TMZ: Blake Lively thought Justin Baldoni ‘lingered too long’ in a kissing scene

Justin Baldoni’s newly-hired crisis managers are already working overtime. I don’t know when Baldoni hired The Agency Group, the same crisis managers who handled Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt’s debacles, but it seems like it was pretty recent. Likely on Monday, as the box office numbers for It Ends With Us came in and Baldoni realized that Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds were feeling themselves and preparing to take him down. That’s just the thing though… in the wake of IEWU’s success and the completion of the promotion, people were already hating on Blake. TikTok is ripping Blake a new one and that predates Baldoni’s crisis manager hire. I don’t know… the whole thing is weird and getting weirder.

First off, TMZ has entered the chat. No surprise – TMZ always gets a lot of strategic leaks from The Agency Group. Early on Wednesday, TMZ had some pushback on the narrative that “everyone has taken Blake Lively’s side.” According to their sources, Baldoni was never seen as the “clear-cut villain” and many people who worked on the film “view Baldoni quite favorably.” Their production sources admit that “there are definitely people siding with Blake, but there are also those who feel like Justin got screwed.” TMZ also confirms the widespread reports that Blake hired her own editor to cut the film and she had Ryan Reynolds do “last-minute rewrites on the script.” Both of those issues are not being seen favorably within Hollywood. But nothing compares to the other gossip, that Baldoni “fat-shamed” a recently postpartum Blake on the set. Thankfully, TMZ had an exclusive about that too:

Blake Lively has told people there were multiple reasons Justin Baldoni made her feel uncomfortable on the set of “It Ends With Us” … TMZ has learned.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ … there was a scene in which Justin lifts Blake into the air. According to our sources, Justin has a history of back problems and before lifting Blake, he went to his on-set trainer and asked how much she weighed and how he could train to protect his back from injury.

Blake later found out about Justin’s comment and felt he fat-shamed her. We’re told this comment really bothered Blake, who gave birth to her and husband, Ryan Reynolds’ 4th child in February 2023.

Our sources tell us the second incident that allegedly made Blake uncomfortable on set is when the two engaged in a kissing scene and Blake felt he lingered longer than he should have with the kiss.

We broke the story … cast and crew agree there’s definitely bad blood between the “It Ends With Us” costars — but sources told us Justin’s not the clear-cut villain, as some people who worked on the film are standing by him. Some sources we spoke to also claimed some cast members are milking the drama to market the film.

[From TMZ]

The fat-shaming situation… I’ll be generous to both of them, actually. I could totally see how a recently postpartum woman would feel extra sensitive about any conversation about her body and her weight. I could totally see how Blake would feel some kind of way about that. On the other hand… the dude has a bad back and he was focused on the technical side of things, like “is my back going to go out if I try to lift this woman?” That, to me, is a totally legitimate argument to “the director/costar asking how much Blake weighs.”

As for the kissing thing… lord, I hope Blake isn’t dumb enough to complain about that? Are we really doing this? He was acting! Blake should try it.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.