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What Have You Heard? Ryan Reynolds Mocks Justin Baldoni Scandal At SNL50
Ryan Reynolds just can’t seem to let something be about someone else. Saturday Night Live turns 50 years old this year and to mark the occasion the show hosted a special anniversary event over the weekend with as star studded a studio audience as any of the award shows scheduled this time of year. Included in attendance was Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds and his famous wife Blake Lively (It Ends With Us, Gossip Girl).
During the course of the show, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler took the stage to do a bit which included audience participation. Seemingly scripted and cringey as ever, Ryan Reynolds piped up with “I have a question” where Fey and Poehler responded “Ryan Reynolds! How is everything going?” And Reynolds responded “Fine. Why, what have you heard?”
Reynolds is likely referencing his ongoing scandal regarding the alleged orchestrated destruction of director Justin Baldoni, a story which has been expertly led by Candace Owens and taken the entire internet (conservative or otherwise) by absolute viral storm.
Baldoni directed and starred in the movie It Ends with Us with Lively. There was significant public scrutiny on the marketing campaign associated with the film where according to many fans Lively and Reynolds conducted themselves inappropriately (making too light of a heavy subject matter, the film is about domestic violence). During this time period, it was clear from interviews (and lack thereof) that Baldoni was no longer helming the project.
After the film left theaters, Lively filed a complaint with California alleging that Baldoni had essentially sexually harassed her and behaved inappropriately on set; she subsequently filed a lawsuit against his production company and PR firm in New York. During this time, the New York Times published a hit piece on Baldoni including information now shown by Candace Owens to allegedly have been provided months earlier by Lively.
On the same day that Lively filed in New York, Baldoni filed a $250 million suit against the New York Times for defamation and then later another suit against Lively and Reynolds. Since then, Baldoni’s team has released a barrage of evidence which counters every claim made by Lively very effectively and presents a case that Lively is not only lying about Baldoni but herself instigated quite a bit of hostility including trying to dangle her very powerful best friend, Taylor Swift, in front of Baldoni referring to her as “one of her dragons.” Swift, however, has provided no comment whatsoever in support or defense of Lively which is a bit damning.
The fall out for Lively herself would be much bigger if not for Candace Owens whose sources have provided her with ample context allowing her to confidently allege that the real villain isn’t Lively but actually Ryan Reynolds who she paints as an erratic and jealous husband who Lively is placating with legal action because he allegedly became so jealous and bothered by the handsome Baldoni playing her opposite.
Owens goes into great detail about why her claims against Reynolds are likely true (highly recommend checking out her pod and her TikTok on this). Stories from castmates like TJ Miller provide color on the character of Reynolds which seems to mirror the allegations that he can be petty and a bit scary.
With the evidence that keeps coming out from Owens and from Baldoni’s legal team (there is a website with a full timeline from Baldoni’s perspective including evidence), Reynolds and Lively have not been enjoying positive online engagement. The broad online agreement is that at minimum Lively has been untruthful about the series of events which she categorized as sexual harassment which is not only damaging to Baldoni but also to the women in hollywood who are actually preyed on so routinely. But most go a step further and believe that Reynold’s is as Owens says and that he has a history of creepy and bullying behavior.
With this backdrop for Ryan Reynolds to have clearly asked for this little quip at the SNL50 show is, in this author’s opinion, just another attempt to bully Baldoni by showing him that Reynolds is still sitting at the power players table. Maybe with the help of Candace Ownes, Reynolds behavior will have to course correct. Perhaps it Ends with Baldoni.