Speaker 1: Hey, that folks.
Speaker 2: It is Tuesday, May fifth, and our long national nightmare
Speaker 2: is over. The Blake Lively justin Bald Dunny case is over.
Speaker 2: Be honest with you, I kind of forgot what the
Speaker 2: hell the thing was even about. And with that, welcome
Speaker 2: to this episode of Amy and TJ and Rhodes.
Speaker 1: This has been going on for so long.
Speaker 2: It ended so suddenly, and I had to stop and
Speaker 2: kind of remind myself what was this about again, And
Speaker 2: a lot of it was just mutslinging.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think a good way to I Actually, this
Speaker 3: was my relief. It ends with us saga. It finally
Speaker 3: ends with them seemingly singing Kumbai Yah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: They settled this crazy lawsuit that honestly, we've been confused
Speaker 3: about from the beginning. There's just been a lot of
Speaker 3: he did this, he said that, she did this, they
Speaker 3: did that, And it was about yes, sexual harassment initially,
Speaker 3: but then it was about a smear campaign, and then
Speaker 3: about a retaliatory campaign, and then it was about pr
Speaker 3: agencies saying bad things or trying to get reporters to
Speaker 3: report lies. It just it got all messy. Taylor Swift
Speaker 3: texts were even involved in this. She wasn't so happy
Speaker 3: about that. But yeah, a lot of big celebrity names,
Speaker 3: and it seemed a little schoolyard ish. I'm not trying
Speaker 3: to minimize what Blake Lively said she experienced, and certainly
Speaker 3: she was trying to be a champion for women's rights
Speaker 3: speaking up about being sexually harassed in the workplace, and
Speaker 3: that was what she claimed her goal was. But my god,
Speaker 3: this was a costly one financially and from a pr
Speaker 3: standpoint for both of them. They both got dirty when
Speaker 3: the movie come out twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Okay, so did the harassment claims. All this was that year.
Speaker 2: But the movie was a huge hit, was it not?
Speaker 2: How much space I cannot remember, and sorry if you
Speaker 2: don't either as well. What the distance was in time
Speaker 2: between the movie coming out and being a hit and
Speaker 2: things starting getting ugly between them. I don't think all
Speaker 2: that ugliness was surrounding the.
Speaker 1: Movie, wasn't It wasn't.
Speaker 3: So what happened pretty quickly after they had to obviously
Speaker 3: walk a red cart. They walked separately on the red carpet.
Speaker 3: It was all bubbling up as the promotion for the
Speaker 3: movie was beginning, and then it kind of exploded but yeah,
Speaker 3: it ends with us gross more than three hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty one million dollars worldwide. It was a huge hit.
Speaker 3: It was a wonderful book. I saw the movie, I
Speaker 3: read the books, and it was a shame that all
Speaker 3: of that came out of a movie. A lot of
Speaker 3: people really liked to watch a story they really loved
Speaker 3: by Colleen Hoover.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that part of it really was a shame. I mean,
Speaker 2: she has plenty of books, and who knows what they
Speaker 2: could have done and continued to do. I don't know
Speaker 2: what's going That's not the big part. But Roades, that
Speaker 2: is a big deal. Two stars of a movie, one
Speaker 2: of them says the other one sexually heard asked me
Speaker 2: on the set of that movie. And again, Blake Live
Speaker 2: is a big enough name on her own. You throw
Speaker 2: in Ryan Reynold's name, You throw in Taylor Swift. This
Speaker 2: became like her entire orbit kind of got caught up
Speaker 2: in this. But Robes, the original claim was that secuor
Speaker 2: harassment on set, which he obviously quickly, immediately and strongly denied.
Speaker 3: Yes, and so she had thirteen separate allegations. And yes,
Speaker 3: we were hearing drips and drabs of what they were,
Speaker 3: what they were going to be. And by the way,
Speaker 3: the New York Times did a big article on this.
Speaker 3: So Justin Baldoni countered pretty quickly with the defamation lawsuit
Speaker 3: against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds and the New York Times.
Speaker 3: But a judge this past summer threw all of that out,
Speaker 3: and then just last month, that judge dismissed ten of
Speaker 3: Blake Lively's thirteen allegations, including the big one harassment and defamation.
Speaker 2: Okay, so she had only two or three three last
Speaker 2: I don't want to say they weren't the biggest claims,
Speaker 2: but ropes. After all of this that was going on
Speaker 2: and the only things that were left that they were
Speaker 2: going to go to court over in a couple of weeks,
Speaker 2: they pretty quickly determined, Yeah, this ain't worth The damage
Speaker 2: is about to be.
Speaker 3: Done exactly because we were going to see Blake Lively testify,
Speaker 3: we were likely going to see Ryan Reynolds testify, we
Speaker 3: were going to see Justin bell Dony testify. That would
Speaker 3: have been huge. This already grabbed and dominated way too
Speaker 3: many headlines. I think most of us got really sick
Speaker 3: and annoyed and sometimes confused by the back and forth,
Speaker 3: but to have this publicly paraded on trial in Manhattan
Speaker 3: that was going to be one of the biggest trials
Speaker 3: of the year. It was set to take place May eighteenth,
Speaker 3: so we're talking they settled exactly two weeks before court
Speaker 3: was set to begin. And yeah, those three claims breach
Speaker 3: of contract, retaliation and aiding and a betting in retaliation.
Speaker 3: So those were the three claims that were in this
Speaker 3: civil lawsuit. And yeah, I think for her if the
Speaker 3: harassment and defamation got thrown out, that was the meat
Speaker 3: of her lawsuit. That was what she had even written
Speaker 3: about on social media that she cared about the most.
Speaker 3: And we should point out it wasn't thrown out because
Speaker 3: it didn't rise to the level. It wasn't that there
Speaker 3: weren't merits to her lawsuit. The judge said that this
Speaker 3: is really specific that under federal and state law, Blake
Speaker 3: Lively would have had to have been classified as an
Speaker 3: employee to bring these claims of sexual harassment and defamation.
Speaker 3: And the judge said that she instead operated as an
Speaker 3: independent contractor in this movie, so she had more power
Speaker 3: than someone would have if they were just an employee.
Speaker 3: So if she were an employee of Justin Baldoni, she
Speaker 3: would have had a legal claim to this lawsuit, but
Speaker 3: because she was basically an independent contractor and kind of yeah,
Speaker 3: on the same level as him, it changed her ability
Speaker 3: to make these claims in court.
Speaker 2: These were logistics. He made no determination one way or
Speaker 2: another about, like you said, the merits of the case.
Speaker 2: But Robes, this is a long way to get to
Speaker 2: finally then realize I'm in the wrong place to sue.
Speaker 2: That was odd, fine, But Robes, the three that were left,
Speaker 2: if those were her three claims initially, would this have
Speaker 2: gotten this far, which she had gone this hard after
Speaker 2: a lawsuit, if those were her three.
Speaker 1: Issues, probably not.
Speaker 2: Yes, But Rob, we've been doing this for a year
Speaker 2: and a half because we don't know everything that's in
Speaker 2: the court documents. What have people been doing leaking? And
Speaker 2: this has been an ugly tabloid story that really exposed
Speaker 2: Rose what we kind of got a little lesson in
Speaker 2: but the behind the scenes, in the back and forth,
Speaker 2: and it's not reporting, its leaking and planting stories.
Speaker 1: It is so bizarre how this works.
Speaker 2: And we got in the most of the world start
Speaker 2: seeing all these people and seeing these background these texts
Speaker 2: and these plans and these missions to literally bring people down.
Speaker 2: It's ugly. And to think Blake Lively, Okay, justin Baldoni's
Speaker 2: starting that movie. Fine, he's a successful guy. But Blake
Speaker 2: Lively under oath having to answer questions about her life,
Speaker 2: her finances, her friends, her husband ropes, that's tough. No
Speaker 2: way that we're going to let an attorney from the
Speaker 2: other side get a hold of her under oath.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And when the judge made that ruling on April second,
Speaker 3: they were already her lawyer was already starting to talk
Speaker 3: settlement talk, So there was already a notion of exactly
Speaker 3: what you're saying. There's no way it would have been
Speaker 3: worth it for her to put herself exposed herself like
Speaker 3: that under cross examination, to not really even have that
Speaker 3: much of a reward if the judge were or the
Speaker 3: jury were to have sided with her, it just wouldn't
Speaker 3: have made any real sense from a reputational standpoint. And
Speaker 3: you remember, her reputation was the reason why this all
Speaker 3: bubbled up. Do you remember our daughters talking about, Oh,
Speaker 3: Blake Lively in the promotion of this movie. It is
Speaker 3: that she wasn't taking the movie seriously enough. The movie
Speaker 3: deals with elements of domestic violence. That's at the crux
Speaker 3: of this movie. So it isn't a rom com, it's
Speaker 3: a rom drum basically. And there were all of these
Speaker 3: people online pointing to the fact that she was talking
Speaker 3: about girls' night out, Girls' night Out, and look, this
Speaker 3: is a novel that a lot of girls read together
Speaker 3: and had book clubs about, so I understand what she
Speaker 3: was saying. But then she claimed all of that negative
Speaker 3: press harping on what she said came from the Baldoni camp,
Speaker 3: and that is when we started to get word that
Speaker 3: there was something else going on, that there was some
Speaker 3: other undercurrent of some other story that was bubbling up
Speaker 3: between these two, and that's when it all exploded.
Speaker 2: I don't remember claiming that that side is responsible for
Speaker 2: something that just took off on TikTok. Maybe they can
Speaker 2: go back to it, but I remember her getting criticism
Speaker 2: because at times when these were heavier themes and conversations
Speaker 2: people were trying to have whether there's a red carpet
Speaker 2: or in whatever press junket she was promoting her product
Speaker 2: and things like that. I can't remember what her products were,
Speaker 2: maybe fashion, something beauty, maybe, but it felt tone death.
Speaker 2: I didn't see this stuff. I just remember that being
Speaker 2: the reporting of how she handled throughout everything felt off.
Speaker 3: Yeah I didn't undertand yeah I didn't understand how what
Speaker 3: she did and what she said which was being criticized,
Speaker 3: had anything to do with Justin Baldoni. But their claim
Speaker 3: is that they were getting people to print these things
Speaker 3: and to take it to another level and to really
Speaker 3: drum up this criticism against her, to retaliate before even
Speaker 3: any of the allegations came out, to kind of damage
Speaker 3: her reputation before she made any allegations.
Speaker 1: And they all came out ugly in this, all of them.
Speaker 3: You know that what they say, when you start throwing mud,
Speaker 3: everybody gets dirty, and that is exactly what happened. Nobody
Speaker 3: came out of this looking good, not a one.
Speaker 1: So now here we are robes. We have a settlement,
Speaker 1: and I think you have the statement in front of you.
Speaker 2: I did, okay, And we're going to say before we
Speaker 2: read it, like the preface and give context. This is
Speaker 2: as perfect this is going to ever get. You know,
Speaker 2: how carefully worded this thing is rogues. And with the
Speaker 2: thing here we went through all this for what do
Speaker 2: you or have you seen anywhere a breakdown of what
Speaker 2: each side actually got, if anything, out of a settlement,
Speaker 2: or did they both just wave white flags at each
Speaker 2: other and say we quit because there's no money that
Speaker 2: exchanged any settlement of that kind that I saw. But
Speaker 2: I didn't see that anybody conceded this or gave that,
Speaker 2: or exchanged this, or here's the extra movie profits or
Speaker 2: here's the rights to this script.
Speaker 1: I have nothing.
Speaker 3: Nope, I have not. I have not heard any single Okay,
Speaker 3: I haven't seen any single report. I haven't heard anyone
Speaker 3: talk about what these two possibly gained or got out
Speaker 3: of this lawsuit. Not a one.
Speaker 1: But we got a hell of a britten statement.
Speaker 3: It's it's and this was a joint statement, by the way,
Speaker 3: which I feel like is is an interesting thing. The
Speaker 3: fact that they were able to come together toward this
Speaker 3: is pretty remarkable.
Speaker 2: I would like to see the drafts and the red
Speaker 2: lines in the back and forth they had in putting
Speaker 2: the statement together.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, between the lawyers, back and forth. Oh
Speaker 3: my goodness. Yeah, here it is in part. This is
Speaker 3: the meat of it. We acknowledged the process, presented challenges
Speaker 3: and recognize concerns raised by mis Lively deserve to be heard.
Speaker 3: We remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and
Speaker 3: unproductive environments. It is our sincere hope that this brings
Speaker 3: closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and
Speaker 3: in peace, including a respectful environment online.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, and that's it, and we all move back
Speaker 2: to our respective corners and jobs and families and homes
Speaker 2: and movies and.
Speaker 3: It huh it It kind of feels like this was
Speaker 3: all for nothing. If anything came out of it, it
Speaker 3: was just the exposure of this underbelly of Hollywood that's
Speaker 3: ugly and it exists. And a reminder to people when
Speaker 3: you read things to not believe what you read that
Speaker 3: there is usually a motive behind a lot of what
Speaker 3: is being said, especially when it's being said negatively about
Speaker 3: someone in the spotlight.
Speaker 1: And yeah, a lot of times it is just a
Speaker 1: flood out lie.
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely all right. When we come back, we're gonna
Speaker 3: tell you how Blake Lively bounced back real quickly afterword
Speaker 3: of this settlement became public. Welcome back everyone to this
Speaker 3: episode of Amy and DJ. We are finally well, we're excited,
Speaker 3: and we're frankly We're relieved. We don't have to cover
Speaker 3: a confusing and a circus of an that was set
Speaker 3: to take place in Manhattan on May eighteenth, the Blake
Speaker 3: Lively Justin bell DONI lawsuit. It is over. It's not happening.
Speaker 3: At least the trial is not happening. And apparently everybody
Speaker 3: is joining hands, releasing joint statements, and all is well
Speaker 3: in the world. Apparently not really sure what anyone got
Speaker 3: out of this lawsuit. But the good news for those
Speaker 3: of us who were trying to understand it, it's over.
Speaker 3: You're relieved, aren't you? You did not want to cover
Speaker 3: this trial?
Speaker 1: Well, I wanted to cover the trial. I didn't.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'll be honest, we're up. There have plenty
Speaker 2: of mornings we skipped on a morning run adding this
Speaker 2: story because we one didn't understand it. It was a hard
Speaker 2: to get you caught up on what was happening. What's
Speaker 2: a real story, what's not a real story? Where are
Speaker 2: we in the legal process? It was just trying to
Speaker 2: keep up with the headlines in the back and forth.
Speaker 2: Was it wasn't fun and it is ugly and I
Speaker 2: don't know either one of these folks, But I don't
Speaker 2: want I know what this feels like robes and you
Speaker 2: could say, oh, he deserved it or she deserved it
Speaker 2: to take a side or whatever. But this, it's just
Speaker 2: human ugliness on display, and these people were trying to
Speaker 2: destroy each other, to destroy each other publicly.
Speaker 3: It did feel like that. It felt like they both
Speaker 3: had huge PR machines behind them doing everything they could
Speaker 3: to make the other side look worse than they did.
Speaker 3: But hey, Blake Lively, the announcements made hours later, shows
Speaker 3: up looking glam and fabulous at the met gala, I mean,
Speaker 3: within hours of this announcement all smiles. Frankly, it was
Speaker 3: pretty shocking. She hadn't been, I believe since twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3: She was the co chair, so she hadn't been for
Speaker 3: a couple of years, and it was not anyone people
Speaker 3: were expecting to show up, especially with that announcement. She
Speaker 3: also showed up without Ryan Reynolds. That was interesting.
Speaker 1: I wonder what the plan.
Speaker 2: Obviously she had planned to go to the Met, the
Speaker 2: dress was done, all these plans had been made. I
Speaker 2: wonder though, if it mattered, if they hadn't settled in
Speaker 2: the announcement yesterday, would she has still gone out there
Speaker 2: and done this.
Speaker 3: Probably, yeah, you know what, I hadn't even thought. Of course,
Speaker 3: she had this crazy beautiful dress, a pastel Versachi gown
Speaker 3: with a thirteen foot train that didn't just show up
Speaker 3: a few hours ago. This obviously was planned, and she
Speaker 3: also this was sweet. She had a custom handbag featuring
Speaker 3: water color drawings by her four kids, so she said,
Speaker 3: she told the cameras, I'm shy. I just like to
Speaker 3: have my kids with me. So she had her bag.
Speaker 3: She had the water colorings from her kids on full
Speaker 3: display there with her beautiful gown. But no Ryan Reynolds.
Speaker 3: I guess maybe he was home with the kids. I
Speaker 3: mean they were eleven, nine, six and three, so they've
Speaker 3: got a brood of girls and probably someone had to
Speaker 3: stay home with. Obviously they could have afforded babysitter, but
Speaker 3: I don't know, New.
Speaker 1: York, it's hard defines in my last minute.
Speaker 3: That's hilarious. But no, and I don't know. If Ryan
Speaker 3: had gone, maybe that would have been more of a spectacle,
Speaker 3: given the announcement, and given he played the protective husband,
Speaker 3: and I don't want to say played. He was very
Speaker 3: publicly a protective husband during this process. He seemed to
Speaker 3: be obviously in solid support of his wife throughout it all,
Speaker 3: and thankfully for him and for them and for pretty
Speaker 3: much everyone involved. He won't have to testify now in
Speaker 3: two weeks, so thank god for that, and we just
Speaker 3: hope we don't have to talk about this anymore.
Speaker 2: No, I don't even know this is a federal case.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if there would have even been cameras allowed.
Speaker 3: I don't think there would have been, but we would
Speaker 3: have had the sketch artists and all of the gaggle
Speaker 3: of reporters. Can you imagine the scene outside of that courthouse.
Speaker 3: It would have been like Diddy pretty much.
Speaker 2: And you know what, they would have had a bunch
Speaker 2: of big names probably had to show up and testify
Speaker 2: in that case. But the first thing I thought of
Speaker 2: was the remember how damaging that hole the ember heard.
Speaker 3: Yes, Johnny Depp, Amberherd.
Speaker 2: Watch that thing every day and hear these people go
Speaker 2: and just say some of the most just to hear
Speaker 2: about their Oh that was awful. A repeat of that
Speaker 2: with two people who have different reputations frankly than Johnny Depp.
Speaker 2: No offense to Johnny Depp, but he does not have
Speaker 2: the same reputation as of Bryan Reynolds.
Speaker 3: No, and these people all still want to keep making
Speaker 3: movies and they want people to come and watch their movies,
Speaker 3: and you kind of need to like them in order
Speaker 3: to go to the theaters to cheer them on. And
Speaker 3: so hopefully, hopefully everyone can put this behind them, maybe
Speaker 3: some lessons were learned, and again we can stop talking
Speaker 3: about them.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was really rushing out to see Simple Favorite three.
Speaker 3: I do like that franchise. He's a friend of ourselves, yes, yes,
Speaker 3: all right, And with that everyone, thank you for listening
Speaker 3: to us. As always, I'm Amy Roboch alongside TJ.
Speaker 1: Holmes.
Speaker 3: We'll talk to you soon.