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It Ends With Us’ promotions have fully fleshed out a Don’t Worry Darling-esque drama, with an alleged beef cooking between the leading pair—Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. Amid major backlash for the novel-turned-movie, originally penned by the ever-so-controversial author Colleen Hoover, the BookTok sensation has seemingly dove under the radar to save her mind from falling to pieces.
Eagle-eyed fans of the title quickly took heed of Hoover making her TikTok account private. Although Hoover’s (who also serves as an executive producer of the movie alongside Lively and Baldoni) Instagram is still public, netizens again fell back on their most-believed theories.
While some didn’t buy the “feud” seemingly “orchestrated to recreate Don’t Worry Darling’s movie marketing,” others chose to join #TeamJustin or #TeamBlake.
“I never really noticed until it was pointed out, that Justin has been promoting the film, raising awareness about DV, and Blake has made it more about fashion, promoting her hair care line and her gin brand. I see it now. Don’t think it was intentional, but it doesn’t look good,” someone wrote on X, formerly Twitter.”
A brief overview of the It Ends With Us drama
Releasing just days ago, on August 9, the 2024 movie premiere also made waves for brewing a Barbenheimer-ish clash with Deadpool & Wolverine, ensuing weekend box office wars between spouses Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. Fans couldn’t look away from the fact that this building-up, light-hearted tug-of-war at the cinemas was also somehow all that had surrounded the Gossip Girl star’s dialogue about the film.
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From Reynolds taking centre stage at his wife’s latest gig’s premiere to Blake gushing about him writing the It Ends With Us “iconic rooftop scene,” the mentions of the film’s central piece—domestic violence—somehow completely eluded the conversation. Numerous readers familiar with the original text, published in 2016, again painfully had to come to terms with the film’s outer packaging being ostensibly marketed as a “romance” product, aligning with the initial problematically romanticised discussions about the book itself.
Since the early chapters of the film’s press tour, Blake and Justin have held their end of the promotional bargain on separate routes. The movie’s leading pair haven’t even been photographed together. Their supposed beef inevitably resulted in buzzing mayhem, with fans more focussed on solving the mystery about what’s going on with the cast, instead of what’s up with the movie.
On the logistical map of the film, Baldoni and Lively also play out other roles than their acting parts as Ryle and Lily Bloom, respectively. The former was tied to the project as the director, while the latter was a producer. Moreover, Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, also own the rights to Hoover’s book, which they secured in 2019. Despite his consequential role in making the film, Baldoni has been significantly missing from the project’s grouped appearances.
Reports have also pointedly reminded us that Lively and Hoover don’t follow him on social media. Although the actor/director has visibly regarded his leading co-star as a “creative force” and lauded her all-hands-on-deck dedication as the film’s “brilliant” executive producer, a more recent report paints a different picture of the man altogether. Multiple sources told Page Six Baldoni made Lively feel “uncomfortable.” An industry source even went as far as claiming that the director harboured an “extremely difficult” atmosphere behind the scenes for the entire cast.
Beyond the creative differences or, as The Hollywood Reporter calls it, “a fracture among the filmmakers” during the post-production process with “different cuts of the movie” emerging on top, supposedly due to Ryan Reynolds’ distant involvement, the movie has also been a target of criticism for other reasons.
Controversies surrounding Colleen Hoover
Hoover’s 2016 novel, which fuels the movie’s story, is based on her parents’ relationship. Even long before the New York Times best-seller was adapted into the film it is today, it found itself as the focus of heavy contention for its portrayal of partner abuse. While several other consumers have also praised the written text for realistically reimagining an abusive relationship, readers have especially found fault with the book being shelved as “romance,” adding to other allegations about her complete oeuvre “glorifying” abuse.
Additionally, the supposed BookTok darling’s controversies don’t merely start and end with the dark themes addressed in her books. They’re also tied to her son coming into the public eye in 2022 after sexual harassment allegations surfaced against him.
In a since-deleted February 2022 X post, a user severely slammed Hoover for shutting them out for questioning her about the said accusations. “Her son also sexually harassed me and she blocked me when i spoke up about it to her,” @theonottlovebot contributed to a thread against the author.
In a follow-up tweet, they added, “Long story short, we were friends on [Snapchat] and s–t and like every day we would message cause we’re friends right and like this was when I was 16 and he was fully aware of how old I was cause I always talked about the fact I was still in school.” At the time of the alleged harassment, Hoover’s one of three sons, Levi, was a 21-year-old adult.
The person concerned also shared screenshots as evidence of having messaged Hoover on Instagram about the situation. Once the posts went viral across social media platforms, some netizens even called for a boycott of the author’s books.
Final nail in the coffin: It Ends With Us author addresses allegations against her son
Subsequently, in November 2022, Hoover addressed these allegations against her son in a private Facebook group called “Colleen Hoover’s CoHorts.”
“Things being said about my son aren’t accurate. People are commenting that I blocked a girl for informing me that my son sexually assaulted her when she was sixteen. This absolutely did not happen, and this is not even initially what was said by this person,” Hoover said.
“My son and a girl were online friends for several months. They never met in person. He said something to her in a message that made her uncomfortable (he asked her to send him a pic), so she messaged me about it. I did not read this message, but she thought I did, and it understandably upset her that I didn’t respond. She then posted on Twitter that my son asked her for a pic. AS SOON as I found out about this months ago, I reached out to her,” she added.
She continued, “We discussed what happened, I apologised to her and thanked her for bringing this to my attention, and I offered to send her our home address and lawyer info should she want it. I held my son accountable for sending a message to her that was inappropriate. I addressed it directly with her and with my son.”
Hoover also clarified, “I didn’t address it publicly because 1) I feel it’s not my place to talk about someone else’s experience and 2) everyone who knows me here has seen me parent these boys and hold them accountable. I’m sad this happened. You guys know I’ve tried my best to raise my children with respect, and to show respect.”
