Subscribe to BuzzFeed Daily NewsletterCaret DownHere's What "Another Simple Favor" Director Paul Feig Had To Say About Blake Lively"It's just frustrating for me." "I love working with Blake — she’s just the best," Paul Feig said. Amazon Prime Video /Courtesy Everett Collection Inside FilmBlake Lively has dominated headlines for months – but her future as a movie star is unclearThe litigious back-and-forth between the ‘Gossip Girl’ star and Justin Baldoni, who directed her in the cursed weepie ‘It Ends with Us’, has largely eclipsed her acting career since 2024, with her new film ‘Another Simple Favor’ currently caught in the crossfire. Where does she go from here, asks Adam White The supporting characters in Another Simple Favor, the psycho-drama comedy sequel that’s streaming now on Prime Video don’t know what to do with themselves in the presence of Blake Lively overly accessorised ensembles (one look involves dungarees Lively’s character Emily Nelson – a schemer murderess and secret triplet who’s offed at least one of her sisters – draws gasps and mild panic every time she enters a room the director and leading man of It Ends with Us the new sequel gets sucked into the vortex of completely unrelated off-camera drama You leave it pondering if every future Blake Lively role will follow suit let alone been able to anticipate how it’d spectacularly implode upon release in August Following months of speculation of a feud between Lively and Baldoni Lively alleged in December that she had been made the target of an elaborate smear campaign orchestrated by Baldoni and his PR team after she reported sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns on the It Ends with Us set sued Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds for extortion alleging that Lively made false complaints in order to gain creative control over It Ends with Us before forcing him out of the filmmaking process and later the movie’s promotion as well as a separate lawsuit Baldoni has filed against The New York Times It’s what keeps us silent.” She said she is in the midst of a fight “for the world to be safer for women and girls” However the lawsuits shake out when they go to trial in 2026 Baldoni’s career has been destabilised – he was dropped by his agents after Lively’s allegations went public lost work and his presenting role on a feminist podcast and has little industry power or goodwill beyond a small if loud contingent of supporters Lively’s future career is more of a question mark She has no confirmed acting jobs on the horizon and has spent at least the last decade of her fame attempting to mount side hustles Acting seems to have been less of a priority And it’s this that may ultimately decide where she goes from here There is no real analogue in modern Hollywood for the drama surrounding Lively and Baldoni which seems to be fuelled less by personal conflict than a scorched-earth creative tussle though the volatility of the internet machine exploiting it for clicks is similar The closest comparison may be the experiences of Kim Basinger who was immersed in a litany of financial and professional scandals in the early Nineties that for years eclipsed her actual film career Basinger was sued for breaching an oral agreement to star in the erotic thriller Boxing Helena with the film’s producer claiming that Basinger “damaged my picture and my life” and a jury eventually ordered her to pay $8.1m in damages before Basinger agreed to settle for $3.8m Basinger and her then-husband Alec Baldwin faced a raft of bad press amid claims of mutually poor behaviour on the set of their doomed comedy film The Marrying Man (1991) – he was accused of throwing constant tantrums she of holding up filming by spending hours in her trailer bathing in sour cream and milk She later described the period as “open season on me” her “persona … blown up in all these proportions that even I myself would say I have no idea who that is” which would win her a best supporting actress Oscar Basinger’s break from acting allowed the heat around her to die down of course – the pre-internet age meant that your average man on the street likely didn’t know about the Boxing Helena lawsuit and the shockwaves it sent through the industry back then then returned in a role that pocketed her one of Hollywood’s greatest honours is proof that sometimes the best way to survive scandal is silence Another Simple Favor is only coloured by the bad luck of its release date you likely wouldn’t find yourself wincing at Lively’s character threatening someone with the line: “I will sue you into oblivion” Coming on the heels of months of dramatic Lively discourse A bigger question for Lively may be whether she does too In one text out of hundreds of exchanges between the actor and Baldoni that his legal team published online in January she was transparent about her creative restlessness She describes being “hired as a writer [for a past film] and paid a significant fee for it but on the condition that I never ask for credit” in which she was misled about having her voice valued on a set only to discover later on that she was “just wanted as a ‘yes man’ audience and actor” They echo comments she made at a Forbes magazine event in 2022 in which she described being unfulfilled by being hired exclusively as an actor on films and her wish to be involved in “the writing the costume design and in creating the character.” She continued: “I don’t want to just be an actor It wouldn’t be too surprising if Lively got the authorship she’s been looking for on the set of Another Simple Favor – Feig has long had productive relationships with his female actors among them Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig And Emily undeniably feels like her creation: a big-haired outrageously outfitted glamazon who sparks as much wonder as she does envy and aggravation ‘Another Simple Favor’ is streaming on Prime Video More aboutBlake LivelyJustin BaldoniJoin our commenting forumJoin thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies who directed her in the cursed weepie ‘It Ends with Us’ has largely eclipsed her acting career since 2024 with her new film ‘Another Simple Favor’ currently caught in the crossfire Director Paul Feig revealed that Blake Lively picked out the "big-ass" sunhat herself at a shop in Capri Paul Feig tries to set the record straight on Blake Lively but director Paul Feig is denying there’s any feud so when I read people’s misconceptions about how movies are made Every star I’ve worked with works this way that’s only because that’s how it always works on set The idea that a star just shows up and you go ‘Here’s the script’ – please point me to one movie star who works that way So when the gang on the internet get [up in arms] about something you don’t know what you’re talking about I love working with Blake – she’s just the best whatever may have happened on that set went beyond the norm something that wasn't the case following It Ends with Us anybody who has an extreme reaction to the stories about Blake Lively needs to relax because there’s simply no reason to be outraged here Outrage is the most boring emotion humans have these days – when it’s towards something meaningful There's other things to be outraged about – please While Paul Feig may be looking to reduce the outrage with lawsuits set to go to trial next year the controversy surrounding Blake Lively likely won't be going away anytime soon whether or not this is all actually normal for a movie star Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018 He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry He has a degree in political science from the University of California you will then be prompted to enter your display name Fans Get Real About What Movies ‘Traumatized’ Them So Hard As Kids They Can’t Watch Them As Adults And Apparently They Were All Raised On Horror One Way Shooting F1 Was Way Freaking Different Than Shooting Top Gun: Maverick ‘On An Aircraft Carrier 100 Miles Off The Coast’ I'm Cautiously Optimistic About The American Psycho Remake But I Think There's Another Option That Needs To Be Considered Subscribe to the Gaunty Rundown! By Ansharah Shakil Noël Coward’s comic play Blithe Spirit has a timeless charisma that has lasted throughout the years from its first performance in London in 1941 to its continued current revivals The longest running non-musical in London prior to The Mousetrap opening in 1952 Blithe Spirit has made its way to Broadway including Theatre Calgary’s recent production in April.  Nikki Loach’s direction exactly matches the manic Coward described Blithe Spirit as an improbable farce and its plot remains both wildly eccentric and entertaining Novelist Charles Condomine (Tyrell Crews) invites clairvoyant Madame Arcati (Corrine Koslo) for a séance to get material for his next book only to end up being haunted by the ghost of his first wife who merrily wreaks havoc on Charles’s new life and relationship with his second wife also populating the play’s landscapes are Ali DeRegt as Edith Charles’s and Ruth’s maid whose humorous antics had the audience in stitches and Christopher Hunt and Meg Farhall as the Bradmans invited to the original séance as friends of Charles and Ruth.  The Bradmans are the kind of painfully normal socialite couple Charles and Ruth The crowd-pleasing Edith makes the most of her screen time It is to the production’s benefit that she is played with great skill and joy by Koslo whose physical performances and dedication to her (sham) spiritual techniques are portrayed with and received by utter delight Madame Arcati’s quirks — like her bicycle riding — are as amusing as her ridiculous lines In addition to how the performances all admirably carry out the script Scott Reid’s set design is perfectly well-crafted and suited to the play self-contained and managing to convey a number of moods and changes Narda McCarroll’s lighting is equally atmospheric — it’s always stunning whether it’s a peaceful early morning light a ghostly blue light or the pink orange of sunrise.  The greatest combination on the stage is any that exists between Charles Elvira haunts the narrative before she ever steps foot on stage the subject of a conversation between Charles and Ruth in the very first scene of the play and once it is revealed that Charles is the only person who can see or hear her Some of the funniest moments in the play are Ruth thinking Charles is speaking to her when he is speaking to Elvira.  This ménage à trois goes through several stages Charles is pulled from side to side by Elvira a shameless flirt whose youthful hijinks appeal to Charles’s boyish tendencies and by the more mature and steadfast nature of Ruth one that goes beyond the grave just as his does for her Central to Elvira’s ghostly arrival is Elvira’s favourite song a haunting and beautiful number which served as a gift for Berlin’s second wife — his first died of illness But Ruth is just as determined to hold on to her marriage and to figure out what Elvira is up to.  Watching Charles struggle to choose between these two sides and watching the battle of wits between Elvira and Ruth While Charles begins the play off calm and collected he gets increasingly more harried and desperate as time goes on all the while retaining Charles’s characteristic dry humour Duff knows how to show the two sides to Ruth’s character — stern and not tolerating any wrong move of Charles trying to retain some semblance of order in her life Ruth isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty if the situation calls for it and one can see why Charles would fall for her Elvira herself is a showstopper of sparkling chaos Gliding about in her white satin dress and fluffing up her hair Howard’s charismatic performance is reminiscent of old Hollywood heroines just one example of Ralamy Kneeshaw’s magnificent costume design and it’s incredibly welcome when a similar costume shows up on Ruth later on.  Whether Elvira is sighing over Charles trying to appease Ruth getting irritated over Madame Arcati’s excitement over her materialisation or having fun moving objects and scaring others which leaves its audience first in stitches and then with a satisfied sense of enjoyment.  Use the Admin widget page to populate the sidebar who is currently making headlines for her ongoing legal drama with Justin Baldoni has finally addressed the matter in an interview Lively filed a case against her It Ends With Us director and co-star Baldoni accusing him of sexual harassment and for starting a smear campaign against her the 38-year-old has kept silent and haven’t uttered a word about the matter when she has finally opened and addressed the subject indirectly During her promotional interview for Another Simple Favor at Late Night with Seth Meyers Blake shared about her highs and lows of the year “What I can say without going too much into it is that this year has been full of the highest highs and the lowest lows of my life.” afraid to share their experiences and fear is by design “But I also acknowledge that many people don’t have the opportunity to speak so I do feel fortunate that I’ve been able to.” “And it’s the women who have had the ability to use their voice that’s kept me strong helped me in my belief and my fight for the world to be safer for women and girls.” Lively has reunited with Anna Kendrick for her latest film The youngest son of the Prince and Princess of Wales stole hearts with his antics at the VE Day processions Kelsey Grammer visits the site of his sister’s tragic death The 11-year-old young royal took part in the special tea festivity Jenna Ortega's 'Wednesday' season 2 has been teased by the makers Prince Harry dragged through the mud with Thomas Markle comparison Barry Williams opens up about portraying Greg Brady in 'The Brady Bunch' Copyright © 2025. The News International, All Rights Reserved | Contact Us | Authors Subscribe to BuzzFeed Daily NewsletterCaret DownBlake Lively Broke Her Silence On The Justin Baldoni Lawsuit In A New Interview"Many people don’t have the opportunity to speak so I do feel fortunate that I've been able to." Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission and other nonentities with an almost manic enthusiasm as if she emerged from a silent retreat only hours prior not giving the audience much time to respond one way or another when she turns to them as though she was promoting a movie for the first time Smack-dab in the middle of their idle late-night chitchat, Lively made brief mention of her past year alluding to but not directly citing her ongoing legal dispute with It Ends With Us co-star and director Baldoni “This year has been full of the highest highs and the lowest lows of my life,” she told Meyers “I see so many women around afraid to speak Fear is by design; it’s what keeps us silent But I also acknowledge that many people don’t have the opportunity to speak so I do feel fortunate that I’ve been able to It’s the women who have had the ability to use their voice that’s kept me strong and helped me in my belief and my fight for the world to be safe for women and girls It’s a fine line for Lively to walk: universalizing her alleged experience on It Ends With Us as symptomatic of larger and positions of power while also acknowledging the privilege she has as one of the industry’s more formidable figures What’s even more compelling is that all of her longer talking points sound like they’re right out of Her statement on Meyers was met with respectful and enthusiastic applause, not unlike Lively’s brief speech at the Time100 Gala in late April where she dedicated her win to her mother is the feeling of being a woman who has a voice today and fight of the many women who have paved the way later detailing her mother’s abuse and subsequent optimism in the face of violence Another Simple is about as tonally opposite a movie can be from It Ends With Us but Lively’s taking it all much more seriously Password must be at least 8 characters and contain: you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York who has been embroiled in a heated legal war against her It Ends with Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni is busy promoting her recent hit Another Simple Favor A Simple Favor had everyone hooked with its thriller and mysterious crime who played Emily - the cool and mysterious while Anna Kendrick was Stephanie her sweet but nosy best friend who got pulled into a web of secrets and a little bit of love and rivalry all mixed together Lively’s claims against Baldoni became public as she accused him of inappropriate and disturbing behavior on set during filming of the Colleen Hoover adaptation the The Shallows actress told Seth Meyers that the past year has been "intense," but she feels "fortunate" to have had the platform to share her story acknowledging that not every woman has that opportunity the internet has been tough on Blake Lively criticising her and pushing her out of the spotlight she’s had to choose her next role carefully to avoid more drama In the criminally underrated romantic comedy Long Shot “Just ’cause you star in movies doesn’t mean you’re a movie star.” Respect to Aniston Despite having plenty of studio credits to her name she’s neither an awards contender nor a box-office guarantee and her best-known role is still the dream girl she played on a hit television show But pretend for a moment that Jen stayed married to Brad Pitt accompanying her hunk to premieres and gracing the covers of Vogue and Elle instead of Us and inTouch Firmly ensconced on the A-list — but with the same track record on film — would we call her a movie star Gossip Girl’s Serena “I have to go” van der Woodsen remains a shadow Lively has never quite shaken, and perhaps she doesn’t want to. Glamorously matching the carpet at the Met Gala launching a line of hair products — these are very Serena-ish things to do After Gossip Girl went off the air, there was actually a three-year gap in her filmography, during which time she did work on two pretty major non-acting projects: starting a family with her husband and launching her short-lived lifestyle website, Preserve Perhaps hoping that the memory of her earlier misfires had dissipated Lively relaunched her movie career in 2015 gravitating toward premise-heavy stories with budgets around $25 million nothing that could generate headlines about a bad box office or even a bad performance Lively smartly took her time finding the right material to lay the groundwork for a bigger career She took another break then signed on for a sequel to the well-regarded A Simple Favor and hopped onto the day’s biggest author’s biggest book she got the positive reviews and the box-office windfall she’d been seeking for nearly two decades To parse the nuances of a stop-and-start career and in honor of the upcoming A Simpler Favor — my bad it’s Another Simple Favor — I’ve undertaken the task of ranking her performances in features (excluding voice work) not by the quality of those films but how well they utilize her specific ability to be vivacious You can blame Blake for the spasmodic British accent but it’s not her fault the plot has the structural integrity of wet cardboard Mere months after top Oxford student Stephanie Patrick’s family is killed in a plane crash she’s become a drug-addicted sex worker selling herself for a hundred bucks a pop until an investigative journalist tells her the crash was no accident but the work of generically Arab terrorists murdering for the glory of the Prophet (yeah) After going on a number of jogs with an ex-spy played by Jude Law Patrick kicks her heroin habit and becomes an assassin fun kind with a double-entendre code name and a knife hidden in her bra The gritty kind who has choppy black hair and a permanent scowl By the time she’s having sex with Sterling K but the chemistry with Jude was better) and then stabbing him with a syringe of poison (An important lesson for anyone thinking of casting Lively: She should only play rich people. Whatever missteps were made with the costume budget and styling on It Ends With Us, she was correct to insist that her character wear designer duds, however farfetched the explanation. Some actresses have iPhone Face; Lively has Wealth Face.) “You gotta chase the rabbit if you want the tail.” Watch Serena’s guilt-induced bender at the end of Gossip Girl season one and you’ll see why Ben Affleck thought she’d be good as Krista the pill-popping sister of Jeremy Renner’s “Gem” in his Boston-set crime thriller and little else to Jason Derulo’s “Whatcha Say,” dirty-hot like unwashed silk sheets For the life of me I can’t tell if her daughter’s name is “Shaye,” “Shoyn,” or “Shy.” least of all when they have talky sex with all their clothes on She’s supposed to be gum-smacking junkie Barbie but conveying emotion through an opioid-induced stupor is a task I’ve seen fine Maybe she couldn’t shake Serena and forgot how to embody an adult showy performance of a high-school student who finally convinced the drama teacher to let the class do “heavy material.” Maybe if Affleck weren’t also her co-star he could have directed her a little better this low-budget slasher is about “five high-school seniors (three cute girls) in a VW van on their way to camp by a river in the forest” who “hear about a boy who once killed his identical twin and parents in the area They ignore the warning.” With that in mind and since it’s unavailable for streaming in the U.S. I guess we’ll all just have to use our imaginations but as it also stars other members of the Lively family (dad Ernie it has to go somewhere on a list ranked by Liveliness Blind after the accident that killed her parents Gina is living somewhat happily in Bangkok with her businessman husband (Jason Clarke) until a surgery restores her sight and she realizes she looks like Blake Lively and straddles her man on an overnight train through Europe is darkly compelling and we see the occasional glimpse of the Lively charm but the rest of the overly stylized and under cooked movie is a watch-through-your-fingers mess However hard Lively commits to Gina’s journey from despair to paranoia as her vision atrophies none of the characters have enough humanity to judge how well they’re played Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) are best and the only thing they love more than each other is their shared girlfriend As written and/or directed by Martin McDonagh this could be the premise of a screwball black comedy for the ages it’s a violent crime drama from Oliver Stone that tasks Lively with narration like “Chon’s always trying to fuck the war out of himself Lively performs as if there’s someone off-camera pointing a gun at her head O is kidnapped and actually does have a gun to her head There’s an undercurrent of electricity between her and the ruthless cartel leader (Salma Hayek) using her as a bargaining chip but Stone is too cowardly to let the hotties smooch squandering the only energy Lively was able to muster for this potent strain of mess Of the 11 directors helming shorts in this anthology who cast her as A Hot Girl and gave her two lines she does fit the part of someone who would take an NYU film major to the prom This deeply icky picaresque about a 13-year-old runaway (Chloë Grace Moretz) called in Lively for the Blake specialty: a self-loathing drug addict with a heart of gold with whom men are obsessed She emerges mostly unscathed from the wannabe-profound sludge and gets the best lines: “Church is for brunettes” and “Dear God Note: This is the second film in which someone kisses Lively’s dead body on the lips In a world where no one has heard of community college what if Ferris Bueller meant to do an Old School but ended up making a Camp Nowhere I watched this movie all the time as a kid and I still think it kind of holds up Written, directed, and narrated by no one in particular Café Society tells the story of Bobby (Jesse Eisenberg) as he transitions from Hollywood assistant to New York club owner all while being in love with Veronica (Kristen Stewart) who would rather marry his uncle (Steve Carell) Bobby impregnates and marries another Veronica (Blake Lively) who is so attractive and kind and cheerful and perfect that we are forced to conclude that Bobby must really really love brunette Veronica to still be thinking about her despite being wed to an angel It’s also a film wherein Stewart off-handedly mentions that Errol Flynn is a rapist who likes his girls young One thing I’ll say for the film, set in the 1930s, is that it looks lovely, and Lively looks lovely in it. She’s having the best hair day of her life and doing what she can with the material. If you ever wondered how she would have fared if she’d nabbed the role of Daisy in The Great Gatsby The original YA adaptation traded on Lively’s innate charm and spunk for an organic performance with a simple but potent arc combined with a more contrived plotline (hidden letters projecting mommy issues onto a skeleton during an archeological dig) make this whole enterprise kind of a nonstarter Not to mention the somewhat questionable lessons she learns about her mother’s mental illness the last act finds the Sisterhood in Greece on a giggly romance mission Are they the Bogey and Bacall for our time Lively plays a girlboss named Carol who flies planes and does not like Hal’s (Reynolds) antics one bit She glowers at him from beneath several layers of spray tan while wearing the hell out of an olive-green flight suit the second time spinning hilariously in midair while one of the guys from Two Guys A Girl and a Pizza Place faces off against swollen-headed Peter Sarsgaard (giving Legendary director Howard Hawks once decreed that a good movie is “three great scenes and no bad ones.” The Green Lantern is not a good movie Sir Lantern has recently rescued Carol and pops by her office (mansion?) for a visit you don’t think I would recognize you because I can’t see your cheekbones Personally, I would love to see Blake and Ryan share the screen again. Specifically, in the “last great american dynasty” movie — though that’s looking less and less likely these days Elvis (Max Minghella) is the son of a hunchbacked but after his mother’s suicide is stuck embalming bodies Annabelle (Lively) is a small-town beauty queen with an overbearing mother (Mary Steenburgen) and too-friendly stepfather (Keith Carradine) At the moment of her great pageant triumph As Elvis preps Annabelle’s body for embalming The best part of this Southern Neo-Gothic fairy tale (or maybe it’s a rejected Six Feet Under plotline) is their tender love story The worst is Mantegna’s iffy portrayal of disability The movie’s a little too weird to be the proving ground young Blake needed but no one plays a broken-winged pretty bird like Lively Note: This is the first film in which someone kisses Lively’s DEAD BODY ON THE LIPS After years watching her late father abuse her mother Lily Bloom (Lively) has become quiet and accommodating and we get only glimpses of the joie de vivre that Lively can embody so well It’s an appropriate choice for the character but does make the film kind of a downer for something that is not a melodrama about domestic violence (by the way Some actresses can make a character’s “low point” — like getting beaten by her husband — tense and kinetic The more a role allows her to tap into some version of pleasure-seeking with Lively playing the teen/young-adult version of Robin Wright gets caught up in psychosexual lesbian photo shoots and drifts across the ’80s downtown art scene until falling for an older man (Alan Arkin) This is her Penny Lane–in–Almost Famous moment and she’s far more engaging than the soap that surrounds her it made me realize how badly I need Lively to get back into her highest heels and go whirling through clubs again Since she’s apparently allergic to romantic comedies and blockbusters I hereby call upon the powers that be to get her the rights to Sarah Hoover’s The Motherload and Cat Marnell’s How to Murder Your Life Did I guess almost every twist of this Italian telenovela at least 20 minutes before it was revealed Does the movie spend its first half turning the dial on Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) and Emily’s (Lively) sexual tension past 11 and the second half making fun of that chemistry A heady mix of the second season of The White Lotus and the fourth season of You Another Simple Favor is a sequel in the Again But Bigger and More tradition of Magic Mike XXL and Top Gun: Maverick both overt (“sister fucker”) and clever (a drone on stealth mode is the Gen-Z equivalent of a silent They explain Elizabeth Perkins replacing Jean Smart by saying she got work done Part of the reason Lively popped so much in A Simple Favor was that her character was a much-needed jolt of vibrant sophistication in the humdrum doldrums of suburbia against the candy-colored backdrop of Capri There may have been a temptation to overcompensate to cackle and sneer in order to force the focus back onto herself I wanted the sequel to force her to Do More I see now that would have been a miscalculation throwing the already fuzzy logic of this script utterly off-balance Lively sticks to the characterization of Emily she’d already developed she demonstrates her delightful ability to switch from brooding to giddy in a flash a trick Stephanie lampshades while under the influence of truth serum (just go with it) It’s like she’s always sort of very serious I hope they make seven more of these movies Otherwise known as “the movie where Blake Lively bonks her head and stops aging,” The Age of Adaline is a lot more grounded than exposition like “Von Lehman’s principle of Electron Compression in deoxyribonucleic acid which will be discovered in the year 2035” might lead you to believe Lively does an excellent job balancing the screenplay’s loftier pretensions — she eats madeleines while reminiscing only tripping a little over heightened dialogue like How dare you bother me at my place of employment?” Lively feels a bit unmoored from the (undefined) stakes of it whatever’s going on in the first half and that’s intentional; she’s a woman out of time What the movie needs is a surer hand directing to reassure the viewer that this is all going somewhere the scenes simply unfold one after another without much forward momentum when Harrison Ford shows up as Adaline’s (Lively) boyfriend’s dad who was also Adaline’s boyfriend 50 years ago what if I told you that not only is Harrison locked in and not only do he and Lively have decent long-lost-love chemistry but the whole thing is somehow … not creepy the miracle here is the guy they got for the flashbacks Hollywood has tried unsuccessfully to sell us on a young actor having Harrison Ford’s rizz Shia LaBeouf may look like he could have gotten half of his DNA from Indiana Jones but he acts so uncomfortable in his own skin And poor Alden Ehrenreich was given the task of embodying a young Han Solo which is not only impossible but downright embarrassing when you put him next to Donald Glover who plays the young version of Harrison’s character … kills it It helps that he literally does a Harrison Ford impression … I’m assuming the Solo video is what got him an audition, if not the part outright. He has the voice, he’s sweet and handsome, and he doesn’t try to do too much “acting,” lending the flashbacks a dreamy, half-remembered quality that leaves the emotional weight to Ford. Ford lands the metaphorical plane in this movie in much the way he does not land literal planes in real life this movie is a bit too treacly for my taste but the four main actresses’ enduring friendship warms my millennial heart Unable to deal with his daughter in the wake of his wife’s suicide (her umpteenth dead parent) Bridget’s (Lively) dad ships her off to an all-girls soccer camp where she can’t get romantic attention from anyone appropriate only to find sex does not equal fulfillment her co-stars were established from Gilmore Girls and Joan of Arcadia; Lively was an unknown and she fit the part so well you’d be forgiven for thinking she wasn’t acting “wild” and “unstoppable,” attracting attention almost compulsively performing carefree giddiness to cover deep sadness her comfort zone; even if it isn’t the best possible use of her The stranded lead of a survival story has a handful of crucial tasks: look disheveled but still hot because this is a movie; make it not too weird that you’re talking to yourself; react viscerally to the elements around you despite the fact that you’re probably on a soundstage; find multiple engaging ways to yell Nancy (this girl’s name should be Chase or Georgie or Mia but that’s basically my only note) is a med-school dropout surfing on a secluded Mexican beach (where her recently deceased mother once visited Jesus Christ all Blake Lively’s parents are dead) when she gets chomped by a shark and has to not-die on a rock until rescue comes or the shark leaves Nancy successfully uses her jewelry to staple her leg together (!) and unsuccessfully tries to eat a crab during the 60 minutes of an 86-minute movie that happens post-bite but I don’t mean it that way: Lively isn’t necessarily elevated by having a great co-star to play off of She’s better in a lead role than a supporting one when I saw this in theaters we were hooting and hollering It is so damn satisfying when she (spoiler) mercs that shark The Shallows made so much money they put a Mandy Moore–versus-shark movie in theaters instead of VOD The only Lively flick I rewatch with any regularity a sociopathic fashionista who beguiles and manipulates Anna Kendrick’s perky supermom Stephanie pulling off glam-bitch affectations that would swallow other stars whole I believe her when she takes half an hour to make a martini I believe her when she wears detached suit cuffs Director Paul Feig understands that Lively’s tendency to seduce every scene partner is a strength and lets her make out with Kendrick almost matter-of-factly (“you’re okay a tiny outlet for the simmering rage Emily can hardly be bothered to hide go for “camp” and tip her villain hand too early to the point you wonder if maybe she really is just a looker a Hitchcock blonde with a sense of humor but nothing more beneath the surface That’s when she’s got you right where she wants you she’s been a chained tiger prowling the perimeter of her suburban cage I can only hope the sequel unleashes the beast ShareSaveCommentInnovationGamingHere’s How Amazon’s ‘Another Simple Favor’ With Blake Lively Is ReviewingByPaul Tassi Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights movies and the internet.Follow AuthorMay 01 11:11am EDTShareSaveCommentAnother Simple Favor but it’s 2025 and that’s the sort of thing that happens now The movie has just hit Amazon Prime Video as of today and whether you want to know if it’s been worth the seven year wait I would expect the sequel to have a lower audience score not necessarily because of the quality of the film but because of the recent Blake Lively drama which has earned her an army of haters That of course all stems from the situation and lawsuits with Justin Baldoni where she alleges inappropriate behavior and a secret smear campaign against her and he’s countering by saying that isn’t true and it’s affecting his online reputation co-star Anna Kendrick remains unproblematic She has been a little quiet lately when it comes to high profile live-action roels She’s been doing voices in Trolls movies and the recent Scott Pilgrim show She directed and starred in the rather good Woman of the Hour it picks up after the events of the last film Henry Golding and Andrew Rannells and director Paul Feig has returned for this sequel which no doubt helped it maintain its quality Another Simple Favor certainly seems watching if you’re a fan of the first or you can do a double feature if you missed the original Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick are very suspicious of each other's motives in the movies it's not that complicated for the Another Simple Favor stars While audiences will be the judge of whether the sequel surpasses 2018's A Simple Favor in the "OMFG, what?!" department, the lead-up to the tongue-in-cheek thriller's May 1 premiere on Amazon Prime Video certainly raised the stakes for online detectives investigating whether Kendrick and Blake Lively get along or not Rumors of a feud dogged the release of the original which starred Kendrick as single-mom vlogger Stephanie who takes it upon herself to figure out what happened to her chic new friend Emily (Lively) who disappears after asking Stephanie to pick up her son from school Kendrick and Lively may have spoiled the imagined subplot simmering beneath the surface when they both showed up for the April 27 premiere of Another Simple Favor at New York's Lincoln Center and posed amiably for pictures they were laughing together at a screening in London “There is no drama,” a source with knowledge of the situation told E! News in February And if there's another one, Kendrick quipped recently on Good Morning America "Maybe it'll be 'Another Simpler Favor.'" Lively is booked for Late Night With Seth Meyers to promote Another Simple Favor May 1 but otherwise hasn't given any interviews since this legal back-and-forth began in December Kendrick hasn't joined the chorus of voices chiming in on Lively vs But when she was promoting her directorial debut Woman of the Hour last October she said it was "lovely" to reunite with Lively on their sequel “She lives on the East Coast, I live on the West Coast, so we don't get to see each other often,” Kendrick told People and I think that those characters have such weird chemistry that it's so fun to just get the gang back together And it does feel a little bit like riding a bike." said last August that the response at a test screening of the sequel—which takes place on the jaw-droppingly scenic Italian isle of Capri—was "through the roof." “Now I’m just fine-tuning," he told The Wrap "I’m only six weeks into my director’s cut but it’s a movie I’ve seen so clearly since we had so much time to prep for it And we threw out one script during the writers strike and rewrote the whole thing because Amazon "really wanted" it and was "willing to put the money in that we needed to do it So consider Feig a little protective of the project hence him heatedly clapping back at a rumor that the premiere of Another Simple Favor was delayed due to bad blood between its leading ladies quoting a later-deleted example of such speculation “The movie is finished and coming out soon Don’t believe anything you read on social media these days.” Feig wrote on X "I've now made two movies with Blake and all I can say is she's one of the most professional talented and kind people I’ve ever worked with She truly did not deserve any of this smear campaign against her I think it’s awful she was put through this." While every single thing Kendrick has said (or not said) about Lively since has been dissected for clues as to her real feelings mainly the Pitch Perfect alum has sounded like someone who doesn't want to get involved When Another Simple Favor had its world premiere March 7 at SXSW Kendrick was asked what it was like working with Lively again and her reply was in a video shared by Entertainment Tonight Variety asked her thoughts on "everything that's going on in the world"—which And Kendrick wanted none of it and the last year of my life is just gone." told ET that reuniting with Kendrick was "the best." Kendrick admitted she had been concerned about who might come onboard to play Emily because she could be "a really unlikable character," someone you don't want to share your secrets with over martinis from England But when Feig said he wanted Lively, Kendrick told FilmIsNow Lively's "got a real warmth to her naturally sarcastic character in a way where you're still drawn to her you still understand why Stephanie becomes friends with her." Speaking to Access Hollywood at the A Simple Favor premiere Lively called Kendrick "a master at what she does so just being in the ring with her is so elevating." Stephanie and Emily will probably kiss in the sequel too Both actresses were sworn to secrecy, but in 2018 Kendrick called her A Simple Favor smooch with Lively the "mintiest." Lively told ABC News' Robin Roberts at the time "It's always confusing when you share a kiss with a costar who advises Stephanie to stop reflexively saying sorry Lively noted to Roberts that she was glad to be playing such an unapologetic woman "I find that we apologize for asking what we want thank you so much.' You don't have to do that but women are perceived as being demanding or difficult." untangle the plot threads of her legal battle with Baldoni right here: 2024: Blake Lively Files CRD Complaint Against Justin Baldoni and His Wayfarer Associates The accusations listed in the complaint include sexual harassment; retaliation; failure to investigate prevent and/or remedy harassment; aiding and abetting harassment and retaliation; breach of contract; intentional infliction of emotional distress; negligence; false light invasion of privacy and interference with prospective economic advantage 2024: The New York Times Publishes Report About the Alleged Smear Campaign Against Lively “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct," Lively told the outlet "and helps protect others who may be targeted.” 2024: Baldoni and Wayfarer’s Attorney Responds to Lively’s CRD Complaint outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”Freedman also defended Wayfarer’s decision to hire a crisis manager saying this was done before the marketing campaign of the movie."The representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity,” he later added “What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.” "Baldoni’s former representative was not at the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere nor was there any pressure from Reynolds or Lively at any time to drop Baldoni as a client." 2024: It Ends With Us Cast Members and More Stars React to Lively’s Allegations Against Baldoni 2024: Baldoni and Heath's Cohost on The Man Enough Podcast Leaves Show  Liz Plank also announced her departure from The Man Enough Podcast, which she cohosted with Baldoni and Heath, on Dec. 23."I'm writing to you today to let you know that I have had my representatives inform Wayfarer that I will no longer be co-hosting The Man Enough podcast," she wrote on Instagram at the time "Thank you for trusting me with your hearts and stories I love what this community created together with every fiber of my being and that's because of you."While Plank did not give a reason for her exit from the podcast it came days after Lively's complaint against Baldoni and his Wayfarer associates."As this chapter closed for me I remain committed to the values we've built together," the author continued in her message to her followers and for being by my side for the last four years "I will have more to share soon as I continue to process everything that has happened I will continue to support everyone who calls out injustice and holds the people standing in their way accountable." 2024: Baldoni's Former Publicist Sues Him Baldoni's former publicist Stephanie Jones and her agency Jonesworks LLC filed a lawsuit against him his current publicist Abel and crisis communications specialist Nathan in New York Dec 24."Defendants Abel and Nathan secretly conspired for months to publicly and privately attack Jones and Jonesworks to breach multiple contracts and induce contractual breaches and to steal clients and business prospects," the lawsuit obtained by NBC New reads they secretly coordinated with Baldoni and Wayfarer to implement an aggressive media smear campaign against Baldoni’s film co-star and then used the crisis as an opportunity to drive a wedge between Jones and Baldoni and to publicly pin blame for this smear campaign on Jones—when Jones had no knowledge or involvement in it."Per Abel's LinkedIn profile she worked at Jonesworks until last summer The lawsuit alleges Abel and Nathan "continue to point the finger falsely at Jones now that their own misconduct is coming to light," and "defame and attack" her in the industry.As for Baldoni and Wayfarer the suit alleges they "repudiated their contractual obligations with Jonesworks and rebuffed Jones’s efforts to settle this dispute privately in arbitration."E News reached out to the defendants for comment Lively's attorneys told Variety in a Dec 23 piece that they obtained the texts featured in The New York Times article via a subpoena to Jonesworks Freedman—who represents Nathan and Abel in addition to Baldoni and his Wayfarer associates—added to the outlet none of his clients were subpoenaed over this topic and that he intends to sue Jones for releasing messages from Abel’s phone to Lively’s attorneys Wayfarer & Others Sue The New York Times “Despite its claim to have 'reviewed these along with other documents[,]' the Times relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative," the lawsuit says "lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives."They also allege "it was Lively who engaged in a calculated smear campaign." She has denied this.The New York Times said it plans to "vigorously defend against the lawsuit."“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” it stated to E! “Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article." 2024: Lively Files Lawsuit Against Baldoni and Wayfarer Associates That same day, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni production entity It Ends With Us Movie LLC Nathan's company TAG and Abel in New York.According to the court documents obtained by E she is suing the defendants for sexual harassment; retaliation; failure to investigate prevent and/or remedy harassment; aiding and abetting harassment and retaliation; breach of contract intentional infliction of emotional distress negligence infliction of emotional distress and false light invasion of privacy.The allegations in the lawsuit were first detailed in the CRD complaint Lively filed earlier that month.In response to the lawsuit Baldoni and his associates filed against The New York Times—which does not list Lively as a defendant—her attorneys noted in a statement to E that "nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims" in her CRD and federal complaints."This lawsuit is based on the obviously false premise that Ms Lively’s administrative complaint against Wayfarer and others was a ruse based on a choice 'not to file a lawsuit against Baldoni Wayfarer,' and that 'litigation was never her ultimate goal,'" they continued "As demonstrated by the federal complaint filed by Ms that frame of reference for the Wayfarer lawsuit is false." 2025: Baldoni's Lawyer Expresses Intent to Sue Lively In Baldoni and his associates' lawsuit against The New York Times, the plaintiffs expressed that they “are not done.”"There are other bad actors involved," the court documents state, "and make no mistake—this will not be the last lawsuit."In a Jan. 2 interview with NBC News Baldoni and Wayfarer's attorney Freedman said they "absolutely" plan to sue Lively 2025: Baldoni's Lawyer Calls Out Deadpool & Wolverine "You don't make fun of the situation You raise the issue and you follow a legal process What you don't do is mock the person and turn it into a joke." Meanwhile, Lively's attorneys say there have been more "attacks" against her since her lawsuit."Ms Lively’s federal litigation before the Southern District of New York involves serious claims of sexual harassment and retaliation backed by concrete facts," her lawyers said in a Jan "This is not a 'feud' arising from 'creative differences' or a 'he said/she said' situation Wayfarer and its associates engaged in unlawful Lively for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set And their response to the lawsuit has been to launch more attacks against Ms Lively since her filing.""While we go through the legal process we urge everyone to remember that sexual harassment and retaliation are illegal in every workplace and in every industry," they added "A classic tactic to distract from allegations of this type of misconduct is to 'blame the victim' by suggesting that they invited the conduct Another classic tactic is to reverse the victim and offender and suggest that the offender is actually the victim."Lively's lawyers said "these concepts normalize and trivialize allegations of serious misconduct." They also noted "media statements are not a defense" to her claims and that they'll prosecute her claims in court "It is painfully ironic that Blake Lively is accusing Justin Baldoni of weaponizing the media when her own team orchestrated this vicious attack by sending the New York Times grossly edited documents prior to even filing the complaint.""We are releasing all of the evidence which will show a pattern of bullying and threats to take over the movie," he added "None of this will come as a surprise because consistent with her past behavior Blake Lively used other people to communicate those threats and bully her way to get whatever she wanted We have all the receipts and more."(E and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family) Nathan & Abel File Lawsuit Against Lively crisis communication specialist Nathan and production entity It Ends With Us Movie LLC filed a lawsuit against Lively her publicist Leslie Sloane and Sloane's firm Vision PR in New York Jan the plaintiffs accused all the defendants of civil extortion defamation and false light invasion of privacy she is accused of breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and they're both accused of intentional interference with contractual relations and economic advantage as well as negligent interference with prospective economic advantage.In the suit the plaintiffs denied Lively's allegations of sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign against her They also accused her of seizing control of It Ends With Us and working with Reynolds Jones and others to "tar and feather Plaintiffs in the press" after she received backlash for her marketing of the film (Lively said in her filings she promoted the movie in accordance with Sony's marketing plan.) Plaintiffs allege in the lawsuit the defendants worked with The New York Times "to put out a blockbuster news report as devastating as it was false.” The outlet stands by its report.In part of a statement to E! "Blake Lively was either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth."  2025: Lively's Lawyers Slam Baldoni's "Desperate" Lawsuit Lively's legal team called his lawsuit "another chapter in the abuser playbook," saying in a statement to E "This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim She further accused him of retaliating once she made allegations against him saying Baldoni is trying to shift the narrative that Lively "seized creative control and alienated the cast from Mr "The evidence will show," it continued "that the cast and others had their own negative experiences with Mr The evidence will also show that Sony asked Ms which they then selected for distribution and was a resounding success." Her team went on to slam Baldoni's reaction to her allegations of harassment "Their response to sexual harassment allegations: she wanted it Their justification for why this happened to her: look what she was wearing," her lawyers added The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate 2025: Behind-the-Scenes Footage of It Ends With Us Released Baldoni's legal counsel released behind-the-scenes footage from the filming of It Ends With Us saying that the actor's actions in the video "clearly refute Ms "The scene in question was designed to show the two characters falling in love and longing to be close to one another," Baldoni's attorneys said in a statement "Both actors are clearly behaving well within the scope of the scene and with mutual respect and professionalism." Lively's legal team believes the video "corroborates Lively described" in her lawsuit and that "every moment of this was improvised by Mr Baldoni with no discussion or consent in advance." Lively leaning away and repeatedly asking for the characters to just talk," they told E "Any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognize Ms 2025: Lively and Reynolds Seek Gag Order on Baldoni's Lawyer The couple issued a letter to the judge overseeing their case, requesting that Freedman—the head of Baldoni's counsel—be placed under a gag order amid their legal proceedings to "avoid improper conduct." 2025: Baldoni's 2 AM Voice Memo to Lively Revealed "We should all have friends like that aside from the fact that they're two of the most creative people on the planet," he told Lively Baldoni also seemingly apologized to the actress for his lukewarm reception to her script One thing you should know about me is that I will admit and apologize when I fail." One month after Lively filed a formal lawsuit against Baldoni, a court date was set for March 9, 2026 2025: Baldoni Adds The New York Times to $400 Million Lawsuit Reynolds and Sloane to include The New York Times Baldoni accused Lively and her team of spending months “colluding” and “feeding falsehoods to the New York Times.” The filing—which is separate from the $250 million lawsuit against the NYT—alleged that the newspaper “‘cherry picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.” Baldoni created a website with information regarding his lawsuit against Lively containing the first amended complaint filed Jan 31 by Baldoni’s team and a “timeline of relevant events.” Among the information in the latter document was alleged screenshots of texts exchanged between Lively The website’s launch came one month after Freedman said his team planned to release “every single text message between the two.” "We want the truth to be out there," Baldoni’s attorney told NBC News in a Jan "We want the documents to be out there We want people to make their determination based on receipts." 2025: Lively Files Her Own Amended Complaint Lively’s attorneys filed an amended complaint claiming that two other women who worked on It End had come forward feeling uncomfortable by Baldoni’s behavior on set Lively was not alone in complaining about Mr Lively and others were documented at the time they occurred starting in May of 2023 and contrary to the entire narrative Defendants have invented Baldoni acknowledged the complaints in writing at the time Lively also were uncomfortable and had complained about his behavior.” The amended complaint did not name the two witnesses and intimidation fueled by the Defendants’ retaliation campaign.” Freedman accused the complaint of being filled with “unsubstantial hearsay” and alleged that the unidentified persons were "clearly no longer willing to come forward or publicly support her claims.” 2025: Lively and Reynold’s Publicist Asks to Be Dropped From Lawsuit After Baldoni accused Sloane of propagating “malicious stories” that portrayed him as “a sexual predator” as well as orchestrating a “smear campaign” under Lively’s direction, Sloan filed a motional of dismissal from the lawsuit Sloane’s attorney alleged that there was no “basis” for the accusations made against their client and that she was simply “dragged” into the lawsuit as a “smoke and mirrors exercise to distract from" Lively's accusations Lively brought onboard CIA’s former Deputy Chief of Staff Nick Shapiro to “advise on the legal communications strategy for the ongoing sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit occurring in the Southern District of New York," a member from her litigation team Willkie Farr & Gallagher told Variety on Feb Shapiro—who worked for the CIA from 2013 to 2015 under the Obama administration—went on to become Visa’s vice president of global security and communications and then Airbnb’s global head of crisis management 2025: The New York Times Files Motion to Exit the Lawsuit which is still embroiled in a $250 million lawsuit with Baldoni filed a motion to dismiss itself from the $400 million lawsuit that also includes Lively Baldoni and Sloane in documents obtained by E The newspaper argued in the filing that Baldoni’s team was telling a “one-sided tale that has garnered plenty of headlines” but that “The Times does not belong in this dispute.” 2025: Judge in Baldoni’s $400 Million Lawsuit Pauses Discovery Following The New York Times motion for dismissal, U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman granted the newspapers’ request for stay of discovery which requested that the judge temporarily halt parties from having to exchange information or documents was granted as the judge looks over the newspaper’s Feb Liman noted in the March 4 document that the NYT presents “substantial grounds” and “a strong showing that its motion to dismiss is likely to succeed on the merits.” The judge also added that he doesn’t believe Baldoni’s team will be “unfairly prejudiced by a stay while the Court decides the pending motion.” which recognizes the important First Amendment values at stake here Baldoni from burdening The Times with discovery requests in a case that should never have been brought against.” The two were spotted having an intimate conversation As Lively’s back-and-forth with former collaborator Justin Baldoni remained a topic of discussion the actress herself maintained a relatively low profile The actress has more recently been stepping back into the spotlight and just gave a speech during the Time100 Gala and a lip reader is now making claims about a chat he and Lively had amid the event Blake Lively was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People Lively alluded to her legal battle and also said her mother experienced mistreatment by a “work acquaintance.” The star was seated next to her husband before giving her speech and lip reader Nicola Hickling claims that Reynolds made a relatively direct statement to Lively before she got up to speak: You need to understand what I am saying to you right now with the actress then proceeding to deliver her speech These supposed comments between the celebrity couple should be taken with a massive grain of salt as we can’t say with certainty what was said during their intimate conversation she’s experienced “the highest highs and the lowest lows of my life.” As it stands it remains to be seen what’ll become of Lively’s legal battle with Justin Baldoni The same can also be said as to whether there’s any kind of tension between her and Ryan Reynolds based on their conversation at the Time 100 gala Reynolds continues to be supportive of Lively during this time Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. President Trump Threatened Massive Tariffs On The Film Industry, But There Are Some Basic Questions That Need To Be Answered Blake Lively’s Another Simple Favor Director Says It Ends With Us Viewers Have A Misconception About What Goes On On Movie Sets Amidst Lawsuits ‘That Was The First Time I’d Seen Him Nervous’: Mission: Impossible’s Simon Pegg Recalls The Stunt That Even Had Tom Cruise Feeling Uneasy ‘It Ends With Us’ co-stars are involved in legal actions related to her sexual harassment allegation I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Blake Lively has said she has experienced some of the “lowest of lows” in her life over the past year while referencing her legal case with Justin Baldoni who found fame on the teen drama series Gossip Girl is embroiled in ongoing legal actions with her Baldoni her director and co-star in romance film It Ends with Us Speaking on Late Nightwith Seth Meyers Lively said: “What I can say without going too into it is that this year has been the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in my life and I see so many women around afraid to speak But I also acknowledge that many people don't have the opportunity to speak I do feel fortunate that I've been able to and as a woman you have the ability to use your voice - that's kept me strong and helped me in my belief and my fight for the world to be safer for women and girls Lively said Reynolds and their four children have been her salvation throughout the ordeal “It's no surprise it's been a pretty intense year and they're just my lifeline,” she said Lively filed her initial suit against Baldoni in December 2024, accusing the director of sexual harassment during filming and organising a “smear campaign” against her in the months that followed If you sign up to this service we will earn commission This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent Baldoni has denied the accusations, and filed a countersuit on 16 January accusing Lively and Reynolds of civil extortion, defamation breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing intentional interference with contractual relations interference with prospective economic advantage and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage In August last year, rumours of a feud between Lively and Baldoni began circulating on social media as fans noticed them avoiding each other during the promotion cycle of It Ends with Us Reports emerged that there was “fat shaming” and inappropriate comments on set as well as issues caused by Lively and Reynolds being too involved with the film Around the same time, Baldoni hired crisis management professional Melissa Nathan, whose previous clients have included Johnny Depp and Drake. Nathan represented Depp during his successful defamation trial against Amber Heard In January, a New York federal judge informed both parties to prepare for a trial in March 2026. Attorneys for Lively and Reynold then filed a notice stating that they would seek to dismiss Baldoni’s countersuit. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Amid Blake Lively’s ongoing legal battle with It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni Paul Feig described her as “an amazing collaborator” while making their new movie Another Simple Favor Paul Feig has a simple take on working with Blake Lively The director, who reunited with Blake on their new movie Another Simple Favor—the sequel to 2018’s A Simple Favor—voiced his support for the actress amid her ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni “Blake is an amazing collaborator,” he told Esquire in an interview published April 30 “so when I read people’s misconceptions about how movies are made insisted his experience working with Blake “Every star I’ve worked with works this way,” he continued “The idea that a star just shows up and you go ‘Here’s the script’—please point me to one movie star who works that way you don’t know what you’re talking about.” “I love working with Blake—she’s just the best.” And the feeling appears to be mutual as Blake has expressed her own praise for the director saying she was “so excited” when he asked her to return for the A Simple Favor sequel “I was really nervous on the first one, because we didn't know if we were making a drama or a comedy," she said at the film’s South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival premiere in March, per The Hollywood Reporter ‘Yes,’ which is not really an answer to the question For a timeline of the legal battle between Blake and Justin The actress appeared on 'Late Night with Seth Meyers' on Thursday Michael Nied has been a digital news editor with PEOPLE since 2025 He has previously been published by Just Jared SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty; Araya Doheny/Variety via Getty Blake Lively made her first late-night talk show appearance (and her first interview I believe) since becoming the punching bag for Megyn Kelly and all the other right-tilting tabloids that have inexplicably sided with the guy with a man-bun in a bizarre culture war Lively has been characterized as a bully for standing up for herself after Justin Baldoni hired a PR crisis firm to smear her reputation And I’ll say it again: if you cut through all the bullshit it’s a pretty simple timeline of events Blake Lively demanded that Baldoni and another producer on It Ends with Us stop being creeps on set Ryan Reynolds yelled at Baldoni for being a creep Baldoni signed an agreement stating he would no longer be a creep Then he hired a crisis firm to blow up Lively’s reputation to prevent her from publicly talking about the agreement he signed to stop being a creep Lively then sued him for blowing up her rep to keep her from talking about him being a creep And Megyn Kelly—naturally—sided with the guy who agreed to stop being a creep and threw in with the performative feminist because her audience believes men should have more leeway to be creeps in their professional dealings Lively appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers for a friendly interview to promote Another Simple Favor (out now on Prime Video) as Lively can’t really talk about it due to the ongoing litigation After spending several minutes discussing crushed ice Lively could only say it’s been an “intense year” and that her children have been her “lifeline” through it all while professing not to know everything about the situation I imagine you’re in a situation where you can’t say much,” he said what I can say without going too into it is that this year has been full of the highest highs and the lowest lows of my life,” Lively said “I see so many women around afraid to speak especially right now—afraid to share their experiences But I also acknowledge that many people don’t have the opportunity to speak I do feel fortunate that I have been able to And it’s the women who have the ability to use their voice that’s kept me strong and helped me in my belief in my fight for the world to be safer for women and girls And that’s about the extent of what she was willing to say before they moved on from crushed ice to the Wrexham football team and pizza But I’m sure the soundbite is enough to get all the right-wing tabloids in a tizzy again “How dare she fight for the world to be safer for women and girls What about the men who should feel safe to be creeps in their professional capacities without fear of consequence!” It is abundantly clear to anyone who's read through both lawsuits that Justin and Wayfarer have been falsely accused There was not a smear campaign against Blake by Justin or his team Her bad press was organically brought on by people's reactions to her own press and the intense curiosity that was created by Sony caving to Blake & Ryan's threats if they didn't ban Justin from \"her\" press She and Ryan were strategically making moves throughout the entire production to take over the movie and the rights to the sequel The false accusations of sexual harassment is part of an attempt to blame Blake's bad press on Justin and to wrest the rights of the movie away from Justin using the \"morality clause\" It's their only option since Justin didn't sell the rights to Ryan when Ryan demanded that the rights be sold to him Totally duplicitous behavior from Ryan and Blake I’m so relieved to finally see some unbiased reporting on this case Khaleesi and her dragons will soon have their day in court It is disappointing that Hollywood media is bias toward Blake They had a meeting about Baldoni's behavior .. Baldoni's whole brand is about listening and protecting women!?!?.. Baldoni chose to go psycho and try destroy her Baldoni is a wolf in sheeps clothing hiding in the hen house preying on the weak and vulnerable Baldoni is a predator of the worst kind .. Baldoni and Andrew Tate are on the same team So in the new Trump world it is not only ok to rape women it's ok to sue them if they say they were raped After reading the first 29 pages of the complaint I do not see how anyone would hire this guy to direct anything It is alleged that the sham subpoena was issued 1 month AFTER the data had been disclosed to give it an air of legitimacy l Get paid over $110 per hour working from home l never thought I'd be able to do it but my buddy makes over $21269 a month doing this and she convinced me to try He graduated with a degree in political science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022 Follow Murray for continued coverage of social media trends celebrity controversies and the movie and music industries.  Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds attended the 2025 TIME 100 Gala on Thursday May 1, 2025Lively gave her first televised interview since filing her lawsuit against Baldoni to promote “Another Simple Favor” on Seth Meyers’ late night show in which she acknowledged she can’t discuss much about her legal battle with Baldoni—whom she did not address by name—but stated she has faced the “highest highs and the lowest lows of my life” over the past “intense year,” adding she feels “fortunate” she has been able to speak about her experience because many women are “afraid to share their experiences” or do not have the opportunity to 2025Baldoni’s lawyers submitted a letter to the court opposing Marvel’s request to quash the subpoena doubling down on their claim that ‘“Nicepool” is a defamatory and mocking portrayal of Baldoni” and that such a portrayal could establish malice for his defamation claim while accusing Marvel’s counsel of “refusing to engage” with Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios to resolve the dispute was crafted by Ryan Reynolds as a caricature of Baldoni Marvel Studios sent a letter to New York federal judge Lewis Liman asking the court to squash Baldoni’s subpoena for relevant documents stating the claims are irrelevant to Baldoni’s claims of defamation and that releasing confidential Marvel documents would harm the studio against unnamed defendants as a “transparent ploy to obtain subpoena power” without Lively’s name attached so the parties could obtain text messages—which were central to Lively’s claims and the basis for a New York Times story—sent among Baldoni’s team In a statement to Deadline Jones’s lawyer Kristen Tahler accused Baldoni’s team of “presenting zero new evidence” and of conducting “a desperate ploy by a team who tonight all but admits they’re in trouble.” where she made a speech apparently alluding to her ongoing legal battle: “I have so much to say about the last two years of my life but tonight is not the forum," Lively said in a speech in which she largely focused on abuse against women a central theme of “It Ends With Us,” and revealed her mother was a victim of abuse April 13, 2025“It Ends With Us” storyboard artist Talia Spencer defended Baldoni in an interview with “60 Minutes Australia,” stating she felt Lively “smelled [Baldoni’s] kindness mistook it for weakness and tried to take advantage and take power,” alleging Lively “tried to” take control of the film resulting in a “massive compromise” of Baldoni’s vision for the movie black shorts and torso-covering prosthetic” and was not “nearly nude” as she had claimed in her complaint 2025In a counterclaim to Jones’ December lawsuit against Baldoni and Abel Baldoni alleged Jones attempted to undermine Abel’s authority as a PR representative for Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios production company claiming she suddenly terminated Abel from her PR firm seized her phone and leaked texts to Lively’s team which the lawsuit says was done in response to Abel voicing her intent to leave Jones’ firm and Jones’ fear she would take Baldoni as a client with her Lively slammed Baldoni’s “vengeful and rambling lawsuit” as a “profound abuse of the legal process,” urging the court to “dismiss all claims against Ms Lively all relief sought,” including attorney’s fees and damages for “reputational and emotional harm.” 2025Reynolds filed a motion to dismiss Baldoni’s lawsuit alleging Baldoni’s lawsuit does not prove Reynolds defamed him and is instead “a list of grievances attempting to shame Mr Baldoni has built his brand pretending to be.” though co-star Anna Kendrick dodged a question that appeared to allude to Lively’s legal battle and one protester held up a sign that said “Justice for Justin Baldoni” outside the theater which lawyer Sigrid McCawley said would help minimize the risk of “irreparable harm if marginal conversations with high profile individuals with no relevance to the case were to fall into wrong hands”—apparently suggesting messages between Lively and celebrity friends may leak The judge did not rule on the request Thursday after she appeared to be referred to in Baldoni’s lawsuit citing multiple unnamed employees at his Wayfarer Studios production company some of whom said he injected “toxic positivity” and his Bahai faith into the workplace culture in a way that felt “professionally inappropriate.” Representatives for Baldoni and Wayfarer told the Los Angeles Times there have “never been any reported complaints regarding the workplace culture” and Wayfarer’s work is rooted in “various faiths and backgrounds.” Feb. 28, 2025Shapiro who formerly served as the CIA’s deputy chief of staff between 2013 and 2015 before starting his own strategic consulting firm will advise Lively’s litigation team on legal communications relating to the lawsuit she filed against Baldoni in New York federal court 2025Attorneys submitted a letter on behalf of Lively and Reynolds asking a new more extensive protective order be imposed that would shield “personal sensitive or proprietary information” from the public after claiming they and their allies have been victimized since the legal battle began The letter goes on to say that it is "inevitable" that the release of more discovery in the case will further violate their privacy expose them to threats and create "a climate of possible witness intimidation." 2025Lawyers for Lively filed an amended complaint that included new accusations Baldoni’s behavior made at least two additional unnamed female cast members uncomfortable and that both of those women brought their complaints to Lively who documented them in writing and reported them to higher-ups on the film (the complaint references Baldoni’s “unwelcome behavior” but does not specify exactly what he is accused of doing) The suit claims Baldoni was made aware of at least one of the additional cast members' concerns and responded to her in writing at the time promising "adjustments would be made”—but alleges he instead launched a PR campaign to discredit any future claims made against him for comment on the new complaint Wednesday 2025Baldoni and Lively’s letter to the judge filed in New York federal court on Thursday said mediation or reaching a settlement would be “inappropriate” and “premature” for this case suggesting their legal feud could eventually head to trial who deactivated her Instagram account as the legal battle between Lively and Baldoni continued to play out has wiped any photos with Lively or Baldoni from her account Most posts related to the film at all have been deleted including an post supporting Lively that went up shortly after she filed her initial lawsuit against Baldoni: "@blakelively supportive and patient since the day we met Thank you for being exactly the human that you are During promotion for the “It Ends With Us” film Hoover appeared to take Lively’s side when a clear rift emerged among the film’s cast and crew Lively refused to promote the movie alongside Baldoni and the pair were never interviewed or photographed together during its highly publicized press tour appeared at her side rather than Baldoni’s Lively said just following direction as an actress "wasn't fulfilling for me" and that she's received backlash for stepping in and trying to be part of costume design producers and directors "welcome that and invite that," and others who resented her for stepping on toes She also said she hasn’t always upfront with her plans to step in to other parts of a project when she was hired as an actress and that she “wouldn't reveal that I actually need to have authorship in order to feel fulfilled.. Sometimes that might have felt like a rug pull.” calling it "such a terrible movie" and referencing the Baldoni-Lively lawsuits I saw it four times in the first four days," Apatow added "It was the highest-grossing movie musical of all time which has played out dramatically in the media over the last six weeks Handler thanked the pair for providing a "distraction" from heavier headlines: “I want to personally extend my gratitude to Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively.. we can all agree to accept that there's probably not going to be a sequel calling it a “game time decision” and adding he would seek testimony from anyone who may have relevant information (Freedman also said Swift was present alongside Baldoni Lively and Ryan Reynolds at a meeting about Lively’s proposed script edits to “It Ends With Us” that is referenced in Baldoni’s lawsuit though the suit only refers to the alleged attendee as “Taylor” with no last name) alleging she falsely claimed in a civil rights complaint and her lawsuit that Wallace participated in an alleged smear campaign against the actress at the behest of Baldoni’s public relations team which he says caused him “millions of dollars in reputational harm.” 2025“A Simple Favor 2,” Lively's latest film will open at the SXSW Film and TV Festival next month partially due to the Lively/Baldoni legal battle Liman told lawyers for Lively and Baldoni that he would move up the trial date if the case continued to be “litigated in the press.” Liman ordered both sides to adhere to the New York Rules of Professional Conduct which stops lawyers from making public comments that have a “substantial likelihood” of tainting a jury but stopped short of sanctioning Baldoni’s attorney despite claims from Lively’s team that he has gotten close to defaming her and has made “extrajudicial statements” about her and her character Feb. 1, 2025Baldoni’s team published a website dedicated to supporting his lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds that links to to an amended complaint filed on Jan 31 and contains a timeline of events outlining what he says happened on the set of “It Ends With Us,” including corresponding text messages emails and a statement Baldoni has said he was pressured into releasing by Reynolds and Lively that would have seen him take the blame for the "troubled production" of the movie (he refused to put out the statement) Baldoni released a text message exchange with Lively that showed she chose not to meet with the on-set intimacy coordinator he hired leaving him to relay uncomfortable information from the meeting on his own 2025Lawyers for Lively and Reynolds said in a letter to Liman that they plan to move to dismiss the lawsuit filed against them at a pre-trial conference scheduled for Monday Jan. 27, 2025Liman told Lively and Baldoni's lawyers to prepare for a March 9 2026 trial date and set a pretrial conference to discuss complaints from Lively's team about the conduct of Baldoni's lawyer Lively's lawyers have claimed Freedman is trying to paint potential jurors by creating a website to release communication between the two actors and documents from set and accused him of making an "endless stream of defamatory and extrajudicial media statements." during the filming of "It Ends With Us," in which he allegedly apologizes for not being open enough to script changes she made admits he is a “a very flawed man” and makes a reference to her breastfeeding her then-newborn child and “any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognize Ms Lively’s discomfort.” Baldoni’s lawyers said the footage proves both actors clearly behaved "well within the scope of the scene and with mutual respect and professionalism.” Jan. 10, 2025Deadline reported Baldoni's former publicist Stephanie Jones who sued the actor and a handful of others for defamation and breach of contract in December digital publishing platform AnyFlip and chatbot company Gab AI in attempts to discover who may have been behind posts and websites aimed at harming Lively and Baldoni’s reputations calling it "total BS" and confirming the film "is finished and coming out soon." claiming Lively’s team was instead working to smear Baldoni.) but wouldn't say exactly what the countersuit would allege though denied Lively’s claim that Baldoni and his team launched a smear campaign against the actress “I also don’t want to give (Baldoni’s) name any — I’m mad I even know his name accusing the outlet of having "cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful 'untouchable' Hollywood elites"—Lively and her husband Baldoni added defamation allegations against the Times to his sweeping lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds and his attorney said he would drop the original suit against the paper) 2024Lively formally filed a lawsuit in New York federal court against Baldoni Wayfarer Studios and other defendants for "retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns." Dec. 24, 2024Baldoni was sued by his ex-publicist over an alleged conspiracy to discredit her and steal her clients Dec. 24, 2024Vital Voices, a nonprofit that focuses on empowering women, rescinded an award it gave to Baldoni who has made a career expressing his support of women’s stories and co-hosted a podcast about masculinity called "Man Enough," which his co-host pulled out of the same day Nathan suggested plans including “full social take downs” by creating “threads of theories” and planting pieces in the media of “how horrible Blake is to work with.” Lively said the alleged smear campaign had caused “severe emotional distress” for her and her family prompting her to back out of hosting the “Saturday Night Live” season 50 premiere and how Baldoni wanted to feel like Lively "can be buried” under negative media The messages show the trio talking about the “shift on social” against Lively and reveal that Baldoni was aware of the negative messaging against her Messages from Baldoni also show him encouraging the P.R flagging social media posts for them to use and suggesting “flipping the narrative” on a positive story about Lively and Reynolds he reiterates that the campaign needs to be untraceable Lively’s lawsuits claim the public’s attacks were part of the smear campaign she says was orchestrated against her Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts.  Forbes Community GuidelinesOur community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site's Terms of Service.  We've summarized some of those key rules below Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain: User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in: Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site's Terms of Service. because we don’t want ruin the viewing experience "It was very uncomfortable to watch in this theater with you all fine folks," Lively joked of a scene in which Charity makes advances on a sedated Emily Join our Watch Party! Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox As Stephanie investigates the disappearance of the enigmatic Emily in “A Simple Favor,” she discovers her new bestie (born Hope McLanden) faked her own death Emily killed her identical triplet sister Faith to use her body in the supposed drowning but it is revealed in “Another Simple Favor” that Aunt Linda (Allison Janney) kidnapped Charity and raised her as an accomplice to her grifts “The criticism that came out of certain critics for the first movie was that These movies and these characters are supposed to get crazy That's the world I want to create within because I love entertainment that is maximalist Charity feels strongly that she and Emily should be together so she poses as the bride in her wedding to Mafioso Dante Versano (Michele Morrone) Charity longs to be her sister’s everything “was inspired by − I was an only child growing up and I was super-awkward with girls and was terrified to ask them out And I would always have this fantasy of like “a carbon copy of myself that would know exactly what I wanted,” not a sibling this character who’s been raised by herself and so lonely and put in these weird situations that she would probably be wanting that 'Another Simple Favor': Why director Paul Feig 'tried to kill' the sequel Feig also feels this franchise is fit to be a trilogy “Because I think where Stephanie ends up at the end of ‘Another Simple Favor’ is a good jumping-off point to a new life situation for her that I've got in my head.” It won’t be a happily ever after with Emily’s ex-husband “I think Stephanie maybe needs to move on to somebody a little more stable than Sean,” Feig says with a laugh The actress’ accusations of sexual harassment against her “It Ends With Us” co-star and director escalated in recent months to competing lawsuits and more Blake Lively broke her silence Thursday on her ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni telling Seth Meyers in her first televised interview since accusing her “It Ends With Us” co-star and director of sexual harassment in December that she’s “had a pretty intense year.” Lively told the “Late Night” host that she can’t share too much about the ongoing lawsuits but revealed that it’s brought her the most stress she’s ever experienced “This year has been full of the highest highs and the lowest lows of my life and I see so many women around afraid to speak afraid to share their experiences,” Lively said as she opened up about feeling that women are often silenced during cases and instances of sexual harassment and worse Watch Lively’s appearance with Meyers in promotion of “Another Simple Favor” below: “And fear is by design; it’s what keeps us silent,” Lively continued “But I also acknowledge that many people don’t have the opportunity to speak I feel fortunate that I’ve been able to And it’s the women who have had the ability to use their voice that’s kept me strong helped me in my belief and my fight for the world to be safer for women and girls Back in December, Lively filed a sexual harassment complaint against Baldoni claiming the filmmaker caused her “severe emotional distress” in the filming of “It Ends With Us.” In the latest development in the case, Lively filed a motion in March to have the filmmaker’s $400 million defamation lawsuit against her and others — including co-defendant The New York Times who first reported on Lively’s complaint — dropped claiming Baldoni’s suit is his way getting back at her for legally accusing him of sexual harassment and a coordinated smear campaign She argued that Baldoni’s “vengeful” lawsuit breaks a 2023 California law from Gov Gavin Newsom that protects victims who speak out against their accusers Newsom signed the law in the wake of #MeToo movement that rocked Hollywood The most recent development in the legal scandal came this week when Marvel requested a judge quash Baldoni’s subpoena for discovery into Ryan Reynolds’ “Deadpool and Wolverine” character The Disney-owned studio argued that the subpoena could disclose “closely guarded” franchise information Pakistan's economy has much more to lose than India's due to the ongoing tensions The day Pakistan got the power to poke India FM Sitharaman meets ADB chief and Italian FM discusses economic issues; no mention of Pakistan (Catch all the US News, UK News, Canada News and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.) Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily International News Updates Trump offers $1,000 to illegal aliens if.. MHA asks states to conduct mock drills on May 7 EU announces €500M offer to woo US scientists Putin says Russia has strength to conclude Ukraine war Trump plans to open ‘The Rock’ for violent criminals BJP sharpens attack on Cong over Rafale remark Choose your reason below and click on the Report button This will alert our moderators to take action Your Reason has been Reported to the admin Amid Blake Lively's ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni the Gossip Girl alum and her husband Ryan Reynolds stepped out for a red carpet date night at the TIME100 Gala in New York April 24 For the event—held at the Jazz at Lincoln Center—Blake turned heads in a strapless fuchsia gown with a fitted bodice the 48-year-old looked dapper as ever in a classic black suit with a black bowtie And the couple turned their date into a family affair by attending alongside Blake's mom Elaine Lively posed for photos with the pair in a sparkly long-sleeved black ensemble Blake emphasized how grateful she was to have AACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund President Sherrilyn Ifill's share such kind words about her to pay tribute to her appearance on the list "Thank you @time And thank you @sherrilynifill for one of the most surreal and meaningful moments of my life in this honor," she wrote on Instagram April 17 "My 10 year old self is pretty blown away right now." Blake's TIME100 appearance has been a high point amid a challenging year for the actress who filed a lawsuit against Justin for sexual harassment and retaliation in December Justin—who denied her allegations—has filed his own defamation counterclaim against Blake Ryan and their publicist Leslie Sloan seeking $400 million (All defendants have denied the accusations.) "Making this movie was already the gift, every element of it," Blake wrote in a March 11 Instagram before addressing fans who came out for the premiere "To share it with you all and feel the love returned to us was the best feeling For more stars who showed out at the TIME100 gala Blake Lively's Another Simple Favor director Paul Feig has admitted he'd be open to working with the actress again who said the "tiger comes out" when Lively was optimistic when People Magazine approached him about the possibility of a third adventure "I definitely know where I want it to go," the Emmy nominee told the outlet "We'll see if everybody wants to do a third one It was too much fun — I would love to get back together with this group and these characters and send them on an even weirder revealing that he would want to go broader for the next project after the recently released second sequel showed Emily ready to walk down the aisle in Capri while Kendrick's Stephanie agrees to be her maid of honour "I think we need to take them out into the world even more," he explained "I literally cannot think of anybody who could play these roles other than them," he added after describing the chemistry between the two lead actresses as "through-the-roof." There’s a new player in Emily Nelson and Stephanie Smothers’ game of catwalk couture and mouse: Michele Morrone which she tried to pin on her flailing husband Sean (Henry Golding) Emily taps Stephanie to be her maid of honor at a dreamy destination wedding in Capri He can speak more freely about his role of Dante which is “nothing like it seems,” Morrone says He doesn't really care about being a Mafia boss.” Morrone reveals the important lesson Lively taught him on the set of “Another Simple Favor” and the importance of being original (This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.) Question: What made the experience of “Another Simple Favor” so enjoyable Michele Morrone: People were kind and fine and funny and super-inspiring So I had the chance to learn the American acting method How does the American method of acting differ from Italian acting it seems like you just need to be in front of a camera to be an actor I believe that actors in America take the job much more serious than Italians The movie industry in America is one of the first industries they make you feel like you don't know (anything) Americans are very open to listening to you I was so surprised that Paul Feig was there to listen to my ideas and we gave life to the character together Is there a specific piece of advice you received about American acting on set “Because I want to at least try to speak like you.” She was like you're cool because you have an Italian accent you would be just like everybody else.” It was so refreshing for me And I really want to thank Blake for that because that was actually right Is there someone whose career you would like to emulate everybody should find their own way to become original you're just bringing a weird copy of someone else and people won't be so interested in you because it exists already Anna Kendrick stars as suburban mom-turned-true-crime-author Stephanie in Another Simple Favour.Photo Credit: Lorenzo Sisti/Amazon Prime Video Written by Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis The 2018 lark A Simple Favor was a surprisingly delightful confection – equal parts airport-ready page-turner And while the film wasn’t exactly a box-office phenomenon upon release its long-tail combination of algorithmic-friendly stars Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively Spy) evidently prevented enough subscriber churn for Prime Video for Amazon to bankroll a direct-to-streaming sequel But seven years is a long time to attempt a reheating of all the many ingredients that made the original film go down so easily and Another Simple Favor simply tastes off After their estrangement at the end of the first film suburban mom-turned-true-crime-author Stephanie (Kendrick) is reunited with the recently imprisoned double-murderer Emily (Lively) Stephanie is coaxed into becoming Emily’s maid of honour for her destination wedding in Capri where the ex-convict is set to marry a mafia scion (Michele Morrone) a bunch of people start dropping dead ahead of the nuptials and once again Stephanie is caught in Emily’s web of deceptions Aside from Emily’s eye-popping wardrobe – lavishly stylized outfits that offer more characterization than any other single element of the film – everything in Another Simple Favor feels severely downgraded The story’s twists are alternately predictable or nonsensical and the dialogue exhausting when it isn’t frequently and unnecessarily nasty (I lost track of how many c-word bombs are dropped proving the diminishing returns of shock comedy) Even the stunning Capri scenery is flattened on-screen with Feig and his returning cinematographer John Schwartzman barely expending the energy to appreciate their naturally beautiful surroundings Kendrick is as charming as always turning Stephanie into a character to root for even as she becomes more of a nuisance than the most gracious of European countries could tolerate But no actress could successfully leap over the emotional brick wall that is Lively seductive villain but something of an unapproachable and unknowable goddess Lively casts an unintentional chill over the entire affair Even a ludicrous third-act turn that seems explicitly engineered to allow Lively to go absolutely bonkers – a White Lotus-level role of taboo-busting norms that so many performers would kill to embody – is steamrolled into nothingness by the star if Feig and company have the stomach to heed just one more simple favor: please Report an editorial error Report a technical issue Editorial code of conduct Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following Barry Hertz is the Deputy Arts Editor and Film Editor for The Globe and Mail He previously served as the Executive Producer of Features for the National Post and was a manager and writer at Maclean’s before that Barry’s arts and culture writing has also been featured in several publications, including Reader’s Digest and NOW Magazine. 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For more information on our commenting policies and how our community-based moderation works, please read our Community Guidelines and our Terms and Conditions Though their A-list parents are fierce protectors of their privacy the Reynolds kids have made A-list appearances in Taylor Swift songs and Marvel movies @vancityreynolds which attributed the intel to an audience member who attended the taping Lively and Reynolds share three daughters—James two-year-old Olin and the Gossip Girl actress said that being a mom first has been vital amid the very public feud “I have to be Disneyland for them," she added Lively described her ongoing legal battle with Baldoni as one of the “lowest lows of my life," and it's public knowledge that the actress has been in the midst of this low period for a while now Get exclusive access to fashion and beauty trends “I see so many women around afraid to speak it’s what keeps us silent,” she added “But I also acknowledge that many people don’t have the opportunity to speak so I do feel fortunate that I have been able to.” "She still believes she's doing the right thing," the source said. "She's ready to tackle whatever comes her way." Contributing Editor at Marie ClaireKayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with over 10 years of professional experience covering entertainment of all genres from new movie and TV releases to nostalgia She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick proved that there is simply no bad blood between them smiling side by side while promoting A Simple Favor at London’s Corinthia Hotel April 15 Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick are settling a simple debate After months of speculation that a feud has been bubbling between the A Simple Favor costars, the Gossip Girl alum and Pitch Perfect actress proved there is absolutely no bad blood between them Indeed, Blake, 37, and Anna, 39, were all smiles during their reunion at London’s Corinthia Hotel April 15, posing arm in arm while promoting their movie, Another Simple Favor. For the occasion, Blake—who share kids James, 10, Inez, 8, Betty, 5, and Olin, 2, with husband Ryan Reynolds—donned a black cardigan with cream detailing Anna beamed by her side in a bright red vest As for why fans suspected that there may have been conflict between the actresses as of late? Rumors began to swirl last month when Anna had a cryptic response to her working relationship with Blake, who is currently entangled in an ongoing legal battle with It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni While promoting Another Simple Favor during the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival last month, Anna was asked how she felt about reuniting with her costar, who had also stepped out on the red carpet that night And her eyebrow-raising comebacks didn’t end there the Woman of the Hour star cooked up another witty response when asked how she felt about “everything that’s going on in the world.” Her response? "Why, what happened?" Anna quipped to Variety But despite joking that she was unable to recount any recent cultural events she still made sure to give the film her stamp of approval Though the Twilight alum’s quirky remarks reinforced existing speculations that something was going on between the costars, a source with knowledge insisted back in February that there has never been any animosity between them They are coworkers; friends and get along well.” And as the rumors continued to make their rounds online, A Simple Favor director Paul Feig has been consistent in slamming the idea that Blake and Anna have been anything but kind to each other from the very beginning “Don’t believe anything you read on social media these days.” For a full breakdown of Blake and Justin’s ongoing legal battle