Online is now again reporting on Hugh Jackman leaving Ryan
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Reynolds, his BFF behind, ghosting him and not wanting anything to do with him anymore.
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Anyways, let's look into it. So all the headlines so far about this settlement meeting has been about
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their outfits. That Blake Lively was wearing this olive green suit and Justin Baldoni arrived in a
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coat, the same kind of color. I don't even think that's a thing. First of all, he's wearing a nude
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scarf. She's wearing this male shirt underneath. I think that's also Ryan Reynolds. As I just mentioned,
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it looks like she borrowed his suit for some reason and then she put his shirt underneath. And I'm convinced
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that this outfit that Blake Lively put on is not a coincidence. Nothing she does in terms of this
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case is a coincidence. I do think it's really weird and shows a weakness that Ryan Reynolds was nowhere
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to be seen this morning. He has come out publicly saying how important it is to support his wife,
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that he wasn't angry enough in all those text messages that he sent to Sony and WME pushing people
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to support Blake. And now when it really matters, he's not there. To quote himself saying any husband
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would do this for his wife, I think any husband would be there today for their wife. Instead,
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Ryan Reynolds is having fun watching his soccer team or his football team having success in Wrexham.
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That's all he's been posting about lately. He is just like ignoring this whole thing, pretending
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it's nothing to do with him. And that also looks bad for Blake's optics because she has portrayed
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herself as this powerless victim. And now she's showing up in court in this powerful men's suit.
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Like, hey, I'm here to negotiate. I mean business. Yeah. So what happened to this powerless woman
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that we got to know through her lawsuit? When I saw her outfit, it also reminded me of Amber Heard,
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how she also appeared in court wearing men's suits a lot of the time when she was in court with Johnny
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Depp. And I think Blake Lively has been using her playbook a lot throughout this case. And here's
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another example. There is no glamour here and all the jewelry is gone except from this little pin
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that some people pointed out. It's a five-leaf clover pin. So yes, obviously Blake Lively did not
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wear her florals today. Instead, she wore the same suit. It almost looks like the same suit
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that Ryan was wearing at the premiere of It Ends With Us. So yeah, my other observation of watching
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the video of them arriving in court is that both of them look really exhausted, both Blake and Justin.
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I have to say it didn't look like they had slept in weeks. And of course, this is going to be a really
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rough day for them. And that's again why I'm so baffled that Ryan Reynolds chose not to show up for
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his wife. Is he so afraid of his own image, his own public image, that he's throwing his wife under
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the bus? Hey, you're in this by yourself now. I'm not going to be there for you. That makes me think
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that he's not going to show up in court for her if this goes to trial, which I still think it will
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because there's no way that they will come to an agreement today that will benefit both of them.
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And now that all the evidence is public, they kind of have nothing to lose to go to trial.
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One thing that I think could happen if Blake Lively were to win this case, which I doubt,
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I highly doubt that. But if she does, it's going to get so much worse for her. Because if she does,
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Hollywood is going to freak out because this opens the door for all other actresses to go in and take
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over a movie and then sue the director afterwards. And also, you can be sure that no one will ever hire
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her again. On top of that, Justin Baldoni has so many supporters out there that are going to be
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there for him. And I can't even imagine what it's going to be like for Blake when she arrives at trial
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every single day, by the way, when all these supporters, I am thinking, are going to be outside
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just like they were for Johnny Depp. And I think people even feel stronger for this case than they
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did for Johnny. And you can see that when you look at the comment section. I was just scrolling
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through the comment section here of this photo that Daily Mail put out on Blake Lively on
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Instagram. It's flooded with support for Justin Baldoni. It's team Justin, team Justin, Justin will
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win, blah, blah, blah. It's all support for him. Okay, so let's look closer at what could actually
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happen today. So Judge Lyman, who's been the judge in this case from the beginning, he's not going to be
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present today during this settlement meeting. There's going to be a magistrate, I can't say that word,
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judge. Her name is Sarah Elcave. And she is going to tell both parties here like, hey, here are all
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your weaknesses. Do you have an offer for the other part? Can you offer them some money? Can you offer
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them some kind of statement publicly? And then she's going to, and then they're going to go back and
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forth, back and forth. Maybe they're in the same room. Sometimes they are, but it's most likely they're
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probably going to be separated. And this process could take three hours, four hours, one day, two days,
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three days. Yeah. And bottom line is we are never going to find out what they're talking about.
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All of this is super confidential. So we will never find out. So People Magazine interviewed an
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attorney here who's talking about what potentially could happen here. And he said to them that in
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court order settlement conferences like this, the magistrate could issue a wide range of sanctions
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if she believes that one of the parties is not participating in good faith. So if people don't
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show up, if Blake shows up or Justin shows up, not showing good faith that they would come to some
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kind of resolution, then the judge could potentially sanction them for doing that. I saw a short
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interview or comment from Brian Friedman today where he said this. And do you think we'll reach
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a settlement today? I'm always hopeful. Is that the goal? I think the goal is to win. Would a settlement
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be a win in your eyes? Yeah. So yeah, I don't think they're ready to give in to anything
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that Blake Lively is suggesting in this meeting today. They also know that Blake Lively has a
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weak case. And they also know that after this meeting, I think in a couple of weeks, within a
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few weeks, the judge is going to rule on the summary judgment, meaning that he could throw out
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a lot of Blake Lively's case. And I see you and me as part of a jury in a sense, because there are
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people like you and me who are going to be on that jury. And we are going to look at this from
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our perspective. And I guess that's also what this judge is going to tell Blake Lively today.
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Everyone's been saying all the time here that 90% of cases don't go to trial and this is never going
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to trial. But the attorney that People Magazine has interviewed thinks that they're going to come to
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some kind of agreement. And then he's taking a wild guess on what's going to happen with that
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settlement. And he says, I think it's going to have to involve the payment of some amount of
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money to Lively, perhaps, perhaps by way of very first insurance company. I think it's unlikely that
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the parties are going to do a walkaway deal where neither side pays money. I think there would be
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a cash component coupled with some kind of press release and a limitation on what the parties can
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say about each other in the future. I think he's wrong, actually. I don't know. I'm not a lawyer.
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But the point he's missing here is that most cases like this, civil cases about workplace harassment
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like this, the parties aren't famous. This whole case is about reputation. And that's why we're here.
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And if they would settle at this point, if it ever became public that Justin Baldoni had paid Blake
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Lively some sort of amount to get out of this, it would completely ruin his reputation. People would
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say, oh, he's guilty. And all the fans and supporters that he has would say, we're so disappointed in you.
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Why did you do that? So I think for Justin, he has to stand his ground here and say, I am not settling.
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I want to go to trial. I want to prove my point here. Because the way I see it, he doesn't really have
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a choice. The big risk, though, when they go to trial is that if one party wins, it's not necessarily
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over. You can always appeal. So that means that if one party loses and are unhappy with that,
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they could file an appeal and this could go on and on and on. So I'm sure that the magistrate
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is going to point that out to them several times today and say, hey, do you really want that?
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Do you really want the stress in your life? Don't you want this to be over with? No one can ever talk
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about this again. But yeah, I don't think it's going to happen. And I think if Blake Lively settles
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as well, that means that she wasn't that serious about her claims, that she's willing to just walk
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away from this. She's been proclaiming that she's doing this for all women, for all victims out there,
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that she's the voice. And if she just settles like this and get some cash, that doesn't look very
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good for her either. Okay. As I said in the beginning, there is another story here today,
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Radar Online exclusive. It's not really that exclusive though, because I already spoke about
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this, but it's interesting that they're publishing this today, that the bromance between Hugh Jackman
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and Ryan Reynolds is over, or Hugh Jackman is ghosting Ryan Reynolds and taking a step back from
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his friend. They're repeating some of the quotes from Rob Schroeder here. He did this, I think it was
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last week, and I also spoke about it, where he said that the sources are saying that Hugh doesn't want
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to be caught in the middle of this mess. And he's loyal, but he has limits when it comes to messy
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legal battles. Another source confirmed there's a sense Hugh stepping back for his own sanity.
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I mean, we've seen what happens to all these people who've been dragged into this lawsuit by
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Blake Lively. And I think it was a big sign that Ryan Reynolds didn't show up at any of Hugh Jackman's
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careers. He was really pushing this movie, Sing Song Blue, Song Song Blue. Yeah, anyways,
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I did like the movie, actually. He was really pushing that movie. He went to so many premieres,
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so many parties pushing that movie. And Ryan Reynolds was never there for his friend,
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and he never even posted about the movie. So I think, as Radar Online is saying here,
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that that bromance is over. It seems like the same thing has happened to Hugh Jackman,
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that happened to Taylor Swift and Blake Lively. The source here is saying that Reynolds reportedly
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keeps reaching out. He's texting, calling, even trying to lock in plans. But Hugh hasn't been
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returning his calls. It was subtle at first, a missed text here, a cooler response there,
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but people close to them can feel the tension. So yes, the world of Ryan Reynolds is crumbling
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right now. Let's look at this article in The Hollywood Reporter. I find this really suspicious.
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Let me know what you think. One of the reasons I find this suspicious is that they publish this
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story as their main story today, the day of the settlement meeting. Now that we've seen inside
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this whole PR machine, I feel like nothing is a coincidence anymore. I don't want to be
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conspiratorial here, but I do feel that there's a reason for this story popping up today. Okay,
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so mainly this is about an actress called Alexa Nicholas, and she just sued 10 Jane and Joes,
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sound familiar? And included Melissa Nathan and Brian Friedman accusing them of being behind a smear
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website against her. The reason why she's targeting Brian Friedman is because he used to represent her
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ex-husband. She accused him of abuse, something that she dropped later on, but Brian Friedman was
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representing him. And now that she's seen other lawsuits involving a smear campaign, alleged smear
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campaigns, smear websites, she decided to file this lawsuit as well. And as I said, Hollywood Reporter
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has a long, long story today saying inside the secret smear machine that's targeting Hollywood,
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a shadowy network of anonymous slander sites is attacking players in high profile entertainment
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scandals from Blake Lively versus Boldoni to a Rebel Wilson film fiasco to an ugly K-pop feud.
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Critics allege they're all the handiwork of a small circle of operatives. So what Alexa is doing here
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is that she's basing this lawsuit on assumptions. She's basing it on court filings in the Stephanie Jones
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case. Stephanie Jones is the PR company that Justin Baldoni hired. I know it's getting complicated
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here. And she sued her ex-employee Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan, the crisis expert that
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Justin Baldoni also hired, saying that they created a smear website to smear her. There is no evidence
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of that. And on top of that, Melissa Nathan again is involved in a lawsuit against Rebel Wilson by her
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producer Amanda Ghost. And there's also a smear website involved. There is actually a text message
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there where Melissa Nathan is telling one of her co-workers that Rebel wants one of those sites and it
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can be really aggressive. So I don't know what Melissa Nathan has been up to behind closed doors
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in other cases at all. But what I'm sure of is that she did not do any of this for Justin Baldoni.
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And that to me is the only thing that matters here. But what this article is strongly suggesting here
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is that all the same people are involved in all of this. And that's why I think it's very suspicious
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that this article is published on the same day as this meeting today. Because this again is putting
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pressure on the Wayfair Party saying, hey, we have evidence that you did the same thing to so many
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other people. Of course, you smeared Blake widely. And this article, as I said, goes on and on for
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is a really long article. At the bottom, they do mention that someone also created a smear site,
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a smear website against Brian Friedman. Of course, most people don't read to the end. So they missed
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that point. And that's why they put it there. And that means that obviously someone is trying to
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smear him as well. But my major problem here is with this case, is that why would Brian Friedman,
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a high end attorney, very well known in Hollywood, why would he engage himself in activities like
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she's suggesting here? Why would he smear some random actress on behalf of his client when it
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could cost him his career? What's in it for him? Why would he risk his whole career on something like
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that? Because if they catch him in doing something like this, it could definitely be a career ending.
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He could lose his bar over it. So why would he do that? This article doesn't mention any of that,
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what the motivation would be here. They do also mention Jed Wallace several times. But the thing
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is, all of this is just speculation. Yet there's no evidence that any of these people have actually
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been directly involved in creating any smear websites. I'm not saying that it didn't happen,
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but I'm saying it didn't happen in the Blake Lively case. First of all, there's no smear website
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against Blake Lively. And all her evidence of this alleged smear campaign is just ridiculous.
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It's just all falling apart. I've gone through that so many times. So anyways, let me know what
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you think. And I think the fact here that she, on top of suing Friedman and Melissa Nathan, sued 10
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anonymous people. That sounds like right out of Blake Lively's playbook that she did with that
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Van Zandt lawsuit when she got hold of Jennifer Abel's phone so she could use those text messages
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against Justin Baldoni and give them to the New York Times and that whole circle. So yeah,
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that's why I think this article in the Hollywood Reporter is a bit suspicious. And I've seen other
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articles from this outlet that I don't trust at all. Yeah, anything that comes out of Penske Media,
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I look at with a grain of salt. We've seen how these trade magazines have been the mouthpiece for
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Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds throughout this entire lawsuit. Anyways, that's it for me,
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you guys. Thank you so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed these episodes and let me know what
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you think in the comment section. And if you haven't subscribed yet, please do hit the notification
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bell so you never miss an episode of Flossom Talk. And also check if you've been unsubscribed so you
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can resubscribe if you still want to. And yes, I'll see you soon. Bye!
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Did you reach a settlement today? How are you feeling? Blake, did you reach a settlement today?