Blake Lively’s Feelings

It Ends With Us opened in theatres a month ago yesterday and has gone on to become Blake Lively’s highest grossing movie. That’s typically an achievement to be celebrated but there really hasn’t been all that much celebration, at least not publicly. Because of the scandal that became the main headline related to the film: whatever happened between Blake and co-star and director Justin Baldoni. And also the fact that social media turned on Blake as people on the internet dragged her for wearing florals and promoting haircare and accused her of minimising intimate partner violence. 

Now, for the first time in weeks, we’re getting a Blake update as PEOPLE has a new exclusive about how she’s experienced the last month. 

“Blake Lively was caught off guard by the negative attention she faced while rolling out her hit movie It Ends With Us.

The actress was "pretty surprised at the backlash and drama" that surrounded the romantic drama's release last month, a source tells PEOPLE.

"She initially felt very vulnerable and upset," adds the source. "During the promotion of the movie, not one day went by when she was not in the news in an unfavorable light. She's just not used to this kind of drama."

The source says the situation "felt out of control to her." Still, Lively, 37, who next appears in A Simple Favor 2 with Anna Kendrick, "enjoys working and will continue to push forward projects that she's excited about."

This reads like a placed story from Blake’s team meant to put a focus on her feelings. What’s the real objective though? Blake’s been very quiet since the movie came out. There’s been very little activity on her channels. There hasn’t been a new post on Blake Brown Beauty’s Instagram in almost a month, not exactly standard operating procedure for a brand new business. But then again, they likely weren’t expecting that their founder would be met with this kind of backlash with her movie. The movie and the haircare line were supposed to be a coordinated joint slamdunk. Reading the room in real time though, they were right in hitting pause on any further promotion, at least on socials, in the days following the release of It Ends With Us. 

So this PEOPLE story, and the source telling us that Blake was “vulnerable and upset” – are we testing the waters to see if the internet has moved from hating her and has found another target? Is Blake ready to come back outside to do more promotion for Blake Brown Beauty? Speaking of new targets, right now another friend of Taylor Swift is taking up a lot of space. If you were a crisis management specialist, would you have mercenarily advised Blake to conveniently re-enter the public arena because while she may have been clumsy about her movie marketing, she’s not out here moving like a MAGA and getting praised by Donald Trump. Or hanging out with one. If I were a conspiracy theorist Swiftie, maybe I’d be all, OMG Taylor is so smart, she’s taking all the heat for her best friend! Her mind!

Will be interesting to see what and when we see Blake Lively or Blake Brown next.