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Political commentator Candace Owens criticized Ryan Reynolds' alleged joke about his wife Blake Lively's ongoing legal skirmish with Justin Baldoni during the Saturday Night Live 50 Special. Reynolds and Lively were present at the event on Sunday, February 16, 2025.
On February 17, Candace Owens quoted the moment from SNL50 on X and criticized Reynolds seemingly referring to Baldoni and Lively's legal battle. She wrote:
"Everyone: it is not okay that you used Hollywood actors to ruthlessly bully and humiliate someone under the guise of Deadpool jokes./ Ryan Reynolds: okay but what if I showed up in a room filled Hollywood actors and made one more joke."
Owens' comments refer to a viral moment from Sunday's SNL 50 Special, where Ryan Reynolds seemingly alluded to his wife Blake Lively's legal feud with her It Ends With Us co-star, Justin Baldoni.
At one point in the special, the hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler asked Reynolds an indirect question. Here's how the interaction went:
Fey: How’s it going?
Reynolds: Great, why? What have you heard?
Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively's legal battle began in December last year after the latter filed a complaint against her co-star accusing him of s*xual harassment and indulging in a campaign to tarnish her reputation.
Baldoni hit back with two lawsuits - one against The New York Times and another against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of defamation and libel. The two parties are set to meet in court on March 9, 2026.
Justin Baldoni's lawyer believes Ryan Reynolds mocked the actor through his character Nicepool amid his legal feud with Blake Lively
In a January 7 appearance on The Megyn Kelly Show, Justin Baldoni's chief lawyer, Bryan Freedman, alleged that Ryan Reynolds used one of his characters, Nicepool, to mock his client. Nicepool is a minor satirical character in Reynolds' 2024 Marvel film, Deadpool & Wolverine. Freedman said:
"There’s no question it relates to Justin. I mean, anybody that watched that hair bun. If somebody is seriously s*xually harassed, you don’t make fun of it. It’s a serious issue."
Deadpool & Wolverine is an action-comedy film featuring Ryan Reynolds as the titular Deadpool. Nicepool is a satirical version of the eponymous Marvel hero. In one scene, Nicepool said:
“Where in God’s name is the intimacy coordinator?!”
It is worth noting that one of Blake Lively's allegations against Justin Baldoni was about the absence of an intimacy coordinator on the sets of It Ends With Us. Further, a scene in Deadpool & Wolverine also saw Nicepool inappropriately complimenting another character called Ladypool, voiced by Lively herself.
“She is gorgeous. She just had a baby too, and you can’t even tell," Nicepool said about Ladypool.
When Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool raises his objections towards Nicepool's comments in the scene, the latter says it is alright to say such things as he "identifies as a feminist." Once again, the comments have been interpreted to take a dig at Justin Baldoni, known to claim himself a feminist and supporter of women's rights.
Such scenes were allegedly aimed to mock Justin Baldoni as Lively accused him of fat shaming her post-partum body during the sets of It Ends With Us. Further, Lively gave birth to her fourth child with Ryan Reynolds when she filmed the Baldoni directorial.
On January 7, Baldoni's legal team sent a legal letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige asking them to preserve "any and all documents relating to the development of the Nicepool character". The letter also requests the addressed parties to hold all documents that point to a deliberate attempt to ridicule or mock his client Justin Baldoni through the character.
Meanwhile, Justin Baldoni has also accused Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds of extortion, defamation, and invasion of privacy in his January 16 lawsuit worth $400 million.
Among multiple allegations, the actor accused Reynolds of misbehaving with him after falsely accusing him of fat-shaming his wife Blake Lively. He also claimed Reynolds pressurized him to accept some of Blake Lively's rewrites in the script.
Further developments on the legal battle are pending with the court hearing set for March 2026.
