Taylor Lorenz writes that conservative commentators are leveraging the high-profile case to dismantle support for #MeToo and amass unprecedented audience growth.
This just goes to show how sick American culture is when, with everything else going on of a more existential nature, they're obsessed with something like this. Wait until the bread lines start up again in about a year or so and see how this obsession turns out.
So I don’t know what you read, but what I read is that the right is co-opting this case to disavow the “Me Too” movement. I don’t know what in this article told you that but I’m fascinated to learn how you saw that.
Agreed. I think the article is really well researched and well written and we do need to all be wary of Candace Owens amassing Democratic women to her cause with gateway content. However, people aren’t parroting her viewpoints - that is actually the mainstream opinion after a deluge of actual evidence flooded the public arena and we watched videos, read texts and listened to voice memos. No one is coming for Blake because she was some liberal icon; she and Ryan have been embarrassingly quiet about politics over the past eight years. They are coming for her because she has always been problematic and years of bad behaviors has finally caught up.
The blow-back against Blake Lively is disgraceful, and coming from Megyn Kelly, she's projecting because she herself, to use her words against Lively, is a "high maintenance diva bully brat." But we've always known that about Kelly.
What shocks me in this report is that so-called 'conservatives' are getting so much notice and air time, despite the excesses of Trump and his vice president what's-his-name. Why do people get excited about the noxious utterances of the mentally and socially deranged?
Look I'm a leftist. Nothing will ever change that. But I'm going to be really honest. I have been following this for many many Months. And I belived Lively unconditionally. But when I read the publically available court documents/ case and the very detailed text messages. It sadly did not show Lively, her husband and her "dragons" in a good light. I was very shocked and in someway hurt. That they very much used SH as a cover for their wrong doing/ to over take the movie/ Directorship. Right wing commentators may have latched onto this for their own political objectives. But I think one can be rest assured that Baldonie was falsely accused of secual Harressment for own personal gains. That sadly had nothing to do with SH. I'm actually disgusted that this misuse of power by powerful BL, RR and potentially even Swift will create further obstacles and barriers for genuine victims of SH. Those are the real victims. The ones that don't have their own mult million dollars and powerful husbands, friedns and connections to defend them or help them. Sorry felliow leftist but guys Blake lively, her husband are using SH as a cover for their own nasty, manipulative behaviour. Please go read the publically available court documents yourself.
Can we please also give women some credit. They aren't going to become right wing by watching a Hollywood Gossip piece on BL and RR. As a "gateway story"... sorry but this sounds like BL crises PR Team planting this story. It's far fetched and insults the judgement and mental facilities of women who can spot liers like BL/RR. .
I appreciate Taylor's reporting, and I understand that her point is about right-wing commentators filling this space and using it to gain followers, but her descriptions and selective use of facts are part of the problem (of left wing commentators leaving the door open or even pushing men towards right wingers). For the record, I do not listen to any of these podcasts and have gotten my information from the court filings of both sides.
For example, she states "Last fall, after Baldoni's smear campaign against Lively was revealed in the New York Times..." without mentioning not only that Baldoni has sued the NY Times for libel in the article that started all of this (NY Times did a deep-dive on Lively's allegations without quoting her but before they were fully public). He also seems to have pretty good evidence that Lively's legal team was the main source for the article (the Times failed to properly wipe metadata on some documents, showing they only could have come from her legal team). In other words, the allegation is that Lively started a smear campaign against him first, using the NY Times, and he has some evidence to back that up.
Lorenz also includes that "The Hollywood Reporter noted in January, 'For those on the right, [Justin Baldoni represents] that most sympathetic of figures in contemporary American life: the canceled man.'" Which, okay, fair enough. But it is not noted that Baldoni is not conservative or right wing, and instead has been a very public progressive and male feminist (he co-hosted a podcast discussing these issues until the allegations). I think it is further notable that he has not publicly leveraged any of this right-wing support yet (not appearing on Fox News or even acknowledging the right wing support) as well that there have been no flood allegations from other women and instead women from his personal life defending him from the allegations (i.e., progressives, feminists, supporters of #MeToo).
Part of the soul searching the Democratic Party claims to be doing is figuring out how to reach young men and keep them from falling in with the right wing. From all available information so far, Baldoni seems to have been as a committed of a progressive, feminist ally as a cishet man can be, and yet he was thrown to the wolves based on one allegation that appears shaky at best right now. The soul searching should include why that happened. Until then, the door will continue to be open for right-wing grifters.
Certainly right-wing has jumped on this case, and that is precisely what they do for the clicks. When you follow the case from beginning with someone that was open minded and just providing facts - you don't see all the right-wing jumping in. In fact - the influencers were really late to this case, and now they are all just jumping in last minute. They are all trash, but we've got some of the same on the left as well. Much of this article and influencers are just looking at it from MeeToo and right-wing thinking patterns. When you really look at the case without all of that - you see just a Hollywood power dynamic that isn't great. The right-wing is really making a case for Lively - by treating her poorly - when the real substance is she is a problem. This article doesn't point out that Lively and Taylor Swift are no longer friends, and there is a reason for this change. Suggest people not focus on the case if they aren't going to really take a look at the facts and review real journalist point of view. This article is really just CNN or MSNBC like piece about right-wing jumping on the case ridiculously.
I feel it would be helpful to address that the Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds vs Justin Baldoni allegations and lawsuits are very much displaying those with immense power , influence, and money (Blake&Ryan) have to script a narrative and take down and ruin someone who does not have the same (Justin).
So those with power are incredibly capable of vilifying and controlling the media, public opinion, and livelihood of not just one individual but the masses.
It is concerning that The Right is using this as a platform to push a misogynistic agenda.
It’s concerning to disregard the capacity of people in general and The Left to make informed opinions given the flood of information that contradicts the initial narrative Blake gave.
do I know what truly happened on the set of the movie… no.
Am I witnessing the same spin and gaslighting the politicians and billionaires and powerful pull on the people every move they make? yes.
I refuse to learn the names of any more of these right-wing shit-weasels.
Have you accounted for the fact that right-wing-trolls use multiple identities, and routinely pretend to be left-wing converts? I can't help but wonder if this "trend" is even real, but if it is, I can't help but wonder if it matters.
Anyone with the type of "mind" that can be swayed by Candace Owens, and her ilk, is a total wind-sock, and there's every reason to expect that they can be blown in any direction, at any time. So how can their "opinions" matter?
Chasing a mindless swarm can't possibly be the right move.
Um, all I know is that Lively has been in the business for decades, and this man who is fairly new to the industry, (has been proven to put a smear campaign out on this woman all over social media.), is being believed over someone who has consistently donated large amounts of money to great causes. Follow Jameela Jamil on Instagram, she has been pointing out for years how the press will choose certain women to destroy, and it seems to work. Unfortunately, both men and women like to tear down women, so it’s easy. People are sheep.
I admire Taylor Lorenz and I want to say this first because in general (not necessarily here) she gets a lot of hate for no reason.
But why is there no disclosure that she worked for the NYT which is at the centre of this case because Baldoni is suing them?
It’s notable that the right are trying to destroy MeToo by using weak and arguably false cases to legitimate their own systemic alliance with misogyny.
But those of us on the left who supported MeToo (some of us who followed the UK case where the evidence wasn’t suppressed and Depp was found guilty of 12 counts of abuse against his wife) can walk and chew gum at the same time.
We know abuse is about power not gender. Or rather gender oppression is an extension of the abuse of power because usually women have less of it than men. But when they have more they are liable to weaponise it much the same way that a man will. Ida B Wells, bell hooks and inadvertently Central Park Karen proved this to us over and over.
Depp had the power over Heard and he used the courts to hound her on 2 different continents promising global humiliation — and had actually committed domestic abuse.
Baldoni has less power than Lively but he also had the rights to the film sequel that she wants. He loses those rights if he’s found guilty of sexual misconduct.
Baldoni has accused Lively of taking over the film. She said before even working with him in an interview for Forbes in 2022 that she often takes over films she’s cast in. She says it even more frankly than that.
She’s on camera in an interview with the author saying that “if Hoover gets her rights back then [Lively] will do as many sequels with her as possible.”
Then there’s the actually evidence to contradict her SH claim:
Complaining that there was no intimacy coordinator when Baldoni got one ahead of filming and she turned down meeting them
Putting doctored texts into the NYTimes complaint about his conduct (which they had to delete from the article and then LOCK to stop people commenting on the amendments)
Stating in her court documents that there was video footage that he dragged his lips down her neck and said “you smell so good” but that there was no audio (in which case we would just have her testimony)
Only to have him release the footage — there was in fact audio, it was clear to anyone with eyes and ears that a) he didn’t do that b) she misrepresented the entire scene c) she made inappropriate comments about his body and physical appearance instead.
Then there’s her own words in the Forbes interview and the texts between Baldoni and herself where she weaponises her powerful friends to force him to accept her rewriting of the script that later on the press tour she says her husband did.
The demibillionaire A list couple with the billionaire music superstar BFF and a whole roster of A Listers on speed dial and the fashion world in their pocket with the multibillion dollar comic book movie franchise MIGHT NOT be the victims.
Blake Lively’s case is not the litmus test for MeToo. We should always be sceptical of and apply scrutiny to the powerful when they declare they are victims of those they have huge amounts of power over.
Quite frankly I WISH even a tenth of this kind of advocacy was being given to Amber Heard when she needed it.
I come to Zeteo as a paid and proud subscriber from a place of trust.
I don't know why I read this article, as I have never heard of (and couldn't care less about) either of the feuding celebrities, but I'm glad I did - otherwise I would have missed out on the hilarious statement made by one of the right-wing 'influencers': "We're very engaged in culture and in art".
All I hear is gossip and a rich white man getting help to defame someone he sexually harassed. The line about Dems not being on the same page as Americans is horseshit. They aren't skilled at messaging because they aren't perveyors of Putin propaganda. The same scum that always tries to take women down, show up and the idiots run behind them, listening. Vomit inducing
And the comment that said this is a non issue, except for the people involved, is the most important. Our democracy is being destroyed and these freaks want to take down a woman instead of admit that Putin is now our President
This just goes to show how sick American culture is when, with everything else going on of a more existential nature, they're obsessed with something like this. Wait until the bread lines start up again in about a year or so and see how this obsession turns out.
This article purports to tell facts but likening Baldoni to the right vs Lively to the left is disingenuous.
So I don’t know what you read, but what I read is that the right is co-opting this case to disavow the “Me Too” movement. I don’t know what in this article told you that but I’m fascinated to learn how you saw that.
Agreed. I think the article is really well researched and well written and we do need to all be wary of Candace Owens amassing Democratic women to her cause with gateway content. However, people aren’t parroting her viewpoints - that is actually the mainstream opinion after a deluge of actual evidence flooded the public arena and we watched videos, read texts and listened to voice memos. No one is coming for Blake because she was some liberal icon; she and Ryan have been embarrassingly quiet about politics over the past eight years. They are coming for her because she has always been problematic and years of bad behaviors has finally caught up.
The blow-back against Blake Lively is disgraceful, and coming from Megyn Kelly, she's projecting because she herself, to use her words against Lively, is a "high maintenance diva bully brat." But we've always known that about Kelly.
What shocks me in this report is that so-called 'conservatives' are getting so much notice and air time, despite the excesses of Trump and his vice president what's-his-name. Why do people get excited about the noxious utterances of the mentally and socially deranged?
Look I'm a leftist. Nothing will ever change that. But I'm going to be really honest. I have been following this for many many Months. And I belived Lively unconditionally. But when I read the publically available court documents/ case and the very detailed text messages. It sadly did not show Lively, her husband and her "dragons" in a good light. I was very shocked and in someway hurt. That they very much used SH as a cover for their wrong doing/ to over take the movie/ Directorship. Right wing commentators may have latched onto this for their own political objectives. But I think one can be rest assured that Baldonie was falsely accused of secual Harressment for own personal gains. That sadly had nothing to do with SH. I'm actually disgusted that this misuse of power by powerful BL, RR and potentially even Swift will create further obstacles and barriers for genuine victims of SH. Those are the real victims. The ones that don't have their own mult million dollars and powerful husbands, friedns and connections to defend them or help them. Sorry felliow leftist but guys Blake lively, her husband are using SH as a cover for their own nasty, manipulative behaviour. Please go read the publically available court documents yourself.
Can we please also give women some credit. They aren't going to become right wing by watching a Hollywood Gossip piece on BL and RR. As a "gateway story"... sorry but this sounds like BL crises PR Team planting this story. It's far fetched and insults the judgement and mental facilities of women who can spot liers like BL/RR. .
I appreciate Taylor's reporting, and I understand that her point is about right-wing commentators filling this space and using it to gain followers, but her descriptions and selective use of facts are part of the problem (of left wing commentators leaving the door open or even pushing men towards right wingers). For the record, I do not listen to any of these podcasts and have gotten my information from the court filings of both sides.
For example, she states "Last fall, after Baldoni's smear campaign against Lively was revealed in the New York Times..." without mentioning not only that Baldoni has sued the NY Times for libel in the article that started all of this (NY Times did a deep-dive on Lively's allegations without quoting her but before they were fully public). He also seems to have pretty good evidence that Lively's legal team was the main source for the article (the Times failed to properly wipe metadata on some documents, showing they only could have come from her legal team). In other words, the allegation is that Lively started a smear campaign against him first, using the NY Times, and he has some evidence to back that up.
Lorenz also includes that "The Hollywood Reporter noted in January, 'For those on the right, [Justin Baldoni represents] that most sympathetic of figures in contemporary American life: the canceled man.'" Which, okay, fair enough. But it is not noted that Baldoni is not conservative or right wing, and instead has been a very public progressive and male feminist (he co-hosted a podcast discussing these issues until the allegations). I think it is further notable that he has not publicly leveraged any of this right-wing support yet (not appearing on Fox News or even acknowledging the right wing support) as well that there have been no flood allegations from other women and instead women from his personal life defending him from the allegations (i.e., progressives, feminists, supporters of #MeToo).
Part of the soul searching the Democratic Party claims to be doing is figuring out how to reach young men and keep them from falling in with the right wing. From all available information so far, Baldoni seems to have been as a committed of a progressive, feminist ally as a cishet man can be, and yet he was thrown to the wolves based on one allegation that appears shaky at best right now. The soul searching should include why that happened. Until then, the door will continue to be open for right-wing grifters.
Certainly right-wing has jumped on this case, and that is precisely what they do for the clicks. When you follow the case from beginning with someone that was open minded and just providing facts - you don't see all the right-wing jumping in. In fact - the influencers were really late to this case, and now they are all just jumping in last minute. They are all trash, but we've got some of the same on the left as well. Much of this article and influencers are just looking at it from MeeToo and right-wing thinking patterns. When you really look at the case without all of that - you see just a Hollywood power dynamic that isn't great. The right-wing is really making a case for Lively - by treating her poorly - when the real substance is she is a problem. This article doesn't point out that Lively and Taylor Swift are no longer friends, and there is a reason for this change. Suggest people not focus on the case if they aren't going to really take a look at the facts and review real journalist point of view. This article is really just CNN or MSNBC like piece about right-wing jumping on the case ridiculously.
Agree BL, RR use SH as a cover for their wrong doing. Last time I checked SH doesn't allow one to overtake some else's movie entirely.
I'm happy to say that Lively and Baldoni are absolute nobodies to me!
I feel it would be helpful to address that the Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds vs Justin Baldoni allegations and lawsuits are very much displaying those with immense power , influence, and money (Blake&Ryan) have to script a narrative and take down and ruin someone who does not have the same (Justin).
So those with power are incredibly capable of vilifying and controlling the media, public opinion, and livelihood of not just one individual but the masses.
It is concerning that The Right is using this as a platform to push a misogynistic agenda.
It’s concerning to disregard the capacity of people in general and The Left to make informed opinions given the flood of information that contradicts the initial narrative Blake gave.
do I know what truly happened on the set of the movie… no.
Am I witnessing the same spin and gaslighting the politicians and billionaires and powerful pull on the people every move they make? yes.
Megyn Kelly is the high maintenance bully brat.
I refuse to learn the names of any more of these right-wing shit-weasels.
Have you accounted for the fact that right-wing-trolls use multiple identities, and routinely pretend to be left-wing converts? I can't help but wonder if this "trend" is even real, but if it is, I can't help but wonder if it matters.
Anyone with the type of "mind" that can be swayed by Candace Owens, and her ilk, is a total wind-sock, and there's every reason to expect that they can be blown in any direction, at any time. So how can their "opinions" matter?
Chasing a mindless swarm can't possibly be the right move.
Um, all I know is that Lively has been in the business for decades, and this man who is fairly new to the industry, (has been proven to put a smear campaign out on this woman all over social media.), is being believed over someone who has consistently donated large amounts of money to great causes. Follow Jameela Jamil on Instagram, she has been pointing out for years how the press will choose certain women to destroy, and it seems to work. Unfortunately, both men and women like to tear down women, so it’s easy. People are sheep.
"has been proven to put a smear campaign out on this woman all over social media"
This should be the beginning and end of it. It's in the text messages with his PR person! What more do we need to conclude who the aggressor is here?
I admire Taylor Lorenz and I want to say this first because in general (not necessarily here) she gets a lot of hate for no reason.
But why is there no disclosure that she worked for the NYT which is at the centre of this case because Baldoni is suing them?
It’s notable that the right are trying to destroy MeToo by using weak and arguably false cases to legitimate their own systemic alliance with misogyny.
But those of us on the left who supported MeToo (some of us who followed the UK case where the evidence wasn’t suppressed and Depp was found guilty of 12 counts of abuse against his wife) can walk and chew gum at the same time.
We know abuse is about power not gender. Or rather gender oppression is an extension of the abuse of power because usually women have less of it than men. But when they have more they are liable to weaponise it much the same way that a man will. Ida B Wells, bell hooks and inadvertently Central Park Karen proved this to us over and over.
Depp had the power over Heard and he used the courts to hound her on 2 different continents promising global humiliation — and had actually committed domestic abuse.
Baldoni has less power than Lively but he also had the rights to the film sequel that she wants. He loses those rights if he’s found guilty of sexual misconduct.
Baldoni has accused Lively of taking over the film. She said before even working with him in an interview for Forbes in 2022 that she often takes over films she’s cast in. She says it even more frankly than that.
She’s on camera in an interview with the author saying that “if Hoover gets her rights back then [Lively] will do as many sequels with her as possible.”
Then there’s the actually evidence to contradict her SH claim:
Complaining that there was no intimacy coordinator when Baldoni got one ahead of filming and she turned down meeting them
Putting doctored texts into the NYTimes complaint about his conduct (which they had to delete from the article and then LOCK to stop people commenting on the amendments)
Stating in her court documents that there was video footage that he dragged his lips down her neck and said “you smell so good” but that there was no audio (in which case we would just have her testimony)
Only to have him release the footage — there was in fact audio, it was clear to anyone with eyes and ears that a) he didn’t do that b) she misrepresented the entire scene c) she made inappropriate comments about his body and physical appearance instead.
Then there’s her own words in the Forbes interview and the texts between Baldoni and herself where she weaponises her powerful friends to force him to accept her rewriting of the script that later on the press tour she says her husband did.
The demibillionaire A list couple with the billionaire music superstar BFF and a whole roster of A Listers on speed dial and the fashion world in their pocket with the multibillion dollar comic book movie franchise MIGHT NOT be the victims.
Blake Lively’s case is not the litmus test for MeToo. We should always be sceptical of and apply scrutiny to the powerful when they declare they are victims of those they have huge amounts of power over.
Quite frankly I WISH even a tenth of this kind of advocacy was being given to Amber Heard when she needed it.
I come to Zeteo as a paid and proud subscriber from a place of trust.
Please make proper disclosures next time.
I don't know why I read this article, as I have never heard of (and couldn't care less about) either of the feuding celebrities, but I'm glad I did - otherwise I would have missed out on the hilarious statement made by one of the right-wing 'influencers': "We're very engaged in culture and in art".
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Philistines, one and all!
All I hear is gossip and a rich white man getting help to defame someone he sexually harassed. The line about Dems not being on the same page as Americans is horseshit. They aren't skilled at messaging because they aren't perveyors of Putin propaganda. The same scum that always tries to take women down, show up and the idiots run behind them, listening. Vomit inducing
And the comment that said this is a non issue, except for the people involved, is the most important. Our democracy is being destroyed and these freaks want to take down a woman instead of admit that Putin is now our President