Lively/Baldoni Lawsuit Part 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone summarize the key debates in the previous thread?

I’m calling it now. Blake’s new castaway movie will do “surprisingly” well.

She’s still a gorgeous woman (looks better thick too) and people crave mindless romcoms.

+1

Can someone provide a TLDR? I was keeping up with the last thread until maybe page 300 or 400 but no idea what’s going on now. Am very curious. Who’s “winning” now?

Tell us what you already know. Do you need info from the beginning or just from, say, when Baldoni's claims were dismissed? I could do the latter but for the former you need to google it.

[Anonymous]

So curious how her new movie will do. I'm pro-Baldoni but I try to be objective about these things.

Her box office track record before The Rhythm Section was actually pretty good and you could argue that it failed because it wasn't a proven genre for her and she didn't look like her typical glam self.

IEWU is interesting to me. It was extremely successful and she may have given that movie the pop it needed (she's no Emma/Margot/Jlaw, but she's still a bit more interesting to me than, like, a Dakota Johnson or a typical CW actress). It also still succeeded in spite of the backlash she got -- like it was still doing numbers right in the thick of her tone deaf interviews. But at the same time, it was a movie targeting an underserved demographic and it was an adaptation of one of Colleen Hoover's books, which are extremely, extremely popular.

I also think the hatred for Blake is not just an online phenomenon, but has extended to real life.

[Anonymous]

The character in the movie is supposed to be a reality show producer. I think she can do a bossy strident woman well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone summarize the key debates in the previous thread?

I’m calling it now. Blake’s new castaway movie will do “surprisingly” well.

She’s still a gorgeous woman (looks better thick too) and people crave mindless romcoms.

Blake is looking too old to star in romcoms.

Playing the “hot blonde” doesn’t work when you’re in your 40’s and look it.

I actually think this movie sounds like a good fit for her age and personality. Rom coms are targeted at women, not men. The point is not to cast the most stunningly beautiful young actress you can find. Rom com actresses have to be relatable. That's why women in rom coms are always falling down, putting their foot in their mouth, or making boneheaded mistakes at work -- it helps the women those films/tv shows are targeted at feel like they can relate to someone who otherwise would be out of their league. So Blake actually suits a rom com concept more in her late 30s or 40s than she would have at 28, because her age and status as a mom (and maybe even her experience with this lawsuit) humanizes her and makes her feel like an attainable avatar for regular women watching her on screen. Thus, when she gets the guy and lands the big job, the audience will root for her instead of resenting her.

The problem with that viewpoint is that romcoms are usually about women in their 20’s or 30’s. I agree that there’s a market for actresses that have an interesting look and it’s not just about casting the most beautiful model.

But it has to make sense…

An actress who looks 40+ playing a 20 something takes me out of the story. That’s part of the reason Blake fell flat in IEWU. It’s bad casting. Like the 1980’s movies with “high school” students who were in their 30’s or white actors in blackface.

She wasn't cast as a 20-something though. She was cast to play her age (which is currently 37, not 40+). Baldoni specifically rejected suggestions of younger actresses because he was playing Ryle and he thought they'd look way too young with him (he actually is in his 40s). He was really enthusiastic about Lively's interest in the role. So she was hired to play a woman in her 30s.

Colleen Hoover has also talked about why the characters were aged up for the movie, and how she wrote the novel when she was younger and less experienced and she now realizes the ages of the characters in the book don't really make sense. An established neurosurgeon in his late 20s? An entrepreneur starting and running a successful retail business in her early 20s? It doesn't make sense. Justin's and Blake's actual ages make much more sense for these characters, plus having older actors/characters works better with the subject matter because then it's less about the impulsive behaviors of younger people with limited relationship experience. It allows the characters to all be held more accountable for their actions in a way that wouldn't necessarily be true for younger characters.

Also arguing that an actor playing down in age is similar to blackface is deranged. Time for a level set there. No one thinks Gabrielle Carteris should be canceled for playing a high school student when she was in her 30s -- they just think it was funny.

Holy strawman, Batman!

I never said that middle aged actresses should be canceled for playing high school. I literally said it takes me out of the story.

And it does.

It’s harder to immerse yourself in a movie when the actress looks 2 decades older than her character.

This is controversial now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone summarize the key debates in the previous thread?

I’m calling it now. Blake’s new castaway movie will do “surprisingly” well.

She’s still a gorgeous woman (looks better thick too) and people crave mindless romcoms.

Blake is looking too old to star in romcoms.

Playing the “hot blonde” doesn’t work when you’re in your 40’s and look it.

I actually think this movie sounds like a good fit for her age and personality. Rom coms are targeted at women, not men. The point is not to cast the most stunningly beautiful young actress you can find. Rom com actresses have to be relatable. That's why women in rom coms are always falling down, putting their foot in their mouth, or making boneheaded mistakes at work -- it helps the women those films/tv shows are targeted at feel like they can relate to someone who otherwise would be out of their league. So Blake actually suits a rom com concept more in her late 30s or 40s than she would have at 28, because her age and status as a mom (and maybe even her experience with this lawsuit) humanizes her and makes her feel like an attainable avatar for regular women watching her on screen. Thus, when she gets the guy and lands the big job, the audience will root for her instead of resenting her.

The problem with that viewpoint is that romcoms are usually about women in their 20’s or 30’s. I agree that there’s a market for actresses that have an interesting look and it’s not just about casting the most beautiful model.

But it has to make sense…

An actress who looks 40+ playing a 20 something takes me out of the story. That’s part of the reason Blake fell flat in IEWU. It’s bad casting. Like the 1980’s movies with “high school” students who were in their 30’s or white actors in blackface.

She wasn't cast as a 20-something though. She was cast to play her age (which is currently 37, not 40+). Baldoni specifically rejected suggestions of younger actresses because he was playing Ryle and he thought they'd look way too young with him (he actually is in his 40s). He was really enthusiastic about Lively's interest in the role. So she was hired to play a woman in her 30s.

Colleen Hoover has also talked about why the characters were aged up for the movie, and how she wrote the novel when she was younger and less experienced and she now realizes the ages of the characters in the book don't really make sense. An established neurosurgeon in his late 20s? An entrepreneur starting and running a successful retail business in her early 20s? It doesn't make sense. Justin's and Blake's actual ages make much more sense for these characters, plus having older actors/characters works better with the subject matter because then it's less about the impulsive behaviors of younger people with limited relationship experience. It allows the characters to all be held more accountable for their actions in a way that wouldn't necessarily be true for younger characters.

Also arguing that an actor playing down in age is similar to blackface is deranged. Time for a level set there. No one thinks Gabrielle Carteris should be canceled for playing a high school student when she was in her 30s -- they just think it was funny.

Holy strawman, Batman!

I never said that middle aged actresses should be canceled for playing high school. I literally said it takes me out of the story.

And it does.

It’s harder to immerse yourself in a movie when the actress looks 2 decades older than her character.

This is controversial now?

You are ignoring the fact that Lively was not playing younger than she is in IEWU. She was cast to play a woman in her early-to-mid 30s, specifically because Baldoni had already cast himself as Ryle. Several younger actresses were floated for the part and he told Steve Sarowitz that those women were too young to play opposite him.

If your argument is that you were mad they aged up the characters from the books, take that up with Hoover, Baldoni, and Wayfarer, because they are the ones who made that choice.

I also assume her role in this upcoming rom com is for a woman in her 30s. Most rom coms these days feature actresses in their 30s or 40s. Dakota Johnson just made Materialists and she is 35, and was playing a woman in her 30s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone summarize the key debates in the previous thread?

I’m calling it now. Blake’s new castaway movie will do “surprisingly” well.

She’s still a gorgeous woman (looks better thick too) and people crave mindless romcoms.

Blake is looking too old to star in romcoms.

Playing the “hot blonde” doesn’t work when you’re in your 40’s and look it.

I actually think this movie sounds like a good fit for her age and personality. Rom coms are targeted at women, not men. The point is not to cast the most stunningly beautiful young actress you can find. Rom com actresses have to be relatable. That's why women in rom coms are always falling down, putting their foot in their mouth, or making boneheaded mistakes at work -- it helps the women those films/tv shows are targeted at feel like they can relate to someone who otherwise would be out of their league. So Blake actually suits a rom com concept more in her late 30s or 40s than she would have at 28, because her age and status as a mom (and maybe even her experience with this lawsuit) humanizes her and makes her feel like an attainable avatar for regular women watching her on screen. Thus, when she gets the guy and lands the big job, the audience will root for her instead of resenting her.

The problem with that viewpoint is that romcoms are usually about women in their 20’s or 30’s. I agree that there’s a market for actresses that have an interesting look and it’s not just about casting the most beautiful model.

But it has to make sense…

An actress who looks 40+ playing a 20 something takes me out of the story. That’s part of the reason Blake fell flat in IEWU. It’s bad casting. Like the 1980’s movies with “high school” students who were in their 30’s or white actors in blackface.

She wasn't cast as a 20-something though. She was cast to play her age (which is currently 37, not 40+). Baldoni specifically rejected suggestions of younger actresses because he was playing Ryle and he thought they'd look way too young with him (he actually is in his 40s). He was really enthusiastic about Lively's interest in the role. So she was hired to play a woman in her 30s.

Colleen Hoover has also talked about why the characters were aged up for the movie, and how she wrote the novel when she was younger and less experienced and she now realizes the ages of the characters in the book don't really make sense. An established neurosurgeon in his late 20s? An entrepreneur starting and running a successful retail business in her early 20s? It doesn't make sense. Justin's and Blake's actual ages make much more sense for these characters, plus having older actors/characters works better with the subject matter because then it's less about the impulsive behaviors of younger people with limited relationship experience. It allows the characters to all be held more accountable for their actions in a way that wouldn't necessarily be true for younger characters.

Also arguing that an actor playing down in age is similar to blackface is deranged. Time for a level set there. No one thinks Gabrielle Carteris should be canceled for playing a high school student when she was in her 30s -- they just think it was funny.

Holy strawman, Batman!

I never said that middle aged actresses should be canceled for playing high school. I literally said it takes me out of the story.

And it does.

It’s harder to immerse yourself in a movie when the actress looks 2 decades older than her character.

This is controversial now?

You are ignoring the fact that Lively was not playing younger than she is in IEWU. She was cast to play a woman in her early-to-mid 30s, specifically because Baldoni had already cast himself as Ryle. Several younger actresses were floated for the part and he told Steve Sarowitz that those women were too young to play opposite him.

If your argument is that you were mad they aged up the characters from the books, take that up with Hoover, Baldoni, and Wayfarer, because they are the ones who made that choice.

I also assume her role in this upcoming rom com is for a woman in her 30s. Most rom coms these days feature actresses in their 30s or 40s. Dakota Johnson just made Materialists and she is 35, and was playing a woman in her 30s.

Some actors look extremely young for their age … and others don’t.

Dakota Johnson looks like an attractive woman in her 30’s. Leo DiCaprio could convincingly play much younger characters until he was well into his 30’s. Same with Sutton Foster. Blake Lively is not one of those actors. She’s in her late 30’s and she looks like she’s in her 40’s.

Blake looks older than Justin Baldoni and that visual takes me out of the story. In the book, a big part of the dynamic between the characters was that Blake’s character was significantly younger and less financially secure than her abusive husband.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am disappointed he is not referred to as Jason Baldoni in the title here.

I predict I will continue to dominate in correctly predicting the legal outcome re various filings since the Baldoni supporters cannot seem to understand that their boy chose the best PR guy but the absolute worst attorney in California. But he's killing it on Reddit, so I guess it's all worth it to him.

Arlington Mom

I too am sad to say goodbye to Jason Baldoni. The man, the myth, the legend.

I look forward to Arlington Mom's prescient takes on legal developments, but suspect his thread with also become mired in discussion about Blake's weight, the state of her marriage, and whether she was too old for this role.

Oh look, I was right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am disappointed he is not referred to as Jason Baldoni in the title here.

I predict I will continue to dominate in correctly predicting the legal outcome re various filings since the Baldoni supporters cannot seem to understand that their boy chose the best PR guy but the absolute worst attorney in California. But he's killing it on Reddit, so I guess it's all worth it to him.

Arlington Mom

I too am sad to say goodbye to Jason Baldoni. The man, the myth, the legend.

I look forward to Arlington Mom's prescient takes on legal developments, but suspect his thread with also become mired in discussion about Blake's weight, the state of her marriage, and whether she was too old for this role.

Oh look, I was right.

Do you want a cookie?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am disappointed he is not referred to as Jason Baldoni in the title here.

I predict I will continue to dominate in correctly predicting the legal outcome re various filings since the Baldoni supporters cannot seem to understand that their boy chose the best PR guy but the absolute worst attorney in California. But he's killing it on Reddit, so I guess it's all worth it to him.

Arlington Mom

I too am sad to say goodbye to Jason Baldoni. The man, the myth, the legend.

I look forward to Arlington Mom's prescient takes on legal developments, but suspect his thread with also become mired in discussion about Blake's weight, the state of her marriage, and whether she was too old for this role.

Oh look, I was right.

Do you want a cookie?

No, but you should have one. You seem hangry.

[Anonymous]

Thread’s not the same without Jason. So disappointing other ended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone summarize the key debates in the previous thread?

I’m calling it now. Blake’s new castaway movie will do “surprisingly” well.

She’s still a gorgeous woman (looks better thick too) and people crave mindless romcoms.

Blake is looking too old to star in romcoms.

Playing the “hot blonde” doesn’t work when you’re in your 40’s and look it.

I actually think this movie sounds like a good fit for her age and personality. Rom coms are targeted at women, not men. The point is not to cast the most stunningly beautiful young actress you can find. Rom com actresses have to be relatable. That's why women in rom coms are always falling down, putting their foot in their mouth, or making boneheaded mistakes at work -- it helps the women those films/tv shows are targeted at feel like they can relate to someone who otherwise would be out of their league. So Blake actually suits a rom com concept more in her late 30s or 40s than she would have at 28, because her age and status as a mom (and maybe even her experience with this lawsuit) humanizes her and makes her feel like an attainable avatar for regular women watching her on screen. Thus, when she gets the guy and lands the big job, the audience will root for her instead of resenting her.

The problem with that viewpoint is that romcoms are usually about women in their 20’s or 30’s. I agree that there’s a market for actresses that have an interesting look and it’s not just about casting the most beautiful model.

But it has to make sense…

An actress who looks 40+ playing a 20 something takes me out of the story. That’s part of the reason Blake fell flat in IEWU. It’s bad casting. Like the 1980’s movies with “high school” students who were in their 30’s or white actors in blackface.

She wasn't cast as a 20-something though. She was cast to play her age (which is currently 37, not 40+). Baldoni specifically rejected suggestions of younger actresses because he was playing Ryle and he thought they'd look way too young with him (he actually is in his 40s). He was really enthusiastic about Lively's interest in the role. So she was hired to play a woman in her 30s.

Colleen Hoover has also talked about why the characters were aged up for the movie, and how she wrote the novel when she was younger and less experienced and she now realizes the ages of the characters in the book don't really make sense. An established neurosurgeon in his late 20s? An entrepreneur starting and running a successful retail business in her early 20s? It doesn't make sense. Justin's and Blake's actual ages make much more sense for these characters, plus having older actors/characters works better with the subject matter because then it's less about the impulsive behaviors of younger people with limited relationship experience. It allows the characters to all be held more accountable for their actions in a way that wouldn't necessarily be true for younger characters.

Also arguing that an actor playing down in age is similar to blackface is deranged. Time for a level set there. No one thinks Gabrielle Carteris should be canceled for playing a high school student when she was in her 30s -- they just think it was funny.

Holy strawman, Batman!

I never said that middle aged actresses should be canceled for playing high school. I literally said it takes me out of the story.

And it does.

It’s harder to immerse yourself in a movie when the actress looks 2 decades older than her character.

This is controversial now?

You are ignoring the fact that Lively was not playing younger than she is in IEWU. She was cast to play a woman in her early-to-mid 30s, specifically because Baldoni had already cast himself as Ryle. Several younger actresses were floated for the part and he told Steve Sarowitz that those women were too young to play opposite him.

If your argument is that you were mad they aged up the characters from the books, take that up with Hoover, Baldoni, and Wayfarer, because they are the ones who made that choice.

I also assume her role in this upcoming rom com is for a woman in her 30s. Most rom coms these days feature actresses in their 30s or 40s. Dakota Johnson just made Materialists and she is 35, and was playing a woman in her 30s.

Some actors look extremely young for their age … and others don’t.

Dakota Johnson looks like an attractive woman in her 30’s. Leo DiCaprio could convincingly play much younger characters until he was well into his 30’s. Same with Sutton Foster. Blake Lively is not one of those actors. She’s in her late 30’s and she looks like she’s in her 40’s.

Blake looks older than Justin Baldoni and that visual takes me out of the story. In the book, a big part of the dynamic between the characters was that Blake’s character was significantly younger and less financially secure than her abusive husband.

I disagree Blake looks older than Baldoni. I think she looks her age, which is 37. He looks his age, which is 41. That's such a small age gap anyway, it just doesn't seem important. And Baldoni was happy with their pairing when they cast her -- he sounds really enthusiastic about her taking the role and wanted someone who would look age appropriate for him.

[Anonymous]

A lot of you are missing the point - this movie announcement is a total publicity stunt. It will likely never get made.

There’s another movie on Blake’s IMBD with an All-Star cast that rolled out in August 2020 with a big article in Variety. Announcing the movie, the cast, who was attached, who was producing. And here we are five years later, and the movie is no closer to being made.

Movies get announced all the time with cast attached and they never get made. You can tell this was a publicity stunt because it was announced through Us Weekly and People etc. that usually don’t announce these things when they’re so far out in development. There is no other cast attached.

[Anonymous]

PP again who posted about Blake’s IMDb and the movie announcement from five years ago that has never been made. Besides this new movie that just got announced and the one announced from 5 years ago, there are 2 other movies in development or prereproduction. You can’t find any information on them.

So are those movies just not being made and we think this one is? Which one will get made first? I’m betting none.

For the record, Blake turns 38 on Tuesday. My theory is that the last babe was IVF with gender selection timed right after she hosted the Met Gala, and if they have any more embryos, they might go for one more sympathy baby in 2026 so she can be pregnant for the trial if there is one.

But who knows maybe she will make all 4 movies and launch a clothing line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone summarize the key debates in the previous thread?

I’m calling it now. Blake’s new castaway movie will do “surprisingly” well.

She’s still a gorgeous woman (looks better thick too) and people crave mindless romcoms.

+1

Can someone provide a TLDR? I was keeping up with the last thread until maybe page 300 or 400 but no idea what’s going on now. Am very curious. Who’s “winning” now?

Tell us what you already know. Do you need info from the beginning or just from, say, when Baldoni's claims were dismissed? I could do the latter but for the former you need to google it.

Last I really remember, Baldoni posted a website refuting Blackely’s claims and he was seen as the “good guy.” Not sure what happened after that and who’s “winning” now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone summarize the key debates in the previous thread?

I’m calling it now. Blake’s new castaway movie will do “surprisingly” well.

She’s still a gorgeous woman (looks better thick too) and people crave mindless romcoms.

+1

Can someone provide a TLDR? I was keeping up with the last thread until maybe page 300 or 400 but no idea what’s going on now. Am very curious. Who’s “winning” now?

Tell us what you already know. Do you need info from the beginning or just from, say, when Baldoni's claims were dismissed? I could do the latter but for the former you need to google it.

Last I really remember, Baldoni posted a website refuting Blackely’s claims and he was seen as the “good guy.” Not sure what happened after that and who’s “winning” now.

Justin’s lawsuit had been dismissed because of laws put in place to protect people who sue for SH etc.

Blake’s team has an uphill climb to prove SH and or retaliation but they are definitely pursuing and could score victories. However, we are a year out from the premier when chatter of Justin SH the cast and there has been no slam or smoking guns. Which is understandable in this kind of case where inappropriate workplace behavior is alleged on one set vs Harvey Weinstein who had years of horrific allegations plus multiple women. So that makes it really hard for the public and ours Blake at a disadvantage at least on the PR front. People aren’t good and evil not nuance.

Taylor Swift not publicly supporting Blake and even going so far as to have things like Travis unfollowing Ryan and then she had a party celebrating her new album last weekend in Blakes neck of the woods and Blake wasn’t invited so by all accounts the friendship is done which has cost her in the public eye.

Blake has more to lose than Baldoni since her whole brand is out front. Justin was really not known as an actor and has Wayfarer which is still doing pretty well.

Blake has lost followers, but her hair product line is surviving so far. I’m skeptical that she will get more acting roles… The latest announcement seems like PR as it’s really early to be getting that much publicity about a movie with no other cast attached.