THB #639: It Should Have Ended With Them - A Hate Story In 4 Acts

Acts 1 & 2

The weirdness around It Ends With Us has been going on for a long time before the August 9, 2024 release date. And very much unlike the norm, it didn’t stop with the successful launch of the film.

ACT ONE

The day before the opening, The Hollywood Reporter’s Carly Thomas bylined a piece that laid out a list of gossip around the movie, blaming “Sleuthing TikTokers” for the noise. The sub-head…

Rumors began to swirl after Baldoni's notable absence from the film's joint press events, lack of group cast photos at the New York premiere and the fact that Lively doesn't follow Baldoni on Instagram.

It then added such doozies as…

Social media users also began speculating that Lively brought in her husband, Ryan Reynolds, to help take over creative control of the film.

Reynolds did write a large chunk of dialogue for the scene, multiple insiders tell THR, but not the entire scene.

According to multiple sources, Lively commissioned a cut of the movie from editor Shane Reid, who was an editor on Deadpool & Wolverine… It’s unclear if any of this cut was ultimately used in the final project... One insider played down any friction, noting that it is not uncommon for a film to have several cuts emerge during post, adding that the team was in agreement on the final cut.

Reps for Lively and Baldoni did not respond to requests for comment.

Clearly, this list of complaints was not coming from Team Lively.

How were social media users coming to this notion that Ryan Reynolds had helped Lively take over creative control of the film? Where did the detail about the scene Reynolds rewrote come from? And where did the editing detail come from… including the false claim that it is “not uncommon for a film to have several cuts emerge during post,” a comment that would show up again in another report from another trade.

The next day, August 9 at 4:50pm, Page Six ran what reads, in part, like a response from Team Lively to the Hollywood Reporter piece… Truth behind ‘It Ends With Us’ feud rumors: Justin Baldoni made Blake Lively ‘uncomfortable,’ sources say.

It includes…

One industry source claimed that Baldoni, who also directed the movie, created an “extremely difficult” atmosphere behind the scenes for the entire cast.

another industry insider said there were a few moments on set that made Lively, who is a producer on the project, feel “uncomfortable” about her postpartum body.

“It’s not just Blake,” added the industry source. “None of the cast enjoyed working with Justin …They certainly didn’t talk to him at the premiere.”

The piece is not 100% Team Lively. There are many nice passages about Baldoni and his effort to understand the struggle of his character, an abuser, in the film. But there was definitely some blood in the water promoted with these pot-stirring claims.

Making things all the weirder, the byline on this Page Six piece is Sara Nathan… whose sister, Melissa Nathan, had already been hired to manage the PR crisis for Justin Baldoni and his company, though the hiring was not yet public.

And Melissa was whispering in her sister Sara’s ear…

The result was 1 win and 1 miss. There was no mention of Baldoni being a misogynist. But…

Lively signed up for the new movie after Baldoni, who found fame in the CW show “Jane the Virgin,” bought the rights to the book via his production company, Wayfarer Studios.

The company is named after Baldoni’s religion.

“‘Wayfarer’ stands for the journey of the soul,” Baldon told RogerEbert.com recently. “It’s named after the Wayfarer in a book called ‘The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys,’ which comes from the Baha’i Faith, which is my faith.

“It’s the journey of the soul, trying to figure life out. Whether you are a believer in God or whether you’re spiritual — whatever you are — it’s that journey of just trying to understand the world around us and yourself in the process.”

When your client is on record talking about the connection between his production company and his faith - which, by the way, he shares with his billionaire corporate funder - it’s hard to get even your sister to not run the quotes.

If there is a piece of client advice that is classic, it is “Shut The Hell Up!” Best advice ever. If you don’t put your neck in the chopping block, the executioner can’t get to it.

Later, it will come out that Baldoni, in an effort to look good, talked about a lot of things that were not part of the agreed upon plans of the overall group. But let’s not digress…

There was also the first piece on the controversy from The Daily Mail, which was later updated, so it’s not completely clear what details might or might not not have been published on the publication date, but…

The source for the piece seems to be unusually interested in novelist Colleen Hoover’s perspective on what had happened on set. Hmmm…

The insider alleged that the actor, who also served as director and producer, 'failed to recognize' both Blake and Colleen's roles as a fellow producer and writer.

And they said he took it 'very personally' when the pair asked for some script rewrites.

and…

'Without Colleen's book, none of this would have been possible,' they pointed out.

'Parts of the film were rewritten under the instruction of Colleen - they had to be. He took their script decisions very personally, even though they weren’t intended that way.'

I find this article to be one of the most level-headed that would emerge. It’s not very kind to Baldoni, but it seeks to offer a rationale for some of Baldoni’s tone on the set. The quotes have the perspective of someone not fighting for their reputation… which would be Team Colleen.

They said things only got worse once he began to feel 'ganged up on' by the women on set.

'His behavior extended beyond the main players,' the source continued. 'Once he felt ganged up on, he became even less empathetic.

But as negative as the piece was about Baldoni, his PR team felt they had managed it well…

Still, just a few hours later, late Friday night, Team Baldoni appeared to feel like any real danger to Baldoni had passed as the movie opened.

Over the weekend, the melodrama opened to $50 million, about double what had been expected. Everybody wins, right?

On Sunday, August 11, Anthony D'Alessandro at Deadline ran a piece, ‘It Ends With Us’: How Blake Lively Was “A Creative Tour De Force” In Transforming Colleen Hoover Novel Into A Motion Picture Event, that was really just a rundown of all the tools that Sony and the movie’s participants used beyond advertising to stoke the engine of the unexpected opening. Anthony even offered up what many saw as an attack on Lively - Baldoni’s comment, “I think Blake Lively’s ready to direct.” - as a positive.

This is where the conflict story should have ended. The movie was open… the numbers were great. Speculation on issues between the 2 primary players on the film was still floating around, but should have just been carefully folded back into the success. Take the win.

But alas… no.

Instead of calming down, things ramped up.

kiss of death?

Act Two

2 days after the opening weekend, on Tuesday the 13th, The Hollywood Reporter (5:27p) ran another Carly Thomas piece, this time co-bylined with Pamela McClintock, Justin Baldoni Hires Crisis PR Veteran Amid Alleged ‘It Ends With Us’ Rift.