Ryan Reynolds, the star of the Deadpool franchise and husband of Blake Lively, added fuel to the social media fire surrounding her wife and It Ends With Us filmmaker, Justin Baldoni, via a cryptic message.
Reynolds shared an Instagram story urging his almost 54 million followers to donate to the SickKids Foundation while wearing his iconic superhero costume.
Highlights
- Ryan Reynolds shares cryptic post amid drama between his wife, Blake Lively, and Justin Baldoni.
- The actress accused the filmmaker of sexual harassment as well as of orchestrating a smear campaign against her.
- Reynolds dressed as Deadpool for a charity video, recorded at a time when he "didn't feel like" wearing the suit.
The 48-year-old thanked the skit’s director, Bryan Rowland, but not before mentioning the clip was filmed during a time when he “didn’t feel like” wearing the suit.
Fans took this as the actor hinting towards the difficult time both him and his wife are going through after Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment.
Fans took this as the actor hinting towards the difficult time both him and his wife are going through after Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment.
Ryan Reynolds left fans worried after suggesting he’s going through a difficult time in a video for charity
Image credits: vancityreynolds
Reynolds has not commented directly on his wife’s recent conflict with Baldoni, deciding to keep a low-profile as the legal and social media battle between the two continues.
The drama between the co-stars started in August, during the film’s promotional campaign leading up to its premiere, when rumors of tension between Lively and Baldoni were noted.
Fans of the movie started suspecting some drama behind the scenes as Baldoni was unfollowed on Instagram by Lively, and the co-stars were never seen posing in any pictures together.
Image credits: vancityreynolds
People Magazine then reported that Baldoni had hired a public relations manager, and what followed were three months of speculation about what was the source of the conflict between the two.
Baldoni’s supporters argued that Lively and Reynolds had tried to wrestle control of the movie away from him in order to promote the film as a two-for-one package alongside Reynolds’ Deadpool & Wolverine, trying to replicate the Barbenheimer phenomenon.
Lively’s allegations against Baldoni came with leaked correspondence inside his PR team, accusing them of conducting a smear campaign
Image credits: vancityreynolds
Lively’s sexual harassment suit, however, flipped the script on Baldoni, as the actress leaked private conversations between members of Baldoni’s PR team as proof of a smear campaign being conducted against her.
TAG PR’s Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel celebrated the public’s animosity towards Lively in the text exchange, stating: “The narrative online is so freaking good […] Fans remain supportive and believe the ‘feud‘ is because she took control of the movie.”
The firm was hired by Baldoni to conduct a campaign targeting social media, TikTok, and news articles, in order to carefully manufacture a narrative that would paint him as a victim of the celebrity couple.
Image credits: vancityreynolds
Baldoni’s lawyer, on the other hand, dismissed these allegations and doubled down on claims that his client was trying to be silenced by people more influential than him.
“TAG PR operated as any other crisis management firm would when hired by a client experiencing threats by two extremely powerful people with unlimited resources,” he said.
According to Lively, the drama started when Baldoni started making changes to the script, adding extra sex scenes and improvising during them
Image credits: vancityreynolds
According to Lively’s allegations, the conflict stemmed from creative “liberties” taken by Baldoni during the shooting of the movie that were sexual in nature.
She accused the actor of trying to add intimate scenes that were not in the book the movie was based on, as well as “improvising“ during the ones they filmed, going as far as to bite her lips and fondle her inappropriately.
The actress also alleged that Baldoni showed her explicit videos, asked her about her personal sex life, bullied her into losing weight, and barged uninvited into her trailer while she was breastfeeding.
The filing also notes a series of demands Lively made and were later implemented into the production. These include hiring a full-time intimacy coordinator and asking the production to stop adding sex scenes “outside the scope of the script [she] approved when signing onto the project.“