‘Way Too Personal’: The Escalating PR War Between Blake Lively And Justin Baldoni

The following is an edited transcript of an interview with Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham and Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan on the growing, public PR battle between actress Blake Lively and film director Justin Baldoni. Catch the full interview on Morning Wire.

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Actress Blake Lively and director Justin Baldoni are continuing their public feud over their hit film, “It Ends With Us,” with both sides filing lawsuits. But even more than a legal battle, this has become an all-out PR war with leaked texts, calls, and film footage, as well as allegations of sexual harassment and spousal jealousy. The first trial date is set for March. Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham speaks with award-winning journalist, author and Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan to get insight into a drama only Hollywood could produce.

MEGAN: Thanks for being here, Maureen. So, especially for those of us who are kind of catching up with this story, I’m wondering if you can give us the 10,000 foot summary of this scandal?

MAUREEN: Sure. So about a month ago, the New York Times ran a blockbuster, I think 4,000 word piece, in which Blake Lively was alleging her director and co-star Justin Baldoni, on their film “It Ends With Us,” had subjected her to almost ritualistic sexual harassment — and that she suffered so greatly, it was a concerted effort in which he involved multiple people to not only harass her while filming, but then once the movie was about to be released, orchestrated an online smear campaign against her. A couple of weeks later, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman filed a countersuit in which he alleged that the text messages obtained by the New York Times had been selectively edited. They sort of threw open their document dump, which seemed to absolve Justin of many of the things that Lively has been claiming. Nonetheless, these two are now locked in a bitter, bitter, expensive lawsuit. Baldoni is countersuing Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds for $400 million, which is, I believe, what he thinks their estimated net worth is. And the trial is tentatively set for March 2026.

MEGAN: So, before we get to some of the legal ramifications, there have obviously been a lot of leaks, a lot of shifting in public loyalties back and forth. At least that’s been my experience. At the outset, I was kind of on Team Justin. And then I thought, “Well, wait a minute. That New York Times piece was really persuasive.” But then Justin Baldoni’s team released some new audio leaks and they sort of shifted the game a little bit. What’s your sense right now of who’s on top in the PR war?

MAUREEN: I think Blake Lively is suffering mightily right now and the collateral fallout is affecting not just her husband, Ryan Reynolds, but her so called “Dragon,” her BFF Taylor Swift, who it’s reported has been taking a step back from her friendship with Blake because she doesn’t want any of this runoff affecting her career. Justin’s team has been very smart in what they’re leaking and when. They leaked footage of the two of them while filming a scene, rehearsing a scene, in which they were dancing very closely and Justin had his mic on. And so they’re working out how they’re going to do this scene. Justin is saying, “I think we should be kissing.” And Blake says, “No, I think we should be talking. I think that’s even more intimate.” And Justin says, “Okay.” So that sort of takes some wind out of her sails. They also released another lengthy voice memo that Justin had sent to Blake in which he’s praising her to the high heavens and saying he has let her down by not taking all of her notes, and she’s so brilliant and so smart, and he’s going to do everything he can to make her happy. Again, a counter narrative to Lively’s claims that he was doing everything possible to sabotage her and make her feel unsafe on that set. So I think right now Baldoni’s team is in the power position, but that of course could shift in another few days.

MEGAN: Well, you know, it seems like there was a moment where Lively could have disengaged and, and just moved on. And this would have been something of a blip on Hollywood’s gossip radar. Why do you think she escalated to a lawsuit that opened up so much more of these internal communications?

MAUREEN: This is such a great question, Megan, because if you think about it the damage has already been done to her. Think about it, there are like five female directors working in Hollywood today. What male director is going to put himself and his career and reputation at risk by working with Blake Lively, who launched this all out assault on a guy who is not as well capitalized as she and Ryan are, who doesn’t have the reputation, the lengthy career — who on earth would risk it? And I have to wonder why she did it, because like you said, it could have just been, you know, a thing where they butted heads, they didn’t see eye-to-eye, but they each walked away clean to do their next project. I have a theory — and it is just my own theory and supposition — that something went on between these two. Perhaps it was an unrequited crush on Blake’s part and Justin didn’t respond in kind; perhaps they did in some way have a physical relationship outside of the filming and that went south. There’s something about this that just feels way too intense, way too personal. I think the real undergirding, the real story is why she did this.

Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

MEGAN: Well, I’m glad that you bring that up, because I do want to talk a little bit about those messages between Baldoni and Lively. And I know some media outlets characterize them as “flirty,” I don’t know that I necessarily saw them that way, but I at least saw them as very familiar, let’s put it that way.

MAUREEN: I kind of read them as flirty — even the text messages between Justin and Ryan Reynolds. Look, if anybody listening wants to get a taste of what it’s like to deal with Hollywood people, this is it. And it’s really quite vile because they’re just mooning over each other. I mean, they’ve just met and Ryan hasn’t responded to Justin’s text for two weeks and then he replies and says, “I happen to adore you, Justin.” It’s like, buy me dinner first before you start talking to me like this. It’s disgusting. And, you know, Justin and Blake are having a very familiar texting relationship that, whether they were that familiar, whether it was this sort of hastened intimacy because they were working so closely together so quickly, who knows? But now we’re going to see. I don’t think there’s any slight that’s not going to be weaponized. I just read an item yesterday that Blake Lively blew a good chunk of the movie’s budget on her wardrobe. I mean, this is how petty we’re going to get. I love it, but it is the strangest Hollywood war. I’m going to say it’s maybe the biggest one since Brad versus Angie.

MEGAN: Do you think Lively and Reynolds, at least as a couple, their image — like maybe Reynolds individually, Lively individually — do kind of come back from this? Because, you know, Brad and Angelina eventually did. But does their image as this blissful “It” couple bounce back?

MAUREEN: Well, Megan, first of all, when I said Brad versus Angie, I meant like when they divorced, when they separated, and it was like the bombshells were going off: “He was abusive. She was out of her mind.” This will be the thing that shows the strength of their marriage. I’m very cynical, so I really do believe that if this blowback against Blake gets to be too much, Ryan’s going to cut her loose. I think Ryan Reynolds has his eyes firmly set on becoming a billionaire, and I believe he’ll get there. And I don’t think he’s going to stand for his reputation getting muddied in all of this, even though he’s already in it with these lawsuits and all of these text messages and these documents. And he was famously brought in by Blake to write a whole scene in the movie and be some sort of unpaid advisor. So I think that’s really where you’re going to see the strength of this countersuit against Justin, if it really does sort of crater their marriage.

MEGAN: Well, maybe just a couple more questions, Maureen. One of them is that The New York Times has come under a lot of scrutiny for the role it played in sort of rehabilitating Lively’s claims when she was on the outs in terms of public affection. I have seen some claims that they handled the coverage in a biased way, clearly working hand in glove with Blake Lively’s team. What do you think? Is there any validity to that claim?

MAUREEN: Yes, I think there is. It seems as though, perhaps, they didn’t do their full due diligence. I think it was probably seen, initially, as a strength, but is now a liability. I forget how many bylines were on that piece, but one, Megan Twohey, was one half of the team at the Times that broke the Harvey Weinstein story and became synonymous with MeToo. They wrote a book. They made a lot of money off of it. And I think the Times is already struggling in many ways reputationaly and this does not help. If I recall correctly, I could be mistaken so forgive me, but if I recall correctly I think they went to Baldoni’s team and gave them two hours to respond to that laundry list of accusations. So if that’s true, it’s not a great look. [NOTE: Some outlets report The New York Times gave Baldoni approximately 12 hours to respond.]

Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

MEGAN: Well, you kind of intuited where I was going to go next. And that was the role that MeToo has played in this, with these claims, that it was a sexual harassment issue. So, do you think on a broader level, the tide has turned? And maybe this is because of Johnny Depp. Because before, I think there was a period of time when even the public was willing to say, “Hey, I don’t know that that’s a MeToo allegation.” I’m thinking of something like Aziz Ansari where there was a lot of back and forth debate about that. In this case, it seems like some of these men in Hollywood who don’t even possess the power of some of these women are now willing to challenge these MeToo allegations. So, do you think this sort of shifts the balance on where we are with MeToo?

MAUREEN: Yes, I think this case is very important in terms of where we are and where we’re going. I agree with you. The Aziz Ansari thing was ridiculous. If that allegation had come out maybe a year later, his career would not have been destroyed. I think we are now seeing a pendulum swing back towards sanity where just because a woman says a man did something to her, it’s not automatically received as gospel, that the man does get a chance to tell his side of the story and back it up with documents, receipts, screenshots, texts, voicemail, and it certainly helps when you have movie footage. So I think this is going to be an interesting case in terms of the cultural corrective that is underway.

MEGAN: Okay. Well, last question: Any predictions for the March trial?

MAUREEN: You know, I’ll be amazed if it gets there. Because I would think saner heads would prevail, and both sides should really just drop it and walk away. Justin Baldoni’s lawyer has already said he’s pretty much bankrupted by this, financially and emotionally. I don’t know what good it does for Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds to have this be the headline of their careers for the next calendar year, and that’s just to start. So, I think it’ll be interesting to see if it ever really comes to fruition, and if there is some sort of settlement reached, who pays who? This is really just Hollywood writ large, right? The egotism, the narcissism, the ridiculous sums of money, the victimization, the weaponization perhaps, we don’t know yet, but perhaps of MeToo, it’s such a great, weird stew of stuff.

MEGAN: Well, thank you Maureen. That was enlightening. I kind of can’t wait to see where this goes next.

MAUREEN: I know, it’s like every day we get another tidbit. Yes, thanks for having me.

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Catch the full interview on Morning Wire.