It sounds like Justin Baldoni’s PR team was doing the MOST to try and paint Blake Lively as the villain after their It Ends with Us fallout… And was planning on involving some pretty big celebs in his alleged smear campaign!
With the Age of Adaline star finally coming forward with HER side of how the IEWU mess went down, she claimed in her legal complaint that Justin intended to take down her career by painting her in a bad light. And according to the docs, he considered some huge celebs in the process.
Taylor Swift
Documents from Blake’s complaint show a crisis management expert accounting for the Eras Tour performer’s massive fanbase to side with Blake since the two are friends. An email reads:
“We have seen the most innocuous issues turn giant due to socials or the hugest crises have no effect on social whatsoever. You just cannot tell at this stage. But, BL does have some of the same TS fanbase so we will be taking it extremely seriously.”
So you can’t win over Tay’s fans… But can you weaponize her reputation? They thought about it!
A separate document adds:
“Our team can also explore planting stories about the weaponization of feminism and how people like Taylor Swift, have been accused of utilizing these tactics to ‘bully’ into getting what they want.”
That’s CRAZY! They were going to allegedly try to link the fact Taylor is known for her feuds with women to try to paint her bestie Blake in a bad light…
Ryan Reynolds
As we’ve previously covered, Justin appeared to be nervous after Ryan blocked him on social media and wanted to devise a plan for if Blake did the same following IEWU’s release. In other words? They were using Ryan as a bellwether to let them know what Blake might be thinking next…
Hailey Bieber
According to legal docs, Justin and his team cited Justin Bieber’s wife as an example of the target of “astroturfing,” or the practice of a brand/individual deceivingly presenting opinions about a figure through the guise of social media users — typically negative in nature. He allegedly cited an X (Twitter) thread about “Hailey Bieber’s history of bullying women,” and told his time:
“This is what we would need.”
Ben Affleck, Leighton Meester, and Anna Kendrick
Blake has previously worked with all three of the actors mentioned above. According to the docs, in the event “Blake subtly hints at her ‘experience’ [with Baldoni in It Ends With Us] in post-premiere coverage, either in an op-ed, interview or otherwise,” the Jane the Virgin star suggested having reporters criticize her working relationships with each:
“These pieces will likely come out following any potential hit piece and/or coverage from the premiere. Our recommended approach would be to provide reporters who reach out for comment, should it be obvious she’s referring to you, with the appropriate background information (listed in Scenario 1) to ensure their stories are balanced and the speculation can be turned to another one of the many people she’s had issues working with (Leighton Meester, Anna Kendrick, Ben Affleck, etc.).”
The Blake and Leighton Gossip Girl feud rumors are legendary, but Blake and Anna? They’re making A Simple Favor 2! Well, there was talk of “personality differences” at the time. But we think a lot of that was probably them playing up their onscreen rivalry.
As for Ben? They played hookup buddies in his 2010 flick The Town. And there has been talk they might have hooked up for real. (This was before she got with Ryan — and has never been substantiated in any way!) But we never heard talk of trouble between them on set.
