Blake Lively "It Ends With Us" Controversy

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Overview

Blake Lively It Ends With Us Controversy, also known as Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s It Ends With Us Drama, refers to a series of allegations towards American actress Blake Lively's behavior and ongoing feud with It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni, who allegedly "fat-shamed" Lively on set by asking someone how much she weighed. The drama started during the It Ends With Us press tour in mid-August 2024 in which netizens noticed Lively's perceived pattern of bad interviews she’s had over the years, as one particular interview from 2016 resurfaced online showing the actress taking a passive-aggressive offense after an interviewer congratulated her pregnancy. Online, the drama surrounding the actress has inspired jokes and memes on X / Twitter, Reddit and TikTok.

Background

Around August 7th and 8th, 2024, rumors started to appear online regarding an alleged feud between It Ends With Us stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, as some fans noticed that Blake and Justin didn’t do any press tour for the film together. One of the earliest viral mentions about the drama was posted on August 8th by X^[1] user @SailorSammy93, who tweeted that "Justin Baldoni is the only one using press to discuss the topic of the movie which is domestic violence and Miss Serena Vanderwoodsen is using it to promote her hair line and Deadpool x Wolverine." The post (seen below) amassed over 4 million views and 47,000 likes in a week.

Developments

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni Drama

On August 14th, 2024, more information regarding the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni drama was heavily shared by tabloids and social media. According to a TMZ^[2] article about the controversy, Lively has told "people there were multiple reasons Justin Baldoni made her feel uncomfortable on the set of It Ends With Us" especially a scene in which Baldoni lifts Lively into the air.

According to the article, "Justin has a history of back problems and before lifting Blake, he went to his on-set trainer and asked how much she weighed and how could he train to protect his back from injury." A video posted by the Access Hollywood^[2] page gives further details of the feud between the actors (seen below), which amassed more than 44,000 views and 315 likes in a day.

Blake Lively Pregnant Interview

Amid comments and discussions alleging Blake Lively is often rude during press tours of her films, on August 10th, 2024, Norwegian reporter Kjersti Flaa uploaded a four-minute interview with Lively to YouTube,^[3] titled "The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job." She added in the video's description that it was "the most uncomfortable interview situation I have ever experienced. " The video amassed over 1.8 million views and 28,000 likes in a week.

Online Reactions

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s drama was a prominent topic online over the following weeks, attracting a lot of memes, jokes and posts criticizing both actors' behavior. For instance, on August 15th, 2024, X^[4] user @electricrafik posted a reaction video from the Scary Movie 2 film, captioning it, "Katy Perry watching the hate train switching to Blake Lively," which amassed more than 548,000 views and 21,000 likes in a day.

Also on August 15th, TikTok^[5] user @shey.luh posted a video explaining all the details about the Blake Lively drama (seen below, left), which amassed more than 869,000 plays and 103,000 likes in a day. On the same day, AP News Entertainment^[6] shared a video of Baldoni responding to online critics who say It Ends With Us glorifies domestic violence (seen below, right), which received roughly 745,000 plays and 90,000 likes in a day.