Speaker 1: So Blake Lively has landed in a bit of hot water.
Speaker 1: It is the perfect storm. It is the convergence of
Speaker 1: so many things happening at once. It is a cautionary
Speaker 1: tale with many many lessons. So, first and foremost, Blake
Speaker 1: Lively and Ryan Reynolds are beloved. They are presented as perfection.
Speaker 1: When people tell you how incredible you are and really
Speaker 1: just worship you individually and as a couple, you are
Speaker 1: going to lean into that.
Speaker 2: I mean, she is the star, She is a princess.
Speaker 1: She hosts the met gala and lands the role and
Speaker 1: the outfit and the glowy makeup and the long blonde hair,
Speaker 1: and her best friend is the most famous woman on
Speaker 1: the planet Earth. And she has beautiful children, and everything she.
Speaker 2: Says is just always idolized.
Speaker 1: And she was on a show playing the role of
Speaker 1: the most popular girl in school for years, and she
Speaker 1: likely was the most popular girl in.
Speaker 2: Her own school for years.
Speaker 1: And she starred in this movie that's about domestic violence.
Speaker 1: The poster doesn't look as serious as the movie is,
Speaker 1: and her press about the role is very girly and
Speaker 1: flippant and very floral and just kind of marketing what
Speaker 1: people perceive as a rom com when it's such a
Speaker 1: serious topic. Now, it's not entirely relevant that I grew
Speaker 1: up in a domestic violentine. But I did, and I
Speaker 1: do see the severity of it, and I do realize
Speaker 1: what people are saying is cringe about her saying that
Speaker 1: your whole life can't be summed up by domestic violence,
Speaker 1: because in many ways, it can be summed up by
Speaker 1: domestic violence, because it's not something you can separate. It's
Speaker 1: part of your being, your fiber, it's part of your quilt.
Speaker 1: I have issues sexually as a result of my violent home.
Speaker 2: I have issues in relationship. I have issues trusting men.
Speaker 1: I have a myriad of issues in my life that
Speaker 1: will never ever go away as a result of my childhood.
Speaker 1: I'm sure she didn't realize that maybe she didn't deeply
Speaker 1: connect with this role. Some people may play a role
Speaker 1: but not really understand the extent of it.
Speaker 2: I was in a lifetime movie.
Speaker 1: I stuck the landing, and I think I did well,
Speaker 1: But I don't know that I, in my every fiber
Speaker 1: of my being, understood or felt the role. But I'm
Speaker 1: not a professional actress. I was just happy to have
Speaker 1: accomplished what I accomplished. She also is someone who is
Speaker 1: a celebrity in twenty twenty four, which is very different.
Speaker 1: I remember the first time I saw Jennifer Aniston promoting
Speaker 1: vitamin water and I thought, oh, because celebrities traditionally stay
Speaker 1: in their marketing lane. They're marketing films, they're marketing television.
Speaker 1: They know how to do press junkets. They know how
Speaker 1: to do the Today Show and the Good Morning America tour.
Speaker 1: They know how to market a book. But when you
Speaker 1: get into merchandising, marketing and branding, it's a different game.
Speaker 1: I was one of the first to monetize a media
Speaker 1: platform in a different way. And I was the first
Speaker 1: in the cocktail space, with many to follow, including George
Speaker 1: Clooney and Ryan Reynolds. After George Clooney and Blake Lively
Speaker 1: and Jennifer Lopez and many people who have failed at it,
Speaker 1: and Justin Timberlay and Nicki Minaj and Polly d and
Speaker 1: the list goes on and on.
Speaker 2: But that's only one category. Blake has a haircare brand.
Speaker 1: Blake also has a cocktail brand or a brand that
Speaker 1: sells in liquor stores. So now she has kids, she's married,
Speaker 1: they're both promoting their movies. She's going out on the
Speaker 1: Red carpet has America's Sweetheart, So she's going on the
Speaker 1: Red carpet, and she's doing a full press tour, and
Speaker 1: she's been advised or pressured by her partners or she
Speaker 1: herself thought it was a good idea, and I could
Speaker 1: see how the machine got swirling where she's going to
Speaker 1: be out promoting.
Speaker 2: She has a platform, she has a megaphone. I've been there.
Speaker 1: You're doing an article for Forbes magazine and you're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about your cocktail're gonna talk about your children's book.
Speaker 1: You're going to talk about this, and you could talk
Speaker 1: about be strong in charity. I mean, that's what publicists advise,
Speaker 1: that's what gets discussed. Reporters are total questions to ask,
Speaker 1: not to ask what they want people to focus on,
Speaker 1: and then you're off up to your own devices. Now
Speaker 1: they're showing a lot of her former interviews, and I
Speaker 1: don't think she's an excellent interviewee, not everybody is. The
Speaker 1: game is moving quickly. You're doing a number of interviews.
Speaker 1: Your brain has to think faster than your mouth, and
Speaker 1: you have to stay the course with the task that
Speaker 1: you are working on and think about the next question,
Speaker 1: think about what you said before if you mess something up,
Speaker 1: and think about what you're promoting, and try to not
Speaker 1: say too much but still be enchanting and interesting and charming.
Speaker 1: And it's something that people are very scared about. I
Speaker 1: just talked to someone who was asked to do a
Speaker 1: very big, popular podcast and she's scared. And I couldn't
Speaker 1: believe she was scared. But now thinking about all of this,
Speaker 1: I see why she's scared. So she's out there, like
Speaker 1: other celebrities in twenty twenty four, trying to market everything.
Speaker 1: So she's marketing her cocktail, her movie, she's marketing her relationship,
Speaker 1: her kids, she's marketing her haircare now available at Target.
Speaker 1: But she's losing the plot in realizing that she's there
Speaker 1: to market a movie about a very sensitive topic, which
Speaker 1: is domestic violence. And you can't mix domestic violence in
Speaker 1: at the checkout stand with bubblegum and hairspray and condoms
Speaker 1: like it stands alone. And it could be an anecdote
Speaker 1: that she has these other things, but people are saying
Speaker 1: that there is a pop up. But this is also
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four and the land of social media. And
Speaker 1: the land of being public is very different and people
Speaker 1: are not accepted in the same way as before. People's
Speaker 1: what fans believed to be bs or people's kool aid
Speaker 1: is not being drunk in the same way. People are
Speaker 1: not consuming celebrity the way that they used to. It
Speaker 1: doesn't work in politics anymore. It can kill a campaign.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, for celebrities to think that they are
Speaker 1: going to move the vote. I think it's very self involved.
Speaker 1: I think it's very entitled. I think it's very pretentious.
Speaker 1: I just don't think it's what twenty twenty four is about.
Speaker 1: And celebrities are extremely self important people. They continue to
Speaker 1: think that they move the needle, and I think that
Speaker 1: that's something that everybody needs to realize, is that they're not.
Speaker 1: In Hollywood in general doesn't move the needle as much
Speaker 1: as it used to. A powerful person on Wall Street
Speaker 1: makes fifty times more than the most powerful person in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: But the most powerful person in Hollywood who has an
Speaker 1: assistant and runs calls and goes to get a litle
Speaker 1: scholar chop salad.
Speaker 2: Believes their own bullshit. So moving right along.
Speaker 1: We saw this with Jennifer Lopez for the first time
Speaker 1: she wasn't the beloved diva queen. She wasn't that queen.
Speaker 1: Because what happened. She was marketing her skincare. She was
Speaker 1: more marketing her cocktail. She was marketing her relationship. She
Speaker 1: was marketing her two movies. She was marketing an album
Speaker 1: and a tour, and the fans said basta. They just
Speaker 1: didn't want it, and they felt waterboarded, they felt like
Speaker 1: they were being fed goose fat, and they just all
Speaker 1: rebelled and it shut down a musical tour. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure she's had a rough time, you know, unbraiding a
Speaker 1: relationship at the same time as unbraiding the demise of
Speaker 1: a career. But people are not tolerating the way that
Speaker 1: they used to. And in addition, Blake and Ryan have
Speaker 1: been put on a pedestal, a pedestal that we put
Speaker 1: them on.
Speaker 2: They are the bride and groom on.
Speaker 1: The top of the cake. They are perfect. Everything they
Speaker 1: do is perfect. And when you are at the top
Speaker 1: of your game, and when you are on a pedestal
Speaker 1: like an Ellen, like a j Lo, like these people
Speaker 1: that are mega stars, like an Oprah, like Dwayne the
Speaker 1: Rock Johnson, whoever it is, the higher you are the
Speaker 1: bigger the pedestal is the further or farther, and the
Speaker 1: harder you're going to fall. And people have these deep
Speaker 1: seated feelings about people, and that's you know, And what
Speaker 1: is unfortunate is quote unquote I don't believe in cancelation anymore.
Speaker 1: It's just having a very bad run. Unless there's something illegal,
Speaker 1: I don't believe in it. But cancelation, you know, people
Speaker 1: will say is getting canceled. It's not permanent. Cancelation is negative.
Speaker 1: It's a moment in time, it's a feeding frenzy. It's parasitic.
Speaker 1: It's really not positive. Like I said, I don't know
Speaker 1: Blake Lively or Ryan, and I'm going to say the
Speaker 1: benefit of doubt is that they're lovely people. I had
Speaker 1: Justin Baldoni on my podcast. Their movie is getting a
Speaker 1: lot of pr I don't know if that's translating into sales.
Speaker 1: But I don't believe in people being dragged. But I
Speaker 1: do believe in cautionary tales and learning lessons from people
Speaker 1: that are getting dragged.
Speaker 2: That's what I really do believe in. After walk to
Speaker 2: the faster, to the faster
Speaker 1: Back to the faster,