In light of the ongoing legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, where both It Ends With Us stars filed lawsuits against each other citing intentional reputational damage, it's hard to trust what we see and consume on social media.
When It Ends With Us came out in August, the film itself was overshadowed by the incredibly messy and complex press run. Lively came under fire for not taking the film's darker themes of domestic violence seriously during interviews, resulting in several interview clips from her past resurfacing on social media. In one viral clip, a pregnant Lively appeared to mock the not-pregnant journalist Kjersti Flaa for asking how her 'little bump' was, replying, 'how's your little bump?'.
The film and its lead actors gained a lot of attention during this period, mostly for the wrong reasons, but Lively's reputation certainly took a hit. As is usually the case, the actress claims there was more to the story.
In December, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni accusing him of sexual harassment on set and of intentionally damaging her reputation with the help of an experienced PR team. Leaked text message threads included in the lawsuit exposed the somewhat nefarious tactics of Baldoni's team, who allegedly planted threads about Lively on X and other platforms during the promo period. They have also allegedly worked with Kjersti Flaa in the past.
At the end of the month, Baldoni filed a counter lawsuit against The New York Times for its report on Lively's case. The lawsuit claims the Times 'relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative' and disregarded 'an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives'. Baldoni and the other plaintiffs, which include Wayfarer Studios and his PR executives, are suing for $250 million in damages.
It doesn't end there, either. This week, a bizarrely timed video of Armie Hammer – Lively's Gossip Girl co-star who appeared in four episodes in 2009 – on Watch What Happens Live started doing the rounds on social media. The clip from 2017 sees Hammer discuss his time on Gossip Girl with the host Andy Cohen and his special guest Chelsea Handler.
Hammer was asked by a fan to name the 'biggest diva' on the set of the iconic teen drama and after an awkward pause, he said, 'Let me just say that was a tough show to film and I didn't end up actually filming all of the episodes I was supposed to because it was such tough filming.'
Hammer’s cryptic response might be a nod to the fact he was allegedly fired from the series. 'It was also like, "Get him out of here",' he added. Cohen then probed further and asked who his love interest was on the show and Hammer said, 'Blake.'
At this point, Handler chimed in to say, 'Sounds like she was the problem,' and Cohen agreed, 'It sure does, Chelsea. That’s exactly what I was thinking.' Hammer then laughed and said, 'No, no, that’s not what I’m saying.'
It's worth noting that Hammer does not have an unblemished reputation himself. In 2021, he was accused of sexual and emotional abuse by multiple previous partners. He denies all allegations and was not charged.
While the truth behind all of these spats elude us all, at least for now, what's clear is how quickly someone's reputation can suffer when an old video goes viral on social media. We also know by now that these videos don't always pop up on our feeds by chance.
The resurfaced Hammer clip is another stark reminder of the importance and value of context and that, as fans or internet users, we do not and probably never will know the full story. Before we believe blindly that Lively was a 'nightmare' to work with based on an offhand comment from Hammer in 2017, we should ask ourselves why we're being shown that video in the first place.
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things TV for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow shows with equal respect).