Blake Lively’s jaw-dropping claim about brutal public backlash

Blake Lively became internet enemy no. 1 earlier this year. In a new lawsuit, she makes extraordinary claims about why the backlash began.

Actress Blake Lively was the star of one of the biggest box office hits of the year when It Ends With Us hit cinemas in August.

But in the weeks after the film’s release, the star instead suffered a brutal public backlash – one she now alleges was orchestrated, in part, by her co-star.

In a new sexual harassment lawsuit levelled at It Ends With Us co-star and director Baldoni, Lively claims that the wave of online criticism she endured in the wake of the movie’s release happened because Baldoni wanted to “bury” her.

But in a response to the lawsuit, Baldoni’s lawyer insisted he did nothing of the sort, and said Lively’s claims were simply “another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation”.

Blake’s brutal online backlash

She was the star of a huge new movie – then suddenly the world turned on Blake Lively. Picture: Getty

She now claims co-star Justin Baldoni helped orchestrate the backlash. Picture: Getty

Public opinion on Blake Lively seemed to turn soon after the release of It Ends With Us in August, and one resurfaced 2016 interview appeared to play a big part in it, at least initially.

In mid-August, celebrity reporter Kjersti Flaa reposted a video of her interviewing Lively and Parker Posey during a junket for their film Cafe Society almost a decade ago.

Lively was pregnant at the time, and Flaa opened the short interview by congratulating the star on her “little bump”.

Lively appeared to take umbrage at this, and sarcastically shot back “Congrats on your little bump.”

From there, Lively appeared to ignore the interviewer, interacting only with her co-star for an agonisingly awkward encounter.

Re-sharing the clip on social media, where it clocked up millions of views, Flaa said the conversation had been a “nightmare” and made her “want to quit” her job.

Lively (left) was branded a nightmare for this 2016 interview.

From there, the floodgates opened, as celeb-watchers on social media scoured old Lively interviews to find other similarly awkward encounters.

There was a 2014 Vogue interview, where was asked which movie she’d “laughed hardest” watching.

“The Shawshank Redemption,” she replied, seemingly an odd attempt at a joke given the 1994 Oscar-winning film’s serious content.

Then there was an Elle magazine interview from 2012, where Lively repeatedly used a transgender slur while discussing her future children.

“I hope to have a few girls one day. If not girls, they better be trannies. Because I have some amazing shoes and bags and stories that need to be appreciated,” she said.

But Lively also copped heat for her interviews on the It Ends With Us publicity trail, where she and Baldoni studiously avoided each other.

The film deals with heavy themes of domestic violence, a topic Lively seemed to prefer not to tackle during promotional activities, instead preferring to plug her haircare line, alcohol brand and other side hustles, which led to further criticism of the star.

The negative stories grew and grew to a discernible internet backlash - one that Lively’s team even measured after hiring a brand management expert to track the sentiments about her online.

‘She can be buried’: Texts surface in lawsuit

Now, as part of a lawsuit also alleging Baldoni sexually harassed her on-set, Lively says he and his team were the architect of that internet pile-on.

As reported by the New York Times, the lawsuit states that Lively had complained about inappropriate on-set behaviour during the making of the film. By the time It Ends With Us was released in August, it’s alleged that Baldoni and the film’s producer Jamey Heath were worried the allegations would come to light, so decided to strike first and smear Lively’s reputation. By this point, they had hired a crisis management company to work on the film.

Released in August, the romantic drama It Ends With Us was a huge global hit.

To support her claim, Lively’s lawsuit includes “thousands of pages” of text messages and emails she obtained through a subpoena.

They include this brief text, written on August 2 from a publicist working with Baldoni and the film studio: “He wants to feel like she can be buried.”

The crisis management expert that publicist was texting had an equally succinct response: “You know we can bury anyone.”

Other texts between crisis PR experts published by the New York Times saw them congratulating each other on their “amazing work” creating “so much mixed messaging” online.

“I see this as a total success, as does Justin,” one wrote.

Co-star hits back: ‘Desperate, salacious’

A lawyer for Wayfarer, the independent film studio Baldoni co-founded, vehemently denied the allegations in a statement to the New York Times.

Lawyer Bryan Freedman said the studio “did nothing proactive nor retaliated” against Lively, and called her claims “another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation”.

“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” Freedman wrote.

Originally published as Blake Lively’s jaw-dropping claim about brutal public backlash