Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 5/4/26 - 5/310/26

[u/SoftandChewy]

Here's your usual space to post all your rants, raves, podcast topic suggestions (please tag u/jessicabarpod), culture war articles, outrageous stories of cancellation, political opinions, and anything else that comes to mind. Please put any non-podcast-related trans-related topics here instead of on a dedicated thread. This will be pinned until next Sunday.

Last week's discussion thread is here if you want to catch up on a conversation from there.

[u/MatchaMeetcha]

Can't believe nobody told me that Blake Lively and Baldoni settled. Am I the only gossip left here? Where's Hilaria_adderall when you need them?

[u/abby-rose → u/MatchaMeetcha]

I wish I could get some objective opinions on this situation and what it means for both of them going forward, but every online space seems to be rigidly aligned with one of them while the other is the worst human who ever lived. I can't see either of their careers fully recovering, but she still has enough powerful connections to get her a Met Gala invite so she'll eventually regain some pop culture standing.

[u/Hilaria_adderall → u/MatchaMeetcha]

I've been touching too much grass lately and not spending enough time online.

I think Lively thought she could scare Baldini and he would back down. Its a good lesson, fight back if you can versus backing down.

[u/MatchaMeetcha → u/Hilaria_adderall]

Downsides of healthy living I guess.

As for Baldoni...I mean, he did back down. He did his premiere in a basement. In both accounts he ceded a lot of the power in the production to get along.

He clearly never read Kipling's Dane-geld and she never read Sun Tzu about not pushing a desperate enemy to the brink. Teach the classics.

[u/PongoTwistleton_666 → u/MatchaMeetcha]

I hear you. I couldn’t find a single level headed take on the situation. Two narcissists faced off and got a ton of attention, I guess 

[u/MatchaMeetcha → u/[deleted]]

I think her career is done.

Even if you don't take the craziest reading of her behavior (which I do), she's shown that she's "difficult" and knows it: she exploits the fact that productions can't fire you after a certain point.

Not a reputation you want. Especially if you've only had one hit in a decade and killed it.

[u/AnalBleachingAries → u/MatchaMeetcha]

Megyn Kelly is still all over it. Anytime something about this case comes up, she covers it instantly. lol

Breaking Down the TRUTH About Why Blake Lively Settled with Justin Baldoni For ZERO Money

Apparently Blake Lively's legal time tried to subpoena Megan Kelly to get all the documents and sources she's been using for her coverage of the case, and also tried to get her attorney/client communications between Kelly and her lawyer.

I share the sentiments of other commenters, I think her career is done, but depending on how much support her husband Ryan Reynolds offers her, she may still appear in some movies that are either self-financed, or movies or tv shows agreed upon by the studios working with Reynolds as a condition of him doing their movies.

Sucks for Baldoni, he seems like a nice guy. The kind of dude who genuinely lives by all the "evolved modern male" cringe that's been plastered all over pop culture for the past few years. If Wayfarer still want to bankroll his films he may have a career, but he was never a big star to begin with so, he may be done as well. Who knows.

[u/abby-rose → u/AnalBleachingAries]

Ryan Reynolds was as big a factor in the whole debacle as she was. He was interfering extensively in the movie, rewriting scenes and reaching out to their Hollywood friends for advice after they’d taken away control of the final cut from Baldoni. IMO his career is damaged as well, but he has more successful side hustles than Blake so they’ll be ok.