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Ep 1120 | 'We Can Bury Anyone': Inside the Alleged Smear Campaigns of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni (Part 2)
00:42:53
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- [00:00]
Ryan Reynolds
Hey there, Ryan Reynolds here. It's a new year and you know what that means. No, not the diet resolutions. A way for us all to try and do a little bit better than we did last year. And my resolution, unlike big wireless, is to not be a raging and raise the price of wireless on you every chance I get. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch $45 upfront.
- [00:21]
Justin Baldoni
Payment required equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first 3 month plan only.
- [00:25]
Blake Lively
Taxes and fees.
- [00:26]
Justin Baldoni
Extra Speed slower above 40 GB on unlimited. See mintmobile.com for details. Who is telling the truth in this Justin Baldoni Blake Lively drama? We are going to dig into some competing pieces of evidence today as well as conclude with some lessons that I think all of us can learn, no matter what industry we are in, especially as Christians. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good ranchers. Go to good ranchers.com code ally that's good ranchers.com code ally foreign okay, we are going to pick up right where we left off yesterday. Here we go. During the press tour, Lively also used the red carpet to keep the public thinking about her husband's new film. The hyper, violent and profane Marvel blockbuster Deadpool and Wolverine. I've not seen any of those. I don't even know what a Marvel film is. While giving Reynolds, not screenwriter Christy hall or author Colleen Hoover credit for writing the. It ends with us iconic rooftop scene. That's interesting. I didn't, I didn't know that. Did Ryan Reynolds, he wrote the script for that?
- [01:47]
Unnamed Speaker
Yeah, she, she did an interview and she said, I'm not supposed to be talking about this, but Ryan came in and he rewrote that scene where basically where the two main characters meet. And, and apparently, apparently this is just rumors, but he, Ryan Reynolds inserted himself, rewrote the scene because he wanted to and Justin Baldani wasn't told about it. Those are just rumors. We don't have proof of that. But that's supposedly what people think happened.
- [02:16]
Justin Baldoni
I don't know. I haven't seen the movie. So I don't know if the movie scene is different than the book scene, but there is the rooftop scene in the book. So it's not like it was all Ryan Reynolds idea. And so again around this time when there was a lot of bad press about Blake Lively and how she was marketing this and Baldoni was kind of seeming like the sincere feminist hero. Also, past interviews were circulating that made Blake Lively look really bad. And this is an interview that she did with an independent journalist Jake Hamilton. It actually. I said it was previous. It. It was actually happened in August. But a lot of people are like, this is weird. S3.
- [02:56]
Ryan Reynolds
So if someone understands the themes of this movie, comes across you in public and. And they want to really talk to you, what's the best way for them to be able to talk to you about this? How would you recommend they go about it?
- [03:07]
Blake Lively
Like, asking for, like, my address or my phone number or, like, my location share? I could just location share you. And then we could. I'm just curious.
- [03:17]
Ryan Reynolds
Social Security number.
- [03:18]
Blake Lively
I'm a Virgo, so I'm like, are we talking logistics? Are we talking emotionally?
- [03:24]
Justin Baldoni
I hated that so much. I actually hated that she hit on so many things that I did not. Like talking about your zodiac sign for absolutely no reason and then also just responding sarcastically to a serious question. I mean, this interview is asking. This interviewer was saying, okay, this is serious subject of domestic violence. If a fan comes up to you and wants to talk to you about that, like, what would be the best way to do it? Which is a little bit of, like, an odd question. But first of all, how she's sitting shows me she doesn't care about this interview at all. She doesn't want to be there. That's what her demeanor comes across as. I don't know how she was really feeling. And then she gives a completely. Not only sarcastic answer, but totally nonsensical. Like, I. This is how it comes across. I do not care about what people like. I don't care about the subject here. I don't care about its underlying meaning, and I don't really want people to come up and talk to me. I thought it was just a very, very odd and rude answer. And this, I guess, is what started people circulating the past interviews of Blake Lively. So it could have been some strategic releasing of past interviews to make her look bad, but it could have also just been that she genuinely gave a bad interview in August and that made people on the Internet start thinking about past interviews that she' done where she exhibited very similar behavior. So it might not have been orchestrated. It could have just been organic because she did that weird thing. So, for example, here is SOP4.
- [05:01]
Blake Lively
First of all, congrats on your little bump. Congrats on your little bump. What about my bump? You've got two nice ones. And these. They are kind of bumps, aren't they? No, not bumps. The lovely lady lumps. Check it out. Thank you. Thank you. You like the movie? Are you a Woody Allen fan? I love most of his movies. And this one was so, like, visually amazing. Yeah, it's gorgeous. Did you guys love wearing those kind of clothes that you.
- [05:31]
Justin Baldoni
Yeah.
- [05:32]
Unnamed Speaker
Yeah.
- [05:32]
Blake Lively
And, you know, working in digital, no one wants to talk about the clothes, but I wonder if they would ask the men about the clothes.
- [05:38]
Justin Baldoni
All right, so this was in 2016, an interview about her movie Cafe Society. She's a little bit pregnant. There's the interviewer, as you heard, says, congratulations on your little bump. Okay, that was, like, a nice thing to say. Blake Lively could have said, thank you. Instead, she responds sarcastically, saying, congrats on your little bump to this interviewer who is not pregnant. Also, like, doesn't have any kind of belly bump there, but clearly, like, Blake Lively is making a snide remark and then just doesn't seem interested at all in the question that is being asked. The other lady who is being interviewed, I think is trying to respond to the interviewer, but then when she. When the interviewer is like, okay, so did you like the costumes? I think that's a fun question to be asked. And Blake Lively pretends like she doesn't care about the costumes at all and is like, I wonder if you would ask men about the costumes. Costumes. I'm sorry. Like, that is really stupid. And also, just to know. I didn't see this a second ago, but according to the Independent, this interviewer, who was asked by Blake Lively, how was your little bump? Whatever, or, congrats on your little bump. She not only wasn't pregnant, she was at the time struggling with infertility. And of course, Blake Lively wouldn't know that, but it doesn't matter. What she said was very rude. It's also worth noting that during this same press tour for Woody Allen's Cafe Society Life, Lively defended Woody Allen, who had just been. He had been recently accused at this time of sexual abuse by his stepdaughter. Now, she didn't defend what he did, but she basically just said, look, like, I've worked for him. I've had a good experience with him, and went on to say, even emphasize that, actually, I think that he has been very empowering to women, which is, I don't know, a strange thing to say. It seems like there are a lot of other things that she could have said, even if she didn't want to step into this, and maybe her publicist didn't prepare her, or maybe she just didn't want to talk about it at all. All right, so there are all these montages out there of Blake Lively seemingly being a bully to interviewers and just being very sarcastic and rude when she is asked questions. It was also brought up by a social media user that Lively defended Harvey Weinstein at the time. Again, didn't defend what he did and didn't even say that none of those things happened, but just said, look, that wasn't my experience with him. And maybe that's true, but from the allegations, the credible allegations that we have, it does seem like he was a serial abuser. It is interesting to note though that Leslie Sloan's PR company, so this was Lively's publicist in the middle of all of this conflict that her PR company was actually like, received money from Harvey Weinstein in 2014 when the PR company started. So there's just some interesting tidbits there. We don't know exactly what the connection is, but that is part of what's being pointed out now. This is interesting. This is interesting. In 2012, other people are bringing this up as something that is problematic. This is like, to me, like the least problematic thing that she has said. But she said this to elle magazine in 2012 and Elle magazine actually printed this. So Blake Lively said, I hope to have a few girls one day. If not girls, they'd better be trannies because I have some amazing shoes and bags and stories that need to be appreciated. But just kind of a strange, strange gal. Strange, strange thing to say. Strange thing to say.
- [09:29]
Blake Lively
Foreign.
- [09:33]
Unnamed Speaker
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- [10:18]
Justin Baldoni
Alright, so moving back into what is actually happening right now, a little bit of a timeline update. December 9, 2024. Justin Baldoni was awarded a 2024 Voices of Solidarity award from Vital Voices, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending sexual and domestic violence. December 21, 2024. Blake Lively filed a legal complaint to the California Civil Rights Department, making a series of allegations against Justin Baldoni, including exhibited behavior, including that he exhibited behavior that caused her, quote, unquote, severe emotional distress and alleges sexual harassment. Alright, so this CRD complaint, this California Civil Rights Department complaint is seen as this, like, step one in the process to sue. Baldoni's attorney said that strategically, this is just a dodge to avoid discovery, meaning that there's no evidence threshold or requirement when you file this kind of complaint. Now, to be fair, it doesn't mean that she doesn't have evidence, but that's what Baldoni's lawyers are saying. That's why she did what she did. So in this particular complaint, this is different than the lawsuit that has now been filed in New York that we'll get to. But the complaint says, alleges that he caused a hostile work environment, that he showed unwanted sexual advances. She's married, he's married. And obviously she said that she didn't want these things. So that made her very uncomfortable, including improvised kissing and lip biting during scenes. So not off camera, but on camera. Lively claims that Baldoni made invasive and inappropriate comments about her weight. She claims his producing partner, Jamie Heath, had shown her pornography. Now, Baldoni refutes that. And I just want to note this right here in case we don't get to all of his refutations later, but Baldoni's lawsuit says that Jamie Heath showed a video of his wife during a home birth to Blake Lively. That this was not pornography. And he says, this is what she's referencing when she says, oh, he showed me porn of his wife. No, he's saying that this was a home birth. I showed this to her because there is a birth scene that she needed to prepare for. I, I don't know. I think that whole thing is odd. Like she's also given birth and was she like, no, I do not want to see your wife giving birth. And he was like, you must, you must. Here she is pushing out this baby. So just like, very odd. Also, either way, it wouldn't be pornography, but maybe she was referencing something else. That's what we don't know. It's very messy. Lively accuses Baldoni and Wayfarer of failing to implement safety protocols for intimate scenes. And Covid. So Lively says that there was not an intimacy coordinator in the state of California. It is. You have to, legally, you have to have an intimacy coordinator that I, I just learned this today, by the way, that it is their job to work with the actors that are having an intimate scene to make sure that, like, they're not actually having sex, that everyone is comfortable. They sign a consent form and all of that. It's basically to have like a Third party to make sure that everything is, quote, unquote, above board. And it's a CYA for the company, too, just to have, like, that third person so it doesn't turn into just like a he said, she said kind of thing. Which is interesting now that I'm thinking about it, because Blake is accusing him of doing all of these extra things during these sex scenes and romantic scenes. But the intimacy partner would be able to say, no, that did happen, or, no, that didn't happen. Except for Blake Lively is saying in this complaint that they did not have an intimacy coordinator. And Justin Baldoni said, actually, we did have an intimacy coordinator and you did not want to meet with her. And he showed some texts showing that. That, hey, I wanted you to meet with this intimacy coordinator. We've got, like, I think we have screenshots of that. I don't know if we have screenshots of the text. I know I'm kind of a little out of order. And she didn't want to meet with the intimacy coordinator. These are according to screenshots. And this is all we have within when he's trying to go out there and defend himself. And the producer that he sent this screenshot to is like, okay, well, whatever. If she doesn't want to meet with the intimacy coordinator, then whatever. Again, we don't know all of the context here. And a lot of this is alleging that Blake and Ryan Reynolds have a lot of power and had a lot of power on set, and that Justin really didn't get to make a lot of decisions, even though he was the director. And she is basically saying, no, they made this a very difficult work environment, and I was just trying to do my job, and they need accountability. So it's, again, just extremely messy. Both of them accusing the other of being inappropriate, of being impossible to work with. Baldoni is saying, you know, I tried to do things above board and she didn't want any part of it. She, he is alleging, acted like she was too good for everything and wouldn't even follow all of these accountability, safety protocol measures that I tried to put in place. Blake Lively also says that there were some invasive actions that Baldoni entered her trailer uninvited when she was undressed and breastfeeding. He says, no, that's not exactly what happened. He shows screenshot of a text where they are texting back and forth. I think we have that screenshot too, where she says, look, I'm pumping in my trailer. You can come in whenever. And he says, okay, I'll head that way. She says, take your time. He says, I'm here, I'll, you know, meet you. And she said, sorry, I'm just seeing this. And so he's trying to say, no, I never walked in. Look here. Text showing that I was texting her about it beforehand. It doesn't prove anything either way because that could have been one conversation. There could have been another time when he walked in. She could be lying. It's really hard to know. Both of them are releasing texts and messages and retellings of the story with whatever details they want to leave in or they want to leave out. And so all will probably be revealed in time. She is also claiming that there was retaliation that he tried to lodge. Lively claims the Baldoni and his team retaliated to her claims of sexual harassment by orchestrating a smear of campaign to discredit her. So before she had lodged the official public complaint, she had allegedly, she says internally complained about the sexual harassment and everything, that Justin Baldoni was aware of that. And she claims that because she had sounded the alarm about some of these complaints, the com, the problems that she was having sexual harassment and all of that, that Justin Baldoni retaliated using his PR team, that he was really behind all of this bad press about her and bad press about the, about the tone deaf marketing and the past interviews and things like that, that all of that was his orchestration. Lively claims in this complaint that Baldoni has done harm to her reputation, her career and emotional well being. The lawsuit also states that there was a January 2024 meeting. So I referenced that earlier where she was like, hey, you're creating a hostile work environment. Don't mention my weight. No more mention of Baldoni's alleged previous pornography addiction. So she's saying Baldoni was talking about this on set, made her uncomfortable. She said no further mentions of casting cruise genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake's weight. And so she says that he was saying a bunch of weird stuff that made this a very like inappropriately sexually charged set and that she gave these internal complaints in a meeting a year ago. And so I think that does kind of give some substance to the accusations that she is giving now. December 21, 2024. Justin Baldoni's lawyer, Brian Friedman, entertainment lawyer, he's represented people like Megan Kelly, Robert Downey Jr. Responded to the sexual harassment allegations against Baldoni, says these claims are completely false, outrageous, intentionally salacious, with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media. That's according to NBC. December 22, 2024, the New York Times published their investigation into all of this, which was heavily in Blake Lively's favor. The Times published private messages between Baldoni and his PR managers, which appeared to show them discussing how they would bury anyone using social media narratives that they didn't agree with. Baldoni's PR team shared a strategy document with Baldoni, suggesting media talking points. And Baldoni, to his credit, like in a text thread with his publicist, said, oh, I don't really like these talking points. I don't think that these are good. But Nathan, Nathan, Melissa Nathan. His publicist said, okay, so relayed Baldoni's frustration that I just described to the PR team, writing, I think you guys need to be tough and show the strength of what you guys can do in these scenarios. He wants to feel like she can be buried. Now, to be fair to Justin, Baldoni, those are his publicist words. Those are not necessarily his words. We don't know if he said anything like that. But she did go on to say, you know, we can bury anyone. All right, so that's what the New York Times is saying. Look, this was basically a smear campaign. The New York Times article in Lively's lawsuit resulted in a strong shift in public opinion against Baldoni. Baldoni was dropped by his agent hours after Lively's initial complaint. And then Hollywood started publicly backing Lively. A Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants co stars America Ferreira, Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledell put out a joint statement saying, we're her friends and sisters. We stand in solidarity against. We stand in solidarity with her. Colleen Hoover wrote in a Dec. 21 Instagram post, Blake Lively, you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive, and patient since the day we met. Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change, never welt. Okay, so she seems to be the one, or she seems to also be a person that is supporting lively over Baldoni. December 23, 2024. Baldoni's lawyer responded to Lively's lawsuit in a statement, claiming that the public backlash against Lively is due to her own actions, not due to a smear campaign. Defended the crisis PR company hired by Baldoni, saying, it's a normal move to hire people like them when two extremely powerful people, Lively and Reynolds, are threatening you. Baldoni's award for being an ally to women was rescinded. On December 24th. They put out a statement on Instagram saying, yeah, we can't do this. This is bad, abhorrent con conduct, or the allegations are him against him are bad. And then December 24, Baldoni's former publicist, Steph Jones of Jones Work PR, also sues him and his company called Wayfarer. Not Wayfair. Wayfair and his current publicity team. There are different allegations that she has against him. It's not really relevant to the whole Blake Lively thing, but it does seem that she is kind of saying, okay, I'm on Blake Lively side on all of this, or at least she wants to be. Who knows? Again, if this is just strategic for her, if this is like a pile on, if this is her own separate revenge, if this is all orchestrated together, we don't really know. So this is how Baldoni was, how he was spending his Christmas Eve. As we're watching the devastation in California.
- [22:40]
Unnamed Speaker
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- [23:42]
Justin Baldoni
Okay, so happy New Year from Justin Baldoni. He announces that he is going to sue the New York Times. On January 1st of just a few days ago, he says, I'm suing you New York Times for $250 million. He is not suing Blake Lively yet. He is suing the New York Times. He's saying this is misrepresentation. This amounts to defamation. He also says, you portray me in a false light. And this is where he starts refuting publicly a lot of the claims that Blake Lively made in her original complaint. That was the basis or at least the starting point for the New York Times, his report. And we've kind of already been over his refutations and so I won't repeat that. He also says that this is the orchestration of a smear campaign. So that's what he's being accused of by Blake Lively. He's saying, no, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively and the New York Times are actually the part. Are actually the ones orchestrating a smear campaign, not me. He argues in his lawsuit against the New York Times that the New York Times and Lively left out other text message contacts that showed they were discussing her failed marketing strategy and the impact that her own actions had on her reputation. We're talking about the text messages, I guess. Between who? Between his PR team and him.
- [25:12]
Unnamed Speaker
Yep.
- [25:13]
Justin Baldoni
Okay. And the text he released. His PR team repeatedly marvels at how organically the public turns against Lively. So this is Melissa Nathan. This is his publicist. And so this is what Justin Baldoni says the New York Times did not include. And he is alleging they did it maliciously. And that would be part of the qualification of actual defamation. So Melissa Nathan says, good morning. Sharing with you a perfect example of why we don't use bots. I wouldn't even worry. Worry to think, Worry to think. They've hired a team as a, nothing to find. B, they hired an awful team, which I've sent to our guy to track and pull. So we have evidence of it. This below should answer everyone's question on what a bot team looks like when every single comment suddenly skews in her favor in a nonsensical way. So what Melissa Nathan seems to be saying there, she seems to be accusing Blake Lively's team of hiring, or Blake Lively of hiring some kind of team that has employed an army of bots to leave positive comments about her on her Instagram post to skew public opinion against Justin Baldoni. And Melissa Nathan is saying, look, we're not doing that. This is what it looks like. It looks really contrived. It looks really bad. Just in response to that saying, how can we say somehow that we are not doing any of this? It looks like we are trying. Trying to take her down. And there's some missing context here, but he seems to be responding to the fact that organically the Internet has turned against. Turned against Blake Lively. And he doesn't want it, it seems like, to look like it's bots, that he is doing that. Melissa Nathan is saying, no, Blake Lively is doing that on her end. That's not what we are doing. We haven't had to do any bots. We haven't had to use, like, these kinds of tools to turn public opinion against her. That is just happening. Justin says, okay, please monitor things. I'm worried about is that we are planting these stories, which is not true, obviously. And then someone else, another publicist says, chiming in People saying that there are bots and this is a PR play on your side is a minority voice compared to the thousands and thousands who are calling it what it is and reacting to Blake's own actions and interviews. And so they are claiming and their private text messages, which were private until Justin Baldoni published them after the New York Times report, saying, no, we are not planning anything. It's actually them who are the ones planning, planning the stuff. Jamie Heath, again part of the producer that works with Justin Baldoni said, so glad Blake was praised. Let her get a win. It would be nice to have a Sony executive praise Justin. He's talking about Sony executive that came out and praise Blake Lively. And so it sounds like they were afraid that things were looking too bad for Blake Lively in August and that they didn't want it to look like they were orchestrating a smear campaign. And so if these are genuine texts, it does. This, I think, plays in his favor that he was not the one orchestrating a smear campaign. That's what he's alleging. That's what these private texts look like. And if the New York Times purposely left these texts out, if they had access to them and they did not put them out there, then I do wonder if he has a case to make when it comes to defamation. If they maliciously removed or did not include these text messages that make it look like they were not orchestrating a smear campaign, because that would have gone against their seemingly foregone conclusion that he was orchestrating a smear campaign. Justin Baldoni also points out that some of the texts that were included in the New York Times piece purposely left out some contacts as two publish two of his publicists were talking. Justin Baldoni is trying to show that actually one of the texts that the New York Times says proves that this was a smear campaign was actually sarcastic and that it shows that this was not a smear campaign going on. And so he's trying to say that there was altered context here by the New York Times. He also says that he, along with his editors in the movie, were slowly cut out from the film's post production process by Sony. Again, this kind of just builds his case that everyone is purposely scheming against him. And then on January 1, also the same day that he announces his lawsuit against the New York Times, Blake Lively officially sues Baldoni in New York federal court, accusing him and his PR team of organizing a sophisticated scheme to undermine her reputation in retaliation for speaking up about alleged miscon misconduct on set. Why is she Doing it in New York. It avoids California's anti slap laws. So strategic lawsuit against public participation laws. And it also also federal lawsuits can't be televised. So that was a lesson learned from the Depp v. Heard trial, which was famously televised. Then January 2nd, the New York Times and Baldoni's lawyers respond with public statements. The New York Times says, nope, we investigated this thoroughly. We are defending our journalism and they plan to defend themselves against the lawsuit. Baldoni's attorney, Brian Friedman told the Independent that the New York Times coward and wants to the wants and whims of Lively and Reynolds. And of course he is going to, you know, say that he is confident that they can win that lawsuit. January 7th, Justin Baldoni's attorney appeared on News Nation to speak out about their case against the New York Times. Here's what he said. 5.
- [31:13]
Unnamed Speaker
I'm blaming the New York Times for participating with Blake Lively's publicists engaging in this campaign where they actually were part of facilitating the complaint, getting filed with the crd, which is the civil Rights division and knew the complaint was getting filed, encouraged them to file the complaint, had a copy of the complaint before it was filed and once it was filed, they went with a story. Those messages were cherry picked and used out of context. Was there a follow up phone call? Was there? Please tell us more. What do you mean by cherry picked and taken out of context? There was no investigative journalism done whatsoever. It was a complete reckless, reckless disregard for the truth.
- [31:58]
Justin Baldoni
Okay. He also says Justin Baldoni's lawyer also says in an interview with Megyn Kelly. Yeah, we're not going to stop at the New York Times. We are going to sue Blake Lively into oblivion. Here's six. Are you going to sue Blake Lively too into oblivion?
- [32:15]
Unnamed Speaker
Megan, wait till you see this lawsuit.
- [32:19]
Justin Baldoni
Oh boy. For what?
- [32:26]
Unnamed Speaker
I'm just going to tell you, you're going to have to wait and see. It's coming up soon. But it's all going to be based on evidence. It's not going to be just a lawsuit. It's going to be the kind of lawsuit that is full of evidence. Admissions documents which prove exactly what she did and how she bullied her way through the process to take over the movie and used her PR people to try and destroy Justin.
- [32:57]
Justin Baldoni
Yuck. Yuck. This is so mess.
- [33:04]
Unnamed Speaker
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- [33:15]
Justin Baldoni
And also really affordable.
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- [33:48]
Justin Baldoni
This is just a good company to.
- [33:50]
Unnamed Speaker
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- [34:07]
Justin Baldoni
All right. There are some theories out there that we were going to try to get into about, you know, who is doing what, but I. I don't have time for all of that. I need to wrap this up with just the lesson that I have in all of this one. I think it's interesting to see where me Too is and how it has evolved and how it's really used on both sides of any conflict as a cover for people's own indiscretions and also just like as a mallet to beat the other side over the head and to get as much money as possible. I'm not saying for sure that those are the motivations or the sole motivations of either side of this particular conflict, but when you look at at all of them and the like, the accusations that are against both of them, you do have to wonder how sincere they are when they say that they are championing women. Oh, one thing we didn't get into. Before I. Before I get into my lesson, I do just want to say this is a piece of advice for everyone out there. Apparently he really did ask Blake Lively how much she weighed on set, Right?
- [35:12]
Unnamed Speaker
Yep.
- [35:13]
Justin Baldoni
I'm not saying that's worth a lawsuit. Actually, I think it's worth Guantanamo. I think you should be. I think you should be in jail, but I don't think it's worth a lawsuit. Okay, so what did he do? He. He had to like, lift her up in one scene.
- [35:29]
Unnamed Speaker
Yeah, there's a scene where he needed to lift her up. So apparently he asked her how much she weighed to. Because he was afraid of. For his back. I guess he had a back injury.
- [35:39]
Justin Baldoni
So I'm sorry, but that is so gay. Like. Like what? Your one rep max is 135. Thought that she was maybe going to be 137. And if so you needed a stunt double. Come on.
- [35:52]
Unnamed Speaker
I know. Because you can probably kind of estimate how much someone weighs.
- [35:55]
Justin Baldoni
Can probably.
- [35:56]
Unnamed Speaker
And the difference is probably marginal. Right?
- [35:59]
Justin Baldoni
Yeah.
- [35:59]
Unnamed Speaker
So.
- [35:59]
Justin Baldoni
And if you can't. If you can't lift 140, I don't know how much she is. Sorry if I'm offending by that number. Just throwing a number out there. If you can't, then, like, you need to work out. And I feel like that was a question for someone else and not Blake Lively herself. And apparently Ryan Reynolds berated. Berated him after that.
- [36:19]
Unnamed Speaker
Yes, apparently he, like, violently berated him after. According to. To Justin.
- [36:25]
Justin Baldoni
Yeah. Well, he didn't deny it, though. No, Justin did not deny it, which is a point against him. That maybe he's kind of a jerk. I'm not saying that he deserves all of this because we don't know, but, like, come on. You don't ask someone. That's so silly.
- [36:42]
Unnamed Speaker
And there are also some other questions about him that I have because a lot of people are on his side right now, but I'm like, well, it is true that all of the cast turned against him. None of them follow him. I still have questions about that. Why?
- [36:54]
Justin Baldoni
Is it because there's truthfulness to it, or is it because Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are really powerful and people are kind of looking at where the cards are falling?
- [37:03]
Unnamed Speaker
Yeah, I don't know.
- [37:04]
Justin Baldoni
We just don't know. I do think that the fact that she apparently had a meeting about all of this before she lodged a formal complaint is. Does help her out. But I think the text messages that were not included by the New York Times, that seemed to show that Justin Baldoni did not want to do a smear campaign against her. Help him out.
- [37:28]
Unnamed Speaker
Yes. But I. Oh, this is my perspective at the moment with what we know. I think that this was just a power play. I think in the movie, she wanted more control over things than she was given, and I think he pushed back on that, and I think all of this ugliness resulted from that. I'm not saying none of what she's saying happened. He probably is kind of weird in.
- [37:52]
Justin Baldoni
Some ways, but male feminists typically are.
- [37:56]
Unnamed Speaker
Yeah, yeah. But we do know that she did get final edit of the movie. They did cut him out of basically doing what a director does and gave all of that control to her. And so I think. I think some of that was orchestrated. I don't know.
- [38:11]
Justin Baldoni
It's really ugly. It's really ugly. Here's what I would say. Here's the lesson. To draw. One of the lessons to draw from all of this. Never Pursue fame or money for the sake of fame or money. Okay, it is an ugly world. I'm talking even if you just get to, like, TikTok influencer level, even if you are just like a conservative media personality, the people out there who want fame, who want power for the sake of power, who want money and influence for the sake of money and influence, they will do anything to get it. They will lie about you, they will lie to your face, they will lie behind your back, they will betray you, they will backstab you for roles and positions that are in the grand scheme of things, really small. And it is. It can be a really ugly world, especially if you get into the rat race. There is a reason why I do not go to any of those hobnobbing events. Why I do not care to network. I do not care to rub elbows. I do not care about being in this click or that or being in any kind of inner circle or accepted by the people in the high rungs of anything. There is a reason why we as a family try really hard to be as like, outside of the media world as possible. And I know it's like, what are you talking about? You're a podcaster. It's not the same at all. And it's. It's not, obviously, it's very small potatoes compared to all of this. I'm just trying to say anywhere you go, no matter how small or how big, big of a deal it is, people who have naked ambition are really dangerous. And what you need to do, if any of you are ever in a situation, big or small pond, is you just do what God has called you to do as honestly as you can. Maintain your integrity and your reputation for honesty and kindness and fairness as much as you possibly can. Be fair and honest in all of your dealings with people. Try to do right by people, try to give people the benefit of the doubt, and never participate in any of the gossip or the rumor mills. Don't even listen to it. You don't even want that kind of liability. Never pursue fame, money or power for the sake of those things. If God and his providence decides to give you any of that influence or give you any wealth, then that is in accordance to Him. He gives and he takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. But you simply do the next right thing in faith, with excellence, and for the glory of God. Keep your eyes on him, put your blinders on, whatever you have to do. Because this might be a big example of just the ugliness that happens in the power struggles in Hollywood, but that happens in every sphere of the world. It happens among housewives. It happens among PTA moms. It doesn't matter. You do what is right in accordance with God's word and let him protect you as much as you possibly can. There is a lot of peace in that. People ask me, again, small potatoes comparatively, but, like, do you not get so, like, burnt out, or is this hard talking about all this? I think. Well, one, I feel like God has called me to do this. But also, like, it is very refreshing being very rooted in your own family and your own community and not being in any kind of rat race for things that ultimately don't matter. So, again, that is applicable in whatever industry you're in and whatever sphere you're in. However much influence you have, be focused on the right things, because the people that aren't are very dangerous to be around. If you are someone who makes hires, if you are someone who has any influence over the direction of a company, be very, very careful with who you put on payroll. That is a lesson for all of us. All right, that's all we got time for today. We will be back.