'We can bury anyone': How Blake Lively was swamped by criticism while alleged Justin Baldoni PR 'smear campaign' raged - as Hollywood backs actress in bitter It Ends With Us feud

'We can bury anyone': How Blake Lively was swamped by criticism while alleged Justin Baldoni PR 'smear campaign' raged - as Hollywood backs actress in bitter It Ends With Us feud

Hollywood is coming out in support of Blake Lively today, as she accuses her When It Ends With Us costar Justin Baldoni of orchestrating a smear camaign against her with a PR representative who boasted 'we can bury anyone'.

When It Ends With Us was released in August this year, this is the string of negative incidents involving the actress, 37, that started to be discussed online - from being testy and sarastic in interviews to marrying her husband Ryan Reynolds at a plantation property in South Carolina.

There were also complaints from fans about her promo interviews for It Ends With Us in which she plugged her haircare brand instead of addressing the movie's domestic violence storyline, and it seemed that these 'tone deaf' comments were what was fuelling an organic online backlash. 

However, her legal team now claim the film's director and Blake's co-star Justin Baldoni, 40, allegedly launched a smear campaign against her to 'destroy' her reputation. 

This was orchestrated by crisis management expert Melissa Nathan, whose previous clients have included Jonny Depp, and his PR team, which also included publicist Jennifer Abel.

Allegedly, Ms Nathan planted and advanced negative stories about Ms Lively online and engaged in a tactic known as ‘astroturfing’: when comments are posted online to appear as if they from the public, when in fact they are posted by an organisation.

Ultimately, Lively’s legal team believe Baldoni tried to retaliate against her harassment complaints by ‘battering her image, harming her businesses, and causing her and her family severe emotional harm’.

In text messages in court documents seen by the Mail, Ms Nathan assured a member of Baldoni’s team: ‘We can bury anyone.’

Rumors of a rift between the film's leads began to swirl amid its press run, after eagle-eyed fans noted a frostiness between the pair on the red carpet.

But Lively was wary of Baldoni even prior to filming, according to her legal complaint, and claimed they clashed over him trying to add 'gratuitous' nudity and sex scenes to the movie.

The message was in response to Abel's text, which said Baldoni, 'wants to feel like she [Lively] can be buried'.

'Of course - but you know when we send over documents we can't send over the work we will or could do because that could get us in a lot of trouble,' Nathan responded, adding, 'We can't write we will destroy her'.

She followed up the message with another which read: 'Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands. You know we can bury anyone but I can't write that to him. I will be very tough.'

Now, Justin and his PR team are accused of 'astroturfing' the actress - a term used to define a deceptive practice of publishing comments that appear to come from the public but actually come from a particular group. 

During the film's production, messages flooded platforms like Reddit rehashing her past dramas with claim's that Blake is a 'meanie'. 

Here, Femail reveals the mini controversies that led Blake's reputation to be tarnished in the lead up to It Ends With Us.

Amid all the drama in August, Blake and Ryan Reynolds's controversial wedding venue location resurfaced. 

In 2012, the Hollywood couple said 'I Do' during an intimate ceremony at Boone Hall Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina.

It is one of America's oldest working plantations. In the 19th century, it was owned by Henry and John Horlbeck, who were in the brick business, building many of the public spaces in downtown Charleston using bricks from the plantation.

Boone Hall Plantation also famously appeared in Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling's 2004 movie, The Notebook.

The couple were subsequently criticised for glamorising a place where slaves once suffered and died.

In May 2020, eight years after the wedding, Ryan and Blake donated $200,000 to the NAACP. 

In addition to the donation, they issued a statement, which read in part, 'We're ashamed that in the past we've allowed ourselves to be uninformed about how deeply rooted systemic racism is.' 

During the height of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in August 2020, Ryan revealed his regrets for the wedding venue in conversation with Fast Company.

The Deadpool actor called the choice of location 'something we'll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for'.

He said: 'It's impossible to reconcile. What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy.'

'Years ago, we got married again at home - but shame works in weird ways. A giant f***ing mistake like that can either cause you to shut down or it can reframe things and move you into action,' continued the action star.

'It doesn't mean you won't f*** up again. But repatterning and challenging lifelong social conditioning is a job that doesn't end.'

By 1850, Boone Hall was producing four million bricks per year using 85 slaves. Since the 1950s it has been owned by the McRae family, who opened the 738-acre estate up to public tours in 1956.

12 feet by 30 feet slave cabins still remain on the property, and today, there is house information about the slaves who lived there.

The cabins, occupied by sharecroppers through the 1940s, were in use well into the 20th century.

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