The Top 10 Crime and Justice Stories Of The Year #1 - "WE CAN BURY ANYONE: BLAKE LIVELY VS. JUSTIN BALDONI AND THE HOLLYWOOD SMEAR MACHINE"

0:03 Callaroga Shark Media, Good morning, I'm read Carter. Sunday, December twenty first, twenty twenty five. We're counting down the top ten crime and justice stories of twenty twenty five Today number three August twenty twenty four. It ends with US premieres three hundred and fifty one million dollars at the global box office. A massive hit based on Colleen Hoover's best selling novel about domestic abuse. Stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. Baldoni also directed, should be a triumph for everyone involved. Instead, fans notice something strange during the press tour.

0:46 Baldoni is doing interviews alone. Lively is surrounded by her other co stars. They never appear together, never interact on red carpets. Something is wrong. Then the internet turns on Blake Lively, seemingly overnight old clips resurface interviews where she seems dismissive about domestic violence themes, a comment using an offensive term from her gossip Girl days, TikTok videos calling her difficult entitled Adiva. Her hair care company, Blake Brown Beauty, sees sales drop nearly eighty percent in a single month. Was it organic? Backlash from disappointed fans or something more sinister. December twentieth, twenty twenty four, Blake Lively files a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department accuses Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment on set. Accuses him and his production company Wayfarer Studios of orchestrating a coordinated smear campaign to destroy her reputation after she complained. The complaint includes text messages obtained through subpoena between Baldoni's crisis pr team planning how to handle Lively if she went public. You know, we can bury anyone, crisis manager Melissa Nathan texted to Baldoni's publicist.

2:01 The New York Times publishes a devastating expose the next day, headline, we can bury anyone inside a Hollywood smear machine. Baldoni denies everything, calls the allegations categorically false, sues The New York Times for two hundred and fifty million dollars. Sues Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and her publicist for four hundred million dollars. Claims they're the ones running a smear campaign against him. Dueling lawsuits hundreds of millions of dollars sexual harassment allegations, text messages, planning digital warfare, celebrity publicists plotting to destroy their client's co star. This is Hollywood's ugliest battle in years, and it's headed to trial. I'm Red Carter today, number three on our countdown. Blake Lively versus Justin Baldoni, the case that pulled back the curtain on crisis, pr astroturfing, and and how reputations are manufactured and destroyed in the age of social media. This is Celebrity Trials.

3:09 Let's start at the beginning. May twenty twenty three. Production begins on It ends with us in Hoboken, New Jersey. Justin Baldoni, forty years old, known for the TV series Jane the Virgin, founded Wayfarer Studios with his business partner Jamie Heath, secured the rights to Colleen Hoover's novel, directing his first major studio film, also starring as Ryle Kincaid, the charming neurosurgeon who becomes an abusive husband. Blake Lively thirty seven years old, Gossip Girl The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, a simple favor married to Ryan Reynolds, four children, serving as star and producer. On the film. According to Lively's complaint, problems started almost immediately. She alleges Baldonis show her nude videos and images of women on set, that he discussed his sexual conquests in front of her and the crew, that he and producer Jamie Heath talked openly about their past pornography addiction. She alleges Heath showed her a video of his wife giving birth while naked without any apparent professional reason. She alleges Baldoni made comments about her weight to her fitness trainer after she'd recently given birth to her fourth child. That he claimed he could communicate with dead people, including her father, Ernie Lively, who had passed away in twenty twenty one. She alleges both men repeatedly entered her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed.

4:40 On one occasion, Heath allegedly walked in while she was topless and having body makeup removed. When she asked him to keep his back turned, she claims he kept staring at her directly, and she alleges Baldoni improvised physical intimacy during scenes that hadn't been rehearsed or discussed. Unwonted kissing, touching, and that went beyond what was scripted. Production paused in June twenty twenty three due to the writer's strike, then again in July when the actors strike began. By then, according to Lively, the problems had become unbearable. January fourth, twenty twenty four, before filming resumed, an all hands meeting was convened. Attendees included Lively, Baldoni, Jamie Heath, Sony Pictures executives, and notably Ryan Reynolds, Lively's husband, who was not involved in the production but apparently felt his presence was necessary at that meeting. According to the complaint, Lively laid out specific demands for returning to work. No more showing nude videos or images of women to her, No more discussions about sexual conquests in front of her or others. No further mentions of cast and cruised Genitalia, no more inquiries about her weight, no further mention of her dead father.

5:56 Sony Pictures approved the demands. Baldonian Wi allegedly agreed. A contractual writer was added, promising to implement safeguards and stating Lively would not be retaliated against for raising her concerns. Production resumed, the film wrapped. Post production began, but according to Lively, the relationship had already fractured beyond repair and the retaliation was just beginning. Make it Make sense, August twenty twenty four. It ends with US is about to premiere, the press tour is under way, and something strange is happening.

6:41 According to court filings, Justin Baldoni retained crisis PR manager Melissa Nathan and her firm, The Agency Group, in early August. Nathan is a specialist. She'd previously worked for Johnny Depp during his defamation trial against Amber Hurd. She knows how to fight reputation battles. Why would Baldoni need Crisis PR for what should be a celebratory movie launch, because, according to Lively's complaint, he was worried she might go public with her allegations. Text messages between Nathan and Baldoni's longtime publicist Jennifer Abel, obtained through subpoena and included in court filings, paint a picture of sophisticated reputation warfare August second, twenty twenty four. Able texts Nathan about Baldoni's concerns. He's worried there's not much defense in their planning document if Lively goes on the offensive. Nathan responds carefully, we can't write it down to him. We can't write we will destroy her.

7:38 He has to look at it as an information document for us to be armed with. That's all. Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands. Then she adds, you know, we can bury anyone, but I can't write that to him. That text we can bury anyone became the headline for the New York Times expose that would eventually blow this case wide open. Two days later, August fourth Able confides to Nathan, I'm having reckless thoughts of wanting to plant pieces this week of how horrible Blake is to work with, just to get ahead of it. The same day, Baldoni sends his PR team a screenshot of a viral Twitter thread about Hailey Bieber's history of bullying many women. The thread had over nineteen million views. Baldoni's message, this is what we would need. He was suggesting they needed the same kind of viral pylon against Lively. According to the complaint, Nathan proposed a four month battle plan with a one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars price tag. The strategy included plans to start threads of theories on platforms like Reddit and TikTok favorable to Baldoni, to create social fan engagement, to go back and forth with any negative accounts, helping to change narrative and stay on track. They allegedly retained Jed Wallace, described in court documents as a digital army specialist, for thirty thousand dollars per month. According to unsealed texts,

9:08 Nathan told Heath that Wallace's work would be untraceable. As the premiere approached, negative content about Lively exploded across social media. Old interviews resurfaced. Comments she'd made years ago were recontextualized as evidence of her being difficult, dismissive, or tone deaf about domestic violence, the very subject of her film. August ninth, twenty twenty four, The film opens to fifty million dollars, a massive success, but the narrative around Lively is toxic. August ninth, Able texts Nathan, so are we in the clear? Now? Did we survive? Nathan responds, we survived. All press is so overwhelming. We've confused people so much mixed messaging. It's actually really funny if you think about it. The next day, they discussed shifting the narrative to focus on reactions from domestic violence survivors, positioning Baldoni as the champion of the film's message while Lively was being dragged for allegedly trivializing it.

10:14 Nathan wrote to Abel, the majority of socials are so pro Justin, and I don't even agree with half of them lol. August sixteenth, the Daily Mail publishes an article with the headline is Blake Lively set to be canceled? Nathan shares the link with Abel. Abel responds, Wow, you really outdid yourself with this piece. Nathan's reply, That's why you hired me, right, I'm the best. According to Lively's complaint, her Blake Brown Beauty haircare company saw sales plummet nearly eighty percent in August twenty twenty four as the online attacks peaked. Her beverage company also allegedly suffered endorsement deals dried up, speaking engagements disappeared. Now Baldoni's team has a very different story. Jennifer Abel, in a since deleted Facebook post, that was preserved and verified by Rolling Stone. Acknowledged that they had discussed various strategies, but she denied implementing a smear campaign. No negative press was ever facilitated, no social combat plan, although we were prepared for it, as it's our job to be ready for any scenario, Abel wrote, But we didn't have to implement anything because the Internet was doing the work for us. She admitted. They sophomorically reveled and again joked privately to each other about the Internet's feedback to the woman whose team was making our lives incredibly difficult. Brian Friedman, the attorney representing Baldoni and his PR team, called the text messages cherry picked and

11:47 altered communications stripped of necessary context. He said Nathan operated as any other crisis management firm would when hired by a client experiencing threats by two extremely powerful people with unlimited resources. So who's telling the truth? Was there a coordinated smear campaign or did the Internet organically turn on Blake Lively for legitimate reasons. That's what the trial will decide. Truth is stranger than fiction. December twentieth, twenty twenty four, Blake Lively files her complaint with the California Civil Rights Department ten claims sexual harassment, hostile work, environment, retaliation. December twenty first, The New York Times publishes We Can Bury Anyone Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine, a detailed expose based on Lively's complaint and the text messages she'd obtained. Hollywood takes sides. Sony Pictures, the film's distributor, releases a statement supporting Lively. Lively's Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants co stars America Forereasara, Amber Tamblin Alexis Bledel issue a joint statement of support. Director Paul Fige, who worked with Lively on a Simple Favor, defends her. Baldoni's Voices of Solidarity award from the Vital Voices organization, given for his work as a male ally to women, is rescinded. December twenty fourth,

13:19 twenty twenty four, Baldoni's former publicist, Stephanie Jones, files her own lawsuit. She alleges that Abel and Nathan, who were her employees, conspired to undermine her firm while planning the Lively smear campaign. She claims she was forced to stop representing Baldoni over concerns about his conduct. December thirty first, twenty twenty four, two major developments. On the same day, Lively files a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of New York names Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, Jamie Heath, Melissa Nathan, Jennifer Abel and Wayfarer co founder Steve Sarrowitz, alleges sexual harassment and retaliation under federal and California state law. The same day, Baldoni fires back sues The New York Times for two hundred and fifty million dollars for libel claims the newspaper conspired with Lively's team to publish a one sided story using cherry picked evidence. January sixteenth, twenty twenty five, Baldoni escalates further files a four hundred million dollar lawsuit against Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and Lively's publicist Leslie Sloane, claims defamation, civil extortion, interference with contracts. The suit accuses Lively and Reynolds of trying to steal an entire film right out of the hands of its director and production studio. Claims they wanted creative control and retaliated when they didn't get it.

14:44 Baldoni's team releases footage from the set footage of intimate scenes being filmed, claiming it contradicts Lively's allegations about improvised physical contact. Lively's lawyers respond that the footage actually corroborates her claims, showing by Baldoni repeatedly leaning in toward Miss Lively attempting to kiss her without prior discussion or an intimacy coordinator present. January twenty third, twenty twenty five, Lively's team files a motion for a gag order against Baldoni's attorney, Brian Friedman. They accuse him of continuing the smear campaign through media appearances and strategic leaks. The judge imposes what's called the Empire State Rule, prohibiting both sides from making statements that could influence potential jurors. Neither side stops fighting subpoena's fly. Lively subpoena's celebrity blogger Perez Hilton for communications with Baldoni's team, alleging he may have participated in the smear campaign. Hilton denies it, files a motion to quash Jed Wallace, the Digital Army specialist, sues Lively for defamation in Texas, claims he never met or spoke with her, and was only hired to monitor social media, not orchestrate attacks.

16:04 Taylor Swift gets dragged in Baldoni's team subpoenas her as a potential witness. She contributed a song to the film's soundtrack and is Lively's close friend. Swift's spokesperson responds that she never set foot on the set and was not involved in any casting or creative decisions. Lively's amended complaint reveals that Nathan's scenario planning document from August twenty twenty four specifically mentioned Swift, referring to her as a bully and calling for strategies to influence the TS fanbase. Lively's lawyers accused Baldoni of trying to exploit Miss Swift's popularity as a distraction. June ninth, twenty twenty five, The Hammer Drops.

16:45 Judge Lewis Lyman dismisses Baldoni's four hundred million dollar lawsuit against Lively entirely also dismisses his lawsuit against The New York Times. The judge finds that Lively's accusations of sexual harassment are legally protected because they were made as part of a legal proceeding. You can't sue someone for defamation over allegations they made in a lawsuit, Lyneman writes, even if they turn out to be unneeded, an employee can insist on protections at workplace for sexual harassment without being accused of extortion. Baldoni's attorney vows to march forward and file amended complaints, but he never does. November three, twenty twenty five, the court formally closes Baldoni's lawsuit. He has no active claims against Lively, but Lively's lawsuit against Baldoni is very much alive. December ninth, twenty twenty five, the trial is postponed. Originally scheduled for March twenty twenty six, it's moved to May eighteenth, twenty twenty six, because criminal cases take precedent on the court's docket. The judge recommends both sides explore settlement. Neither seems interested. Lively is seeking approximately five hundred million dollars in damages, lost earnings, business losses, emotional distress, punitive damages. Baldoni has filed a motion for summary judgment, trying to get the case dismissed before trial.

18:14 Oral arguments are scheduled for January twenty second, twenty twenty six, your tax dollars at work. This case matters beyond Hollywood gossip. It matters because it exposed something most people didn't know existed, the crisis pr industrial complex. Melissa Nathan worked for Johnny Depp during his defamation trial against Amber Herd. That trial became a social media phenomenon. Pro depth content flooded TikTok Anti Herd, hashtags trended for weeks. Heard became one of the most reviled women on the Internet. At the time.

18:56 Many assumed the online response was organic fans supporting an actor they loved. People skeptical of Hurd's claims. Now we know there are professionals whose entire job is manufacturing that kind of response, astro turfing, making coordinated campaigns look like grassroots movements, social fan engagement, creating fake accounts to argue with critics, starting threads of theories, seating narratives that spread organically. Once planted one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars for a four month battle plan, thirty thousand dollars per month for untraceable social media work. This is what reputation warfare costs in twenty twenty five, and it's not just celebrities.

19:38 Political campaigns use these tactics. Corporations use them. Anyone with enough money can hire digital mercenaries to shape public opinion. The Lively Baldoni case pulled back that curtain showed. The text messages revealed. The planning documents put names and dollar figures on something that usually operates in shadows. Amber Heard notably issued statement after Lively's complaint became public, called the alleged smear campaign horrifying. Said social media's role in destroying reputations is the gift that keeps on giving to those who want to hurt women. Whether you believe Lively or Baldoni, and reasonable people can disagree, the text messages exist. We can bury anyone. That's why you hired me, right, I'm the best. These aren't allegations, these are their own words.

20:29 The question for the jury won't just be whether Baldoni harassed Lively on set. It will be whether the retaliation she faced, the online pile on the business losses, the reputation damage was the result of a coordinated campaign or organic backlash. If it was coordinated, that's actionable. That's retaliation that could be worth hundreds of millions in damages if it was organic. If the Internet genuinely turned on Blake Lively for legitimate reasons, then Baldoni's team did nothing wrong by monitoring it and celebrating privately. May eighteenth, twenty twenty six, twelve jurors will decide make it make sense. That's number three on our countdown of the top ten crime and justice stories of twenty twenty five. Blake Lively versus Justin Baldoni, a three hundred and fifty one million dollar movie that became a legal war, sexual harassment allegations, a smear campaign planned in text messages, dueling lawsuits totaling over six hundred million dollars in claimed damages. June twenty twenty five, the judge dismissed Baldoni's countersuit entirely. His four hundred million dollar claim against Lively gone. His lawsuit against The New York Times dismissed, but Lively's case survives. Trial scheduled for May eighteenth, twenty twenty six, five hundred million dollars on the line.

21:55 The case that showed us what we can bury anyone really means that exposed the crisis pr playbook that made everyone question whether the viral pylons they see online are genuine or manufactured. Some questions don't have easy answers. Did Justin Baldoni sexually harass Blake Lively? Did he orchestrate a smear campaign against her? Or did she weaponize the legal system to destroy a director who simply didn't give her enough creative control. The jury will decide, and whatever they conclude, this case has already changed how we think about celebrity reputation and the digital armies that fight in visible wars online. Tomorrow.

22:35 Number two on our Countdown Brian Koberger, the Idaho student murders. Nine hundred and sixty two days of claiming innocence, then a sudden guilty plea that shocked the world. The case that captivated America finally reaches its conclusion. I'm read Carter, see you tomorrow for number two. This is Celebrity Trials