The Colleen Hoover book-turned-movie “It Ends With Us” has been controversial since the day the cast was announced, and the drama has only continued to unfold since then. When filming restarted after it was halted due to the Hollywood Writers and Actors Guild strike, everything seemed to go smoothly. The movie was released and was a box office hit, grossing a worldwide total of $351 million. But, during the press tour, the public began to get suspicious because the two stars of the film, Blake Lively, playing Lily Bloom, and Justin Baldoni, both directing the film and playing Ryle Kincaid, seemed to be avoiding each other at all costs. When they were never seen together for the press tour and fans realized that the majority of the cast, including Lively and Hoover, unfollowed him on social media, fans began to take sides, many taking Baldoni’s side, arguing that Lively is known to be hard to work with and was trying to fluff up a serious movie that portrays domestic abuse. Contrary to Lively, who avoided discussing sexual abuse during the movie’s press tour, Baldoni positioned himself as an “ally to women” and a supporter of women’s rights, even winning an award from Vital Voices due to his actions as a “vital role as a male [ally]” to women.
Fans began to run with whatever rumors came their way, TMZ alleging that Baldoni was fat-shaming Lively, making inappropriate comments and kissing her for unconsented long periods of time during scenes. Rumors online also said that the rift between Lively and Baldoni was caused by Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds becoming too controlling over the film’s direction.
On December 21, months after the box-office hit played on the big screen, Lively added fuel to the fire and filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, claiming he sexually harassed her and led a campaign to destroy her reputation. TMZ cited that in order for Lively to continue working on the film, there should be “no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction,’ no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew’s genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake’s weight and no further mention of Blake’s dead father.” Her lawsuit also alleged that fan-backlash was due to a carefully orchestrated effort by Baldoni’s PR team, according to the Independent. Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freeman, told TMZ that Lively’s lawsuit had been filed in order to “fix her negative reputation.”
On December 22, Baldoni was dropped by his talent agency, WME agency. Lively is also repped by WME and the picking of sides seemed to be telling to the public. In addition, on December 24, Baldoni’s previously earned “ally to women” award was rescinded, only building the speculation that it was true that Baldoni was sexually harassing Lively on the set of the film.
On January 1, Baldoni filed a suit against The New York Times for $250 million, for libel and false-light invasion of privacy. On the same day, Lively’s suit against Baldoni became official. Baldoni had countersued Lively and Reynolds for $400 million on January 17, claiming they attempted to destroy his reputation and career.
With every day that passes, new videos, text messages and voice-memos are released to the public, each one being excruciatingly examined by those keeping up with the drama. With each new piece of media the actors release, the evidence swings who people think is in the right in a new direction.
As the drama has unfolded in the past months, the way the movie will be remembered has gone from “It Ends With Us,” a movie with the purpose of raising awareness for domestic violence, to “It Ends With Us” in court. What the movie is supposed to stand for has been overshadowed by Lively and Baldoni’s feud. Speculatory fans are taking sides and potentially contributing to abuse or the demise of someone’s career if they are wrong. Although taking sides is harmful to both parties involved, accusing the woman of lying is even more detrimental to cycles of abuse that exist in society. It’s important to recognize that as “hard to work with” as someone might be, they still may have faced abuse by someone that is more popular to the public. Although you may not like Lively as a person, Baldoni still could have abused her. After all, the fans were not on the set of “It Ends With Us.” We can never truly know what happened until the matter is settled in court. Until that time, it’s important to not contribute to a cycle of victim-blaming or automatically believing the man in cases such as these.
