IT was supposed to be a run-of-the-mill promo tour – another global round of glad-handing and photo opportunities to plug her new film.
But Blake Lively’s marketing blitz for It Ends With Us has seen the actress hog the spot-light for all the wrong reasons.
The gorgeous 36-year-old wife of Hollywood heart-throb Ryan Reynolds — who rose to fame playing a privileged New York teen on US TV drama Gossip Girl — has been slammed as insensitive and mean by fans and critics.
Even alleged bad behaviour from her past has been dragged up.
So how did Blake’s world cave in to the point where even her dress sense is being blasted?
Central to the drama is the claim she is trivialising her new movie, which is about domestic violence, as if it were a frivolous romcom.
Blake plays Lily Bloom, a florist who becomes embroiled in an abusive relationship with Ryle Kincaid, played by the film’s director and star Justin Baldoni.
The story is an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling 2016 novel, which is based on the lives of her own parents.
But critics say Blake’s “shallow” approach to the film during promo tours was insulting to survivors of domestic abuse.
In a reference to the actress’s haircare brand, The New York Times accused her of treating the film as “a tool . . . to sell her hair.”
Guardian writer Arwa Mahdawi wrote: “Lively seems more interested in marketing her brands than anything else.”
Earlier this week, she was called “tone deaf” after failing to mention the movie’s serious message while hosting an interview with other cast members.
Instead she discussed dream jobs and zodiac signs during the breezy chat with the novel’s author and co-stars Jenny Slate and Isabela Ferrer.
I’m going to put it away because it doesn’t go with my outfit.
Blake Lively to a young fan who has given her a friendship bracelet
Blake has also come under fire for urging her social media followers to dress in florals when they go to watch her film, and fawning over a mini replica of her character’s flower shop.
A comment on Instagram from a furious fan branding Blake “tone deaf” attracted over 20,000 likes.
Another wrote that it may spell the end of her career.
Meanwhile, guests at the post-premiere party in New York were said to be horrified at being served cocktails made with her drinks brands Betty Booze and Betty Buzz.
One of the cocktails was called Ryle You Wait — named after her character’s abuser in the film.
She was also attacked for promoting her haircare line Blake Brown during the publicity blitz.
During a chat with US entertainment news show Extra TV, she interrupted the reporter to plug the range, leading some to brand her “opportunistic”.
And her critics were equally shocked this month when she did not wear a pink friendship bracelet offered to her by a little girl at the film’s London premiere.
She told the young fan: “I’m going to put it away because it doesn’t go with my outfit.”
But when the same girl gave a bracelet to Isabela Ferrer, Blake’s co-star immediately put it on.
A clip showing the difference between the two reactions has gone viral on TikTok, with more than two million views.
I hope to have a few girls one day. If not girls, they better be trannies because I have some amazing shoes and bags.
Blake Lively on having children
And on the red carpet last week Blake was lambasted for flippantly dismissing a question about how domestic abuse survivors could approach her to talk about her character if they saw her in person. She replied sarcastically: “Ask for my address or my phone number. Or I could just share my location with you.”
She was also criticised for turning up to a screening of her movie in a pair of £14,500 Valentino jeans.
The floodgates have now opened, while even remarks she has made in the past have been dragged up. Internet sleuths also unearthed a series of interviews making Blake look cold and difficult and referring to trans people as “trannies”.
Yesterday it re-emerged that she snapped at a reporter from New York magazine, “I thought you were supposed to be classy”, when quizzed about her then-boyfriend Penn Badgley in 2008.
And an award-winning journalist claimed that interviewing Blake made her want to quit her job.
Kjersti Flaa revealed that their chat was “the most uncomfortable situation” she had ever experienced.
When she congratulated the actress on her pregnancy in 2016, Blake fired back: “Congrats on your little bump.”
Afterwards Kjersti, 51, explained: “I obviously wasn’t pregnant and I could never get pregnant. So to me, that comment was like a bullet.”
In another awkward moment, Kjersti asked about the vintage costumes Blake wore in her movie Cafe Society, and the actress replied: “Everyone wants to talk about the clothes but I wonder if they would ask the men about the clothes.”
An interview she gave to US magazine The Cut about having children in 2012 has also been dredged up, during which Blake said: “I hope to have a few girls one day. If not girls, they better be trannies because I have some amazing shoes and bags.” In another reference made to past events, Blake and Ryan married in 2012 on a plantation in South Carolina, which once had nine slave cabins and was referred to as “Slave Street”. They later apologised for choosing the venue.
Blake’s attitude during the publicity drive for It Ends With Us is being seen as a stark contrast to Baldoni, 40, who has actively championed the anti-domestic abuse charity No More.
But there is something odd about why she is being singled out.
It has certainly managed to deflect attention from the rift that seems to have opened up between her and Baldoni.
They were not pictured together at the premiere nor any subsequent screenings, and Blake unfollowed him on Instagram.
Blake has also said she felt “fat shamed” by Baldoni, who asked a trainer on the set how much the actress weighed before shooting a scene in which he had to lift her up. The actor, who has a history of back problems, reportedly asked the expert how to protect him from injury.
An on-set source also told the TMZ website that Blake felt uncomfortable when Baldoni lingered longer than necessary during a screen kiss.
When asked about the rift in a TV interview, Baldoni awkwardly stumbled over his words.
It has also emerged that her husband allegedly rewrote a romantic rooftop scene. Reynolds’ involvement came as a surprise to the film’s scriptwriter, Christy Hall.
Blake told E! News about her husband’s additions to the script: “We help each other — we work together so much. He wrote it. He works on everything I do, I work on everything he does. So his wins, his celebrations, are mine, and mine are his. He’s all over this film.” Hall later told People magazine that she was not aware of Reynolds’ involvement.
A precursor to the hot water Blake would find herself in came during March this year, when she jumped on the social media trend of posting conspiracy theories about Princess Kate’s whereabouts.
She posted a mocked-up pic of the princess holding a can of booze from Blake’s alcohol range, saying: “I’m so excited to share this new photo I just took today to announce our 4 new @bettybuzz & @bettybooze products! Now you know why I’ve been MIA.”
Little did Blake know that a few months later, she would be the one mercilessly mocked.
My View By Dulcie Pearce
THE endless fashion shows and inappropriate plugs for hair products during promotion for her latest movie It Ends With Us is not Blake Lively’s biggest crime.
It’s actually her performance in her sickly sweet and frustrating drama that’s a Hallmark version of domestic violence.
The baffling and boring film is a frustrating watch, with Lively replicating the giggling character she played in US TV drama Gossip Girl, making it clear her acting range may be limited to one role.
Yes, the shiny promotion for a story about an abusive relationship is uncomfortable viewing, but not as much as the film itself.
She needs to shake the glossy, girly roles ASAP and get her agent to find her something gritty and real. Think Charlize Theron in Monster.
Otherwise Lively’s career might end with this.
