Pretty sure I don’t have to provide a refresher on this It Ends With Us mess but if you missed it, I wrote about the situation yesterday and Sarah’s initial post on it from last week is here. 

 

In my (long ass) post yesterday, I started with the box office success of the movie - $80 million worldwide – which, normally would be covered by entertainment media as a major success story for all the players, the studio, Blake Lively, and Justin Baldoni. Which is why this story is so f-cking weird. I mean it’s been weird for days but it’s getting more and more bizarre because when was the last time a film opened above box office projections and now has to go into damage control?!

But this is where we are now with the news that came out last night. I saw it first at The Hollywood Reporter, around 9pm ET: 

 

Other mainstream entertainment media outlets soon followed. The issue here isn’t that Justin Baldoni has acquired the services of a crisis management firm, it’s this particular crisis management team led by Melissa Nathan. Per THR: 

“Nathan launched The Agency Group earlier this summer after spending nearly a decade working for leading crisis strategist Matthew Hiltzik. Her New York-based outfit specializes in communications, crisis, reputation management, personal publicity and digital team services across the entertainment industry. Among the clients joining her from Hiltzik Strategies was Johnny Depp, whom she represented during the Amber Heard trial.”

 

Johnny Depp isn’t the key name in that passage, it’s Matthew Hiltzik. Matthew Hiltzik’s other clients, in addition to Johnny Depp, including Harvey Weinstein, and Brad Pitt. Also, more recently, Alec Baldwin and Andy Cohen, after he was sued for sexual harassment and other improprieties by a former Housewife. 

Johnny Depp’s case, however, was a major heatscore because we all saw what happened online, with the targeted digital harassment against Amber Heard, during that trial, and what very much looked like a sophisticated social media campaign involving both real and fake accounts designed to disseminate disinformation about her and her testimony. These are tactics that disproportionately and devastatingly impact women. 

The record-scratch here, then, where Justin Baldoni is concerned, is why a man who’s made it his whole personality to be an advocate for women and a model for un-toxic masculinity is engaging with PR professionals who are controversially associated with a trial where that kind of activity took place. 

 

But also… like… is Justin the one in crisis?! Because as I wrote yesterday, it’s Blake who’s become TikTok’s #1 villain, sharing the title with Jennifer Lopez this summer. Social media isn’t coming for Justin the way it’s been coming for Blake. It is a major pile-on against Blake right now which means the same people who are dragging her are, implicitly or explicitly, defending him. And they’re digging deep. They’re going back a decade, into the archives, to pull whatever they can find, interviews and other visuals, to show that she had it coming. Here’s an example – it’s an interview Blake did with Parker Posey to promote Café Society. And if you haven’t watched it already, Blake is …testy …throughout this whole exchange. Interestingly, at least to me, since I just mentioned this in my post yesterday and have been mentioning it where Blake is concerned, she’s particularly spiky when she’s asked about fashion. In an uncomfortably patronising way. 

@ohiok9

#blakelively #blakelivelyjustinbaldoni

♬ original sound - ohiok9
 

And that’s not an exaggeration to say that the reporter wanted to quit her job – she said it herself because she was the one who originally posted this video on YouTube a few days ago and then TikTok and it’s amassed a healthy amount of views there but then TikTok found it and ran with it with the enthusiasm of Tom Cruise. 

So, again, according to social media, there’s one clear big bad in this situation and it’s Blake, it is not Justin. But she’s not the one with a crisis management team, it’s him. And if we follow the timeline of that… 

The reports that he’s hired crisis PR comes out around 8 or 9ish pm ET last night, right? A few hours later? Guess which outlet posts a pro-Justin story? 

TMZ's headline
 

It’s the website I once called the “gossip voice of the men’s rights movement”. 

Coincidence or conspiracy? 

And, seriously, why was this necessary? Blake is the one who’s made the most notorious and criticised public relations fumbles during the It Ends With Us press tour. Any casual observer of media can see this. Yes, sure, there are people, including me, side-eyeing why all the women involved in the production aren’t riding with him but this is undeniably being drowned out by all the Blake hate – and it’s a crazy amount of hate. The TMZ article is only adding to that, and if these are people who are ostensibly associated with Justin putting it out there, and his whole sh-t is supposed to be “men, let’s stop harming women”, isn’t this a little off-brand? 

WTF is happening here? Why is all of this so insane?! Why is 2024 the Year of Very Bad Communication?!