In a recent development that has stirred the entertainment industry, text message evidence has surfaced suggesting that actor and director Justin Baldoni instructed his PR team to manipulate online narratives in his favor against Blake Lively. According to a post by Pop Base on X, formerly Twitter, at 21:18 on December 21, 2024, Baldoni allegedly sent his team a Twitter thread discussing Hailey Bieber as a blueprint for their campaign strategy against Lively. This revelation comes in the wake of the release of the film “It Ends With Us,” which Baldoni directed and in which both he and Lively starred.
Text message evidence shows Justin Baldoni allegedly sending his PR team a Twitter thread about Hailey Bieber as an example for their campaign against Blake Lively.
— Pop Base (@PopBase) December 21, 2024
Additionally, alleged texts reveal the PR team celebrating the online narrative in his favor. pic.twitter.com/1OcAuAupC3
The alleged texts reveal a calculated effort by Baldoni’s PR team to celebrate and steer the online conversation to bolster his image during a time when tensions were high due to issues on the film set. The messages indicated a strategic move to shift public perception, leveraging the narrative around domestic violence, a key theme in the film based on Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name. This maneuver has raised questions about the ethics of using sensitive topics for PR purposes.
This situation unfolds against the backdrop of a legal complaint filed by Blake Lively against Justin Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and claiming a coordinated PR effort to damage her reputation following a dispute over the inclusion of additional sex scenes in the film, which Lively had initially declined to perform. The complaint alleges that after a crisis meeting involving Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, Baldoni’s team began a “social manipulation” campaign designed to discredit Lively ().
Baldoni, known for his roles in “Jane the Virgin” and previous directorial works like “Five Feet Apart,” has responded through his legal representative, Bryan Freedman, who dismissed Lively’s accusations as “categorically false” and part of a broader attempt by Lively to repair her own reputation after public backlash from her behavior during the film’s promotional campaign ().
The controversy has ignited a broader discussion on the influence celebrities wield over public narratives through PR strategies, especially in light of the ongoing discourse around accountability and media manipulation in Hollywood. The incident underscores the complexities of public relations in the entertainment industry, where personal reputations can be shaped or tarnished through orchestrated campaigns (Source: The New York Times article on Justin Baldoni’s PR tactics).
This story continues to develop as more details emerge, with the public and industry insiders closely watching how these allegations will affect the careers of those involved and the broader implications for celebrity PR practices.