It turns out Blake Lively‘s team was freaking out over the drama surrounding her and Justin Baldoni!
Months before the sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit, the actress faced a ton of backlash amid the promo for It Ends With Us. People slammed her for everything from how she was promoting a movie about domestic violence to calling her out for being a mean girl in resurfaced interviews and more. And naturally, Blake’s businesses became alarmed over the controversy! That is what new documents from the now-settled lawsuit with Justin revealed!
Related: On Best Behavior Or Total Nightmare? Inside Blake’s Met Gala Outing!
According to emails and texts obtained by TMZ on Tuesday, the team for the Gossip Girl alum’s alcohol company, Betty Booze, said they received messages from other companies concerned over the backlash with IEWU. One staffer wrote to other team members on September 10, 2024, following a conversation with the supermarket Kroger:
“I just got off the phone with the SGWS Kroger VP, and the first thing he mentioned to me was that Betty Booze was just discussed. There is a negative taste in Kroger’s mouth based on the [Blake Lively] interview (press) from the movie, and they said they will be closely monitoring sales on the brand.”
The team member then noted Kroger was “expecting a negative sales impact, and they’re wondering what [Blake Lively] will be doing to course correct and make things right with her audience.” And so the employee wanted to know if there are “internal efforts in place to flip the script or messaging we can share with these customers directly?” Clearly worried, they then added:
“We need to be proactive about this.”
Yikes! Kroger wasn’t the only company nervous about Blake’s controversy! The VP of Food & Beverage at Princess Cruises also contacted the Betty Booze team, saying:
“By the way our legal ethics and compliance committee board spooked with Blake !!! I am working things out hopefully will not have an effect.”
Blake had been in talks with Brightline, the railroad company, for a marketing partnership. However, the executive VP of Brightline wrote to her team on August 28, 2024, that they needed to put the idea on pause:
“Transparently they want to hold for a minute until some of the [Blake Lively] chatter can be turned down. I’ll circle back when I hear more.”
Translation? Seems like they thought Blake was bad for business! Oof!
And you know, her team had a right to be panicking over the effects the drama was having on the company! Celebrity-led brands are already a huge risk. You need the person to at least be so loved and trusted that people want to buy their products. And then, hopefully, that product is good enough to keep folks coming back for more. So when the star falls out of favor, the brand tends to suffer! It’s just a fact! And all of Blake’s companies likely took a massive hit pre, during, and possibly post-lawsuit drama, not just Betty Booze.
The A Simple Favor star planned to use these messages as evidence of how her brand had been negatively impacted by the alleged smear campaign Justin orchestrated in their trial. However, as we mentioned, they are no longer heading to court as they settled this week.
What are your thoughts on the emails, Perezcious readers? Drop ’em in the comments!
[Image via Blake Lively/Instagram, MEGA/WENN]
