By Page Six | Created at 2024-12-24 15:30:43 | Updated at 2024-12-25 20:07:07
1 day ago
Ryan Reynolds’ social media activity is raising eyebrows after his wife, Blake Lively, filed a complaint against Justin Baldoni.
While the “Free Guy” star has yet to address the “It Ends With Us” co-stars’ viral drama, he shared a cryptic post via his Instagram Story Monday.
Reynolds, 48, encouraged his 53.8 million followers to donate to the SickKids Foundation with a video in his “Deadpool” costume.
“Thank you @rowlandbb for directing this amazing little piece during a time I really didn’t feel like putting the suit on,” the actor wrote, tagging Bryan Rowland.
Reynolds, who did not elaborate on why he was feeling down, also expressed gratitude for his 8-year-old daughter Inez’s cameo as Kidpool in the ad.
“Thank you … for being such a good person despite your dad asking you to swear (for a good cause),” he joked, referencing her bleeped-out use of the phrase “f–ked up.”
The businessman revealed that he and Lively, 37, are going to match $500,000 in donations to the charity, which “is a sanctuary for so many kids and their parents traversing the unimaginable.”
Reynolds, who also shares daughters James, 10, and Betty, 5, and son Olin, 1, with the “Gossip Girl” alum, has yet to comment directly on Lively’s sexual harassment complaint.
The drama began when “It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2016 book, premiered in August.
Not only did Lively not pose for red carpet photos with Baldoni, 40, but she did not do any press with the director.
She and her fellow cast members also made headlines at the time for having unfollowed the “Jane the Virgin” alum on Instagram.
News broke over the weekend that Lively filed a sexual harassment complaint against Baldoni — and alleged that he subsequently had a crisis PR manager wage a social media “smear campaign” against her.
Notably, Lively made headlines over the summer for not highlighting the movie’s serious themes during its press tour as her previous “nightmare” interviews resurfaced.
The “Age of Adaline” star claimed the tactics used to “destroy” her reputation “weaponized a digital army around the country” to engage in a negative “pile-on.”
The legal filing included alleged text messages expressing a desire to “bury” Lively in the media, in what she referred to as a strategy “creat[ing], seed[ing] and promot[ing] content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms.”
Reynolds was mentioned multiple times in the filing, including one text that revealed he had allegedly blocked Baldoni on social media before “It Ends With Us” hit theaters.
The producer was also reportedly present at an “all-hands-on deck” meeting bringing to light Baldoni’s allegedly bad behavior on set.
Baldoni denied Lively’s claims via his legal team, calling them “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.”
Additionally, his and Wayfarer Studios’ attorney, Bryan Freedman, defended TAG PR for acting “as any other … would when hired by a client experiencing threats by two extremely powerful people with unlimited resources.”
He wrote, “The standard scenario planning TAG PR drafted proved unnecessary as audiences found Lively’s own actions, interviews and marketing during the promotional tour distasteful, and responded organically to that which the media themselves picked up on.
“It’s ironic that the New York Times, through their effort to ‘uncover’ an insidious PR effort, played directly into the hands of Lively’s own dubious PR tactics by publishing leaked personal text exchanges that lack critical context — the very same tactics she’s accusing the firm of implementing,” the lawyer concluded.
