Blake Lively v Justin Baldoni
Added 2025-02-28 11:36:09 +0000 UTCOA1131 - That's right, we interrupt your regularly scheduled rapid response Friday (sorry...) to give you the first episode in the new Gavel Gavel series!!! And, Gavel Gavel is now PUBLIC!
The legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni might feel like just "celebrity gossip," but there is so much here. It has fiercly divided the internet, with one group certain that Justin Baldoni is a sexual harsser, and the other group certain that Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are devious plotters who lied about an innocent man in order to take over a movie. How are we to know the truth? Well, fortunately there are going on thousands of pages of legal documents to comb through. The answers are there, for the few among us that are willing to actually read them. This series will do just that.
(FYI this is a free post since the charge is over on GG!)
Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!
Comments
it's so telling isn't it - i think of people like Manson and Brand who the right hated with a fiery passion right up until they were credibly accused of abusing women and then they embraced them like the prodigal flipping sons.
Tom Pegg
2025-03-02 13:18:20 +0000 UTCHappy to speak to federal employment law (Title VII) or related experience if you need some legal input. Totally get the "just want people to read the docs" feeling. In the non-celeb context, a lot of folks who come to us are finally talking to someone who gives a shit for the first time. They've likely been told to be quiet about what happened at work, or told nothing will be done to help them, or worse: been outright retaliated against by coworkers they thought were friends or lost their job for speaking up. And no one really knows or cares what actually happened. I am well versed in the way the other side tries to discredit women throughout the process. There is a playbook these folks use and it is so dated and transparent. Which makes it a million times more frustrating when it works. Anyways, my husband and I are law partners at the same office. Writing is my thing, and talking is his. But happy to answer questions on background behind the scenes or tap my husband, Josh, if you need a law-talker on the topic.
Katie Herrmann
2025-03-01 21:23:36 +0000 UTCThe reactions of the public are almost more interesting than the case itself. I find it especially depressing that so many women are pouring vitriol on another woman.
AliceMerray
2025-03-01 16:10:16 +0000 UTCI fully believe this but that makes it even dumber that Easter is on a different date every year. I get it if you're farmers dancing around a maypole or sewing someone into a bear or whatever pagans do, those are seasonal things, but if you're saying your zombie prophet came out of a cave on a day, I feel like you should be able to say which day.
Bald Weasels Scrotal Manscaping
2025-02-28 21:57:18 +0000 UTCand jonah hill
ahoy
2025-02-28 21:18:11 +0000 UTCHaven't finished listening but I just gotta say something which is this; the job of a Hollywood news presenter/interviewer/whatever that job is called, is interviewing celebrities. It's their literal job to talk to people and be nice to them, or at least personable enough to not get told to go fuck yourself 20 times a day. The job of an actor is... fucking acting. Because they're, y'know, actors. Those famously stable, chill, and super mentally healthy people, with totally normal ass life experiences who weren't working their asses off in emotionally charged situations since they were a tiny child. If the occasional snarky response to dumb comments makes you want to quit your job, maybe you fucking should!! It never ceases to astonish me when interviewers complain that x or y celeb was a giant bitch to them and the response isn't "sorry to hear you had a rough day, what would you do differently next time so everyone is happier with the conversation?" Unless you're Piers Morgan isn't it your literal job to be charismatic and bring the best vibes from challenging people??? It honestly seems like this interviewer sucks at it and took zero responsibility for managing the vibes way better.
Bald Weasels Scrotal Manscaping
2025-02-28 21:10:01 +0000 UTCCompletely totally unrelated to anything in the episode: in regards to your annoyance with February: we almost did have a reasonable calendar called the Worlds Calendar. Except religious communities pushed hard to vote against in the UN because it would make tracking their religious holidays more difficult.
Chris L
2025-02-28 20:49:23 +0000 UTCMy big takeaways from this episode were that 1) sexism is incredibly pervasive and insidious, 2) Heath E. hit the fiancée jackpot.
Lisa Bees
2025-02-28 19:50:51 +0000 UTCConsidering what happened with people like Joss Whedon and Neil Gaiman, it's hard to trust anyone's allyship.
Jason Valasek
2025-02-28 19:32:39 +0000 UTCI also was going to skip this for the same reason. I honestly started listening to it just to get a break from the Trump administration content but it is definitely worth it.
Shad Riley
2025-02-28 17:59:41 +0000 UTCI posted this over on the Gavel Gavel feed too, but for people who don't subscribe to that yet-- I was going to skip this because I don't follow celebrities, but Thomas starts with an excellent justification for why this case is worth attention. So I would encourage you to give it a try if you're on the fence!
Off-by-one error
2025-02-28 14:10:19 +0000 UTC'tis odd, I don't know either of them and although I'd heard of Lively i've only seen her in Green Lantern (without knowing who she was) and Deadpool (with mild sadness the Taylor rumours weren't true). However the increasing chatter over the summer gave me strong Heard vibes - Here, I thought, is an attempt to tarnish a successful woman. And then the law suit landed. The weird thing about Baldoni is that, if he were the man he claims to be then this would never have blown up unless Lively is really a total diva looking to risk her entire rep to fight with a relatively minor personage. And she doesn't come across as that person. He does have strong 'that guy' vibes though. So I think it's answer A - Baldoni did it because of something to do with real property law in 1635.
Tom Pegg
2025-02-28 13:36:37 +0000 UTC
