Nobody knew Nicepool was based on Justin until Justin tried to sue Ryan and Marvel for basing Nicepool on Justin. No one noticed or cared about it at the time. Had Justin not gone after Blake with TAG and Jed Wallace, and thus this lawsuit never happened, no one would associate that with him at all. Lily Allen literally wrote an entire album that is explicitly based on David Harbor cheating on her in their relationship. She even wears a dress on stage when performing one of the songs that is printed with images of Berdorf receipts she found that revealed Harbor's cheating to her. She is explicit and accusatory about the entire situation, and EVERYONE knows who she is talking about. And yet David Harbor appears to be less personally injured by this situation than Justin was over a character no one even associated with him until he pointed it out. And guess what? It is affecting Harbor's career less as a result. And David Harbor is an addict with mental health issues who apparently treated his ex-wife horribly (his ex-wife is also crazy but then again, he married her). Yet he is more mature and capable of moving on from a public slight than Justin Baldoni. That's really sad. |
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This situation reminds me of the "Bad Art Friend" story by Robert Kolker in the NYT a few years ago.
One side is a neophyte and less talented person swimming in a pond with successful professionals. They are weird, cringe worthy and have inflated egos about their purpose in life. The more successful people see them as losers yet use them for their own interests. They are pompous and arrogant and seem to hold the upper hand in the dispute. A not small part of this is because their opponent is in no way any kind of threat, not having their professional or social standing. The more successful people involve their nasty friends in a takedown at some point and everything they wrote cones out in evidence. They look like a!sholes. They think that because the cringy person is a loser that they won't fight back. But they do and all it does is tarnish the more successful people's reputations. You never know who is going to acquiesce or fight back. I think Baldoni is a weirdo but I think ultimately Lively and Reynolds come off worse. |
Certainly seems that Baldoni fought back. Blake and Ryan have been exposed for the lying manipulators they are. |
All of the sexual harassment claims have been thrown out. They are not going to be brought up in court. Justin Baldoni is no longer a defendant in this case - you are just bringing up a lot of old information and things that are no longer relevant. You were living in the past and grasping at straws. If you call someone’s a religion a cult one more time I’m reporting you to the moderator. It’s rude and offensive. |
I think it's really different. Justin isn't a "neophyte". He was on a hit TV show. Also his friends are both powerful and, IMO, nasty. Sarowitz is a billionaire who threatened Blake on multiple occasions. Melissa Nathan is a known bottom dweller known for helping such swell, upstanding people as Johnny Depp and the Alexander brothers. Jed Wallace is a shady creep. Blake and Ryan are definitely powerful, and yes they used their connections in this battle. But I think portraying Justin as some newbie who got swallowed up by a machine when some big and powerful giant stomped on him is incorrect. He had and continues to have plenty of power and friends, as well as lots of money and other resources. This is very, very different from Bad Art Friend where one woman was a more successful writer with friends who were on bestseller lists, and the other woman was a total nobody who'd paid to participate in some workshops with the more successful one. Also, that story involved flat out IP theft. The more successful writer lifted a letter the less successful writer had posted on a private Facebook group and included it as her own work in a short story she published and was celebrated for. There's really no comparable situation here. I know Justin accuses Blake of "stealing" the movie, but he still owns it (it actually made him a lot of money). Movies are collaborative art and there was a power struggle on the set of this movie. But it's functionally very different than one writer taking another writer's words and passing them off as her own. |
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I agree Justin will be fine. He made $35 million for this movie alone. It seems like he had no desire to be an actor again and wants to continue to be behind the scenes, which I think will continue to happen. Wayfarer is continuing to announce new projects.
I do think Ryan and Blake never thought that it would get this far and that he would simply fight back and that was a fatal error. You can’t convince me they wanted all these texts and emails released to the world. Or their friendship with Taylor destroyed. Ryan’s good guy image is gone. A bunch of his projects have been canceled. If you go to his IMDB, it’s either canceled projects that haven’t been deleted yet and a lot of voice work. His latest movie was supposed to be released in 2025… it’s been delayed until 2027, never a good sign. He confirmed in the today show interview that Deadpool would never come back as a main character, implying that he would be a side character and appearing as cameos in other movies possibly. It’s been reported that they plan to move the family to London. I do hope it comes out one day, exactly what happened. If they went against their team or if they just had no idea that some of this footage and texts and emails would come out? I truly do not get the strategy. |
I think Justin is a bit of a weirdo but ultimately, yes he will be fine. He seems to operate more in the real world with real relationships. RR and BL will of course be 'fine' too, but they both seem like total narcissists so I think this entire episode hurts them a lot more given RR's nice guy veneer has come totally undone. As far as why they did this, they seem to be surrounded by sycophants who never tell them the truth (even Taylor's texts to Blake were nauseating) or try to reign in their worst impulses, so I can only assume no one had the nerve to tell them this would blow up in their faces and they should let their little petty grievances lie and move on. Their lawyers should have stopped them - every single lawyer taking a sexual harassment case knows the blowback on their client will be intense no matter how clear the circumstances- but disgustingly these lawyers seemed more than happy to bleed Blake and Ryan dry moving this shaky case forward. |
I tend to blame the lawyers but it’s clear that this duo stopped listening to their advisers. It’s likely that the lawyers explained how difficult this would be. It’s come out that Blake’s longtime publicist Leslie Sloane opted to pass on the Melissa Nathan phone that started this whole thing. It seems like she saw where this could go and wanted her client to move on from IEWU. That’s why jones went to Taylor swifts longtime friend Ashley who convinced Taylor to get them to Blake. It’s clear from their texts that Taylor and Blake couldn’t see past the article and thought that sound be the end of it. They weren’t conferring with the experts and advisers here. Ryan has left his longtime agent, Leslie does not speak for Blake anymore. They keep firing people who are advising them. |
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"Movies are collaborative art and there was a power struggle on the set of this movie."
LOL, nothing collaborative about having your husband make his own cut of the movie, and asking the studio to destroy the delays. |
destroy the dailies |
. I don’t blame Matt and Lucy so much. It sounds like they had a polite and cordial relationship with the Reynolds and likely just believed them. Matt did a quick favor on his vacation by sending a note. It’s disappointing that he didn’t have the full truth but understandable. The funny thing is he makes a joke that lively should come and do one of his production company’s movies - but are we seeing Blake being cast in one? Nope. Even with all her connections no one wants to work with her! So embarrassing. |
Are you saying movies are not a collaborative art form? Go make a few movies with no other people involved, see how that works. Power struggles and personality conflicts are common on film sets specifically because it is not possible to make a movie without the work and input of a bunch of different people. You would be shocked by the stuff people say about their colleagues on films on a daily basis on movies you liked and about which you never heard a negative word. A lot of the drama inherent in Hollywood exists because you need a bunch of different people to make movies, many of those people are the very best at their job and have egos to match their skill. Conflicts over which cut is released are common. Conflicts over what happens to footage that doesn't make the Final Cut are becoming more common because of the fight over AI and actors wanting the ability to control what happens to video footage of them after a movie is done (especially sensitive for actresses whose footage could be used to create AI that looks just like them engaging in lewd sex acts, a particular issue on a movie with romantic scenes and violence like IEWU). But go off. |
Keep up, I know it's hard. Blake was hired as an actress and Ryan had zero responsibility for the film. Yet he literally has been caught making his own cut of the film and trying to pass it off as Blake's. Add in that he asked the studio to destroy the dailies. No wonder they fought unsealing the documents -- they are going to lose this trial, and only work again if self financed. Well deserved for their antics. |
Could you point to the document where Ryan requests the destruction of the dailies? Thanks. |
| The pro-Justin reddit subs are losing their minds about some stuff from the docket that has been known for months, so I assume something bad is coming down the pike for Justin/Wayfarer, or they are panicking about the trial coming. Usually they don't spin themselves up in this way if things are going well for Justin. |