It Ends With Us scandal: How the internet made me hate Blake Lively

I fell for the Blake Lively smear campaign. I did, and I’m sorry. But while many will dismiss this story as frivolous, there are dark forces at work here shaping the way we think, act and feel.

Blake Lively has filed a legal complaint against her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni.

I fell for the Blake Lively smear campaign. I did, and I’m sorry.

To Blake, her husband Ryan Reynolds, their children James, Inez, Betty and Olin – I apologise for buying into what now appears to be a choreographed attack by the world’s most elite crisis management PR reps to take down a woman whose greatest crime was pushing a hair care line in the middle of a press tour for a film about domestic violence.

Tone deaf? Probably. A cancellable offence? In hindsight, probably not.

For those of you unacquainted with the It Ends With Us off-screen drama, a recap.

Earlier this year, a deep rift split those involved in the film adaptation of the popular Colleen Hoover novel of the same name, with leading lady Lively, Hoover, and a group of female cast members on one side, and lead actor and director Justin Baldoni on the other.

Fans of the book, which centres on domestic and family violence, panned Lively online for failing to take the themes seriously when promoting the film, while praising Baldoni for nailing the tone and sentiment.

But the criticism didn’t stop there.

Old videos in which Lively appeared to be rude to a Norwegian interviewer during a press junket resurfaced online, with the internet branding Lively entitled and a bully.

TikTok sleuths dragged up an old feud between Lively and a former co-star, Anna Kendrick, in which Lively was labelled petty and overbearing.

When rumours swirled that Lively had been offended when Baldoni refused to lift her up when filming because she was too heavy, attitudes still swayed towards Baldoni. “Poor Justin,” the internet wailed. “He has a bad back. He shouldn’t be forced to lift her if it’s hurting him.”

I was right there with them.

Despite being raised on Lively TV shows and movies (the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, Gossip Girl, a Simple Favour) I followed the pack.

I cringed when Lively urged viewers to “grab your friends, wear your florals” and go watch her box office sensation. Especially while Baldoni was granting interviews discussing the terrible nature of domestic violence, and offering support to women who need it.

I was unimpressed when Lively had her alcohol brand, Betty Booze, promote the film alongside her. And the announcement of her Blake Brown hair care line in the middle of the press tour? Well, that was the final straw.

But now, with a legal complaint filed by Lively against Baldoni alleging sexual harassment, and text messages revealing there was a subsequent effort by Baldoni’s crisis management team to “destroy” her reputation, I don’t know what to believe.

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni on the set of It Ends with Us. Picture: Jose Perez

The signs were there, and I chose to ignore them. A tiny part of me thought there was something a bit off about the pile on. It seemed odd that, for example, all of the It Ends With Us cast and crew appeared to be friendly with one another … except for Justin Baldoni.

I should mention, this is just a legal complaint. The precursor to a lawsuit. As someone who has covered legal affairs at this newspaper for a while now, I know there is likely another side to this. Innocent until proven guilty, etc.

However, while many will dismiss this spat as frivolous, there is a dark story here.

One of how crisis management teams are able to manipulate the internet and social media algorithms to completely distort public opinion.

We saw it in the high-profile defamation case between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in 2022.

Blake Lively was effectively cancelled during the It Ends With Us press tour. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images)

Following the trial – throughout which the public was seemingly stacked against Heard despite serious allegations of abuse – disinformation experts uncovered a co-ordinated campaign of bots posting identical messages attacking Heard.

Unsurprisingly, the same PR company that represented Depp also acted for Baldoni.

Today’s young people have increasing online literacy and are able to discern singular examples of fake news from truth. An AI-generated video. A tabloid story that seems mildly off-kilter.

But what happens when the entire internet is being manipulated to push one particular narrative? How can one possibly discern right from wrong?

Like a frog in a saucepan, it’s hard to know when the water starts boiling - especially when it’s being done slowly, but with force.