Blake Lively‘s reps initiated the discussion that led to yesterday’s announcement of a settlement.
In short, Team Lively folded their case. After 18 months of aggressive press statements and social media back-and-forth from both sides, the Lively guys suddenly saw no upside in arguing the NYC court case that was going to begin later this month.
So they basically said “fuck it…Blake and especially Ryan Reynolds can’t do this any more and so we’re pulling the plug…nothing good for Blake can come from a trial, and particularly the tough grilling that would have come from Baldoni’s attorneys…tough questions and difficult answers that would have been reported and read by everyone.”
However Lively might have answered, the aftermath would have only underlined or intensified Blake’s mean-girl rep and the “everyone hates her…she’s radioactive” industry narrative.
In response to this Baldoni’s surprised attorneys presumably said “really?…uhm, okay, sure, fine. But we’re not coughing up a dime.”
That’s right — nobody paid anyone anything. Not a single Lively or Baldoni dollar was forked over to anyone from the opposing side. The party in a legal dispute who says to the other party “let’s make this go away”…that person is the loser in the matter.
If this isn’t a case of just desserts as far as Lively’s situation is concerned, I don’t know what would be. The joint statement about the settlement doesn’t contain an apology from Baldoni. No dough, no Baldoni mea culpa….nothing.
