"Gross and disgusting but highly effective" — Blake Lively's brother-in-law Bart Johnson weighs in on Justin Baldoni's PR team

Actor Blake Lively's brother-in-law Bart Johnson has recently defended her after the 37-year-old filed a lawsuit against her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni on December 20, 2024. In the lawsuit, Lively accused Baldoni of s*xual harassment and alleged that the Con Man star created a smear campaign to harm her reputation.

Following the news of the lawsuit, Blake Lively's brother-in-law took to the comment section of an Instagram post by @nytimes to weigh in on Justin Baldoni's PR team. The 54-year-old High School Musical star is married to Blake Lively's elder sister Robyn.

“Her complaints were filed during the filming. On record. Long before the public conflict. The cast unfollowed him for a reason. Read this article before spiting ignorance. His PR team was stellar. Gross and disgusting but highly effective,” wrote Johnson about Baldoni's PR team.

Johnson also implored netizens to read The New York Times article and opined that Baldoni's alleged PR campaign wanted to "bury her by any means necessary." According to the Someone Like You alum, "the public got played" by Baldoni's alleged PR team.

Johnson continued, saying:

"IMAGINE being a stay at home mom raising 4 kids, married to the busiest man in Hollywood and at the same time being a girl boss running multiple companies while running non profits and working 16+ hour days, launching 2 new businesses all while getting attacked by a PR smear campaign because you filed a sexual harassment claim..."

Lively's brother-in-law further criticized her critics, claiming that the actor was "trying to do good things for the right reasons." He justified Blake Lively being rude in past interviews as a one-off incident, implying that people were discounting "decades of good for those few bad moments."

Later, in the comment section, he referred to Blake Lively as his "hero" and explained why he referred to her as "girl boss." According to him, Lively was an excellent entrepreneur and capable of venturing into male-dominated fields and doing it equally well, if not better than them.

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Entertainment journalist Kjersti Flaa opens up about her experience interviewing Blake Lively

Renowned Norwegian journalist and multimedia producer Kjersti Flaa recently shared her experience of interviewing Blake Lively. In a video posted on her channel, Flawsome Talk, she recalled the 2016 interview with Lively and her Cafe Society co-star Parker Posey. According to Flaa, it was "the most uncomfortable situation" and almost made her quit her job.

The interview started on an uncomfortable note when Flaa congratulated Lively on her pregnancy.

The It Ends With Us actor then seemingly congratulated Flaa on her baby bump although she wasn't pregnant. The awkwardness seemingly peaked when Flaa asked Lively about the fashion choices in the film because of its setting in the 1930s. However, the 37-year-old questioned her back, asking whether she would ask the same to the male actors.

Thereafter, the interview largely became a conversation between Posey and Lively, with Flaa struggling to partake in the conversation.

Netizens in the comment section of the video came out in support of Flaa, lavishing praise on her for maintaining her composure despite being ignored. They also slammed Blake Lively for her decorum throughout the interview.

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Blake Lively was also criticised during the promotional campaign of It Ends With Us which was released on August 6, 2024. While Justin Baldoni reportedly focused on raising awareness related to the movie's theme of domestic violence, Lively was criticized for allegedly trying to deflect and trivialize it.