The fiery legal drama between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni shows no signs of cooling off. On Thursday, both sides managed to agree on one thing, they are not interested in mediation. That means it is full steam ahead for their dueling lawsuits.
Lively alleges Baldoni was “chauvinistic” and “borderline abusive” towards her throughout the It Ends with Us production process, accusing him of sexual harassment and creating a toxic work environment. Baldoni, meanwhile, is suing The New York Times for defamation after the outlet published an article sympathetic to Lively’s side of the story and also Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and her publicist for defamation and civil extortion.
At the center of the conflict on both sides appears to be a struggle for creative control. Baldoni produced, directed, and starred in the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel of the same name, but Lively – as the lead actress – seemingly wanted her say in how the film turned out. Her rewrites and edits ultimately made the final cut, and resurfaced interviews suggest Lively has made a habit out of inserting herself into the creative process.
On Thursday’s show, Megyn was joined by the hosts of Ruthless – Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook – to discuss the latest developments.
Resurfaced Video
Back in 2022, Lively was interviewed at the Forbes Power Women’s Summit where she spoke about how she knowingly oversteps the traditional job description of an actor in order to feel more fulfilled. She said, in part:
LIVELY: I would show up on a set. I knew that they just wanted me to show up and look cute and stand on a little pink sticker where I’m supposed to go and say what I’m supposed to say. But I also knew that, like, that wasn’t fulfilling for me; that I wanted to be a part of the storytelling; that I wanted to be a part of the narrative, whether that be in the writing, in the costume design, in creating the character.
And sometimes I had directors or producers or writers who would welcome that and invite that once they saw that I was able to offer that. And sometimes I would have people who really resented that because they were like, ‘We just hired you to be an actor.’ Yet when I went in the meetings, I would just seem like, I’m just there to be the actor and ready to get the gig. I wouldn’t reveal that I actually need to have authorship in order to feel fulfilled. So, I think that for them sometimes that might have felt like a rug pool because you’re, like, you’re trying to assert yourself into something that we didn’t hire you to do.
Comments like this are being scrutinized in a new way in the wake of the litigation. “I mean, she is a serial fraudster,” Megyn said. “It is called fraud when you pretend you want to do the one thing and you will do the thing they are hiring you for, but, all along, you have secret plans to do something very, very different that is above your pay grade.”
Comfortably Smug said Lively’s behavior wouldn’t fly in any other setting. “It’s like if you hire the plumber and he climbs up from under the sink and says, ‘Now let’s talk about how you’ve decorated the place,'” he quipped. “Like, what are you talking about?”
BTS Drama
But it doesn’t end there. Baldoni was ostracized by his cast mates on social media and at the premieres of the movie – something that was picked up on by fans long before the legal battle commenced. Last summer, Lively, Hoover, and others involved in the production unfollowed Baldoni on social media, and he claims he was banished to the basement of the film’s New York City premiere.
Hoover has since scrubbed her socials of Lively as well, while a 2009 interview the actress gave to Glamour UK is making the rounds. “She was on the cover at the time and, in her interview, she admitted to trying to poison the cast of Gossip Girl… against her co-star Penn Badgley, who played her love interest Dan Humphrey on the show,” Megyn explained. The pair also dated in real life.
“At first I was so upset that they hired him,” Lively told Glamour. “I actually poisoned the whole cast against him… But then they noticed that he wasn’t a jerk and was actually a really nice, charming person.” What’s more? She said she noticed that “almost immediately,” but “it took me about a week to admit it.”
Since the Baldoni lawsuit, Badgley and Lively’s other Gossip Girl co-stars, including Leighton Meester who played Blair Waldorf, have been remained silent. They also do not follow Lively on social media. In Ashbrook’s view, that is the most telling. “The silence of the people who worked with her the longest on the previous show tells you everything you need to know,” he said. “The people from Gossip Girl know that she can be a lot, and that is probably why they stayed silent.”
Megyn said it calls to mind something she learned about Meghan Markle during her time at NBC. “This is before everyone hated Meghan Markle… The cast of Suits came on to talk about her,” she recalled. “And behind the scenes, let’s just say they weren’t quite as cheery and smiley about this person with whom they’d spent years on the set as they were with the outward-facing interviews. Talking to the hair and makeup crew about what they said behind the scenes was very enlightening.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Ruthless by tuning in to episode 1,007 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.