Hey, that folks.
It is Tuesday, May fifth, and our long national nightmare is over. The Blake Lively justin Bald Dunny case is over. Be honest with you, I kind of forgot what the hell the thing was even about. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ and Rhodes.
This has been going on for so long.
It ended so suddenly, and I had to stop and kind of remind myself what was this about again, And a lot of it was just mutslinging.
Yeah, I think a good way to I Actually, this was my relief. It ends with us saga. It finally ends with them seemingly singing Kumbai Yah.
Yeah.
They settled this crazy lawsuit that honestly, we've been confused about from the beginning. There's just been a lot of he did this, he said that, she did this, they did that, And it was about yes, sexual harassment initially, but then it was about a smear campaign, and then about a retaliatory campaign, and then it was about pr agencies saying bad things or trying to get reporters to report lies. It just it got all messy. Taylor Swift texts were even involved in this. She wasn't so happy
about that. But yeah, a lot of big celebrity names, and it seemed a little schoolyard ish. I'm not trying to minimize what Blake Lively said she experienced, and certainly she was trying to be a champion for women's rights speaking up about being sexually harassed in the workplace, and that was what she claimed her goal was. But my god, this was a costly one financially and from a pr standpoint for both of them. They both got dirty when the movie come out twenty twenty four.
Okay, so did the harassment claims. All this was that year. But the movie was a huge hit, was it not? How much space I cannot remember, and sorry if you don't either as well. What the distance was in time between the movie coming out and being a hit and things starting getting ugly between them. I don't think all that ugliness was surrounding the.
Movie, wasn't It wasn't.
So what happened pretty quickly after they had to obviously walk a red cart. They walked separately on the red carpet. It was all bubbling up as the promotion for the movie was beginning, and then it kind of exploded but yeah, it ends with us gross more than three hundred and fifty one million dollars worldwide. It was a huge hit. It was a wonderful book. I saw the movie, I read the books, and it was a shame that all
of that came out of a movie. A lot of people really liked to watch a story they really loved by Colleen Hoover.
Yeah, that part of it really was a shame. I mean, she has plenty of books, and who knows what they could have done and continued to do. I don't know what's going That's not the big part. But Roades, that is a big deal. Two stars of a movie, one of them says the other one sexually heard asked me on the set of that movie. And again, Blake Live is a big enough name on her own. You throw in Ryan Reynold's name, You throw in Taylor Swift. This became like her entire orbit kind of got caught up
in this. But Robes, the original claim was that secuor harassment on set, which he obviously quickly, immediately and strongly denied.
Yes, and so she had thirteen separate allegations. And yes, we were hearing drips and drabs of what they were, what they were going to be. And by the way, the New York Times did a big article on this. So Justin Baldoni countered pretty quickly with the defamation lawsuit against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds and the New York Times.
But a judge this past summer threw all of that out, and then just last month, that judge dismissed ten of Blake Lively's thirteen allegations, including the big one harassment and defamation.
Okay, so she had only two or three three last I don't want to say they weren't the biggest claims, but ropes. After all of this that was going on and the only things that were left that they were going to go to court over in a couple of weeks, they pretty quickly determined, Yeah, this ain't worth The damage is about to be.
Done exactly because we were going to see Blake Lively testify, we were likely going to see Ryan Reynolds testify, we were going to see Justin bell Dony testify. That would have been huge. This already grabbed and dominated way too many headlines. I think most of us got really sick and annoyed and sometimes confused by the back and forth, but to have this publicly paraded on trial in Manhattan that was going to be one of the biggest trials
of the year. It was set to take place May eighteenth, so we're talking they settled exactly two weeks before court was set to begin. And yeah, those three claims breach of contract, retaliation and aiding and a betting in retaliation. So those were the three claims that were in this civil lawsuit. And yeah, I think for her if the harassment and defamation got thrown out, that was the meat of her lawsuit. That was what she had even written about on social media that she cared about the most.
And we should point out it wasn't thrown out because it didn't rise to the level. It wasn't that there weren't merits to her lawsuit. The judge said that this is really specific that under federal and state law, Blake Lively would have had to have been classified as an employee to bring these claims of sexual harassment and defamation.
And the judge said that she instead operated as an independent contractor in this movie, so she had more power than someone would have if they were just an employee. So if she were an employee of Justin Baldoni, she would have had a legal claim to this lawsuit, but because she was basically an independent contractor and kind of yeah, on the same level as him, it changed her ability to make these claims in court.
These were logistics. He made no determination one way or another about, like you said, the merits of the case. But Robes, this is a long way to get to finally then realize I'm in the wrong place to sue. That was odd, fine, But Robes, the three that were left, if those were her three claims initially, would this have gotten this far, which she had gone this hard after a lawsuit, if those were her three.
Issues, probably not.
Yes, But Rob, we've been doing this for a year and a half because we don't know everything that's in the court documents. What have people been doing leaking? And this has been an ugly tabloid story that really exposed Rose what we kind of got a little lesson in but the behind the scenes, in the back and forth, and it's not reporting, its leaking and planting stories.
It is so bizarre how this works.
And we got in the most of the world start seeing all these people and seeing these background these texts and these plans and these missions to literally bring people down. It's ugly. And to think Blake Lively, Okay, justin Baldoni's starting that movie. Fine, he's a successful guy. But Blake Lively under oath having to answer questions about her life,
her finances, her friends, her husband ropes, that's tough. No way that we're going to let an attorney from the other side get a hold of her under oath.
Yeah, And when the judge made that ruling on April second, they were already her lawyer was already starting to talk settlement talk, So there was already a notion of exactly what you're saying. There's no way it would have been worth it for her to put herself exposed herself like that under cross examination, to not really even have that much of a reward if the judge were or the jury were to have sided with her, it just wouldn't
have made any real sense from a reputational standpoint. And you remember, her reputation was the reason why this all bubbled up. Do you remember our daughters talking about, Oh, Blake Lively in the promotion of this movie. It is that she wasn't taking the movie seriously enough. The movie deals with elements of domestic violence. That's at the crux of this movie. So it isn't a rom com, it's
a rom drum basically. And there were all of these people online pointing to the fact that she was talking about girls' night out, Girls' night Out, and look, this is a novel that a lot of girls read together and had book clubs about, so I understand what she
was saying. But then she claimed all of that negative press harping on what she said came from the Baldoni camp, and that is when we started to get word that there was something else going on, that there was some other undercurrent of some other story that was bubbling up between these two, and that's when it all exploded.
I don't remember claiming that that side is responsible for something that just took off on TikTok. Maybe they can go back to it, but I remember her getting criticism because at times when these were heavier themes and conversations people were trying to have whether there's a red carpet or in whatever press junket she was promoting her product and things like that. I can't remember what her products were, maybe fashion, something beauty, maybe, but it felt tone death.
I didn't see this stuff. I just remember that being the reporting of how she handled throughout everything felt off.
Yeah I didn't undertand yeah I didn't understand how what she did and what she said which was being criticized, had anything to do with Justin Baldoni. But their claim is that they were getting people to print these things and to take it to another level and to really drum up this criticism against her, to retaliate before even any of the allegations came out, to kind of damage her reputation before she made any allegations.
And they all came out ugly in this, all of them.
You know that what they say, when you start throwing mud, everybody gets dirty, and that is exactly what happened. Nobody came out of this looking good, not a one.
So now here we are robes. We have a settlement, and I think you have the statement in front of you.
I did, okay, And we're going to say before we read it, like the preface and give context. This is as perfect this is going to ever get. You know, how carefully worded this thing is rogues. And with the thing here we went through all this for what do you or have you seen anywhere a breakdown of what each side actually got, if anything, out of a settlement, or did they both just wave white flags at each other and say we quit because there's no money that
exchanged any settlement of that kind that I saw. But I didn't see that anybody conceded this or gave that, or exchanged this, or here's the extra movie profits or here's the rights to this script.
I have nothing.
Nope, I have not. I have not heard any single Okay, I haven't seen any single report. I haven't heard anyone talk about what these two possibly gained or got out of this lawsuit. Not a one.
But we got a hell of a britten statement.
It's it's and this was a joint statement, by the way, which I feel like is is an interesting thing. The fact that they were able to come together toward this is pretty remarkable.
I would like to see the drafts and the red lines in the back and forth they had in putting the statement together.
Oh my god, between the lawyers, back and forth. Oh my goodness. Yeah, here it is in part. This is the meat of it. We acknowledged the process, presented challenges and recognize concerns raised by mis Lively deserve to be heard. We remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments. It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online.
Okay, okay, and that's it, and we all move back to our respective corners and jobs and families and homes and movies and.
It huh it It kind of feels like this was all for nothing. If anything came out of it, it was just the exposure of this underbelly of Hollywood that's ugly and it exists. And a reminder to people when you read things to not believe what you read that there is usually a motive behind a lot of what is being said, especially when it's being said negatively about someone in the spotlight.
And yeah, a lot of times it is just a flood out lie.
Absolutely absolutely all right. When we come back, we're gonna tell you how Blake Lively bounced back real quickly afterword of this settlement became public. Welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and DJ. We are finally well, we're excited, and we're frankly We're relieved. We don't have to cover a confusing and a circus of an that was set to take place in Manhattan on May eighteenth, the Blake Lively Justin bell DONI lawsuit. It is over. It's not happening.
At least the trial is not happening. And apparently everybody is joining hands, releasing joint statements, and all is well in the world. Apparently not really sure what anyone got out of this lawsuit. But the good news for those of us who were trying to understand it, it's over. You're relieved, aren't you? You did not want to cover this trial?
Well, I wanted to cover the trial. I didn't.
I mean, I'll be honest, we're up. There have plenty of mornings we skipped on a morning run adding this story because we one didn't understand it. It was a hard to get you caught up on what was happening. What's a real story, what's not a real story? Where are we in the legal process? It was just trying to keep up with the headlines in the back and forth.
Was it wasn't fun and it is ugly and I don't know either one of these folks, But I don't want I know what this feels like robes and you could say, oh, he deserved it or she deserved it to take a side or whatever. But this, it's just human ugliness on display, and these people were trying to destroy each other, to destroy each other publicly.
It did feel like that. It felt like they both had huge PR machines behind them doing everything they could to make the other side look worse than they did. But hey, Blake Lively, the announcements made hours later, shows up looking glam and fabulous at the met gala, I mean, within hours of this announcement all smiles. Frankly, it was pretty shocking. She hadn't been, I believe since twenty twenty two. She was the co chair, so she hadn't been for a couple of years, and it was not anyone people
were expecting to show up, especially with that announcement. She also showed up without Ryan Reynolds. That was interesting.
I wonder what the plan.
Obviously she had planned to go to the Met, the dress was done, all these plans had been made. I wonder though, if it mattered, if they hadn't settled in the announcement yesterday, would she has still gone out there and done this.
Probably, yeah, you know what, I hadn't even thought. Of course, she had this crazy beautiful dress, a pastel Versachi gown with a thirteen foot train that didn't just show up a few hours ago. This obviously was planned, and she also this was sweet. She had a custom handbag featuring water color drawings by her four kids, so she said, she told the cameras, I'm shy. I just like to have my kids with me. So she had her bag. She had the water colorings from her kids on full
display there with her beautiful gown. But no Ryan Reynolds. I guess maybe he was home with the kids. I mean they were eleven, nine, six and three, so they've got a brood of girls and probably someone had to stay home with. Obviously they could have afforded babysitter, but I don't know, New.
York, it's hard defines in my last minute.
That's hilarious. But no, and I don't know. If Ryan had gone, maybe that would have been more of a spectacle, given the announcement, and given he played the protective husband, and I don't want to say played. He was very publicly a protective husband during this process. He seemed to be obviously in solid support of his wife throughout it all, and thankfully for him and for them and for pretty
much everyone involved. He won't have to testify now in two weeks, so thank god for that, and we just hope we don't have to talk about this anymore.
No, I don't even know this is a federal case. I'm not sure if there would have even been cameras allowed.
I don't think there would have been, but we would have had the sketch artists and all of the gaggle of reporters. Can you imagine the scene outside of that courthouse. It would have been like Diddy pretty much.
And you know what, they would have had a bunch of big names probably had to show up and testify in that case. But the first thing I thought of was the remember how damaging that hole the ember heard.
Yes, Johnny Depp, Amberherd.
Watch that thing every day and hear these people go and just say some of the most just to hear about their Oh that was awful. A repeat of that with two people who have different reputations frankly than Johnny Depp. No offense to Johnny Depp, but he does not have the same reputation as of Bryan Reynolds.
No, and these people all still want to keep making movies and they want people to come and watch their movies, and you kind of need to like them in order to go to the theaters to cheer them on. And so hopefully, hopefully everyone can put this behind them, maybe some lessons were learned, and again we can stop talking about them.
Yeah. I was really rushing out to see Simple Favorite three.
I do like that franchise. He's a friend of ourselves, yes, yes, all right, And with that everyone, thank you for listening to us. As always, I'm Amy Roboch alongside TJ.
Holmes.
We'll talk to you soon.