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YouTuber Dave Neal recently explained a conspiracy theory that ties the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni feud to a lawsuit filed against Ryan Reynolds. On April 14, 2025, Neal released an episode of his podcast The Rush Hour with Dave Neal, where he discussed a new theory about the lawsuit between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, circulating on a "mystical subpoena."
"Everyone's wondering where the subpoena is that was used to get the text messages from the PR company Joneswork... These text messages didn't surface out of nowhere; they say that they came lawfully from a subpoena...but what subpoena? There was no court case to warrant the subpoena," the YouTuber said.
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On November 1, 2024, photographer Marilyn Starkloff sued Ryan Reynolds and Aviation Gin for copyright infringement. According to a screenshot of the lawsuit shared on X by @kiarajade2001, the document stated that on June 18, 2024, Starkloff posted on X that she had "an idea to create comic strip photos of the Deadpool gin universe."
As per the lawsuit, on July 22, 2024, Aviation Gin released a video with their Deadpool edition bottles interacting in a similar "multiverse" setting. The defendants reached a settlement with Starkloff, and the case was dismissed by November 7, 2024.
However, according to rumors, certain people crafted a theory that Starkloff and Reynolds worked together in order to obtain messages from Justin Baldoni's PR company.
More about the subpoena theory regarding Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni
Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against Justin Baldoni in December 2024, accusing him of s*xual harassment and launching a smear campaign against her. The lawsuit also contained text messages allegedly shared between Baldoni and his public relations company, Jonesworks.
The alleged text messages and emails show a conversation between PR executive Jennifer Abel and crisis management expert Melissa Nathan. The messages seemed to reveal a discussion between the pair to "bury" Blake Lively.
The duo also allegedly wrote about their reluctance to write down Baldoni's plan, fearing the consequences of it ending up in "the wrong hands," as per a report by Rolling Stone.
However, in his latest podcast episode, Dave Neal explored a conspiracy theory that the messages were not subpoenaed since there was no court case at the time to warrant the subpoena. He further expands on the theory, explaining that there were rumors that stated that Ryan Reynolds and Marilyn Starkloff were working together.
According to the rumors, Starkloff hired Jonesworks as her PR company, which enabled Reynolds to legally acquire the text messages. Neal claimed:
"But now the conspiracy theory is that Starkloff may have been working with Ryan Reynolds and therefore hired Joneswork for PR, and then Ryan Reynolds was able to subpoena Joneswork along with Starkloff and maybe others for that lawsuit, and that's how they lawfully obtained the text messages."
Neal admitted that this theory did not have any legal backing and had most likely been debunked by lawyers. However, he went on to say that where the subpoenas came from still remained a mystery.
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are yet to respond to Dave Neal's claims.
