Blake Lively became a household name playing Serena van der Woodsen in the hit CW show Gossip Girl. She gained recognition and praise in films for her impressive performances in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Shallows, The Age of Adaline, and A Simple Favor. Lively is back with her new romantic drama It Ends With Us.
Fans of Colleen Hoover’s book were looking forward to the film and the trailer also hooked general audiences to be interested in it. Leading up to the film’s release, rumors about an alleged conflict between the film’s director and Lively began to circulate. A new report has now revealed that Lively supposedly brought on Deadpool & Wolverine‘s editor to make her own cut of the film.
New Report Escalates The Alleged Justin Baldoni-Blake Lively Controversy
Blake Lively is currently starring as Lily Bloom in the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us. Justin Baldoni directed the film and it is doing really well at the box office. Despite the enormous success, there is a lot of media focus going on the alleged behind-the-scenes drama that happened between Baldoni and Lively.
The whole thing started when fans started noticing that Baldoni was promoting the film alone and was not seen posing for pictures with the cast at the film’s New York premiere. Their speculation intensified when they saw that Lively, Hoover, and Jenny Slate did not follow Baldoni back on Instagram (via People).
Baldoni also seemed to be distancing himself from directing a potential sequel (Hoover’s It Starts With Us) telling Entertainment Tonight “I think there are better people for that one” and stating that Lively would be perfect to direct that. Now, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that both individuals allegedly had differing cuts off the film and Lively reportedly brought in Shane Reid to help her improve her cut of the film.
Fans have been closely following all the reports about this alleged controversy and now believe that Baldoni was done wrong by Lively. The Gossip Girl star is getting a lot of heat for allegedly taking creative control from the director creating this mess. Here are the reactions on X,
blake lively seems to be the weird and wrong one in this conflict and i makes me feel so sad for justin baldoni 💔
— Honest Andrew 🥀 (@andrewscomet) August 14, 2024
People should've alread cancelled her when she married on a plantation but okay..
— eri˚❀*·ꕤ. (@eternalcumslime) August 14, 2024
Hollywood drama is BACK, This whole thing is a mess 😭😂😂
— 𝟒’𝟗 𝑫𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒂 𝑭𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆 (@davinafayette) August 14, 2024
omg Blake Lively girl what’re you doing 😭
— steven ☀️ (@arianaunext) August 14, 2024
Justin Baldoni’s crisis PR firm already hard at work
— 𝙻𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚍𝙰𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚎 (@LeaveHeardAlone) August 14, 2024
Additionally, other reports state that Lively allegedly felt Baldoni fat-shamed her during one scene in the film and also allegedly felt uncomfortable when he lingered longer during a kiss scene (via TMZ). Baldoni has now hired a veteran PR crisis manager Melissa Nathan amidst all the controversy, further adding to the chaotic situation.
Blake Lively’s A Simple Favor 2 Gets A Promising Update From Director Paul Feig
Audiences were blown away when they saw the deliciously twisty and sinister A Simple Favor which starred Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick in 2018. The film was a hit at the time and the cast returned to shoot the sequel this year. A Simple Favor 2 has now finished shooting and director Paul Feig has a positive update about the progress of the film.
Talking to Cinemablend, Feig revealed that he is happy with how the film turned out and has started test-screening the film. Fans will be happy to know that the film scored very high during the test screenings. The director said,
I’m so happy with it. We just actually did – I’ll tell you top secretly – we just did a test screening two nights ago, and you can use this. We scored through the roof. Through the roof!
A Simple Favor 2 will see the return of Lively, Kendrick, Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells, and Bashir Salahuddin along with new cast members Joshua Satine, Ian Ho, Michele Morrone, and Kelly McCormack. It will hit theatres sometime next year. For now, fans can see Lively in It Ends With Us in theatres everywhere.
