Slow Dancing in a Burning War Room
How Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni Are Successfully Waging a PR War Against Each Other To Shape Public Opinion Outside of Court
“The first rule of war is to survive. A victorious army first wins and then seeks battle; a defeated army fights first and then seeks victory,” so goes the wisdom of every sociopath’s favorite book, The Art of War.
Three weeks ago, it seemed like actor Justin Baldoni had decisively lost the public relations war to his It Ends With Us co-star turned plaintiff Blake Lively.
“JUSTIN BALDONI IS CANCELLED: BLAKE LIVELY RUINS HIS CAREER (He’s BLACKLISTED from Hollywood),” screamed the title of YouTuber Sloan Hooks’ 15-minute daily gossip breakdown to his million subscribers. While hesitant to pick a side, Sloan made his stance clear: “Blake Lively is reveling in her victory as Justin Baldoni faces career-ending fallout- losing his agency, awards, podcast, and more.”
When Lively’s team accused Baldoni's PR team of orchestrating a smear campaign against her, Hollywood stars rushed forward to show public support for the 37-year-old actress. Baldoni’s reputation began to slowly crumble as longtime colleagues and Gossip Girl fans alike rallied behind the beloved Serena van der Woodsen. Her TikTok supporters flooded the nearly-extinct app with videos painting her tall, dark, and handsome co-star as an ego-driven narcissist. Baldoni’s decade-old marriage proposal video gave them endless material to work with. Clips of a 2012 Baldoni, dancing in front of a camera in a wife beater, lip-syncing to NSYNC, ABBA and Boys II Men while asking his then-girlfriend Emily Fuxler (now Emily Baldoni) to marry him, resurfaced. Gen Z mocked him mercilessly, seemingly forgetting that cringey lip syncs were the blueprint for the very app they can’t stop scrolling.
A friend showed me one of these 15-second TikToks as evidence against Baldoni. “He’s obviously guilty,” she said confidently. “Who makes a proposal video all about themselves?”
I believed her. Just another typical Hollywood narc, I thought.
It didn’t matter that I hadn’t read a single legal document from the case. A grown man who made their girlfriend sit through a half hour of Abba covers before popping the question was enough to solidify my stance that maybe Justin really was that weirdo.
But then, just a few scrolls later, I saw a viral reel that made Lively herself look like an obnoxious egomaniac, boasting spats of nonsense in an old interview clip with actress Anna Kendrick.
And with just one more scroll, I finally had enough of both of them.
Now a no-name TikToker was chiming in, critiquing Blake’s horrible outfits throughout the years- an irrelevant detail in a sexual harassment case-yet one I couldn’t shake. “Raggedy Anne Chic,” writer Brianna Logan coined her style.
This, I realized, is what makes this case so fascinating: how easily public opinion can be shaped by a snippet of shallow content.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a doctored video is worth a billion.
Both Lively’s and Baldoni’s seasoned PR teams understand this dynamic, and have expertly turned what should have remained a private legal matter into a meticulously orchestrated public spectacle.
This Isn’t Just Litigation; It’s PR Warfare.
Each day brings another headline, another tactic- more strategically cropped text messages, drafting armies of digital soldiers to tilt the scales of public opinion. Because in today’s world, if you lose the public, does a court ruling even matter?
In war, you save your best ammunition for the right moment.
Yesterday, Baldoni’s team fired their biggest shot yet, releasing never-before-seen footage from It Ends With Us, revealing a slow-dancing scene that undermines Lively’s allegations of inappropriate conduct documented in Lively’s complaint.
Full 10-Minute Video:
Released to the Daily Mail by Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, the unedited video flipped the narrative once again. In the clip, Lively and Baldoni are seen slow dancing to the classic song “God Only Knows,” locking eyes with one another while blurry background actors fill the space behind them. The co-stars joke about their offscreen spouses, laugh about Baldoni’s “huge nose,” and discuss her spray tan. The banter, previously cited in Lively’s lawsuit as evidence of misconduct, suddenly appeared innocuous.
The crux of Lively’s complaint-a comment Baldoni allegedly made out of character-was also reframed. Baldoni is seen asking, “Am I getting beard on you?” Lively responds, “I’m probably getting spray tan on you.” Baldoni replies, “It smells good,” and both laugh. This new context reveals the comment was prompted by Lively’s concerns about her spray tan, not an unsolicited remark as previously framed.
If Baldoni’s lying about anything, it’s certainly the spray tan. We can all smell it from here.
The footage shows Lively breaking character mid-scene, saying, “I think we should just talk—it’s more romantic.” Baldoni counters, “They’ll never know in slow motion. You’re not supposed to give the audience exactly what they want.”
Lively’s lawsuit accuses Baldoni of speaking out of character during the scene, yet here she’s seen encouraging him to engage in casual, improvised conversation. This contradiction raises further questions about the validity of her claims, painting a picture of a more collaborative, playful moment than the one depicted in her lawsuit.
The two start chatting about their offscreen spouses. Baldoni describes his marriage, saying he and his wife often “just stare at each other.” Lively laughs, joking, “I’d be like, ‘Oh no, I found a sociopath.’” She then gushes about her husband Ryan Reynolds, confessing that they talk so much it feels like there’s never enough time in the day.
“It’s cute,” Baldoni replies. Lively adds, “It’s more than cute.” He nods, but there’s a hint of sarcasm when he calls it “amazing.” In that moment, I started wondering if he was in love with her. Seconds later, that thought dies. Baldoni snaps out of character and switches into director mode, giving a note to the assistant director off camera.
Al Pacino once said “An actor is at the heart of storytelling. But it’s also about fooling people. You have to make them believe that something’s real.”
The late Heath Ledger agreed: “The job of the actor is to bring the truth of the character to life, even if that truth is a lie.”
Cast as an obsessive lover, this scene showed Baldoni playing his part, and playing it well.
For Baldoni and His Team, This Leak Was a Small Victory. Most of the Public Reaction Has Been Favorable:
“She gets paid to kiss someone in a movie and then sues him for trying to kiss her? Make it make sense.”
“Every male actor should refuse to work with her. She’s dangerous.”
Blake: talking out of character "I think we should be talking, it's more romantic". Also, Blake in the lawsuit: "He was talking out of character while we did this romantic scene”
Everyone who jumped on the bandwagon to ruin Baldoni should be held accountable.
She was crushing on Justin, Ryan noticed & so she flipped it on Justin to take heat off her!
Conspiracy theories began brewing. Some theorized Lively weaponized the lack of audio on set, believing Baldoni couldn’t prove his innocence. Others alleged she flipped the narrative to deflect from tensions in her own marriage to Ryan Reynolds, whom Baldoni has accused of being complicit in a smear campaign. Others wonder if Baldoni and Lively had an on-set affair.
This new piece of evidence was released just days after Baldoni filed a $400 million countersuit against Lively, Reynolds, and her publicist Leslie Sloane, accusing the three of defamation and extortion.
One of the most jaw-dropping claims gaining traction online though? The Taylor Swift mention. According to Baldoni, Lively used her powerful connections to intimidate him, likening herself to Game of Thrones’ Khaleesi. “I have a lot of dragons,” Lively allegedly told Baldoni, pointing specifically to her husband and close friend Taylor Swift. Meanwhile, internet sleuths were quick to remind their followers of Lively’s recent connection to the controversial designer brand Balenciaga. TikTokers flooded the platform with videos titled “Balenciaga Blake,” showcasing photos of her modeling for the brand after its scandal, as well as her appearance at Super Bowl 58 wearing an Adidas x Balenciaga tracksuit.
Last week, ahead of this footage release, Evidential Medium Lauren Rainbow predicted bleak times ahead for Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds on Susan Pinsky’s Calling Out podcast.
“I really kinda feel this is not going to come out for Ryan Reynolds out of all of them,” Rainbow warned, predicting Reynolds to have a “fall from grace” for any alleged involvement in the case. Pinksy’s husband, Dr. Drew, defended Reynolds’ character, describing him as one of the “nicest guys he knows,” and said that if he does fall from grace he hopes he “rides it out.”
As Hollywood studios have already turned to AI to replace extras, this scandal might just become the catalyst to phase out intimate scenes altogether. Perhaps A-list actors will be next on the chopping block.
For now, one thing is clear: the offscreen drama surrounding It Ends With Us has given the lukewarm film more attention than it ever deserved.
Who knows how long this PR spectacle will last? None of us bought tickets to the film, yet we’re all here- front row, aisle seats- watching the endless legal battle unfold. This war is far from over. Neither seems ready to surrender. Maybe it’s time to close our apps and stop scrolling.
If it won’t end with them, it must end with us.
Happy and mentally healthy people, overall, don’t try to attack, bring others down, or throw accusations without substantial evidence and intent. I wonder how her marriage is going; drama often fills the void where happiness is lacking.
I'll start on a positive: Those shoes are incredible and she has pretty feet. That's all she's getting. She is bossy and condesending. Her insisting on talking yet she would not start any conversation was telling that she had nothing to talk about. She was looking to him to start a topic. The "do you wanna BUTT IN" to the extra was pretty rude. Her passive/aggressive comments on his nose don't come across as total joking, yet she's claiming he talked about her weight? No. I used to think she was nice as her face is sweet and come on -she's married to Ryan Reynolds. The "it's more than cute" comment was also bitchy when Justin was complimenting her relationship with Ryan. She's done. Justin's management that fired him should be ashamed as should everyone who jumped on the Blake Bullshit Boat. Amber 2.0 but more dangerous.