Dear Gossips,
Lainey emailed me last night that there are new photos of Ryan Reynolds in New York, attending an event at the Paley Center, and Lainey, who is on vacation, was basically like, hot potato. So here I am, holding the hot potato. On the one hand, there is something to be said for Reynolds keeping the engagement and not retreating from the public eye when there is so much heat on him and Blake Lively. The legal battle with Justin Baldoni just keeps expanding—Baldoni filed a $400 million defamation and extortion case against Lively AND Reynolds, and Lively and Reynolds in turn have asked the case be dismissed. If the case isn’t dismissed, they might be combined into one trial set for March 2026, and the coverage of all of this is increasingly unhinged across the board.
Case in point, there is also some nonsense about Blake Lively’s brother-in-law making fun of Justin Baldoni’s man bun which is like…not all man buns, I guess. Also, Baldoni was going to make a Pac-Man movie which is now in doubt given his legal issues and, oh yeah, that State of California Civil Rights Department investigation Lively instigated in December. That’s where this all started, remember? Accusations of professional misconduct which include sexual harassment and retaliation.
I don’t care what voice notes get released, I keep coming back to that original filing which alleges things like Baldoni barging into Lively’s trailer when she was in states of undress, and Lively being partially nude on an unclosed set and that Baldoni allegedly took no steps to protect her privacy in the moment. Those are the things I want to hear more about, I want answers regarding that stuff because it could impact the working environment of the literal thousands of people who work on film and television sets going forward.
Do they both sound like assholes? Yes. Do I like Blake Lively? Not particularly. Do I think it’s possible that in some situations Lively and Baldoni interpreted their interactions in different ways, leading to greater misunderstandings? Almost certainly. But none of that means I don’t also believe EVERYONE is entitled to a safe and respectful work environment. And that’s what this is about—Blake Lively didn’t feel safe at work, and when she took steps to protect herself, she felt retaliated against. The rest is just noise.
But the noise is winning. Heather Schwedel at Slate put it really well: “People aren’t trying to interpret evidence anymore; they’re taking a Rorschach test, and they’re finding that every single inkblot somehow resembles Lively behaving bitchily.”
It goes back to that text message referenced in Lively’s original filing—people just want to hate women. I don’t care what anyone’s personal opinion of Blake Lively is, people WANT to hate her, and the noise around what are now multiple lawsuits is making it easier every day to do so. For a moment, it looked like everyone might have to do some soul searching about falling for a smear campaign, but now there is enough noise that if you don’t want to believe Blake Lively, you don’t have to. And plenty of people don’t want to. For my part, I haven’t heard anything in the noise that makes me doubt her claim about being exposed on set or having her privacy invaded.
There’s a hearing on Monday regarding a gag order request from Lively’s side. Frankly, I hope the judge puts everyone, including us the public, under a gag order. This isn’t good for gossip, it isn’t good for anything except increasing misogyny in the public sphere, and that isn’t good for anyone except misogynists.
Live long and gossip,
Sarah
