The chances of a sequel to It Ends With Us are fading into the distance as the all-out war between its two principal characters shows no sign of abating, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have fueled rumors of a bitter feud after doing separate promotion work on the summer hit and are said not to be talking.
And now, sources say plans to get Colleen Hoover’s popular follow-up novel It Starts With Us on to the big screen are in doubt as a result.
‘It’s hard to imagine Justin wanting to work with Blake – or vice versa – after all this bad blood. Whatever started this feud, there certainly has been no obvious rapprochement between the pair,’ says one industry insider.
It Ends With Us has already taken in more than $180million worldwide, showing a massive profit for the movie that cost only $25million to make and so the ready-made sequel would normally follow.
But Hoover has sided with Lively – which is a problem because Baldoni’s company has already bought the rights to It Starts With Us, insiders say.
Lively, 36, is facing a massive backlash – or Blakelash – after clips of interviews have shown her being rude to reporters.
Justin Baldoni reportedly felt ‘hurt and sidelined’ while starring and directing the film adaption of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel, It Ends with Us, alongside co-star Blake Lively
Insiders tell DailyMail.com that plans to get author Colleen Hoover’s follow-up novel It Starts With Us on to the big screen for the sequel are now in doubt as a result of the Baldoni and Lively’s rumored feud
Clip after clip of hard to watch interviews in which Ryan Reynolds’s wife skewers, dismisses or flat-out ignores questions have surfaced in recent days, and the version of Lively left standing is not so much glamorous gossip girl as bullying mean girl.
Last week the ‘c’ word – canceled – bubbled up.
Now Lively is said to be desperately upset and casting around for some publicity strategy to pull like a parachute on her reputational free-fall.
The drama began with rumors of onset tension between Lively and Baldoni, 40, who also directed the film adaptation of Hoover’s best-seller.
Lively and Baldoni apparently clashed on-set with her accusing him of ‘fat-shaming’ her in an incident where he asked his personal trainer for guidance on how to protect his back during a scene in which he had to lift her.
That animosity has spilled messily into post-production and publicity to the extent that Lively has now been accused of effectively bullying Baldoni out of his first major movie.
It was Baldoni who bought the rights to Hoover’s novel and directed the movie but, according to celebrity gossip podcast Deux Moi, Lively was unhappy with Baldoni’s final cut, so she and Deadpool megastar Reynolds, 47, paid for their own editor to cut a different one.
Deux Moi reported that Baldoni’s cut ‘tested better’ but the studio went with Lively’s, after the actress, who is one of Taylor Swift’s best friends, ‘strongly suggested that if they didn’t use her version, they wouldn’t be able to use Taylor’s song’ in the movie.
The song in question was My Tears Ricochet from Folklore.
But while Lively casts around for someone else to blame for her mounting bad press, her time might be better spent reflecting on another one of her bestie’s tracks and her words: ‘It’s me. Hi! I’m the problem it’s me.’
Hoover has sided with Lively, despite having sold the film rights to both novels to Baldoni, according to inside sources
According to reports, Baldoni’s cut of the film actually ‘tested better’ with audiences but the studio ultimately went with Lively’s version after she allegedly threatened that they would not be able to use best friend Taylor’s song in the movie if they didn’t
Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively were seen on the set of ‘It Ends with Us’ during a scene shot in Jersey City, New Jersey on January 12, 2024
Much of the criticism leveled at Lively has centered squarely on her tone-deaf performance during her publicity tour – a tour she has conducted entirely separately from Baldoni.
Critics have pointed to her signal failure to address one of the central themes of the movie – domestic abuse – saying that this was an ideal opportunity for Lively to raise awareness, promote support services and encourage fans who may be experiencing such abuse to utilize them.
Instead, she has piggybacked on the movie’s publicity to promote her own hair care range, Blake Brown, and urged viewers to ‘grab your friends, wear your florals and head out to see it!’ as if she were promoting a romantic comedy rather than a movie dealing with traumatic themes and toxic relationships.
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In one promotional clip she giggles with her co-stars Isabella Ferrer, who plays the young version of Lively’s character Lily Bloom, and Jenny Slate along with Hoover, talking about wearing her own clothes on set and zodiac signs before wrapping up their ‘interview’ without once touching on the movie’s more serious heart.
She was slammed for her insensitive response when journalist Jake Hamilton sat down with her and co-star Brandon Sklenar and asked her about the movie’s more sensitive themes.
Hamilton noted that there are people who would watch It Ends With Us and ‘relate to the topics on a deeply personal level’.
He said: ‘This movie is going to affect people and they’re going to want to tell you about their life.
‘So, if someone understands the themes of this movie and comes across you in public and they want to really talk to you what’s the best way for them to be able to talk to you about this, how would you recommend they go about it?’
While her co-star visibly squirmed, Lively deliberately dodged the serious question and responded by making a joke saying: ‘Like asking for like my address or my phone number or my location share or should I just location share you…?’
The actress, 36, came under fire after she sat down alongside her costar, Brandon Sklenar – and brushed off one of the reporter’s queries regarding the serious themes in the film
Lively has been criticized for piggybacking on the movie’s publicity to promote her own hair care range, Blake Brown, the release of which coincided with the film
Amid the scandal, a clip of a 2016 interview has resurfaced and gone viral in which journalist Kjersti Flaa congratulated then-pregnant Lively on her ‘little bump’ – at which Lively shot back by congratulating the woman, who was not pregnant, on her own ‘little bump’
The fans got the message loud and clear – Lively doesn’t want to talk to you, and branded the response, ‘crazy and heartless.’
She didn’t appear to want to talk to Norwegian born journalist Kjersti Flaa either.
Flaa garnered attention earlier in the week when she posted a ‘nightmare’ interview with Lively and then co-star Parker Posey to YouTube.
The interview in which they were promoting the Woody Allen movie, ‘Café Society,’ took place in 2016 and Flaa titled the clip: ‘The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job.’
She went onto describe the interview as the ‘most uncomfortable…I have ever experienced.’
It’s not hard to see why. It started badly and went downhill from there.
Flaa congratulated Lively, then pregnant with her second child, on her ‘little bump.’
Lively responded: ‘Congratulations on your little bump,’ though Flaa was not pregnant – and has now revealed she cannot conceive.
‘It hurts because I obviously wasn’t pregnant and I could never get pregnant,’ Flaa said. ‘So to me, that comment was like a bullet.’
Lively and Posey then proceeded to speak to each other about ‘lady lumps’ and bumps for several excruciating minutes during which they ignored Flaa completely and shut her out of her own interview.
It’s all a very bad look for the actress who is currently promoting her first movie in four years and as the clips keep surfacing it’s only getting worse.
In fact, when it comes to Lively’s once carefully curated ‘girls’ girl’ reputation, it increasingly looks like it ends with this.