Life imitates art in such a way that it feeds people’s passion for everything that is “real” (reality shows) and “true”. Isn’t it ironic that Blake Lively became a star when the blog craze – pre-social media – her character was the target of slander and gossip on Gossip Girl? Worse still, the secret author was her boyfriend, Dan, all along? Two decades later, when starring in It Ends With Us, her character, a victim of domestic violence, decides to face and break the cycle of abuse and harassment on her own. Let’s talk about perfect roles for Blake?

Because in the soap opera that has barely started, the Internet has once again polarized about the drama, but the crucial question that weighs on the actress’ side is: how did she get copies of the personal messages from Justin Baldoni’s team, confirming her claim that there was an elaborate smear campaign? The screenshots of the messages are irrefutable evidence, but are they admissible in a lawsuit?

Foul Play?

The filth on both sides in the absurd drama that the backstage of a forgettable little film has turned into is enough to make your stomach turn. There was a movement to highlight all of Blake Lively’s flaws, recent or old, and since there were apparently many sources scattered around, it worked unexpectedly, as Baldoni’s own team celebrated. And it only gets worse.

The fact that Blake claimed to be sure of what was happening at first seemed like victimization. So far she has not admitted any fault (there are some), but it is a fact that she was morally and sexually harassed by Baldoni, she has proof and did not want to have contact with him when promoting the film, a detail that the Internet picked up on, but that she never said anything about. Therefore, in this case, Blake Lively is right about everything.

The big issue now is that the knowledge of what was happening proves that Blake’s team would know how to do the same, or, as some say, is responding in kind now. Personally, I don’t believe in the integrity of revenge and payback, but that’s why I’ve been through a lot of pain in my life. But it was an inevitable risk for Baldoni that eventually the truth would come out. And it really did come out unexpectedly.

According to the lawsuit, Blake Lively’s lawyers obtained the messages from the publicists hired by Baldoni through a court subpoena, but what’s circulating online is more belligerent than that.

Gossip Girl loses!

If there’s one thing that irritates me, it’s when I defend and defend women and we fall into the clichés that misogynists use against us. Of the many names that are circulating in the lawsuit, some of them are important women in Hollywood. And there, the air is thin, everyone knows each other and is connected.

For example: Baldoni and Blake were represented by the same talent agency, WME, and he was fired this week. His publicist, Stephanie Jones, is married to Jason Hodes, one of the agency’s partners. Therefore, while the smear campaign was going on, the opposing sides were under the same roof: Jones was leading Baldoni and Blake’s image campaign with her team.

It was the publicist who hired publicist Jen Abel as well as crisis publicist Melissa Nathan, the two who “buried” Blake Lively. In August 2024, Jones suddenly fired Abel and, with a lawyer present, seized the employee’s cell phone (since it belonged to the company). With that, he had access to the now public messages that Abel exchanged with Nathan.

Jones’ motivation, according to reports, was his outrage upon learning that Abel was about to leave and open his own company and take several clients, having already “stolen” business documents. Unsurprisingly, Baldoni was among the clients who left with her. Between Abel’s firing and the NYT article? It’s only been four months. Isn’t that suspicious? Yes, within Blake’s revenge, there is another one going on behind the scenes.

A very discouraging scenario

Clearly, neither Abel nor Nathan expected their conversations to be published in the New York Times and spread around the world. Both, even for lack of alternatives, remain firm that they were doing the job they were hired to do and did not use any false information against Blake. And now they find it strange that the messages chosen for the newspaper article are only those that prove the actress’s arguments, “cherry-picked” and without context.

Abel and Nathan’s lawyers plan to sue Jones. “If all the text messages were produced in that ‘subpoena,’ then Lively’s team knows the true facts of what really happened and didn’t happen,” said the lawyer. “The truth is completely different from what was portrayed in the complaint and they know it. The complete set of text messages shows unequivocally that there was no smear campaign initiated, which is why certain texts are incomplete and other texts, which say in fact, they are purposefully excluded.”

Another factor that is being raised as suspicious? Even though she is Baldoni’s publicist, Stephanie Jones is not named in Blake Lively’s lawsuit and was the only person in possession of Abel’s phone after he fired her. In other words, we are quickly discussing something much more significant and complicated than Blake Lively and much more about how publicists work today. Four of the largest agencies in Hollywood are involved in the drama. It is high time to question ethics and boundaries, don’t you agree?

Blake Lively’s team filed a complaint with the California Department of Civil Rights. This state agency has the option of conducting its own investigation or providing a “right to sue” letter, allowing complainants to take the case to civil court. In general, these complaints are not made public unless the complainant chooses to reveal the information. And so we continue!

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