I found a deeply unsettling detail everyone missed in the Blake vs Justin legal war. This is so much worse than we thought: AMANDA GOFF on the Hollywood trial of the year

I have a confession to make.

Few things in the news cycle faze me these days, but for months now, something has been bothering me, as a woman and as a journalist.

Why don’t I like Blake Lively?

It’s a question many of us have been grappling with since a series of negative stories about the actress hit the press last year amid the tense release of her romantic drama It Ends with Us, in which she plays the victim. from an abusive relationship.

It has since emerged that those stories were allegedly the result of a shady PR campaign involving co-star Justin Baldoni in retaliation after she complained about alleged sexual harassment and an unsafe work environment on set.

But let’s go back to August, before the lawsuits and the explosive NYT report that Blake was a victim of the so-called ‘Hollywood smear machine,’ and remember what many of us thought about the saga back then.

“Blake is a diva.” “Working with her must be a nightmare.” ‘I always thought she was like that.’ “Poor Justin.”

I’ll be the first to raise my hand. When I saw the stream of news articles and social media posts, I jumped right on the anti-Blake Lively bandwagon.

Do I regret it now? It’s hard to say. Justin and Blake haven’t had their day in court yet and I’m not going to take sides just yet, but one thing is very clear: there is a lot more to the story than we initially thought.

Now, as we wait for the start of Hollywood’s cruelest legal battle since Depp vs. Heard, many women like me are wondering why we were so willing to believe the narrative we were given about Blake.

Was it his perfect white teeth? Her enviable, lustrous, sun-kissed hair. Or maybe it’s the fact that she snagged one of the few genuinely nice guys in Hollywood, Ryan Reynolds, and he’s clearly obsessed with her. Don’t we all do it? Do you want a husband like that?

Or could it be that she played one of the most iconic ‘bad girls’ of the 2000s, Serena van der Woodsen on Gossip Girl, and I find it difficult to separate her from her character?

Or is it that infamous interview that resurfaced in 2016 when Blake became enraged at the apparently innocent comment: ‘Congratulations on your baby bump.’

Or maybe, probably, definitely, it’s just Blake’s…vibe.

There’s something about her and I can’t put my finger on it. Many women I know feel the same way and we are not proud of it. It’s a gut feeling, a visceral reaction..

It could be her beauty, her success, her marriage, but there is that something about her who just bothers women. It probably says more about us than it does about her, but it’s worth reflecting a little on the fact that a sizable portion of the female population punched the air and shouted, “I knew it!” when the world turned against her six months ago.

You won’t find any of that in the volumes of legal documents that are being filed left and right, but believe me, that is the heart and soul of this case. Not only Lively vs Baldoni will go to trial, but Lively vs Other Women.

And the worst is yet to come. Blake and Justin’s battle is the kind of Hollywood drama that no script could capture. I could list all the accusations circulating between them, but right now I’m struggling to keep up with it all.

Every day, it seems, there are more smears, more lawsuits, more accusations.. One minute I’m Team Blake and the next I’m Team Baldoni. But before we continue, let me get this straight, Blake is accusing her co-star of some pretty serious and unacceptable behavior including impromptu kisses, unsolicited visits to her trailer, and violating boundaries with sexual conversations, plus legal documents allege that Justin mentioned the Blake’s weight. before a scene where he picks her up (she has back problems).

Then there are the NYT’s accusations that Baldoni’s camp launched a negative media campaign and social media manipulation to discredit Blake after she spoke out.

Justin denies this, calling the allegations “false, scandalous and intentionally lewd” and has filed a massive $250 million lawsuit against the newspaper.

And then there are the ‘he-said-she-said’ text messages flying around, plus the issue of a misinterpreted upside-down smiley face emoji..

Christ. Pass me a Panadol, this is giving me a headache.

Are you as confused as I am? Who do we believe? No woman deserves to be sexually harassed and denigrated at work, whether a cleaner or a celebrity, and the allegations are serious. But the rest of Justin can’t just be left aside.

Fortunately, I am not the judge or jury (although I will be glued to the screen if this civil matter is broadcast live) and I will refrain from commenting on what I believe happened. I’ll reserve my opinion for now, as difficult as it may be.

But what surprises me is this: If you read the thousands of comments on TikTok, Instagram, or any news article about the melee, one thing becomes surprisingly clear: Team Justin is very much alive and well, and there are a lot of people out there. There are those who will take the anti-Blake position regardless of the evidence..

I won’t judge you for taking sides. But we should also examine why large swaths of the population The public quickly accepted the accusation that Blake was “difficult to work with” and a “bad girl in real life.”

Sure, she’s had her moments. What Hollywood star hasn’t had a bad day at the office or lost patience after sitting in a hotel room for nine hours during a media briefing?

One thing is clear in all of this, there were many, many people waiting for Blake to fall from his pedestal. America’s love. And it’s more than a little disturbing.

They say the truth comes to light with washing. I’m afraid this is just the beginning.