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Blake Lively is getting the Jennifer Lopez treatment, which is to say that, seemingly out of nowhere, there is a tidal wave of ill will careening towards her.
Due to the reported drama between Blake Lively and It Ends With Us director/co-star Justin Baldoni, the 36-year-old former Gossip Girl star has found herself under the pop cultural microscope, leading movie fans to look back on her past behavior and wonder if this is who she’s been all along. And unfortunately for Lively, it seems it has.
One of the main knocks against Lively in recent weeks is the reminder that she and her husband Ryan Reynolds got married at a South Carolina plantation, leading to the recent nickname “Plantation Princess.”
“Blake Lively hasn’t gagged me since I found out she got married on a plantation. For the love of god get that woman off my tl,” read a viral August 7 tweet with over 3.5 million views.
Lively’s recent snarky, glib answer to a genuine question about domestic abuse — the central theme of her new film It Ends With Us — is also whipping up tons of backlash.
Watching Blake Lively, The Plantation Princess, be so flip and cruel about victims of domestic violence is really something.
You could have just learned the names of one or two resources for DV victims and said you'd guide them to those resources. pic.twitter.com/WHiCxLdKQ5
— Cooper (@Cooperstreaming) August 14, 2024
Lively’s conduct in her interview while promoting It Ends With Us led to the resurfacing of a 2016 interview that the interviewer claimed made her want to “quit her job.”
In the now-viral interview, Lively passively aggressively responds to a compliment about her pregnancy before largely ignoring the interviewer as she goes on a diatribe about the sexism in actresses about their wardrobes and not actors. This was all made more ironic by the fact that Lively was promoting Café Society, which was directed by Woody Allen, who was accused of sexual abuse multiple times before Lively decided to work with him.
A reporter says to a pregnant Blake Lively, “Congrats on your little bump!” And she responds, to the clearly not pregnant reporter, “Congrats on YOUR little bump!” Hell is not hot enough pic.twitter.com/l1pBBFjHGX
— Molly Mulshine 🇺🇸 (@mollymulshine) August 14, 2024
“Sitting down with Blake Lively and her co-star Parker Posey for Cafe Society (2016) is the most uncomfortable interview situation I have ever experienced. Is it not ok to congratulate someone on their pregnancy or to ask another woman about costumes she is wearing in a film?” said Norwegian interviewer Kjersti Flaa of the experience.
According to reports, the drama between Lively and Baldoni stems from Lively’s belief that Baldoni weight-shamed her by asking her trainer how much she weighs (because he has alleged back issues and there’s a scene where he needs to lift her) and that he held on to a kiss too long when they were filming an intimate scene. There are also reports that Lively went over the director’s head to edit the film, as she hired Deadpool & Wolverine editor Shane Reid to create her own cut of the film, which is based on the 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover of the same name.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Baldoni has hired PR crisis manager Melissa Nathan of The Agency Group, who previously represented Johnny Depp during the Amber Heard trial.
Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds has also been on the receiving end of growing criticism in recent months, although his seems to be more targeted towards his creative and business endeavors and not his personal conduct.