A new investigation reveals a coordinated smear campaign aimed at actress Lively, orchestrated by the film's PR team, seeking to damage her reputation and stifle her potential complaints against the director.
A man can do anything but if a woman does an inch of wrong, people want to watch her burn. Lively became the internet’s favourite villain for nearly a month. Her crimes included giving dismissive interviews, being badly dressed, too chipper, too rude and, most of all, annoying.
For weeks, she was eviscerated online by millions on TikTok, X and Instagram – by some for failing to grasp the film’s message about the cycle of domestic violence (and simultaneously promoting her haircare line and her husband, Ryan Reynolds’ gin brand), but by many, many more for simply giving off bad vibes. There was always something off about her, they concurred. At the time, this vitriol felt as if it came out of nowhere – but we now understand it appears to have been driven by a calculated smear campaign orchestrated by Baldoni’s PR team. Dozens of subpoenaed text messages and documents unveiled an apparent plan for how to make hate for Lively go viral, seemingly in an attempt to stem public support if she were to come forward with a complaint she made about Baldoni during filming. Details included comments appearing to take credit for the avalanche of criticism against Lively (“We’ve started to see shift on social, due largely to Jed and his team’s efforts to shift the narrative”). One message mentioned Lively’s friendship with the singer Taylor Swift, and how they could “explore planting stories about the weaponisation of feminism” given Swift had been accused of such tactics. Even the tone deaf messaging appeared to have been directed by production – telling the cast to focus on the “uplifting” aspects of the film – leaving Baldoni the sole star speaking sensitively while Lively, as instructed, encouraged people to “grab your friends, wear your florals and head out to see it”
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