Why is Blake Lively so overrated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember back in March when Blake made a joke about Kate Middleton's Mother's Day Photoshop and had to apologize? Maybe it already started then.

Yeah so did everyone else. Blake's crimes are hardly serious compared to others. The hate towards her is ridiculous. She snubbed a reporter for a lame comment? People don't like where she had her wedding? That's it?

She comes off as contemptuous of any one she sees as below her, which apparently includes most journalists. And not just in one interview, but dozens.

So everyone just wants to burn the witch? A handsome man can shoot people in the back and the internet swoons. But God forbid a woman be annoying and the social media mobs will troll her relentlessly. People are sick.

NP. She wasn't just annoying. She was contemptuous. I'm a mid-40s woman and I had a visceral reaction to that interview when I saw it several months back. Brought me right back to junior high and that sick feeling you get when the pretty mean girl treats you like garbage. She deserved to be trolled hard. I actually like her as an actress, but she seems like a mean spirited person. I don't think the PR against her could have been nearly as effective were it not for her own nasty behavior caught on camera, repeatedly.

Deserved to be trolled hard? How embarrassing for someone your age. Get a grip. You're not actually in high school and being contemptuous doesn't make it ok for men to demean and harass you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no doubt in my mind that someone from Blake’s team is working hard on this thread. A deep dive into Reddit posts? C’mon now.

No, not her team (just a mom who may spend more time in the FCPS forum) but after the nyt article broke spent some time trying to find planted posts
on reddit from August. Jeff has posted that he does not believe DCUM warrants Hollywood attention.

Maybe find a new hobby.

You too, DCUM is not particularly different and you don't seem unique in your use of it to put others down to make yourself feel good. Me too, guilty as charged.

This is an Entertainment thread. Spending pages analyzing random Reddit posts is killing this thread. Which I actually think is the point.

I fins the Reddit posts interesting. I legit did not know that Hollywood entertainment PR firms would use this. I thought of astroturfing as something done with covert dark money for influencing elections. It really opened my eyes and it is interesting to pick out likely astroturfed posts from when this went down.

That is the most interesting part of this entire case. Hate Blake, but it is why I believe that however she is personally or may come off, whether anyone believes her HR complaint is legit or not, she still may have a legal case for retaliation.

The fact that people want to desperately shut down the discussion of this type of stuff makes it pretty clear that people are on to something. What are they so worried about?

[Anonymous]

I’m actually now team Blake AND team Justin. I hope Ryan Reynolds goes down but I know that he won’t. And I obviously know Blake had to go along with Ryan, but I really do think he is a controlling a-hole and always has been. I think Blake would’ve been fine just having fun a movie launch and focusing on her hair products and being done with it, I don’t think she wanted to burn anyone’s career down or have a huge pissing contest over creative control. I think it’s all Ryan.

The more I read about the New York Times role in this the more I really can’t believe it. Reaching out to Baldoni at 10 PM and giving him till noon the next morning to respond, and then actually publishing the story at 10 AM, just seems terrible. Not to mention, they got rid of their paywall and made it very easy for the public to see the PDF of Blakes complaint, which would’ve been a lot more difficult for people to find otherwise. It just screams bias to me since that was only her (well Ryan’s) side.

There is an article today on Yahoo news that the journalist who had the cringe 2016 baby bump interview with Blake is pushing back saying that the New York Times erroneously reported that she was part of the take down campaign, when her posting the Blake lively interview was completely her decision and it had nothing to do with anyone reaching out to her. That was just irresponsible reporting on the side of the times and she is saying they really hurt her reputation.

I keep hearing that all the cast members turned against Justin, but then I just found out that the guy who played Jenny slate’s husband in the film was the one who presented Justin an award earlier this month and said some really nice things about him.

Jenny clearly took Blake’s side, but interestingly she published a book about a month after the movie premier and Blake immediately went on Instagram and promoted the book. Maybe they are truly good friends, but that definitely seems like a conflict of interest. And the other male star I’m sure got a career lift from being in that promotional video with Ryan Reynolds pretending to be mad at him for playing Blake’s love interest, and having tens of millions of Ryan’s fans see him. It just seems like a lot of the cast who sided with Ryan and Blake got something out of it.

Finally, reading that the only complaint that the young woman who played the young version of Blake had was that Justin used the word hot after her seeing the scene where she lost her virginity. That is distasteful and cringe, but is it really sexual harassment?

I’m just wondering if there are other complaints from other staff members onset? That’s the only one I’ve seen.

I don’t see anyone coming out of this looking great and I really just think whatever the end game was, it got totally out of hand and I don’t think anyone wanted all of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting reddit post from four months ago, but at that time it is hard to know if it is a PR plant (the same person posted the same comment a couple of times).The most interesting part to me is that Blake was talking about going to the NY Times months ago (prior to obtaining the text messages and evidence of smear campaign?)

https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/s/5gDvrprhq8

Thanks, that was interesting. Really shows how insidious this all is.

If I'd read that first, when the Lively lawsuit story broke out I'd be primed to think "oh, I heard about that, he called her sexy and then she threatened to cry harassment if they didn't go with her edit." Most people won't read the full complaint or even articles, just headlines.

Having read this after I've seen the lawsuit, naturally I'm thinking "ok, he harassed her and they wanted to get ahead of the story and plant seeds of doubt for when the inevitable hit."

Good luck to her attorneys proving that the Reddit post is associated with Baldoni or his PR team. Big tech is not exactly known for being forthcoming with information. There are missing persons cases that remain unsolved because Apple won't unlock the missing person's phone. I seriously doubt that Reddit will identify any user.

But which is right? I'm still tending to go with the second version, because the lawsuit literally cites texts from Abel and Nathan discussing getting ahead of the story and creating alternate theories using reddit, so that's more credible than an anonymous reddit poster (but of course, that poster is using a throwaway account because they are spilling inside dirt - which is both what an actual insider and a paid troll would do!).

These are some citations from her complaint that seem relevant. Of course, Baldoni may have some other compelling evidence that disputes this. We'll see.

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Blake-Lively-NY-Lawsuit.pdf

9. On July 31, 2024, following the recommendation of their publicist, Jennifer
Abel, Wayfarer and Mr. Baldoni retained a crisis communications specialist named Melissa
Nathan, and her company The Agency Group PR LLC (“TAG”). Ms. Nathan delivered a proposal
to Mr. Baldoni, which included “[a] website (to discuss), full reddit, full social account take downs,
full social crisis team on hand for anything – engage with audiences in the right way, start threads
of theories (discuss) this is the way to be fully 100% protected.” 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. Nathan, “All of this will be most importantly
untraceable.” As Ms. Abel described it, the plan was to engage in “social media mitigation and
proactive fan posting to counter the negative” as well as “social manipulation.”3

10. This plan went well beyond standard crisis PR. What Ms. Nathan proposed
included a practice known as “Astroturfing,” which has been defined as “the practice of publishing
opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary
members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.”4

11. On August 2, 2024, TAG circulated a “SCENARIO PLANNING”
document to Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, and others, which described preparations and strategy
“should [Ms. Lively] and her team make her grievances public” (the “Scenario Planning
Document”), and is attached hereto as Exhibit D. To “get ahead of this narrative,” Ms. Nathan’s
plan proposed strategies to advance misleading counternarratives, including pushing Ms. Nathan’s
narrative that Ms. Lively had “less than favorable reputation,” proposing to “explore planting
stories about the weaponization of feminism…,” and misleadingly blaming Ms. Lively for
production members’ job losses.

16. Ms. Abel responded that she had just “spoke[n] to Melissa about this…
about what we discussed last night for social and digital.” Ms. Abel added, “Focus on reddit,
TikTok, IG.” With reassurance that Ms. Lively would be “destroy[ed]” and “buried,” Wayfarer
Case 1:24-cv-10049 Document 1 Filed 12/31/24 Page 9 of 93Deadline

Yes, I hold skepticism based on the timing of the (repeatedly copied) post, but even if a PR planted/bought comment, the anticipation of a NYT story months before it actually happened and prior to evidence of texts, is just intriguing. Back then, would a NYT story have been the sexual harassment angle alone? Without evidence of a smear campaign? And/or a male director not listening to female cast perspective on a (female audience targeted) film about domestic violence, as evidence of misogyny?

DP to add that this poster and "insider scoop" very much appears to be a PR plant on Baldoni's behalf. That same comment was posted repeatedly and the account was created Aug 12, no posts since that time other than the same story repeatedly (even started a thread with it), and never again since Aug.

Heh, good catch.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company? I posted this one here before I think.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake because of what she did to Baldoni, but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company who knew about the PR smear back then? I posted this one here before I think. On the same account, the person complained about financing Blake.

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/87nzy7VX0t

That's just some random person on Reddit.

Yes, posting about "Amber Hearding" her back in early August in response to her ruining Baldini's rep. That is definitely an odd post for before months before the NYT article broke.

Good luck to Blake's legal team getting Reddit to identify a user.

Just thought it was an interesting find along with the repeated detailed poster from August with the "insider" info detailed list (and obvious Baldoni PR plant). Not something as legal evidence, chill.

You were the one acting like Reddit posts are somehow significant for Blake's case. They are only significant if they can be connected to Baldoni or his team. Otherwise they are just noise like 95 percent of Reddit posts.

So are 99 percent of DCUM posts but here we are.

Yes, but I don't claim that my posts are evidence for or against either party in this case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no doubt in my mind that someone from Blake’s team is working hard on this thread. A deep dive into Reddit posts? C’mon now.

No, not her team (just a mom who may spend more time in the FCPS forum) but after the nyt article broke spent some time trying to find planted posts
on reddit from August. Jeff has posted that he does not believe DCUM warrants Hollywood attention.

Maybe find a new hobby.

You too, DCUM is not particularly different and you don't seem unique in your use of it to put others down to make yourself feel good. Me too, guilty as charged.

This is an Entertainment thread. Spending pages analyzing random Reddit posts is killing this thread. Which I actually think is the point.

I fins the Reddit posts interesting. I legit did not know that Hollywood entertainment PR firms would use this. I thought of astroturfing as something done with covert dark money for influencing elections. It really opened my eyes and it is interesting to pick out likely astroturfed posts from when this went down.

That is the most interesting part of this entire case. Hate Blake, but it is why I believe that however she is personally or may come off, whether anyone believes her HR complaint is legit or not, she still may have a legal case for retaliation.

She would still have to link the Reddit posts to Baldoni or his PR reps. Good luck getting Reddit to reveal the identity of its users.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting reddit post from four months ago, but at that time it is hard to know if it is a PR plant (the same person posted the same comment a couple of times).The most interesting part to me is that Blake was talking about going to the NY Times months ago (prior to obtaining the text messages and evidence of smear campaign?)

https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/s/5gDvrprhq8

Thanks, that was interesting. Really shows how insidious this all is.

If I'd read that first, when the Lively lawsuit story broke out I'd be primed to think "oh, I heard about that, he called her sexy and then she threatened to cry harassment if they didn't go with her edit." Most people won't read the full complaint or even articles, just headlines.

Having read this after I've seen the lawsuit, naturally I'm thinking "ok, he harassed her and they wanted to get ahead of the story and plant seeds of doubt for when the inevitable hit."

But which is right? I'm still tending to go with the second version, because the lawsuit literally cites texts from Abel and Nathan discussing getting ahead of the story and creating alternate theories using reddit, so that's more credible than an anonymous reddit poster (but of course, that poster is using a throwaway account because they are spilling inside dirt - which is both what an actual insider and a paid troll would do!).

These are some citations from her complaint that seem relevant. Of course, Baldoni may have some other compelling evidence that disputes this. We'll see.

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Blake-Lively-NY-Lawsuit.pdf

9. On July 31, 2024, following the recommendation of their publicist, Jennifer
Abel, Wayfarer and Mr. Baldoni retained a crisis communications specialist named Melissa
Nathan, and her company The Agency Group PR LLC (“TAG”). Ms. Nathan delivered a proposal
to Mr. Baldoni, which included “[a] website (to discuss), full reddit, full social account take downs,
full social crisis team on hand for anything – engage with audiences in the right way, start threads
of theories (discuss) this is the way to be fully 100% protected.” 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. Nathan, “All of this will be most importantly
untraceable.” As Ms. Abel described it, the plan was to engage in “social media mitigation and
proactive fan posting to counter the negative” as well as “social manipulation.”3

10. This plan went well beyond standard crisis PR. What Ms. Nathan proposed
included a practice known as “Astroturfing,” which has been defined as “the practice of publishing
opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary
members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.”4

11. On August 2, 2024, TAG circulated a “SCENARIO PLANNING”
document to Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, and others, which described preparations and strategy
“should [Ms. Lively] and her team make her grievances public” (the “Scenario Planning
Document”), and is attached hereto as Exhibit D. To “get ahead of this narrative,” Ms. Nathan’s
plan proposed strategies to advance misleading counternarratives, including pushing Ms. Nathan’s
narrative that Ms. Lively had “less than favorable reputation,” proposing to “explore planting
stories about the weaponization of feminism…,” and misleadingly blaming Ms. Lively for
production members’ job losses.

16. Ms. Abel responded that she had just “spoke[n] to Melissa about this…
about what we discussed last night for social and digital.” Ms. Abel added, “Focus on reddit,
TikTok, IG.” With reassurance that Ms. Lively would be “destroy[ed]” and “buried,” Wayfarer
Case 1:24-cv-10049 Document 1 Filed 12/31/24 Page 9 of 93Deadline

Yes, I hold skepticism based on the timing of the (repeatedly copied) post, but even if a PR planted/bought comment, the anticipation of a NYT story months before it actually happened and prior to evidence of texts, is just intriguing. Back then, would a NYT story have been the sexual harassment angle alone? Without evidence of a smear campaign? And/or a male director not listening to female cast perspective on a (female audience targeted) film about domestic violence, as evidence of misogyny?

DP to add that this poster and "insider scoop" very much appears to be a PR plant on Baldoni's behalf. That same comment was posted repeatedly and the account was created Aug 12, no posts since that time other than the same story repeatedly (even started a thread with it), and never again since Aug.

Heh, good catch.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company? I posted this one here before I think.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake because of what she did to Baldoni, but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company who knew about the PR smear back then? I posted this one here before I think. On the same account, the person complained about financing Blake.

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/87nzy7VX0t

That's just some random person on Reddit.

Agree this thread has officially jumped the shark.

Only now it jumped the shark, not after the misogynistic PP who called her a slut then an aging whore and fat? The one who Insinuated breastfeeding/pumping is sexual? The one who keeps referencing "Harvey's girl"? The homophobic post about RR?

Ok.

Well she is aging (like the rest of us). But she seems to have a delusional belief that she's still as hot as she was during Gossip Girl and is still "America's sweetheart." The America's sweetheart thing usually describes an actress in the early to mid-teenties not a married thirtysomething with four kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting reddit post from four months ago, but at that time it is hard to know if it is a PR plant (the same person posted the same comment a couple of times).The most interesting part to me is that Blake was talking about going to the NY Times months ago (prior to obtaining the text messages and evidence of smear campaign?)

https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/s/5gDvrprhq8

Thanks, that was interesting. Really shows how insidious this all is.

If I'd read that first, when the Lively lawsuit story broke out I'd be primed to think "oh, I heard about that, he called her sexy and then she threatened to cry harassment if they didn't go with her edit." Most people won't read the full complaint or even articles, just headlines.

Having read this after I've seen the lawsuit, naturally I'm thinking "ok, he harassed her and they wanted to get ahead of the story and plant seeds of doubt for when the inevitable hit."

But which is right? I'm still tending to go with the second version, because the lawsuit literally cites texts from Abel and Nathan discussing getting ahead of the story and creating alternate theories using reddit, so that's more credible than an anonymous reddit poster (but of course, that poster is using a throwaway account because they are spilling inside dirt - which is both what an actual insider and a paid troll would do!).

These are some citations from her complaint that seem relevant. Of course, Baldoni may have some other compelling evidence that disputes this. We'll see.

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Blake-Lively-NY-Lawsuit.pdf

9. On July 31, 2024, following the recommendation of their publicist, Jennifer
Abel, Wayfarer and Mr. Baldoni retained a crisis communications specialist named Melissa
Nathan, and her company The Agency Group PR LLC (“TAG”). Ms. Nathan delivered a proposal
to Mr. Baldoni, which included “[a] website (to discuss), full reddit, full social account take downs,
full social crisis team on hand for anything – engage with audiences in the right way, start threads
of theories (discuss) this is the way to be fully 100% protected.” 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. Nathan, “All of this will be most importantly
untraceable.” As Ms. Abel described it, the plan was to engage in “social media mitigation and
proactive fan posting to counter the negative” as well as “social manipulation.”3

10. This plan went well beyond standard crisis PR. What Ms. Nathan proposed
included a practice known as “Astroturfing,” which has been defined as “the practice of publishing
opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary
members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.”4

11. On August 2, 2024, TAG circulated a “SCENARIO PLANNING”
document to Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, and others, which described preparations and strategy
“should [Ms. Lively] and her team make her grievances public” (the “Scenario Planning
Document”), and is attached hereto as Exhibit D. To “get ahead of this narrative,” Ms. Nathan’s
plan proposed strategies to advance misleading counternarratives, including pushing Ms. Nathan’s
narrative that Ms. Lively had “less than favorable reputation,” proposing to “explore planting
stories about the weaponization of feminism…,” and misleadingly blaming Ms. Lively for
production members’ job losses.

16. Ms. Abel responded that she had just “spoke[n] to Melissa about this…
about what we discussed last night for social and digital.” Ms. Abel added, “Focus on reddit,
TikTok, IG.” With reassurance that Ms. Lively would be “destroy[ed]” and “buried,” Wayfarer
Case 1:24-cv-10049 Document 1 Filed 12/31/24 Page 9 of 93Deadline

Yes, I hold skepticism based on the timing of the (repeatedly copied) post, but even if a PR planted/bought comment, the anticipation of a NYT story months before it actually happened and prior to evidence of texts, is just intriguing. Back then, would a NYT story have been the sexual harassment angle alone? Without evidence of a smear campaign? And/or a male director not listening to female cast perspective on a (female audience targeted) film about domestic violence, as evidence of misogyny?

DP to add that this poster and "insider scoop" very much appears to be a PR plant on Baldoni's behalf. That same comment was posted repeatedly and the account was created Aug 12, no posts since that time other than the same story repeatedly (even started a thread with it), and never again since Aug.

Heh, good catch.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company? I posted this one here before I think.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake because of what she did to Baldoni, but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company who knew about the PR smear back then? I posted this one here before I think. On the same account, the person complained about financing Blake.

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/87nzy7VX0t

That's just some random person on Reddit.

Agree this thread has officially jumped the shark.

Only now it jumped the shark, not after the misogynistic PP who called her a slut then an aging whore and fat? The one who Insinuated breastfeeding/pumping is sexual? The one who keeps referencing "Harvey's girl"? The homophobic post about RR?

Ok.

Well she is aging (like the rest of us). But she seems to have a delusional belief that she's still as hot as she was during Gossip Girl and is still "America's sweetheart." The America's sweetheart thing usually describes an actress in the early to mid-twenties not a married thirtysomething with four kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting reddit post from four months ago, but at that time it is hard to know if it is a PR plant (the same person posted the same comment a couple of times).The most interesting part to me is that Blake was talking about going to the NY Times months ago (prior to obtaining the text messages and evidence of smear campaign?)

https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/s/5gDvrprhq8

Thanks, that was interesting. Really shows how insidious this all is.

If I'd read that first, when the Lively lawsuit story broke out I'd be primed to think "oh, I heard about that, he called her sexy and then she threatened to cry harassment if they didn't go with her edit." Most people won't read the full complaint or even articles, just headlines.

Having read this after I've seen the lawsuit, naturally I'm thinking "ok, he harassed her and they wanted to get ahead of the story and plant seeds of doubt for when the inevitable hit."

But which is right? I'm still tending to go with the second version, because the lawsuit literally cites texts from Abel and Nathan discussing getting ahead of the story and creating alternate theories using reddit, so that's more credible than an anonymous reddit poster (but of course, that poster is using a throwaway account because they are spilling inside dirt - which is both what an actual insider and a paid troll would do!).

These are some citations from her complaint that seem relevant. Of course, Baldoni may have some other compelling evidence that disputes this. We'll see.

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Blake-Lively-NY-Lawsuit.pdf

9. On July 31, 2024, following the recommendation of their publicist, Jennifer
Abel, Wayfarer and Mr. Baldoni retained a crisis communications specialist named Melissa
Nathan, and her company The Agency Group PR LLC (“TAG”). Ms. Nathan delivered a proposal
to Mr. Baldoni, which included “[a] website (to discuss), full reddit, full social account take downs,
full social crisis team on hand for anything – engage with audiences in the right way, start threads
of theories (discuss) this is the way to be fully 100% protected.” 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. Nathan, “All of this will be most importantly
untraceable.” As Ms. Abel described it, the plan was to engage in “social media mitigation and
proactive fan posting to counter the negative” as well as “social manipulation.”3

10. This plan went well beyond standard crisis PR. What Ms. Nathan proposed
included a practice known as “Astroturfing,” which has been defined as “the practice of publishing
opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary
members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.”4

11. On August 2, 2024, TAG circulated a “SCENARIO PLANNING”
document to Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, and others, which described preparations and strategy
“should [Ms. Lively] and her team make her grievances public” (the “Scenario Planning
Document”), and is attached hereto as Exhibit D. To “get ahead of this narrative,” Ms. Nathan’s
plan proposed strategies to advance misleading counternarratives, including pushing Ms. Nathan’s
narrative that Ms. Lively had “less than favorable reputation,” proposing to “explore planting
stories about the weaponization of feminism…,” and misleadingly blaming Ms. Lively for
production members’ job losses.

16. Ms. Abel responded that she had just “spoke[n] to Melissa about this…
about what we discussed last night for social and digital.” Ms. Abel added, “Focus on reddit,
TikTok, IG.” With reassurance that Ms. Lively would be “destroy[ed]” and “buried,” Wayfarer
Case 1:24-cv-10049 Document 1 Filed 12/31/24 Page 9 of 93Deadline

Yes, I hold skepticism based on the timing of the (repeatedly copied) post, but even if a PR planted/bought comment, the anticipation of a NYT story months before it actually happened and prior to evidence of texts, is just intriguing. Back then, would a NYT story have been the sexual harassment angle alone? Without evidence of a smear campaign? And/or a male director not listening to female cast perspective on a (female audience targeted) film about domestic violence, as evidence of misogyny?

DP to add that this poster and "insider scoop" very much appears to be a PR plant on Baldoni's behalf. That same comment was posted repeatedly and the account was created Aug 12, no posts since that time other than the same story repeatedly (even started a thread with it), and never again since Aug.

Heh, good catch.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company? I posted this one here before I think.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake because of what she did to Baldoni, but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company who knew about the PR smear back then? I posted this one here before I think. On the same account, the person complained about financing Blake.

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/87nzy7VX0t

That's just some random person on Reddit.

Agree this thread has officially jumped the shark.

Only now it jumped the shark, not after the misogynistic PP who called her a slut then an aging whore and fat? The one who Insinuated breastfeeding/pumping is sexual? The one who keeps referencing "Harvey's girl"? The homophobic post about RR?

Ok.

Well she is aging (like the rest of us). But she seems to have a delusional belief that she's still as hot as she was during Gossip Girl and is still "America's sweetheart." The America's sweetheart thing usually describes an actress in the early to mid-teenties not a married thirtysomething with four kids.

It was more the whore comment than the aging but ignore that part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting reddit post from four months ago, but at that time it is hard to know if it is a PR plant (the same person posted the same comment a couple of times).The most interesting part to me is that Blake was talking about going to the NY Times months ago (prior to obtaining the text messages and evidence of smear campaign?)

https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/s/5gDvrprhq8

Thanks, that was interesting. Really shows how insidious this all is.

If I'd read that first, when the Lively lawsuit story broke out I'd be primed to think "oh, I heard about that, he called her sexy and then she threatened to cry harassment if they didn't go with her edit." Most people won't read the full complaint or even articles, just headlines.

Having read this after I've seen the lawsuit, naturally I'm thinking "ok, he harassed her and they wanted to get ahead of the story and plant seeds of doubt for when the inevitable hit."

But which is right? I'm still tending to go with the second version, because the lawsuit literally cites texts from Abel and Nathan discussing getting ahead of the story and creating alternate theories using reddit, so that's more credible than an anonymous reddit poster (but of course, that poster is using a throwaway account because they are spilling inside dirt - which is both what an actual insider and a paid troll would do!).

These are some citations from her complaint that seem relevant. Of course, Baldoni may have some other compelling evidence that disputes this. We'll see.

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Blake-Lively-NY-Lawsuit.pdf

9. On July 31, 2024, following the recommendation of their publicist, Jennifer
Abel, Wayfarer and Mr. Baldoni retained a crisis communications specialist named Melissa
Nathan, and her company The Agency Group PR LLC (“TAG”). Ms. Nathan delivered a proposal
to Mr. Baldoni, which included “[a] website (to discuss), full reddit, full social account take downs,
full social crisis team on hand for anything – engage with audiences in the right way, start threads
of theories (discuss) this is the way to be fully 100% protected.” 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. Nathan, “All of this will be most importantly
untraceable.” As Ms. Abel described it, the plan was to engage in “social media mitigation and
proactive fan posting to counter the negative” as well as “social manipulation.”3

10. This plan went well beyond standard crisis PR. What Ms. Nathan proposed
included a practice known as “Astroturfing,” which has been defined as “the practice of publishing
opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary
members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.”4

11. On August 2, 2024, TAG circulated a “SCENARIO PLANNING”
document to Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, and others, which described preparations and strategy
“should [Ms. Lively] and her team make her grievances public” (the “Scenario Planning
Document”), and is attached hereto as Exhibit D. To “get ahead of this narrative,” Ms. Nathan’s
plan proposed strategies to advance misleading counternarratives, including pushing Ms. Nathan’s
narrative that Ms. Lively had “less than favorable reputation,” proposing to “explore planting
stories about the weaponization of feminism…,” and misleadingly blaming Ms. Lively for
production members’ job losses.

16. Ms. Abel responded that she had just “spoke[n] to Melissa about this…
about what we discussed last night for social and digital.” Ms. Abel added, “Focus on reddit,
TikTok, IG.” With reassurance that Ms. Lively would be “destroy[ed]” and “buried,” Wayfarer
Case 1:24-cv-10049 Document 1 Filed 12/31/24 Page 9 of 93Deadline

Yes, I hold skepticism based on the timing of the (repeatedly copied) post, but even if a PR planted/bought comment, the anticipation of a NYT story months before it actually happened and prior to evidence of texts, is just intriguing. Back then, would a NYT story have been the sexual harassment angle alone? Without evidence of a smear campaign? And/or a male director not listening to female cast perspective on a (female audience targeted) film about domestic violence, as evidence of misogyny?

DP to add that this poster and "insider scoop" very much appears to be a PR plant on Baldoni's behalf. That same comment was posted repeatedly and the account was created Aug 12, no posts since that time other than the same story repeatedly (even started a thread with it), and never again since Aug.

Heh, good catch.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company? I posted this one here before I think.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake because of what she did to Baldoni, but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company who knew about the PR smear back then? I posted this one here before I think. On the same account, the person complained about financing Blake.

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/87nzy7VX0t

That's just some random person on Reddit.

Agree this thread has officially jumped the shark.

Only now it jumped the shark, not after the misogynistic PP who called her a slut then an aging whore and fat? The one who Insinuated breastfeeding/pumping is sexual? The one who keeps referencing "Harvey's girl"? The homophobic post about RR?

Ok.

Well she is aging (like the rest of us). But she seems to have a delusional belief that she's still as hot as she was during Gossip Girl and is still "America's sweetheart." The America's sweetheart thing usually describes an actress in the early to mid-teenties not a married thirtysomething with four kids.

It was more the whore comment than the aging but ignore that part.

OK next time be more precise then. You sId it was the aging and the whore part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting reddit post from four months ago, but at that time it is hard to know if it is a PR plant (the same person posted the same comment a couple of times).The most interesting part to me is that Blake was talking about going to the NY Times months ago (prior to obtaining the text messages and evidence of smear campaign?)

https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/s/5gDvrprhq8

Thanks, that was interesting. Really shows how insidious this all is.

If I'd read that first, when the Lively lawsuit story broke out I'd be primed to think "oh, I heard about that, he called her sexy and then she threatened to cry harassment if they didn't go with her edit." Most people won't read the full complaint or even articles, just headlines.

Having read this after I've seen the lawsuit, naturally I'm thinking "ok, he harassed her and they wanted to get ahead of the story and plant seeds of doubt for when the inevitable hit."

But which is right? I'm still tending to go with the second version, because the lawsuit literally cites texts from Abel and Nathan discussing getting ahead of the story and creating alternate theories using reddit, so that's more credible than an anonymous reddit poster (but of course, that poster is using a throwaway account because they are spilling inside dirt - which is both what an actual insider and a paid troll would do!).

These are some citations from her complaint that seem relevant. Of course, Baldoni may have some other compelling evidence that disputes this. We'll see.

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Blake-Lively-NY-Lawsuit.pdf

9. On July 31, 2024, following the recommendation of their publicist, Jennifer
Abel, Wayfarer and Mr. Baldoni retained a crisis communications specialist named Melissa
Nathan, and her company The Agency Group PR LLC (“TAG”). Ms. Nathan delivered a proposal
to Mr. Baldoni, which included “[a] website (to discuss), full reddit, full social account take downs,
full social crisis team on hand for anything – engage with audiences in the right way, start threads
of theories (discuss) this is the way to be fully 100% protected.” 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. Nathan, “All of this will be most importantly
untraceable.” As Ms. Abel described it, the plan was to engage in “social media mitigation and
proactive fan posting to counter the negative” as well as “social manipulation.”3

10. This plan went well beyond standard crisis PR. What Ms. Nathan proposed
included a practice known as “Astroturfing,” which has been defined as “the practice of publishing
opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary
members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.”4

11. On August 2, 2024, TAG circulated a “SCENARIO PLANNING”
document to Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, and others, which described preparations and strategy
“should [Ms. Lively] and her team make her grievances public” (the “Scenario Planning
Document”), and is attached hereto as Exhibit D. To “get ahead of this narrative,” Ms. Nathan’s
plan proposed strategies to advance misleading counternarratives, including pushing Ms. Nathan’s
narrative that Ms. Lively had “less than favorable reputation,” proposing to “explore planting
stories about the weaponization of feminism…,” and misleadingly blaming Ms. Lively for
production members’ job losses.

16. Ms. Abel responded that she had just “spoke[n] to Melissa about this…
about what we discussed last night for social and digital.” Ms. Abel added, “Focus on reddit,
TikTok, IG.” With reassurance that Ms. Lively would be “destroy[ed]” and “buried,” Wayfarer
Case 1:24-cv-10049 Document 1 Filed 12/31/24 Page 9 of 93Deadline

Yes, I hold skepticism based on the timing of the (repeatedly copied) post, but even if a PR planted/bought comment, the anticipation of a NYT story months before it actually happened and prior to evidence of texts, is just intriguing. Back then, would a NYT story have been the sexual harassment angle alone? Without evidence of a smear campaign? And/or a male director not listening to female cast perspective on a (female audience targeted) film about domestic violence, as evidence of misogyny?

DP to add that this poster and "insider scoop" very much appears to be a PR plant on Baldoni's behalf. That same comment was posted repeatedly and the account was created Aug 12, no posts since that time other than the same story repeatedly (even started a thread with it), and never again since Aug.

Heh, good catch.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company? I posted this one here before I think.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake because of what she did to Baldoni, but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company who knew about the PR smear back then? I posted this one here before I think. On the same account, the person complained about financing Blake.

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/87nzy7VX0t

That's just some random person on Reddit.

Agree this thread has officially jumped the shark.

Only now it jumped the shark, not after the misogynistic PP who called her a slut then an aging whore and fat? The one who Insinuated breastfeeding/pumping is sexual? The one who keeps referencing "Harvey's girl"? The homophobic post about RR?

Ok.

Well she is aging (like the rest of us). But she seems to have a delusional belief that she's still as hot as she was during Gossip Girl and is still "America's sweetheart." The America's sweetheart thing usually describes an actress in the early to mid-teenties not a married thirtysomething with four kids.

It was more the whore comment than the aging but ignore that part.

OK next time be more precise then. You sId it was the aging and the whore part.

You chose which part to comment on, only saying I thought it was odd that this was the part you took issue with. I was precise in quoting the person who posted "aging whore"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting reddit post from four months ago, but at that time it is hard to know if it is a PR plant (the same person posted the same comment a couple of times).The most interesting part to me is that Blake was talking about going to the NY Times months ago (prior to obtaining the text messages and evidence of smear campaign?)

https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/s/5gDvrprhq8

Thanks, that was interesting. Really shows how insidious this all is.

If I'd read that first, when the Lively lawsuit story broke out I'd be primed to think "oh, I heard about that, he called her sexy and then she threatened to cry harassment if they didn't go with her edit." Most people won't read the full complaint or even articles, just headlines.

Having read this after I've seen the lawsuit, naturally I'm thinking "ok, he harassed her and they wanted to get ahead of the story and plant seeds of doubt for when the inevitable hit."

But which is right? I'm still tending to go with the second version, because the lawsuit literally cites texts from Abel and Nathan discussing getting ahead of the story and creating alternate theories using reddit, so that's more credible than an anonymous reddit poster (but of course, that poster is using a throwaway account because they are spilling inside dirt - which is both what an actual insider and a paid troll would do!).

These are some citations from her complaint that seem relevant. Of course, Baldoni may have some other compelling evidence that disputes this. We'll see.

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Blake-Lively-NY-Lawsuit.pdf

9. On July 31, 2024, following the recommendation of their publicist, Jennifer
Abel, Wayfarer and Mr. Baldoni retained a crisis communications specialist named Melissa
Nathan, and her company The Agency Group PR LLC (“TAG”). Ms. Nathan delivered a proposal
to Mr. Baldoni, which included “[a] website (to discuss), full reddit, full social account take downs,
full social crisis team on hand for anything – engage with audiences in the right way, start threads
of theories (discuss) this is the way to be fully 100% protected.” 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. Nathan, “All of this will be most importantly
untraceable.” As Ms. Abel described it, the plan was to engage in “social media mitigation and
proactive fan posting to counter the negative” as well as “social manipulation.”3

10. This plan went well beyond standard crisis PR. What Ms. Nathan proposed
included a practice known as “Astroturfing,” which has been defined as “the practice of publishing
opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary
members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.”4

11. On August 2, 2024, TAG circulated a “SCENARIO PLANNING”
document to Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, and others, which described preparations and strategy
“should [Ms. Lively] and her team make her grievances public” (the “Scenario Planning
Document”), and is attached hereto as Exhibit D. To “get ahead of this narrative,” Ms. Nathan’s
plan proposed strategies to advance misleading counternarratives, including pushing Ms. Nathan’s
narrative that Ms. Lively had “less than favorable reputation,” proposing to “explore planting
stories about the weaponization of feminism…,” and misleadingly blaming Ms. Lively for
production members’ job losses.

16. Ms. Abel responded that she had just “spoke[n] to Melissa about this…
about what we discussed last night for social and digital.” Ms. Abel added, “Focus on reddit,
TikTok, IG.” With reassurance that Ms. Lively would be “destroy[ed]” and “buried,” Wayfarer
Case 1:24-cv-10049 Document 1 Filed 12/31/24 Page 9 of 93Deadline

Yes, I hold skepticism based on the timing of the (repeatedly copied) post, but even if a PR planted/bought comment, the anticipation of a NYT story months before it actually happened and prior to evidence of texts, is just intriguing. Back then, would a NYT story have been the sexual harassment angle alone? Without evidence of a smear campaign? And/or a male director not listening to female cast perspective on a (female audience targeted) film about domestic violence, as evidence of misogyny?

DP to add that this poster and "insider scoop" very much appears to be a PR plant on Baldoni's behalf. That same comment was posted repeatedly and the account was created Aug 12, no posts since that time other than the same story repeatedly (even started a thread with it), and never again since Aug.

Heh, good catch.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company? I posted this one here before I think.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake because of what she did to Baldoni, but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company who knew about the PR smear back then? I posted this one here before I think. On the same account, the person complained about financing Blake.

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/87nzy7VX0t

That's just some random person on Reddit.

Agree this thread has officially jumped the shark.

Only now it jumped the shark, not after the misogynistic PP who called her a slut then an aging whore and fat? The one who Insinuated breastfeeding/pumping is sexual? The one who keeps referencing "Harvey's girl"? The homophobic post about RR?

Ok.

Well she is aging (like the rest of us). But she seems to have a delusional belief that she's still as hot as she was during Gossip Girl and is still "America's sweetheart." The America's sweetheart thing usually describes an actress in the early to mid-teenties not a married thirtysomething with four kids.

What does aging and not being hot anymore have to do being sexually harassed at work? Is one type ok to harass and the other not? Who should be harassed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting reddit post from four months ago, but at that time it is hard to know if it is a PR plant (the same person posted the same comment a couple of times).The most interesting part to me is that Blake was talking about going to the NY Times months ago (prior to obtaining the text messages and evidence of smear campaign?)

https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/s/5gDvrprhq8

Thanks, that was interesting. Really shows how insidious this all is.

If I'd read that first, when the Lively lawsuit story broke out I'd be primed to think "oh, I heard about that, he called her sexy and then she threatened to cry harassment if they didn't go with her edit." Most people won't read the full complaint or even articles, just headlines.

Having read this after I've seen the lawsuit, naturally I'm thinking "ok, he harassed her and they wanted to get ahead of the story and plant seeds of doubt for when the inevitable hit."

But which is right? I'm still tending to go with the second version, because the lawsuit literally cites texts from Abel and Nathan discussing getting ahead of the story and creating alternate theories using reddit, so that's more credible than an anonymous reddit poster (but of course, that poster is using a throwaway account because they are spilling inside dirt - which is both what an actual insider and a paid troll would do!).

These are some citations from her complaint that seem relevant. Of course, Baldoni may have some other compelling evidence that disputes this. We'll see.

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Blake-Lively-NY-Lawsuit.pdf

9. On July 31, 2024, following the recommendation of their publicist, Jennifer
Abel, Wayfarer and Mr. Baldoni retained a crisis communications specialist named Melissa
Nathan, and her company The Agency Group PR LLC (“TAG”). Ms. Nathan delivered a proposal
to Mr. Baldoni, which included “[a] website (to discuss), full reddit, full social account take downs,
full social crisis team on hand for anything – engage with audiences in the right way, start threads
of theories (discuss) this is the way to be fully 100% protected.” 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. Nathan, “All of this will be most importantly
untraceable.” As Ms. Abel described it, the plan was to engage in “social media mitigation and
proactive fan posting to counter the negative” as well as “social manipulation.”3

10. This plan went well beyond standard crisis PR. What Ms. Nathan proposed
included a practice known as “Astroturfing,” which has been defined as “the practice of publishing
opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary
members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.”4

11. On August 2, 2024, TAG circulated a “SCENARIO PLANNING”
document to Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, and others, which described preparations and strategy
“should [Ms. Lively] and her team make her grievances public” (the “Scenario Planning
Document”), and is attached hereto as Exhibit D. To “get ahead of this narrative,” Ms. Nathan’s
plan proposed strategies to advance misleading counternarratives, including pushing Ms. Nathan’s
narrative that Ms. Lively had “less than favorable reputation,” proposing to “explore planting
stories about the weaponization of feminism…,” and misleadingly blaming Ms. Lively for
production members’ job losses.

16. Ms. Abel responded that she had just “spoke[n] to Melissa about this…
about what we discussed last night for social and digital.” Ms. Abel added, “Focus on reddit,
TikTok, IG.” With reassurance that Ms. Lively would be “destroy[ed]” and “buried,” Wayfarer
Case 1:24-cv-10049 Document 1 Filed 12/31/24 Page 9 of 93Deadline

Yes, I hold skepticism based on the timing of the (repeatedly copied) post, but even if a PR planted/bought comment, the anticipation of a NYT story months before it actually happened and prior to evidence of texts, is just intriguing. Back then, would a NYT story have been the sexual harassment angle alone? Without evidence of a smear campaign? And/or a male director not listening to female cast perspective on a (female audience targeted) film about domestic violence, as evidence of misogyny?

DP to add that this poster and "insider scoop" very much appears to be a PR plant on Baldoni's behalf. That same comment was posted repeatedly and the account was created Aug 12, no posts since that time other than the same story repeatedly (even started a thread with it), and never again since Aug.

Heh, good catch.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company? I posted this one here before I think.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake because of what she did to Baldoni, but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company who knew about the PR smear back then? I posted this one here before I think. On the same account, the person complained about financing Blake.

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/87nzy7VX0t

That's just some random person on Reddit.

Agree this thread has officially jumped the shark.

Only now it jumped the shark, not after the misogynistic PP who called her a slut then an aging whore and fat? The one who Insinuated breastfeeding/pumping is sexual? The one who keeps referencing "Harvey's girl"? The homophobic post about RR?

Ok.

Well she is aging (like the rest of us). But she seems to have a delusional belief that she's still as hot as she was during Gossip Girl and is still "America's sweetheart." The America's sweetheart thing usually describes an actress in the early to mid-teenties not a married thirtysomething with four kids.

What does aging and not being hot anymore have to do being sexually harassed at work? Is one type ok to harass and the other not? Who should be harassed?

No one should be harrassed. But she still has to prove the case in court.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting reddit post from four months ago, but at that time it is hard to know if it is a PR plant (the same person posted the same comment a couple of times).The most interesting part to me is that Blake was talking about going to the NY Times months ago (prior to obtaining the text messages and evidence of smear campaign?)

https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/s/5gDvrprhq8

Thanks, that was interesting. Really shows how insidious this all is.

If I'd read that first, when the Lively lawsuit story broke out I'd be primed to think "oh, I heard about that, he called her sexy and then she threatened to cry harassment if they didn't go with her edit." Most people won't read the full complaint or even articles, just headlines.

Having read this after I've seen the lawsuit, naturally I'm thinking "ok, he harassed her and they wanted to get ahead of the story and plant seeds of doubt for when the inevitable hit."

But which is right? I'm still tending to go with the second version, because the lawsuit literally cites texts from Abel and Nathan discussing getting ahead of the story and creating alternate theories using reddit, so that's more credible than an anonymous reddit poster (but of course, that poster is using a throwaway account because they are spilling inside dirt - which is both what an actual insider and a paid troll would do!).

These are some citations from her complaint that seem relevant. Of course, Baldoni may have some other compelling evidence that disputes this. We'll see.

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Blake-Lively-NY-Lawsuit.pdf

9. On July 31, 2024, following the recommendation of their publicist, Jennifer
Abel, Wayfarer and Mr. Baldoni retained a crisis communications specialist named Melissa
Nathan, and her company The Agency Group PR LLC (“TAG”). Ms. Nathan delivered a proposal
to Mr. Baldoni, which included “[a] website (to discuss), full reddit, full social account take downs,
full social crisis team on hand for anything – engage with audiences in the right way, start threads
of theories (discuss) this is the way to be fully 100% protected.” 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. Nathan, “All of this will be most importantly
untraceable.” As Ms. Abel described it, the plan was to engage in “social media mitigation and
proactive fan posting to counter the negative” as well as “social manipulation.”3

10. This plan went well beyond standard crisis PR. What Ms. Nathan proposed
included a practice known as “Astroturfing,” which has been defined as “the practice of publishing
opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary
members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.”4

11. On August 2, 2024, TAG circulated a “SCENARIO PLANNING”
document to Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, and others, which described preparations and strategy
“should [Ms. Lively] and her team make her grievances public” (the “Scenario Planning
Document”), and is attached hereto as Exhibit D. To “get ahead of this narrative,” Ms. Nathan’s
plan proposed strategies to advance misleading counternarratives, including pushing Ms. Nathan’s
narrative that Ms. Lively had “less than favorable reputation,” proposing to “explore planting
stories about the weaponization of feminism…,” and misleadingly blaming Ms. Lively for
production members’ job losses.

16. Ms. Abel responded that she had just “spoke[n] to Melissa about this…
about what we discussed last night for social and digital.” Ms. Abel added, “Focus on reddit,
TikTok, IG.” With reassurance that Ms. Lively would be “destroy[ed]” and “buried,” Wayfarer
Case 1:24-cv-10049 Document 1 Filed 12/31/24 Page 9 of 93Deadline

Yes, I hold skepticism based on the timing of the (repeatedly copied) post, but even if a PR planted/bought comment, the anticipation of a NYT story months before it actually happened and prior to evidence of texts, is just intriguing. Back then, would a NYT story have been the sexual harassment angle alone? Without evidence of a smear campaign? And/or a male director not listening to female cast perspective on a (female audience targeted) film about domestic violence, as evidence of misogyny?

DP to add that this poster and "insider scoop" very much appears to be a PR plant on Baldoni's behalf. That same comment was posted repeatedly and the account was created Aug 12, no posts since that time other than the same story repeatedly (even started a thread with it), and never again since Aug.

Heh, good catch.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company? I posted this one here before I think.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake because of what she did to Baldoni, but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company who knew about the PR smear back then? I posted this one here before I think. On the same account, the person complained about financing Blake.

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/87nzy7VX0t

That's just some random person on Reddit.

Agree this thread has officially jumped the shark.

Only now it jumped the shark, not after the misogynistic PP who called her a slut then an aging whore and fat? The one who Insinuated breastfeeding/pumping is sexual? The one who keeps referencing "Harvey's girl"? The homophobic post about RR?

Ok.

Well she is aging (like the rest of us). But she seems to have a delusional belief that she's still as hot as she was during Gossip Girl and is still "America's sweetheart." The America's sweetheart thing usually describes an actress in the early to mid-teenties not a married thirtysomething with four kids.

What does aging and not being hot anymore have to do being sexually harassed at work? Is one type ok to harass and the other not? Who should be harassed?

+1

And EVEN if folks do not believe that she has a legit HR/working climate complaint, she STILL likely has a legit retaliation complaint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting reddit post from four months ago, but at that time it is hard to know if it is a PR plant (the same person posted the same comment a couple of times).The most interesting part to me is that Blake was talking about going to the NY Times months ago (prior to obtaining the text messages and evidence of smear campaign?)

https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/s/5gDvrprhq8

Thanks, that was interesting. Really shows how insidious this all is.

If I'd read that first, when the Lively lawsuit story broke out I'd be primed to think "oh, I heard about that, he called her sexy and then she threatened to cry harassment if they didn't go with her edit." Most people won't read the full complaint or even articles, just headlines.

Having read this after I've seen the lawsuit, naturally I'm thinking "ok, he harassed her and they wanted to get ahead of the story and plant seeds of doubt for when the inevitable hit."

But which is right? I'm still tending to go with the second version, because the lawsuit literally cites texts from Abel and Nathan discussing getting ahead of the story and creating alternate theories using reddit, so that's more credible than an anonymous reddit poster (but of course, that poster is using a throwaway account because they are spilling inside dirt - which is both what an actual insider and a paid troll would do!).

These are some citations from her complaint that seem relevant. Of course, Baldoni may have some other compelling evidence that disputes this. We'll see.

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Blake-Lively-NY-Lawsuit.pdf

9. On July 31, 2024, following the recommendation of their publicist, Jennifer
Abel, Wayfarer and Mr. Baldoni retained a crisis communications specialist named Melissa
Nathan, and her company The Agency Group PR LLC (“TAG”). Ms. Nathan delivered a proposal
to Mr. Baldoni, which included “[a] website (to discuss), full reddit, full social account take downs,
full social crisis team on hand for anything – engage with audiences in the right way, start threads
of theories (discuss) this is the way to be fully 100% protected.” 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. Nathan, “All of this will be most importantly
untraceable.” As Ms. Abel described it, the plan was to engage in “social media mitigation and
proactive fan posting to counter the negative” as well as “social manipulation.”3

10. This plan went well beyond standard crisis PR. What Ms. Nathan proposed
included a practice known as “Astroturfing,” which has been defined as “the practice of publishing
opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary
members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.”4

11. On August 2, 2024, TAG circulated a “SCENARIO PLANNING”
document to Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, and others, which described preparations and strategy
“should [Ms. Lively] and her team make her grievances public” (the “Scenario Planning
Document”), and is attached hereto as Exhibit D. To “get ahead of this narrative,” Ms. Nathan’s
plan proposed strategies to advance misleading counternarratives, including pushing Ms. Nathan’s
narrative that Ms. Lively had “less than favorable reputation,” proposing to “explore planting
stories about the weaponization of feminism…,” and misleadingly blaming Ms. Lively for
production members’ job losses.

16. Ms. Abel responded that she had just “spoke[n] to Melissa about this…
about what we discussed last night for social and digital.” Ms. Abel added, “Focus on reddit,
TikTok, IG.” With reassurance that Ms. Lively would be “destroy[ed]” and “buried,” Wayfarer
Case 1:24-cv-10049 Document 1 Filed 12/31/24 Page 9 of 93Deadline

Yes, I hold skepticism based on the timing of the (repeatedly copied) post, but even if a PR planted/bought comment, the anticipation of a NYT story months before it actually happened and prior to evidence of texts, is just intriguing. Back then, would a NYT story have been the sexual harassment angle alone? Without evidence of a smear campaign? And/or a male director not listening to female cast perspective on a (female audience targeted) film about domestic violence, as evidence of misogyny?

DP to add that this poster and "insider scoop" very much appears to be a PR plant on Baldoni's behalf. That same comment was posted repeatedly and the account was created Aug 12, no posts since that time other than the same story repeatedly (even started a thread with it), and never again since Aug.

Heh, good catch.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company? I posted this one here before I think.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake because of what she did to Baldoni, but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company who knew about the PR smear back then? I posted this one here before I think. On the same account, the person complained about financing Blake.

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/87nzy7VX0t

That's just some random person on Reddit.

Agree this thread has officially jumped the shark.

Only now it jumped the shark, not after the misogynistic PP who called her a slut then an aging whore and fat? The one who Insinuated breastfeeding/pumping is sexual? The one who keeps referencing "Harvey's girl"? The homophobic post about RR?

Ok.

Well she is aging (like the rest of us). But she seems to have a delusional belief that she's still as hot as she was during Gossip Girl and is still "America's sweetheart." The America's sweetheart thing usually describes an actress in the early to mid-teenties not a married thirtysomething with four kids.

What does aging and not being hot anymore have to do being sexually harassed at work? Is one type ok to harass and the other not? Who should be harassed?

No one should be harrassed. But she still has to prove the case in court.

Ok but I'd rather give her the benefit of the doubt. Than trash her looks and everything about her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting reddit post from four months ago, but at that time it is hard to know if it is a PR plant (the same person posted the same comment a couple of times).The most interesting part to me is that Blake was talking about going to the NY Times months ago (prior to obtaining the text messages and evidence of smear campaign?)

https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/s/5gDvrprhq8

Thanks, that was interesting. Really shows how insidious this all is.

If I'd read that first, when the Lively lawsuit story broke out I'd be primed to think "oh, I heard about that, he called her sexy and then she threatened to cry harassment if they didn't go with her edit." Most people won't read the full complaint or even articles, just headlines.

Having read this after I've seen the lawsuit, naturally I'm thinking "ok, he harassed her and they wanted to get ahead of the story and plant seeds of doubt for when the inevitable hit."

But which is right? I'm still tending to go with the second version, because the lawsuit literally cites texts from Abel and Nathan discussing getting ahead of the story and creating alternate theories using reddit, so that's more credible than an anonymous reddit poster (but of course, that poster is using a throwaway account because they are spilling inside dirt - which is both what an actual insider and a paid troll would do!).

These are some citations from her complaint that seem relevant. Of course, Baldoni may have some other compelling evidence that disputes this. We'll see.

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Blake-Lively-NY-Lawsuit.pdf

9. On July 31, 2024, following the recommendation of their publicist, Jennifer
Abel, Wayfarer and Mr. Baldoni retained a crisis communications specialist named Melissa
Nathan, and her company The Agency Group PR LLC (“TAG”). Ms. Nathan delivered a proposal
to Mr. Baldoni, which included “[a] website (to discuss), full reddit, full social account take downs,
full social crisis team on hand for anything – engage with audiences in the right way, start threads
of theories (discuss) this is the way to be fully 100% protected.” 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. Nathan, “All of this will be most importantly
untraceable.” As Ms. Abel described it, the plan was to engage in “social media mitigation and
proactive fan posting to counter the negative” as well as “social manipulation.”3

10. This plan went well beyond standard crisis PR. What Ms. Nathan proposed
included a practice known as “Astroturfing,” which has been defined as “the practice of publishing
opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary
members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.”4

11. On August 2, 2024, TAG circulated a “SCENARIO PLANNING”
document to Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, and others, which described preparations and strategy
“should [Ms. Lively] and her team make her grievances public” (the “Scenario Planning
Document”), and is attached hereto as Exhibit D. To “get ahead of this narrative,” Ms. Nathan’s
plan proposed strategies to advance misleading counternarratives, including pushing Ms. Nathan’s
narrative that Ms. Lively had “less than favorable reputation,” proposing to “explore planting
stories about the weaponization of feminism…,” and misleadingly blaming Ms. Lively for
production members’ job losses.

16. Ms. Abel responded that she had just “spoke[n] to Melissa about this…
about what we discussed last night for social and digital.” Ms. Abel added, “Focus on reddit,
TikTok, IG.” With reassurance that Ms. Lively would be “destroy[ed]” and “buried,” Wayfarer
Case 1:24-cv-10049 Document 1 Filed 12/31/24 Page 9 of 93Deadline

Yes, I hold skepticism based on the timing of the (repeatedly copied) post, but even if a PR planted/bought comment, the anticipation of a NYT story months before it actually happened and prior to evidence of texts, is just intriguing. Back then, would a NYT story have been the sexual harassment angle alone? Without evidence of a smear campaign? And/or a male director not listening to female cast perspective on a (female audience targeted) film about domestic violence, as evidence of misogyny?

DP to add that this poster and "insider scoop" very much appears to be a PR plant on Baldoni's behalf. That same comment was posted repeatedly and the account was created Aug 12, no posts since that time other than the same story repeatedly (even started a thread with it), and never again since Aug.

Heh, good catch.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company? I posted this one here before I think.

Another interesting and sort of "eery" post from back in August. Talking about threatening to "Amber Heard" Blake because of what she did to Baldoni, but posted months before the nyt article. PR plant or insider from the Wayfarer company who knew about the PR smear back then? I posted this one here before I think. On the same account, the person complained about financing Blake.

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/87nzy7VX0t

That's just some random person on Reddit.

Agree this thread has officially jumped the shark.

Only now it jumped the shark, not after the misogynistic PP who called her a slut then an aging whore and fat? The one who Insinuated breastfeeding/pumping is sexual? The one who keeps referencing "Harvey's girl"? The homophobic post about RR?

Ok.

Well she is aging (like the rest of us). But she seems to have a delusional belief that she's still as hot as she was during Gossip Girl and is still "America's sweetheart." The America's sweetheart thing usually describes an actress in the early to mid-teenties not a married thirtysomething with four kids.

What does aging and not being hot anymore have to do being sexually harassed at work? Is one type ok to harass and the other not? Who should be harassed?

No one should be harrassed. But she still has to prove the case in court.

Proving she was retaliated against regardless of the HR harassment legitimacy, does not seem difficult for her case.