LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – FEBRUARY 11: Rapper Ice Spice, singer Taylor Swift and actress Blake Lively embrace before Super Bowl LVIII between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs at Allegiant Stadium on February 11, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Blake Lively will not be canceled, at least not if Taylor Swift can stop it.
The pop megastar hosted a party for her good friend Lively’s 37th birthday at her estate in Rhode Island over the weekend, the Daily Mail reported. Conveniently for this obvious reputation-washing exercise, paparazzi managed to snap photos of the controversial “Gossip Girl” star on the balcony of Swift’s seaside mansion with at least two of her four children with Ryan Reynolds.
Other photos showed Reynolds at the A-list gathering alongside some of Swift’s other famous, beautiful friends: Bradley Cooper and his supermodel girlfriend Gigi Hadid, as well as Travis Kelce’s teammate on the Kansas City Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes, and his wife Brittany Mahomes, the Daily Mail reported.
So, within the protected, exclusive bubble of Swift’s Rhode Island estate, Lively is still loved and celebrated. But outside of that bubble, that’s not the case.
Lively has become the star of a new cautionary tale about a celebrity’s stunning fall from grace. The actress, producer, lifestyle entrepreneur and fashion influencer has endured weeks of intense criticism over her public appearances and actions surrounding the production and promotion of her new film, “It Ends With Us.”
While the film was a box office hit, Lively didn’t fare so well. A source told the Daily Mail she “fears” for her career and thinks she may need to “take a step back” to “reevaluate her future.”
“She thought this was her big moment, but now she sees it as the end of her career,” the source told the Daily Mail. “She fears no one will want to work with her after this.”
The backlash began in the lead-up to the film’s release on August 6. Reports emerged that she had an on-set argument with Justin Baldoni, the film’s director and her co-star. People began taking sides on who was at fault when tensions between the two became apparent when she didn’t allow him to accompany her and other cast members to interviews or red carpet photo ops for the film.
But attention soon turned to Lively’s marketing efforts for the film. That attention led to another flood of online gossip and reports that she had been annoying, rude, insensitive or bossy throughout her career. Much of the criticism stemmed from her “tone deaf” decision to publicly downplay the film’s serious story about her character Lily Bloom, who is abused by her husband. The film is an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling dark romance about domestic violence.
Lively has been criticized on social media for doing interviews and social media posts promoting the film as if it were a romantic comedy about a beautiful flower shop owner who has to choose between two hot guys, or as if it were a sappy, “Barbie”-style story about fashion and a woman’s journey of self-discovery. In one of the most offensive promotional posts for the film, Lively was seen in a TikTok video encouraging female fans to use a trip to see the film as a fun, female-friendly activity. She explains, “Grab your friends, put on your flowers and go out and see it.”
Further backlash erupted when Lively attempted to cross-promote the film with advertisements for her skincare line or her brands of non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages, as well as Reynolds’ Aviation gin. Advocates for victims of domestic violence pointed out the link between alcohol abuse and domestic violence.
Swift was out of the country during the initial backlash against her friend, as she was wrapping up the European leg of her Eras tour. But she recently returned to the U.S. and headed to her Rhode Island estate to spend time with boyfriend Kelce and her close friends. And now that she’s back in the U.S., the singer seems to want to show her support for Lively.
Swift has shown such solidarity with beleaguered friends in the past, most notably with Sophie Turner in fall 2023.
Shortly after Turner’s husband Joe Jonas filed for divorce in early September 2023, his “people” appeared to be leaking negative stories about the British “Game of Thrones” star being an irresponsible or absent young mother. The leaks came as it appeared that an ugly transatlantic custody battle over Turner and Jonas’ two young daughters was coming to a head.
Swift, who herself reportedly had an unpleasant past with Jonas, immediately welcomed Turner into her ranks, showing her support by allowing the actor to stay at her New York home, inviting her to women’s dinners in Manhattan and accompanying her to Kelce’s Chiefs games in her VIP suite.
Swift’s legion of fans took their anger out on Jonas on social media, which helped put the story in a positive light and put Turner in the spotlight. But Swift and Swifties may have a harder time making Lively likable again. That’s largely because the damage the actress did to her reputation was largely self-inflicted and based on her own statements and actions over the years, including her decision to marry Reynolds on a former slave plantation in South Carolina and to create a lifestyle brand that honored features of the pre-Civil War South.
But one should never underestimate the media-savvy Swift’s power to shape a narrative – whether it’s about herself, the current state of American culture and politics, or a celebrity friend in trouble.
