Justin Baldoni, the director and star of “It Ends With Us,” has hired crisis PR veteran Melissa Nathan of The Agency Group amid growing rumors of a feud between him and the film’s star and producer, Blake Lively.
Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios, in partnership with Sony, made the $25 million film based on the best-selling Colleen Hoover novel, which beat box office expectations, opening last weekend with $50 million, up from a projected $15 million three weeks ago.
However, just before the film’s release, rumors began to circulate, especially among fans on TikTok, that there had been a major fight between Baldoni and Lively. Fans pointed out countless instances, such as the two not taking photos together at the New York premiere on August 6, Baldoni arriving very early and Lively being late. Some pointed out that Lively had not followed Baldoni on social media. In the film, Baldoni plays the abusive lover of Lively’s character. Actors sometimes achieve their best on-screen chemistry by absorbing or doing whatever it takes to get away with off-screen upsets. Sources close to the film say the two did not get along. Just as people who work together in their day-to-day jobs do not get along. There have also been rumors about Lively rolling up her sleeves and taking the reins in the editing room. She was certainly a force to be reckoned with when it came to the film’s explosive social media marketing. Not only did she oversee the creative, but she also starred in most of it. Reynolds reportedly got into a fistfight during the film’s balcony scene (though some have countered that the line also appears in Hoover’s 2016 novel), and one Sony source said of Livly’s influence on the film, “We wish she’d been a full-time employee.”
But while many have been tight-lipped about the feud between Lively and Baldoni, Baldoni did praise his former Gossip Girl star in a recent interview, saying she was his front-runner to direct the upcoming It Ends With Us series.
Some have compared the headline-grabbing furor against Lively and Baldoni to the gossip that erupted at the release of Don’t Worry Darling. But perhaps to this day, the level of taint has reached level N. There was Harry Styles’ foul-mouthed comments in Venice, the leak of Olivia Wilde’s “Miss Flo” video, the director’s public feud with Shia LaBeouf after he criticized him in the press. Perhaps with It Ends With Us, we’re not even there yet.
Nathan founded The Agency Group this summer after 10 years working with Gotham-based crisis PR guru Matthew Hiltzik – the two worked with Johnny Depp during the Amber Heard trial.
Sony, Jonesworks PR and The Agency Group did not respond to requests for comment.
