Content warning: This article contains mentions of domestic violence.
In 2024, Blake Lively became the face of an uncomfortable truth: Hollywood can’t talk about domestic violence without dressing it up as something pink, sparkly and romantic. She egged audiences on to see her film It Ends With Us (2024) on girls-night, decked out in flowers – after asking them to try out her new hair-care line. I directed my anger towards such insulting marketing at Lively. Then she filed a complaint against Justin Baldoni, her co-lead, director, and co-owner of the film’s production company, Wayfarer Studios. Things changed.
The complaint, released by The New York Times in December alongside an article, alleges that Baldoni sexually harassed and set up a smear campaign against Lively. According to the document, he and others created a “hostile work environment”, particularly for women. Once promotional efforts began, Lively alleges, Baldoni “created, planted, amplified, and boosted content designed to eviscerate Ms. Lively’s credibility”.
A plethora of claims detail Baldoni’s on-set behaviours. Some are downright odd: apparently he “claimed he could speak to the dead”, particularly Lively’s late father.
Others, if true, are plain to see examples of sexual objectification. He “often referred to women in the workplace as “sexy”’. He reportedly “pressured Ms. Lively (who was in her pre-approved wardrobe) to remove her coat’ before saying “I think you look sexy”’. When Lively had strep throat, he apparently gifted her the contact details of a medical professional who turned out to be a “weight-loss specialist”.
One unnerving claim even involves Baldoni admitting to possible sexual assault in “a car ride’’ by saying “Did I always ask for consent? No. Did I always listen when they said no? No.”
I’d been naïve – quick to blame a woman who may be a victim, not just a power-hungry star battling for creative control, single-handedly wrecking an essential message about domestic violence. Even more naively, I assumed that the thousands commenting on Lively’s Instagram posts shared my embarrassment. But they were sharpening their pitchforks.
Under her December 12th Instagram post, the only one for months with unlimited comments, sit tens of thousands of vicious snipes at her personality, appearance, and humanity. Some have up to 5,000 likes. Many of them appear to be written by women.
One user says, “History tells it all… She manipulates the truth and has a bad history of ego and power”. Another points out “You made this man’s life miserable” and “The entitlement of it all.” A comment that simply reads “Mean girl” has 1,147 likes.
Concerningly, a commenter suggests that even if the claims were true, they’d still support Baldoni because Lively “Forced him to be in the BASEMENT!!! On his Big Night!”. “Even if he did [the] smear campaign, I’m with him.”
This probably refers to a circulating alleged voice note in which Baldoni says he was ‘sent to the basement’ at the film’s premiere.
X is equally flooded with the view that the complaint is a ploy: one user admits “I don’t believe any of this” and that Baldoni “check[mated] her into showing us her true colours”.
User @DaveOsuna claims that it’s “been known in LA for years that she is toxic on sets”, so “this is a PR nightmare, and her team is doing everything they can to save her reputation”.
Granted, Lively isn’t exactly the poster child for good celebrity behaviour. In the thick of the onslaught, journalist Kjersti Flaa posted her awkward interview to YouTube, amassing over six million views and piles of comments calling out Lively’s rudeness. Tabloids are still digging up clips of actors mentioning Lively to spawn theories she’s challenging to work with.
But even if that’s true (and it may be the work of said smear campaign), why does that mean we don’t believe her when she says she was sexually harassed and conspired against? Why does being unlikeable mean you can’t be a victim?
In her Guardian piece, Arwa Mahdawi suggests that this ‘increasingly nasty legal battle seems depressingly like a rerun of the misogynistic hell that was the Johnny Depp v Amber Heard trial in 2022.’ Mahdawi’s right – this isn’t the first time a perceivably unlikeable female celebrity has been condemned online for ruining a man’s life. I’m pretty certain that, on social media, Heard will forever be called every name under the sun while Johnny Depp gets a halo and a hashtag. Meghan Markle is another example – she alone got the whole nine yards of misogynistic and racist online attacks for a joint decision to step away from royalty. What we’re seeing with Lively has been seen before.
The things she has alleged are also recognisable. I’d sat through that kind of uncomfortable car journey and endured a conversation like she allegedly had. I’d been called sexy walking home in my school uniform. But when Blake Lively claims she was called sexy in her work uniform, doing her job, the internet thinks she’s digging her grave?
Maybe the online backlash shows that the dangerous norms painting women as liars, co-conspirators, supernaturally evil, and worse for centuries have been repackaged, given a new lease of life in apps, usernames and comments sections. In the platforms that champion self-expression, women are the exception to the rule.
And in the very powerful, very skewed court of social media, where everyone has far less information grounding their judgement and far more freedom to judge anyway, the verdict nearly every time finds women guilty and men innocent. Unfortunately, these platforms are modern breeding grounds of misogyny and one historical prejudice: women can’t be victims if they’re not perfect.
It’s also unnerving that while Lively’s been pretty much radio silent about the situation until now, Baldoni spent much of 2024 reflecting on gender roles in his podcast Man Enough and quoting Bell Hooks. He won (and has now lost) an award in December for showing courage and compassion when advocating on behalf of women and young girls. Do these make Baldoni a feminist? Or are these, as Lively claims, tactics to polish his ‘ally’ reputation while he ruins his victims, ensuring that if she spoke up no one would be convinced? I don’t know. Given his choice of lawyer for a $250 million libel lawsuit against the New York Times, it’s certainly possible; Bryan Freedman is said by The Hollywood Reporter to have previously settled a case accusing him of sexual assault while at University.
Outside of comment sections, the situation’s not-so-level playing field is thankfully being noticed. In an IndieWire article, lawyer Nicole Page notes ‘that the alleged behaviour of Baldoni and Wayfarer comes straight out of the “Sexual Harassers Guide for Dummies” playbook: if you sexually harass a woman and the woman complains, a) deny, deny, deny; b) try to silence her through payoff or intimidation;’ and c), ‘conduct character assassination.’
Page also acknowledges that ‘Women who are brave enough to speak up are taking an enormous risk, yet the “she had it coming” backlash is quick and relentless.’
‘No matter how often we are reminded that with social media, manipulation is the feature not the bug, we fall for stereotypical tropes about women again and again.’
So, I don’t know what happened on the set of It Ends With Us. We won’t know for a long time, or maybe we never will. Regardless, a detailed, serious testimony is being seen online as the smoking gun in an investigation against women – and not as a terrifying reality check. Though the truth of the matter is uncertain, one thing is all too clear: if a woman defends herself and shares her sufferings, people are ready to attack. Social media is simply the new stage for this to play out.
In the UK, call Galop’s National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans+ Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0800 999 5428, the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visit Women’s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org.
Blake lively won every single debate, and creative decision starting from day one when she decided to wear her own clothes. Every single one.
She then during post production, after getting everything she wanted, extorted and blackmailed Sony for full control of the film. After agreeing to the highest score of test screening winner she lost, then again blackmailed the studio. She did this over and over until the man who directed and worked on this film for 5 years was placed in a basement while she celebrated the film as if it was hers.
She is no victim. Being shown a pregnancy video and having creative disagreement about shooting sex scenes is not sexual harassment. Asking his trainer if he knew how much she weighed is not trauma. This is so privileged and disgusting. This is a woman who uses Harvey Weinstein’s publicist and that is somehow fine to people who want to bring up a crisis or team previous clients.
it is wild that people compare this to actual physical abuse.
If a man had done this to a female director you would be losing your damn minds
Nobody is turning against women, stop generalizing and pretending that what Blake and her goons did to this man, was justifiable. And it does not apply to women as a whole. This woman and her husband could’ve let this die in peace but no they couldn’t do that. Due to her previous behavior that was documented, old interviews especially, that we all saw last summer, spoke to her character and that’s what made the public turn on her. So now she and her husbands are coming off like the A**holes we thought they were. Editing text messages, placing serious accusations on Justin, all around lying and acting like we don’t see them. And now that it turns out that Justin has receipts and alot of them now the people that supported Blake are quiet. The pattern of behavior of the bullying that happened here is pretty clear. Now they are out here trying to ruin Justin permanently and playing victims. They are not victims, they are dumber than a box of hair if they thought that Justin was not going to fight for his career and his character. The receipts say it all. Team Justin. PERIOD. Blake killed her own career.
I will say there is a chance that Stephanie Jones is the one who edited the texts before handing them off to Blake and Ryan that way. But yes you’re correct on every other angle.
If there was actual smear campaign you’d think the person who played a part in it (ms Jones) would provide better proof besides edited texts that actually say otherwise
You’ve articulated this so well! I’ve been waiting for someone to say it. It’s truly shocking how much Blake is being demonized. Unbelievable. I’ve read her complaint, and it’s absolutely sickening. Why aren’t more people standing by her?
Instead of offering support, all I keep seeing are accusations that she’s a “mean girl.” Can we focus on the actual lawsuit? We have no way of knowing for sure what happened, but in situations like this, I tend to give the woman the benefit of the doubt. If Justin is innocent, time will reveal that. In the meantime, there’s no need for Justin’s fanbase to drag Blake’s name through the mud.
I really am trying to keep an open mind, but I seem to be missing something here. The overwhelming support for Justin is baffling to me.
I’m not saying we should condemn every man accused of wrongdoing without question, but shouldn’t we at least give the person speaking out the benefit of the doubt?
Instead, Blake is immediately being portrayed as this awful, entitled person, and it feels like her character is being put on trial rather than her claims.
I think this article was meant to highlight that even if the accusor is perceived as difficult or unlikeable, that should NOT discredit her allegations. I’m sure we all agree with that? That being unlikeable doesn’t disqualify someone from being a victim? Then, why is it so hard for people to listen to Blake?
I think many did give the benefit of the doubt though. Then Blake Lively went and tried to manipulate the public into thinking she was shown, and I quote, “pornography”. I was shocked about this and even though I never really liked her before (her jokes have always been mean and not funny), I didn’t think anyone deserved that weird on set behavior. Fast forward and now we know this “pornography” was just a birth video shown to a room full of people while planning an upcoming birth scene. Are you kidding me?! As a mother, woman, and person that was bullied, this enrages me. She discredits herself and then blames everyone else like a child. She had the benefit of the doubt, and she lost it. If she had real complaints, why would she warp something like that and sexualize childbirth? People who say “childbirth is private and being show it is a violation” are so weird. Childbirth is not some weird dirty secret and if anyone thinks that, they need therapy. I’ve been a victim. I empathize with victims. I’m in the 1% of the population that doesn’t hate Amber Heard (I don’t think she’s great, but I think JD is an abuser). I straight up think Blake Lively is a bully though. I do not care about Justin Baldoni, but it certainly doesn’t sound like he had an easy time with this woman.
It’s not about hating woman. There are so many layers and she is privileged rich and white. A Nepo baby.
We are not talking about a poor girl who got nothing, just started acting and got a director say something to her.
Blake lively is playing a PR game that is affecting so many other women because she couldn’t take what she wanted and it’s using a wildcard.
It’s also well known she perceives everything as an attack to her persona.
As a feminist, we need to hold women accountable and keep other women safe. We cannot just go against all men just because “She said”.
Layers ladies. Layers. She is a Nepo baby who is so used to get everything and no one to cough in her direction that when someone doesn’t fold as she pleases, she will seek revenge. Not the first time. At the end, she was one of Weinstein’s girls, and never raised her voice for those women who had traumatic experiences… Hypocrisy runs deep by the PR of Fake Lively.