THB #640: It Should Have Ended With Them - A Hate Story In 4 Acts

Act 3

Welcome back from the intermission. (Act 1 & Act 2)

Act Two ended on August 13, 5 days into the release of It Ends With Us…

Act Three

Enter TMZ…

On August 14th, TMZ pushes out a double-dip of more specific vitriol… first 100% Baldoni…

And a few hours later, a response from Team Lively… “Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ…”

This, as best as I can tell, the first offering of the “checking with her trainer because he had to lift her” narrative and the “kissing too long” narrative. Remember just 6 days earlier…

But the public narrative had not yet sunk into the fact that Team Lively had been officially complaining to Human Resources since production began and that there was a signed agreement to change workplace rules 7 months earlier.

Enter The Daily Mail…

This was actually the third story on this by The Daily Mail. The first is discussed in THB #639 “Act Two” of this story. The second was mostly repeating what TMZ had written on the 14th. All 3 stories were written by different writers (5 in total).

The headline about “hard to watch” videos was really only the launching pad for this relentless Lively slam piece.

First, there is an attack on a promo piece with Lively, 2 female co-stars, and the author of the book being “too frivolous.”

Next, Lively didn’t immediate wear a friendship bracelet given to her by a fan at the premiere.

Next, the piece revisits the location of Lively and Reynolds 2012 wedding, which it turns out was, a century earlier, a working plantation.

Next, they are accusing her of using Kate Middleton’s cancer to promote her alcohol product, which seems to be a really crazy accusation on the face of it.

Then they went back to the accusations of promotion being too frivolous, somehow being another strike as Lively responded with a more serious effort.

Then I (yes, me… writing this…) get dragged into it, as the Daily Mail posts my DP/30 interview with Ms. Lively from 2017, explaining to all - without ever asking me - how horrible it was for me.