⚡️MINI: Hannah Ferguson Breaks Down The Lawsuit Between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Willem Woody. Hannah Ferguson, founder of Cheek Media,

(00:03):
is back here on Will and Woody from the Big
Small Talk podcast. Welcome back, Hanna, So good to have
you here.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Thank you for the intro.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
That was great music.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
And we're playing the law and auto music because you're
on to talk about I'm gonna say this is the
legal case definitely of the year. It's the law case
that is on everyone's lips right now. It's Blake Lively v.

Speaker 4 (00:28):
Justin Baldoni.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
They are obviously stars of the film It Ends with Us,
which is based on the Collen Hoover novel, which is
a movie about domestic violence. But Hannah, this is where
I'm gonna throw to you, because I think this all
kicked off December last year.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
Blake Lively made the first move. What happened?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
So and actually I'd go back to August because we
knew that, I know, let's go even for the time.
We knew and the film came out that there was
something going on with the cast, right, and this is
a massive complex case, but to like dilute it down
to its simplest, there was a huge social media kind
of troll campaign against Blake Lively where people were saying
her marketing of that movie, which is a very sensitive topic,

(01:08):
was in was kind of not trauma informed. People were
saying she's coming out saying, grab your girlfriend's where your florals?
It's like a rom com. Was very much the framing.
She brought out a hair care line. So much is happening,
But people for some reason attacked Blake but like Justin
Baldoni even though the cast and Blake wouldn't be seen
with him, So we knew something was wrong, and there
was this rift apparently that TMZ reported because of creative differences.

(01:29):
Fast forward to December, we still don't know what's happened,
and then Blake Lively files a lawsuit against Justin Baldoni
and his producer and co owner of the studio's Wayfarer
about sexual harassment and sexual misconduct on set and just
major issues she experienced an employee, which include things like
them showing her videos of their Jamie Heath's wife naked
of Justin Baldoni, disclosing sexual accident consent to her, the

(01:53):
Justin Baldoni engaging in like unwanted kissing scenes, and overly
doing the intimacy on set and Blake basically this lawsuit,
and then the next day The New York Times reports
on this that she felt uncomfortable and didn't want them
to retaliate. Then the next steps, as a lot of
people know in the course of the lead up to Christmas,
basically is Justin Balderney then files a lawsuit against The

(02:14):
New York Times basically alleging defamation and counter sues Blake
Lively and Ryan Reynolds, saying that Blake Lively strong arm
the creative decisions on the project. There are so many
allegations with this, but he's basically saying it's defamatory what
they're saying. They've taken it out of context, and I
can justify a bunch of these behaviors. So now we're
just waiting to see what emerges from these suits.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
So is he disputing like each of her claims specifically.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
See a lot of them. He is. So he's saying
things like she says she was fat shamed on the
set because he asked how much she weighed, And he's saying,
I have back injuries and I was asking my personal
trainer how much I need to lift to be able
to carry her in the film, So he's actually coming
back with a lot of responses to things like that.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
So he is in a defamation in case, you've got
to prove the truth, right, So he's probably need to
go through a bit of a checklist there.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
What else has she claimed?

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Specifically that he's.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Also claiming that they have basically lodged a massive social
media campaign against her. He also hired Johnny Depp's PR
team to help him crisis manage his way through what's
happened in the last few months, which raised a lot
of flags at the time in mid last year. But
there's also this entire claim in the texts that have
been alleged in the New York Times and through Blake's
complaint that basically they've kind of conducted and ensured this

(03:30):
social media campaign went against her. But really what's happened
is they've planted a few stories and women and the
Internet at large has been so willing to hate another
woman they've taken it and run with it. So a
lot of it is the PR campaign Here's team ran,
which is being alleged. A lot of it is just
that these texts that are shared of things like we
can Bury Anyone was one of the texts between Justin

(03:52):
and his PR team. There's lots of text message saying
it it's actually sad how willing the internet is to
hate a woman like this is really the conversation that's going.
So there's there's a conversation about the smear campaign against
Blake Lively, and then there's a separate conversation about the
conduct on set, you know, the lack of consent, the
creative differences. There's just a heap of legal stuff happening

(04:13):
at the same time, which is why there's so much
noise about this case.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
You mentioned Ryan Reynolds as well, because it's interesting that
he is now very much involved.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
A fasting, which fascinates me. So he's the husband of
men can do no wrong as far as and that
is so thank.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
You for pointing that out. Thank god someone did.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
That is always the stance of this radio show. And
on that note, we are going to go to a song.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
We've got more with Hanna Ferguson right up next, founder
of check Media. If you want to hear more about this,
she has put together an epic podcast delving into all
of the detail. On her podcast, A Big Small Talk
so you can go and listen to that in your
own time. But we've got more with Hannah right up
next year on William, what do you hope you haveing
a great day? Kiss hate swilling Moody. I hope you're
having a great day. We're all just getting up to speed.
Well I'm getting up to speed finally, and I don't

(04:53):
know how I do this, but I know nothing about
what you're talking about.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
Hannah Ferguson here, founder of.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Cheek Media and co host of Big Small Talk, talking
about the biggest story in the world at the moment,
which is Blake Lively. Let me get this guy's name right,
Justin Baldoni? Is that right?

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (05:09):
So in a sentence, Hannah, get us up to speak
one sentence. One sentence.

Speaker 4 (05:14):
You can have a big sentence, but go for it.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Blake Lively attacked by all of social media last year
over the vends with US Marketing for the marketing of
the film. Then Justin Baldoni, she sues him and says
all of this unwanted sexual misconductor code on set and
a social media smear campaign has been raised against her
by him. He's countersuing her. Ryan reynolds her husband and
The New York Times for defamation in print. That's where

(05:37):
we're at.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Okay, okay, well, and by the way, he's suing them
for four hundred million US dollars, which you know, given
the way that the Aussie dollar is going, like that's
that's seven hundred million, let's say Australian dollars.

Speaker 4 (05:51):
That is.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
I was in to stink about this before because legal mind, like,
you need to prove where the damage is. You can't
just say to someone I'm suing you, I want half
a billion. You need to be able to show, like, hey,
the reason I'm suing you for four hundred million is
because my career is definitely worth four hundred million and
that's what I'm going to lose as a result of
what you're doing to me this. I didn't even know

(06:14):
who this dude was Baldoni.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
He directed the film, he produced the film. He's in
Jane the half a billion dollars.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
But I think, Hannah, you can I mean, I listened
to your podcast, amazing podcast, by the way, but you
said that his career has already been impacted somewhat. There
are things that have happened to Justin Baldoni since all
this stuff.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
He's lost an Ally to Women award, it's been.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
Taken from him because he stripped.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
I think it's actually uprageous that in December they gave
it to me in the first place, even though it
was quite obvious something had gone down on the set.
So I don't think that's four hundred million dollars in
of itself, but we both I think we can all
agree that the four hundred million USD number is a headline,
that it's not actual, Like that is a ridiculous amount.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
Okay, So can I just pick up what you've what
you've mentioned there, because this guy has publicly always put
himself out there as being a feminist and very against
any bad treatment of women, Like he has really put
his hand up as like a flag bearer there. And
with that in mind, So Ryan Reynolds involvement. He's the
husband of Blake Lively. He has a movie Deadpool v. Wolverine, Yeah,

(07:19):
coming out similar time to this film.

Speaker 4 (07:21):
Right, loved it.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Over did the action scenes.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
If we had to be honest, always you know the
character nice Pool.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
He's got the man but him playing himself and he's
overly nice version.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
But also the more you get to know he's actually
a really nasty person. Yeah, okay, there's a claim there
that that whole character is based on Justin Baldoni.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
Who are you? I'm Deadpool and I guess you're a
Deadpool too.

Speaker 4 (07:44):
But in here everybody calls me nice Pool.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
Oh my goodness, where do you see Ladypool? She is gorgeous.
She just had a baby too, And I can't even tell.
I don't think you're supposed to say that that's okay
identify as a feminist.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
So this whole character Hannah, is a big swipe at
Justin Baldoni.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
That's what they're arguing, and Jospin Baldoni has basically written
an open letter to say, preserve the documentation related to
this character, because I believe it's been based on me,
and it's included in the suit this information. So he
has a belief that that's the case. And I think
one of the interesting parts about this that my co
host pointed out to me in our podcast yesterday is
that that character in the credits of Deadpool is sort

(08:25):
of credited as being played by Gordon Reynolds, not even
though it's Ryan Reynolds in it ends with us Blake
Lively ensured that there was credit given in the thanks
section to a Gordon Reynolds. Wow. Wow, right, the gossip
is strong.

Speaker 4 (08:41):
There is some confusion there.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
There's so much information coming out that a lot of
people are kind of looking at it being like, I
don't even know who I like anymore. I don't know
whose side I'm on. So from your investigation, are you
on a particular side?

Speaker 2 (08:55):
You know what? I think? I think that our willingness
to go, I must pick, I must choose is such
a like response to social media and like when we're
fed so much propaganda. I think one of the hard
parts about this is, you know, August last year, when
this campaign against Blake Lively went just viral and everyone
was piling on it, now feels hard for people to
switch and say, oh, with this new information, I actually

(09:15):
can understand that I did the wrong thing by feeding
into it. So I think everyone needs to come back
and say, when there's like complicated legal cases like this,
it's okay to say I don't know and I probably
made a wrong assumption, and with this new information, I'm
going to sit back and go let's just see what
unfolds our willingness to go I'm picking team whatever when
the legal case is unfolding, so unfair.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Reach Out one hundred respect very worthwhile because obviously this
whole thing kicks off in a movie about domestic brands.
I mean, the irony of that is palpable and probably
very confronting for a lot of people.

Speaker 4 (09:44):
Hannah, thank you so much for joining us. It's been great.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
You've been awesome as always, big small talk, go and
get it where you get your podcasts, and going listen
to that podcast. I've got a whole lot more detail
from someone who talks very well at Hi