We Can Bury Anyone
December 21, 2024 4:36 PM Subscribe
Private messages detail an alleged campaign to tarnish Blake Lively after she accused Justin Baldoni of misconduct on the set of “It Ends With Us.” During shooting, Blake Lively, the co-star, had complained that Justin Baldoni, the director and a star of the film, and Jamey Heath, the lead producer, had repeatedly violated physical boundaries and made sexual and other inappropriate comments to her. By August, the two men, who had positioned themselves as feminist allies in the #MeToo era, expressed fears that her allegations would become public and taint them, according to a legal complaint that she filed Friday. It claims that their P.R. effort had an explicit goal: to harm Ms. Lively’s reputation instead.
Her filing includes excerpts from thousands of pages of text messages and emails that she obtained through a subpoena. These and other documents were reviewed by The New York Times.
Her filing includes excerpts from thousands of pages of text messages and emails that she obtained through a subpoena. These and other documents were reviewed by The New York Times.
Why o why would anyone try this on against this person?
The article answers this:
"... people really want to hate on women.”
posted by Toddles at 4:57 PM on December 21 [16 favorites]
The article answers this:
"... people really want to hate on women.”
posted by Toddles at 4:57 PM on December 21 [16 favorites]
As someone who is Blake Lively neutral but aware of her high profile, to paraphrase Omar Little: "You come at the queen, you best not miss."
posted by Kitteh at 5:34 PM on December 21 [16 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 5:34 PM on December 21 [16 favorites]
Notice that Baldoni et al hired the same PR crisis management team as Depp. I fell for some of their BS a couple weeks ago when I heard about her "tone deaf" promotion for IEwU, how she was talking about "Ladies wear your florals!" or whatever on the red carpet, whereas Baldoni was talking seriously about domestic violence. "My gosh, she sounds like a fool!" I thought. Turns out she was just following the producers' directions on how to promote the movie, which I presume was part of the plan to make her look bad. I saw today that her & Reynolds are now being flamed for comments about growing up "working class" , which again I assume is also part of the disinformation campaign against her.
I hope things turn out better for her than for Amber Heard, but people really love to hate women, and I have heard that she has been getting a lot of shit on social media. Our post-truth culture really sucks.
posted by Saxon Kane at 6:11 PM on December 21 [27 favorites]
I hope things turn out better for her than for Amber Heard, but people really love to hate women, and I have heard that she has been getting a lot of shit on social media. Our post-truth culture really sucks.
posted by Saxon Kane at 6:11 PM on December 21 [27 favorites]
Nice article. There was this nice comment on reddit from a user who said she works in crisis comms. And she just said, everything from the start reeked of an abuser using a very standard playbook to smear the victim's reputation.
Justin Baldoni is also a Zionist. It's good that the lag time between his unmasking is shorter than that of Johnny Depp.
posted by Didnt_do_enough at 7:08 PM on December 21 [9 favorites]
Justin Baldoni is also a Zionist. It's good that the lag time between his unmasking is shorter than that of Johnny Depp.
posted by Didnt_do_enough at 7:08 PM on December 21 [9 favorites]
I don’t know what can be done, but it seems like social media makes it easier than ever to do this kind of personal astroturfing. Which is a bummer.
Before social media the media itself could be manipulated as well, but this new method sucks in new and difficult ways.
posted by alicebob at 7:57 PM on December 21
Before social media the media itself could be manipulated as well, but this new method sucks in new and difficult ways.
posted by alicebob at 7:57 PM on December 21
Hm. I feel like Blake Lively is a bigger deal than this guy, who does seriously radiate Jared Leto levels of obvious d-bag energy.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:58 PM on December 21 [3 favorites]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:58 PM on December 21 [3 favorites]
I am an old, and don't recognize any of these people, but...
Christ, what (a group of) an asshole...
posted by Windopaene at 8:52 PM on December 21 [1 favorite]
Christ, what (a group of) an asshole...
posted by Windopaene at 8:52 PM on December 21 [1 favorite]
Lainey gossip was smelling this months ago
Link 1
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Link 4
posted by St. Peepsburg at 10:09 PM on December 21 [2 favorites]
Link 1
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posted by St. Peepsburg at 10:09 PM on December 21 [2 favorites]
“Not in love with the document they sent,” [Justin Baldoni] responded in a text exchange that included Ms. Abel and Mr. Heath. “Not sure I’m feeling the protection I felt on the call.”
please protect me from the woman I sexually harassed!
lmao
posted by ryanrs at 10:59 PM on December 21 [5 favorites]
please protect me from the woman I sexually harassed!
lmao
posted by ryanrs at 10:59 PM on December 21 [5 favorites]
Those Lainey Gossip links are gold, thank you for posting them! Her critical thinking skills are far greater than mine were at the time. I wasn't a fan of Baldoni, but I was completely suckered by the anti-Blake content.
posted by Drowsy Philosopher at 11:07 PM on December 21 [2 favorites]
posted by Drowsy Philosopher at 11:07 PM on December 21 [2 favorites]
I read the article first, and then the Complaint, and I realized that Baldoni's behavior was worse than could be summarized in one news article. I really feel for Lively and everyone else who had to deal with his harassment at work.
Also this is vile:
By repositioning Mr. Baldoni's marketing of the Film, on information and belief, Mr. Baldoni hoped to create the false impression that he had chosen not to appear alongside other cast members. Mr. Baldoni directed his team to share on his public Instagram feed the private messages he had received from survivors sharing their stories of domestic violence with him. Mr. Baldoni's team talked him out of this idea, writing that they "do not recommend using private DMs as content."
Imagine sending a celebrity a private message about some painful chapter of your life, because you think he's an ally, and meanwhile he's trying to figure out how to use it to distract from his egregious sexual harassment of someone else! And had to be talked down from the idea by his PR team!
posted by creepygirl at 12:30 AM on December 22 [6 favorites]
Also this is vile:
By repositioning Mr. Baldoni's marketing of the Film, on information and belief, Mr. Baldoni hoped to create the false impression that he had chosen not to appear alongside other cast members. Mr. Baldoni directed his team to share on his public Instagram feed the private messages he had received from survivors sharing their stories of domestic violence with him. Mr. Baldoni's team talked him out of this idea, writing that they "do not recommend using private DMs as content."
Imagine sending a celebrity a private message about some painful chapter of your life, because you think he's an ally, and meanwhile he's trying to figure out how to use it to distract from his egregious sexual harassment of someone else! And had to be talked down from the idea by his PR team!
posted by creepygirl at 12:30 AM on December 22 [6 favorites]
These people were so damn effective in their pro-Johnny Depp/anti-Amber Heard work. It was horrifying seeing intelligent, tech-savvy people, including users of this very website, completely buy the bullshit they got pushed everywhere. Terrifying to wonder who they will work for next.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:42 AM on December 22 [5 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 5:42 AM on December 22 [5 favorites]
Thank you for linking to the complaint.
PP 9.
Ms. Nathan also proposed the “creation of social fan engagement to go back and forth with any negative accounts, helping to change [sic] narrative and stay on track." Per Ms.
17 Nathan, "All of this will be most importantly untraceable."
It's like the notion of "discovery" is alien to some people.
posted by mikelieman at 5:50 AM on December 22 [2 favorites]
PP 9.
Ms. Nathan also proposed the “creation of social fan engagement to go back and forth with any negative accounts, helping to change [sic] narrative and stay on track." Per Ms.
17 Nathan, "All of this will be most importantly untraceable."
It's like the notion of "discovery" is alien to some people.
posted by mikelieman at 5:50 AM on December 22 [2 favorites]
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Why o why would anyone try this on against this person?
posted by chavenet at 4:54 PM on December 21 [14 favorites]