Pop Apologists
255:BLAKE LIVELY VS. JUSTIN BALDONI PART ONE! BLAKE'S COMPLAINT AGAINST JUSTIN & JUSTIN'S LAWSUIT AGAINST NYT
Wed, 08 Jan 2025
Lauren and Chan are sharing a deep dive on everything we know about the battle between Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni so far. The gals bring everyone up to speed on the drama that surrounded It Ends With Us when the movie was released in August 2024 and the tide of public opinion turning on Blake Lively (1:48). They discuss Blake’s bombshell legal complaint against Justin that dropped just before Christmas 2024, including the specifics of each complaint (6:19). Lauren and Chan dive into the It Ends With Us premier, where Justin and the Wayfarer Studios team were segregated from the rest of the cast (28:42). The gals get into Justin’s hiring of a PR crisis team following the IEWU premier, the massive public backlash against Blake (30:26), and the effects of the smear campaign (33:19). They dive into Justin’s lawsuit against the New York Times(41:23), as well as the allegations that involve Blake (48:57) Finally, Lauren and Chan discuss the points in both Justin and Blake's filings where two things can be true (53:31). Shop Clean Simple Eats protein powder and use code POPAPOLOGISTS for 10% off! Click here to try EarlyBird CBD/THC gummies and use code POP20 for 20% off. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp: Visit BetterHelp.com/popapologists to get 10% off your first month. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. To support the show, consider subscribing on Patreon or on Apple Podcasts, where you can get a bonus episode of Pop Apologists every Friday! Please note this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What are the key details of the Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni drama?
Just a quick note before we begin this episode, we're going to be discussing domestic violence, sexual harassment, sexual assault. So please just take care when listening. Also, we just want to say we are going over the facts of a huge amount from Blake Lively's complaint and Justin Baldoni's lawsuit. If we misspeak at any moment or misstate any facts, we apologize.
It's a huge amount of material to try to condense into a single episode. We're just doing our best. Love you guys. Thanks.
can i just say i just think there are too many awards i don't think this award needs to exist and maybe everyone's gonna you know put on my pink pussy hat or whatever a man-hating hat but i just think this award we don't need it no we don't need it let's just funnel all that money that went towards you know the steak and chicken at this thing towards survivors of domestic violence or whatever
Well, well, well, the long awaited deep dive of the Blake Lively versus Justin Baldoni drama on the set of It Ends With Us. We have one legal complaint. We have one full lawsuit. So much to get into today. There's 160 plus pages to cover. We have a lot to dig into, everyone. We've been waiting to speak on this till we were fully prepared and I'm excited. I'm excited too.
I've been dying to chat about it with you. Everyone, we're going to try to take this as chronologically as possible to try to make it make sense. And we're going to just really give a comprehensive overview of everything that's going on. So we are also going to try to stick to the facts.
We're going to give, of course, some commentary, but we're going to try not to get sidetracked about Blake Lively's style, for example. I think we've had that conversation. There is one thing I want to talk about with the beanie. Okay. And that's the only thing I'm going to say, and we'll get to it when we get to it, and I'll keep it concise. But anyway, let's get started. Let's get started.
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Chapter 2: What are the specifics of Blake Lively's legal complaint?
Okay, so everyone, in 2019, a small but burgeoning production company named Wayfair Studios bought the film rights to the massively popular Colin Hoover book, It Ends With Us. Co-founded by Justin Baldoni and Steve Sarowitz and led by the CEO, Jamie Heath, Wayfair claimed to harness the power of storytelling to champion inspirational stories that act as true agents for social change.
A fitting description for the studio, given all that has transpired in the past couple of weeks. Albeit not exactly what we can imagine they had in mind. Right. So everyone, Blake Lively was cast as the protagonist, Lily Bloom, and was given also an executive producer credit. Baldoni took on triple roles as male lead, Ryle Kincaid, the film's director and producer.
It's important to note that even though he was not the bigger name, he was absolutely the boss on this movie and Blake Lively's superior. So production began in May 2023, but as we know, faced significant setbacks due to the writer's guilt strike and later after the SAG after strike, delaying its release until August 2024.
Blake of Gossip Girl, we know, you know, bestie to Taylor Swift, wife to Ryan Reynolds, an all-around powerhouse businesswoman, mom of four. She doesn't really need an introduction. Worth noting that she received $3 million for her role. Estimated. Yeah. Estimated $3 million. Justin Baldoni, on the other hand, was relatively unknown until this project came out.
He is a self-appointed feminist ally and has made a lot of his public appearances around, you know, being an activist in feminist spaces. He's done TED Talks. He's been on, he has a podcast about all that stuff. Unless you watched Jane the Virgin circa 2013 or before. unfortunately came across his 27 minute long proposal to his wife video, which is very cringe.
And we'll get into that if we have time. This project is most likely the first time you've ever heard of Justin. He allegedly received $320,000 for his role as director, producer, and lead star. Okay, everyone. So I think we remember that there were early rumblings with this film. From the outset, the project was met with much stylistic skepticism.
Leaked paparazzi photos of Blake in costume sparked lots of debate on TikTok and Instagram. I think we were probably a part of that. Fans criticized her character's seemingly chaotic costuming. When the film came out, critics felt the marketing campaign's lighthearted tone, including the floral outfits, clashed with the novel's heavy themes of domestic violence. Okay.
Adding to the controversy, Blake promoted her new haircare line, Blake Brown, and her alcohol brand, Betty Buzz, during the film's press tour. At the afterparty for the film's premiere, themed cocktails, including Ryle You Wait, named after the abusive male lead, Ryle, faced backlash for trivializing the serious subject matter.
Colleen Hoover also capitalized on the film with a nail polish collaboration with Olive and June and clothing sold on her website. Plans for a coloring book. We're scrapped after public criticism. Yeah. I think that the audience was left with, wait, is this a heavy movie? Is this a grab your girls and wear your florals, like lighthearted rom-com?
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Chapter 3: What happened during the premiere of It Ends With Us?
They would not have all the monitors on. People's personal devices would not be allowed to be on set. But instead, it was the opposite. Everyone had their phones, their iPads, all the monitors were on. Anyone could walk in and out of that set. And she found out, okay, when she's in the stirrups, And she apparently only had a little piece of cloth covering her genitalia.
She finds out that the person who's going to be playing her OBGYN is Justin's friend. Ordinarily, you know, for a role of that nature, a local actor would have been hired. But instead, Justin just had his friend do it. So Justin's friend is going to be near her mostly naked body and near her almost naked genitalia, which she said she found to be invasive and humiliating.
Chapter 4: How did Justin Baldoni respond to the public backlash?
Additionally, Steve Sarowitz, the billionaire co-founder of Wayfarer, he was only on set a few days during filming It Ends With Us, and he happened to be on set that day. So she objected to barely being covered at all in between takes, and it was only after she objected multiple times that she was given something to cover herself. This is what she alleges in her complaint.
So I did a little bit of extra research into nude scenes, sexual scenes, how that all works like with SAG, SAG writers and that type of thing. And there is just so much prep that goes into that in terms of scripting everything exactly out. What is going to be shown? What's going to be covered while certain things are being shown? Also, the movements.
Additionally, like, I mean, it goes into extreme detail, I think, to protect people and so that also actors feel like they know what to expect, right? It says, you know, you're going to be covered this much when your people are going to immediately have. I think it's like I can't remember. They call the garment something.
But basically, like you'll be covered completely when you don't need to be showing anything. And just basically just going to all these lengths to make sure that the actor knows when they're going to be uncovered and when they will be covered and to just like make them feel comfortable.
So I think that just kind of shows how haphazard this situation was and how, of course, Blake would feel uncomfortable. Also, she's postpartum. Right. Right. Like, she's literally just given birth. That area is still, like, I don't need to go into any more detail. But I find it particularly enraging that this woman has had four children.
So why is Justin Baldoni mansplaining to her how childbirth goes down? Like, fuck off. Respectfully. His wife ripped off her hospital gown. It's not normal. She's not weird about that stuff. Okay. Let's move on. Yes.
Also, all of these demands, and I feel like demand is a very charged word, but all of this list of parameters that Blake now wants followed all begin basically with the phrase no more. So the next one, no more mention of Justin Baldoni or Jamie Heath's pornography addiction or Blake Lively's lack of pornography conception to Blake or to other crew members.
So it's alleged that Justin would bring up pornography and she would want him to shut up about it. And he would bring up specifics of pornography, like assuming she had seen similar videos. And she said, I've never seen it. She says, trying to make him shut up. And at a later date, when he brings up porn again in front of other cast and crew, he says, well, Blake's never seen porn.
And she felt that this was really embarrassing and really inappropriate. Her consumption or lack of consumption of erotic material is not fodder for public discussion. Right. Absolutely. The next demand is no more discussion to Blake Lively and or her employees about personal experiences with sex, including as it relates to spouses or others.
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Chapter 5: What allegations were made against Justin Baldoni?
No more mention to Blake Lively or her employees of personal times that physical consent was not given in sexual acts as either the abuser or the abused.
So the documents describe a car ride with Blake, her assistant and driver during production, wherein Justin allegedly claimed to Lively, quote, that he had been sexually abused by a former girlfriend and quote, which then caused him to, quote, reexamine his past. Baldoni then claimed, did I always ask for consent? No. Did I always listen when they said no? No.
Adding, this was an example of how we all have things from which we can learn and grow. Lively claimed that when Baldoni exited the car, her driver immediately remarked that he did not want Miss Lively to be alone with Mr. Baldoni going forward. I get that the driver is Blake's employee. And so I don't know, maybe this quote never happened.
But in my opinion, this third party, like neutral observation of Justin Baldoni is pretty damning. It's pretty weird. First of all, this is a horrible thing to say that it's one thing to say, did I always ask for consent? I feel like that's something that was. introduced into the conversation, you know, in the past decade or so. It hasn't always been something that we really talked about.
Right, right. Or actively thought about in a super serious way. Right. But the idea of, did I listen when they said no? No? I'm sorry, what? Yeah. So I'm not going to derail with a large side conversation, but something that has been really sitting with me as I've been poring over all this is I think...
where Justin Baldoni fails me or where I feel like an issue with him is is that I think he's a guy who tries to be very honest and just because you're extremely honest and because you're also you know a self-appointed ally or whatever but even even if you talk about all that stuff you can still make people really uncomfortable with the things that you say right you can you can be an ally someone who says you're an ally and still make people uncomfortable with your honesty and
Not everyone wants to know about the pornography you watch or other things like that. So just these are my own musings from these documents. And I think this perfectly tees up the next demand, which is no more descriptions of their genitalia to Blake Lively. OK, maybe she doesn't want to hear about.
Maybe he excuses himself by saying I'm an ally or all these other things, but you can still make inappropriate jokes. Absolutely. So the next one, no more jokes or disparaging comments to be made to Blake Lively and her employees about HR complaints Wayfarer has already received on set or about missing the HR meeting.
So that was basically apparently on set when someone would say that they were a little uncomfortable or kind of check him in some way, he would bristle and And kind of disparage them or try to make them feel like they're being prudish or annoying by saying, I guess I missed the HR meeting. Yeah. Yeah. Moving on to the next one.
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Chapter 6: How did Blake Lively's demands change production?
And he also had, I guess, coincidentally spoken to Blake's dead father recently. Once again, this guy just needs to shut up. At best, people do not care. And, you know, he's just kind of being annoying. I'm sure Blake would love to talk with her dead father. So it's kind of rude to flex that you chatted with him. Exactly. Like at best, he's making people uncomfortable.
And at worst, this is like full harassment. Mm hmm. Also, she requests that if she and her infant are exposed to COVID again, Blake Lively must be provided with immediate notice as soon as Wayfair or any other producers become aware of the exposure. Because apparently she and her child were exposed to COVID. They contracted COVID. They got sick with COVID.
She had to uncover the fact that they knew she was being exposed to COVID, but because they did not. have insurance wayfarer did not have insurance they specifically did not disclose to her that she was exposed to not shut down production i think they specifically do not have covid insurance too yeah covid insurance thank you okay so these next two demands i think are pretty damning
no more personal physical touching or sexual comments by justin baldoni or jamie heath to be tolerated by blake lively and or any of her employees as well as any female cast or crew without their express consent the next one no more improvising of kissing all intimate touch must be choreographed in advance with blake lively and an intimacy coordinator no biting or sucking of lip without blake lively's consent all intimate on camera touch and conversation must be in character
not spoken from Justin Baldoni to Blake Lively personally. So Justin allegedly improvised physical intimacy during scenes without rehearsals or the involvement of an intimacy coordinator. Okay, so apparently they were filming a dancing scene where they didn't need to have any audio. You know, they didn't need to be speaking to each other in character.
But apparently, allegedly, Baldoni dragged his lips along her neck and... and said to her, muttered, it smells so good. And Blake reports this as invasive and totally unrelated to the script. So just kind of a, what the hell are you doing? And she didn't feel it was in character. Like it was from him to her, not from Ryle to Lily. Right.
Which is why I think she says in her demand, like everything must be in character, nothing just improvised. Right. Blake also requested a representative was on set at all times to monitor scenes with nudity, sexual activity or violence with Justin Baldoni.
So there was a moment also during an intimacy scene where he bit and sucked on her lower lip, which was not part of what was supposed to happen during that scene. That was improvised.
OK, so the next demand, all actors participating with Blake Lively in intimate scenes involving her being in any state of nudity or simulated nudity must be classified as active working actors, not friends of the director. It must be approved by Blake Lively. So going back to the OBGYN. Right.
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Chapter 7: What role did the media play in this controversy?
I'm not trying to trivialize it. But this outfit is to me the furthest thing from sexy. But I appreciate the rationale that went into it. The mental gymnastics that went into it on her end.
i'm for once speechless yeah on this podcast when i look at this outfit shivam please put this in so everyone can see who's watching the video shivam is our wonderful editor everyone so this is what justin says like she used the word sexy she like we were okay to say things like that i think is like what he's getting at right screenshots but what i also think happened is i literally believe that justin searched his text messages for the word sexy right and then
I was like, oh, wait, no, Blake Lively said sexy before, so it was fine. And, you know, I feel like there are two separate incidents being talked about here, but it sounds like happened at the bar is very inappropriate.
In my opinion, when I'm kind of reading through all of this, it seems like a lot of Justin's complaint or his lawsuit against the New York Times is it's giving some sort of explanation for as much as possible. Right. But I think bad behavior genuinely happened on both sides for sure. And there's a lot of bad behavior on his side that he just simply can't explain away. Exactly.
Like talking about ignoring no when women said they did not want to engage with him sexually to Blake. I'm sorry. I don't want to hear about any of my coworkers' pornography addictions. I also, if I have a deceased parent, don't want to hear about how they have just spoken with them. Correct. Especially when this is clearly a hostile work environment.
And again, going back to Blake's list of demands, they all came out well before she was canceled. She had this documented experience of harassment before all of this drama went down. And in contrast, his lawsuit feels very much reactionary to everything that happened. Right, right. Okay, so then there was the marketing takeover.
So Blake Lively allegedly sidelined Baldoni and his team during the film's promotional campaign, staring the messaging away from its intended focus on domestic violence awareness. Lively reportedly barred Baldoni from the main premiere event, relegating him to a separate holding area. I saw someone online say this, and I definitely agree.
We just need someone from Sony to say this was the marketing plan by Sony. Yeah. Or this was the marketing plan by Blake that Sony agreed to. Because I just feel like that will clear this part up. Totally. Totally. And this part is honestly, I don't care about this part a ton. Like, I think this is where Justin's, like...
and lawsuit is sort of successful because he's kind of distracting people from the bigger crimes that I believe that he committed. You know, crimes is a strong word, but the bigger actions I think that are more damning. On the flip side though, even if Sony came out with a marketing plan that included not talking about domestic violence, really just making a story of hope,
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