Brett Cooper — The Email That Ended Blake Lively's Case

- Alright, breaking news, everybody breaking news. Emergency episode tonight. I feel like I'm Tim Dillon calling an emergency episode, but we do need to have an emergency meeting of the minds because Blake Lively and Wayfair Studios, that is Justin Bell, news Production Company, they have officially settled their lawsuit. Guys, this happened 10 days before the trial was supposed to start. It was supposed to start on May 18th, I believe it was.

I was so excited about all of it. I was so excited to see it, you know, transpire. And yet here we are 10 days before and they have officially settled. Now, one important piece of information here before we dive into the statement and everything that I think drove this decision to settle is that this is now the Blake Lively Wayfair Studios lawsuit. 'cause as you might remember from a couple of weeks ago, 10 of the 13 claims were dismissed.

All of the claims specifically citing Justin Bald by name, the sexual harassment, the, you know, a workplace harassment, toxic work environment, all of those claims were dismissed. So while Justin Baldoni was obviously still involved because it is his production company, he was not specifically named anymore. So the case that was just settled were the remaining claims between Blake and Wayfair. All right, so we have the carefully curated statement here.

Let's read it. So this was a joint statement released by both attorneys. They said the end product, the movie it ends with us, is a source of pride to all of us who worked to bring it to life. Raising awareness and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors and all survivors is a goal that we stand behind. They're saying the entire party, Blake and Wayfair, we acknowledge the process, presented challenges and recognise concerns raised by Ms.

Lively deserve to be heard. We remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments. It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all parties involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online. This is not a throwaway statement. Now I want you guys to know that crafting a joint statement like this, it is painstaking work.

Now, in my opinion, I feel like the decision to settle, you know, obviously it was thrown around a bunch. I'm sure both teams were like, you should come to the table. I think they did try to come to the table a couple of times. There was mediation, we saw the photos where they were like in there matching out outfits a couple of weeks ago. But it is really, really hard, number one to come to terms that you could agree on.

Number two, to jointly write a statement that will be released to the public that shows both sides. I mean it is like pulling teeth like every party involved is like gritting their teeth and cringing as they have to bend and give a little because it is all about compromise and it kind of, it's supposed to feel like everybody gets a little bit of a win, but also you're compromising because you don't really get to tell the entire story and everybody has their story that they wanna say.

And within these statements, you know, each party gets a little win here and there and maybe has a little jab while they simultaneously also feel like they're not winning at all. Because neither party really gets to say everything that they wanna say if they could, you know, be fully transparent if they totally want and could say everything. And so it's always a bit of a complicated situation, you know, emotionally, the process of agreeing to the exact language, I mean down to like the comma, like I feel like the lawyers were just going at it in regards to this.

And so I do wanna speculate on what both parties would actually say because I think you can kind of see which lawyer included which thing like, you know, Blake Lively obviously wanted to have the line about the challenges in the workplace. She deserved to be heard. And then you see Bald Don's team saying, you know, we are committed to having workplaces that are free of that. We are not admitting that anything bad happened.

But yes, we would agree that we don't want any workplaces that are toxic, we're there as harassment. And you know, they would say that that didn't happen. But what they can say is that they are committing to not having any workplaces like that. I do think it was nice that they said that they are proud of the project. I think that Bald would love to be able to say that he's prouder of it if he had actually gotten his way.

And if the cut that they, you know, sent out to theatres was not Ryan Reynolds cut instead of his. Anyway, that is just my take on the statement. Alright, so now I do also have some insight and then my own theories here about what might have brought them to the table and specifically moved this forward 10 days before the trial was set to start. Now number one, and this is based on a source that came to me with some information, A tip, I guess I should say in that tip was that essentially allegedly everyone around Blake Lively thought that keeping the lawsuit going at this point, after everything that had gone on over the last year and a half was just an idiotic idea.

Like she was losing in the court of public C opinion. And she had already lost at this point. She was just continuously getting embarrassed. As more and more information came out, it was like, this is an awful look. The trial was looming. It's like you're gonna have to get on the stand. Is this gonna be like an amber herd situation where you're gonna have to run away to Spain and never be seen again? Apparently also it was costing them millions and millions of dollars.

That's not just like legal fees, but that is all of Blake and Ryan Reynolds businesses, her haircare line or the Tossled Blake Lively haircare line, her Betty Boop mocktails, all of Ryan Reynolds projects and his businesses. Apparently the entire thing was just causing them to bleed money and something had to change. And so the source said that the people around her had been looking for an off ramp, something that would make the situation better.

But she was committed, she was gonna fight this to the end and they were like, please no, for all of our sakes, like stop. And she was just facing this trial head on. However, I do think things changed in the last week or so. I think the final blow actually came on Friday when the latest court documents released. And I think this might've, you know, put a fire under their asses to get the settlement settled, I should say, to finalise the joint statement if they were not already working on that.

Because on Friday was when the latest court documents were late and there was specifically one email that put a lot in perspective and I think could have just completely destroyed her entire case. And it was this, so TV movie addict, this is an account on X says proof. This is a woman who works for Sony saying that Blake Lively asked them to destroy dailies when you were on a film set and you were shooting a TV show or a movie, everything that you record on a certain day is called a daily.

That is the raw footage. It's not edited, you know, the 15 takes of this scene, the second angle of this, the B cam of this shot, whatever it is, everything that gets sent to the editors that the directors are looking at the night of to make sure that they got everything. Those are called the dailies, that is the raw footage. It catches everything. If you flub up a line, if Blake lively, you improvise and kiss your CoStar and then tell people that he actually was coming onto you and improvising, kissing you, that might not be stuff that you want the world to see when you're accusing him of sexual harassment.

All of that would be in the dailies. So this is the email, this is from Andrea Ginetti at Sony. She said, call me when you can, not urgent, but Blake is asking us to destroy some of the dailies. Want to tell you what we will and won't do. Also going to ask Bridgette to contact all vendors and ask them to delete all dailies and need them to proof. Okay, first time I've ever been asked to do this in a movie with no nudity, but okay, already in this email, the Sony executive is acknowledging how odd this is.

But this email really is important for a few reasons. Number one, I want you guys to zoom in here and look at the date. This email about destroying the dailies was sent on September 3rd, 2024. It ends with us. Came out on August 9th, 2024. So Blake is retroactively going to Sony after the movie has already been out in theatre. She's already sent Justin bald down to the basement, allegedly. Allegedly she's wearing her florals.

It's a month after this the internet is talking about her, the failed movie, how odd it was. Where is Justin Bald? It's around the time that all of this is starting. The movie's not being edited anymore, it's totally out in theatres and she's asking Sony to delete the raw footage. And so obviously everyone with a single brain cell online is going, okay, well was there other evidence there that she didn't want out before she filed a lawsuit about the things that took place on set?

She's alleging this toxic work environment, everything that was totally out of hand that she had no control over the situation. I mean, what were the things that she didn't want people to see? We've already talked about the improvising kisses. Was it her simultaneously saying that she had no control over the film and yet in the dailies we might see that she was actually directing scenes, rewriting things on the spot?

I'm, I'm just like speculating and alleging, I mean she did this presumably knowing that she was about to file a lawsuit, that that lawsuit would somehow get leaked to the New York Times and all of this would start. So that's number one. Now, number two, it's important because in her deposition that took place in July of 2025, Blake Lively was asked directly twice actually. She was asked directly if she ever destroyed any dailies or instructed anybody to do so.

And she said no both times when she was asked directly, not in a subversive way directly, she said, no, look at this. So you never asked or had anybody on your behalf ask anyone from Sony to destroy the dailies. Is that correct? She said, no, I never asked anyone to destroy the dailies. What about, did you ask anyone on your behalf to contact Sony to destroy the dailies, to destroy the, no, she said so all of this came out in court documents that were released on Friday.

So this made huge waves on social media. The evening on Friday, over the weekend it got picked up by TMZ. I saw an article about it this morning. It was actually my topic for tomorrow's episode. I was very excited to dive into everything that was transpiring. There were a few different articles that came out about the lawsuit and the, the impending trial that I wanted to talk about. And so I guess Blake caught wind that going into a trial where she's saying that she had no control, that it was such a toxic work environment, that she was helpless, that Wayfair did all these awful things to her.

That if she has the power to go to Sony and have evidence destroyed after the fact that she apparently allegedly lied in her depositions about that, that that probably does not put her in a great position, that that probably would've been even more embarrassing than what she has endured on her own behalf by things that she has done over the last year and a half. So that brings us to now about 15 minutes before I sat down to film this emergency episode, emergency meeting of the mines, they announced their settlement.

Somebody commented on one of these posts and said, what a stinking mess, typical Hollywood trash. What upsets people the most is that they have been forced to give a shit about this for way too long. Not me. I am not upset in the slightest. I am upset that I will not get to watch a trial take place. I mean at this rate, I probably would've like shown up at the courthouse in New York City like, please let me in. I have my notebook, I'm ready, I'm ready to get the firsthand account of everything that's going on.

I was not tired of this. And obviously, you know, this is celebrity bs, it's pop culture, but it really is about something so much more. It's about the Me Too movement. It is about honesty and transparency in Hollywood. It is about the power of PR to destroy reputations. I think that it has shown a light on the underbelly of Hollywood and a lot of people are seeing just how terrible so many of their idols are. So it's about so much more than just a stupid lawsuit.

Very similar to why Amber Heard. And Johnny Depp's case was not just a stupid piece of Hollywood gossip, it was something that really impacted culture and Hollywood at large, which is what I care about. Somebody else commented and said Blake Lively knew that she would turn into the next, Amber heard if this went to trial. Ryan Reynolds career might have been permanently affected as well. Good decision by her. I, I think that that is spot on.

Like I don't know if she finally came to maybe, you know, seeing what she saw on social media over the weekend, knowing what was released in those court documents. I dunno if the people around her finally took charge, were like, get outta the way Blake. Like we have to do something. But obviously somebody in her orbit realised that she needed to jump ship salvage as much of her reputation, she and Ryan's careers, all of their money.

Something had to happen. And I think that Ryan Reynolds is big enough that he will still have a big career. He has his whiskey and Mint mobile and all the other things. He has an ad agency now. They have a million different, you know, companies and projects. I think he'll be fine. She has enough of a ride or die fan base. Kind of like how Amber her does. But I think a little bit bigger. She has the gossip girl money, the residuals that she gets every single time.

One of us Rees one of those amazing episodes. The Thanksgiving episode, that's me like every other month. I'm rewatching it. She has enough of that money to last her a lifetime. I'm not worried about them in the slightest. They'll be fine. She'll probably be hanging out with Taylor Swift in the next couple of months. Everything will relatively be back to normal, but I do think she'll have a quieter life since this took place.

But what I do care about, as I hope that Hollywood welcomes Justin bald back into the fold, I hope that we continue to see his company, Wayfair, just grow and do better and better projects and bigger projects. 'cause that's really the path that he was on before all of this started. So I hope he can just pick up where he left off. And I hope that this means he really can put all of this behind him, especially for his wife's sake and his children's sake, because I cannot imagine what would feel like to go through this and feel so helpless as you were watching your significant other fight for his reputation, your family's reputation, your entire business and livelihood.

So I hope that for them, and I'm guessing I would guess that this settlement means that he will not be refiling for defamation. As you guys knew, he filed for defamation. The judge threw it out because you can't actually, you know, determine defamation when there is an active case that's running congruently. Anyway, I did episodes about that, but they threw that out. I would assume that him not filing for defamation after the fact is part of their settlement agreement.

But I think he knows, I think we all know that he won in the court of public opinion, he did win. And so I hope that that lets him rest easy at night. Hopefully he takes a big long vacation, a big long nap. And so that is my update for you guys.