Colleen Hoover, the author who penned It Ends With Us, is opening up about her recent cancer diagnosis.
The 46-year-old author told her 1.9 million Instagram followers that she has one more day of radiation left at Texas Oncology.
“Second to last day of radiation,” she wrote on Monday on her Instagram stories. “I wish I could blame my hair and facial expressions on @Texas.Oncology, but they’ve been great. Hope you never need them, but highly recommend them.”
A screengrab of Colleen Hoover’s Instagram Stories.
@ColleenHoover / Instagram
It was not immediately clear what kind of cancer Hoover is being treated for or how long she has been undergoing treatment but her health update comes after she shared details about the diagnosis last week.
Story continues below advertisement
In a Facebook post on Friday, Hoover gave some details on her cancer journey, writing, “I got results back today from the geneticist that say my cancer did not come from family genes.”
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
“It also didn’t come from the two main causes of the cancer, which are HPV and excessive hormones. This means it was more than likely environmental/lifestyle, which is lack of exercise, poor diet and stress,” she wrote.
The best-selling author said she is “happy and grateful to be alive.”
“But I hate vegetables. I hate when I have to get off the couch. I hate sweating. I hate when science is right,” she continued. “If you see me at the gym, don’t even tell me good job. If you see me at a restaurant eating grilled chicken and drinking water, I’m probably real mad about it.”
Taylor Swift subpoenaed to testify in Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni trial
“I hate to have to announce this, but I will not be moderating the signing for @lukasgage this month, nor will I be able to attend the premiere or any events for @regrettingyoumovie. I’m super bummed, but am having an unavoidable surgery and can’t travel for a while,” she wrote at the time.
“I’ll live vicariously through you guys. So sad to miss this movie release and premiere, but so grateful to all the actors and the team who put this together.”
Japanese anime feature Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is off to an impressive start at the U.S. box office, where it topped Friday’s chart with $8.5 million from 3,003 theaters. The acclaimed manga pic — now on course to open to a better-than-expected $15 million to $17 million — boasts a 96 percent critics score and a 99 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, a rarely seen combo, in addition to an A CinemaScore.
Friday’s earnings include a stellar $3.4 million in Thursday previews.
Since launching in cinemas last month in Japan, Chainsaw Man— The Movie has already grossed north of $64 million at the global box office. Sony and Crunchyroll are handling the movie domestically and in select overseas markets. Produced by the team at MAPPA, the R-rated pic is based on the hit manga-turned-anime TV series that is available to stream in the U.S. on Disney+, Crunchyroll and other platforms.
Chainsaw Man follows the adventures of Denji (Kikunosuke Toya), a teenager and demon hunter who is killed by his overlords, the yakuza. But when his beloved chainsaw-powered, devil-dog Pochita (Shiori Izawa) makes a deal and sacrifices himself, Benji is reborn with the ability to transform parts of his body into chainsaws. Along with violence, the pic doubles as a teenage romance with the arrival of the mysterious Reze. However, Reze is not quite who she seems, and a series of battles ensues that could destroy Tokyo when their love story takes a twisted turn.
Directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara, the film is based on Tatsuki Fujimoto’s original story, with a screenplay by Hiroshi Seko.“It’s safe to say that manga and anime fans won’t be disappointed, even if they’ll inevitably be nitpicking about one narrative aspect or another,” writes THR in its review.
Heading into its U.S. opening, Chainsaw Man was expected to battle Blumhouse and Universal’s holdover hit Black Phone 2 for No. 1 with a debut in the $11 million to $12 million range. But it quickly pulled ahead of the pack thanks to males, who made up 75 percent of all ticket buyers, and younger moviegoers, with more than 50 percent of ticket buyers under the age of 25. It’s also drawing an ethnically diverse audience, including over-indexing among Asian moviegoers (17 percent), according to PostTrak.
In second surprise twist, Regretting You — the second Colleen Hoover book adaptation to hit the big screen after 2024’s box office blockbuster It Ends With Us — pulled ahead of Black Phone 2 and Disney’s new bio-drama Deliver Me From Nowhere: Springsteen to come in second on Friday with a better-than-expected $5.2 million from 3,593 locations for an estimated opening of $13 million (rival studios aren’t sure it will actually hit that mark).
Many expected Regretting You to be dinged by generally withering reviews, but the female-fueled pic is garnering strong exits on PosTrak and boasts an audience score of 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes (its CinemaScore, however, was only a B). It’s also clearly benefiting from a glut of male-skewing fare that has dominated the marquee for months, and is also a testament to Hoover’s enduring popularity among younger women and teenagers. (She’s one of many who have been caught up in the ongoing legal battle betweenIt Ends With Us director/producer Justin Baldoni and actress/producer Blake Lively). Females made up nearly 85 percent of Friday’s audience, while 73 percent of all ticket buyers were under the age of 35.
The new film is described as a romantic drama that speaks to the aspirational theme of living life fully and with no regrets. Constantin Films produced and financed the movie, with Paramount acquiring domestic and certain overseas rights. Internationally, the film opens this week in 40 markets, including the U.K., Australia, Brazil and Mexico.
Instead of holding Thursday previews, Paramount hosted a special Regretting You fan event at AMC Lincoln Square in New York City, which was streamed live into 500 theaters across the country. The screening of the pic was accompanied by a Q&A with director Josh Boone and cast members Allison Williams, Dave Franco and Mason Thames.
Saturday will determine whether Regretting You can hold its lead over Blumhouse and Universal’s holdover hit Black Phone 2, which earned $3.8 million on Friday and is projecting a debut in the $12 million-plus range. The pic is holding in remarkably well for a horror title, and should continue to take advantage of being the only major studio horror film opening nationwide over the Halloween corridor this year.
Disney’s bio-drama Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is now expected to come in fourth with $9 million to $10 million after earning $3.5 million on Friday, including $850,000 in Thursday previews. The movie is skewing notably older, which is no surprise. More than 60 percent of ticket buyers on Friday were 45 and older, including 40 percent over the age of 55. Its Rotten Tomatoes critics score presently rests at 66 percent; the RT audience score is far stronger at 83 percent. And it earned a B+ CinemaScore.
Springsteen, playing in a total of 3,460 cinemas, should see a boost from 250 IMAX runs and an additional 750 in other premium large-format auditoriums. The music-infused pic stars Jeremy Allen White in the titular role, and he is credited in THR‘s review for giving a “raw and internalized performance as The Boss.” Jeremy Strong, Stephen Graham and Odessa Young also star in director Scott Cooper’s examination of a brutal comedown after a blockbuster tour, which yielded the prolific musician’s most personal album.
It remains to be seen how much of an impact the first two games of this year’s World Series — which pits the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Toronto Blue Jays — have on the weekend box office. Generally speaking, NFL games pose far more competition. At the same time, L.A. is the largest moviegoing market alongside New York City (it is also the biggest market for anime). Friday night’s opening game of the World Series, as well as Saturday’s, are both in Toronto.
At the specialty box office, Neon is launching Shelby Oaks in 1,823 locations. Marking YouTube movie critic Chris Stuckmann‘s debut feature, the found-footage pic is eyeing an opening in the $2 million to $2.5 million range. So far, its main claim to fame is that it raised $1.4 million via a Kickstarter campaign, the highest amount ever for a horror title, per the crowd-sourcing platform. Neon later provided some additional funds.
Focus Features’ awards contender Bugonia is also making headlines in its limited debut at the specialty box office, and is on course to post an opening per-location average of $32,765 from 17 cinemas, one of the best platform starts of the year to date (it will also be the top location average of the weekend by a long shot). Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, the acclaimed film stars Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons.
Oct. 25, 9:30 a.m.: Updated with Friday grosses.
This story was originally published Oct. 24 at 6:43 p.m.
Amid Blake Lively’s Public Feud With Justin Baldoni, the details of a proposed contract have been revealed. Us Weekly shared that the actress was supposed to be paid over 1.7 million US Dollars in the said agreement. Moreover, apart from her salary, massive bonuses were proposed for each Box Office level reached by It Ends With Us, as well as payouts for nominations and wins at prestigious award ceremonies.
Apart from her ‘fixed compensation’ of almost 2 million USD, the Gossip Girl actress was expected to be paid 10% of the film’s gross proceeds, and that is not including the other add-ons that would come into play with the film’s theatrical performance. These include a 250K USD payout over their earnings of three times that of the ‘direct cost’ of the film’s production. Similar payments were expected at five times and other milestones reached at the box office.
That wasn’t all; Lily Bloom was expected to be her direct ticket to making bank. 100K USD for an Oscar nomination and 200K USD for a win, with a win guaranteeing only the latter. A Golden Globe nomination would earn her 75,000 USD, with a win bringing in 100,000 USD. It did not end there, as a SAG nomination was priced at 50,000 USD and 75,000 USD for a win.
While the majority of the filming was done in New Jersey, Blake Lively, a private jet, was factored in for Las Vegas shoots. They would also include the flying expenses of her four children with Ryan Reynolds, alongside two nannies, her assistant, and her own security team. The assistance was offered at 1,500 USD, alongside a private driver, not to mention 1000 USD/ week costs for training and meal expenses.
Despite the extremely lucrative contract, it has been reported that the copy obtained was merely a draft and not signed by Blake Lively, after all. It is not known what exact deal the two parties reached and if it was more exuberant than these numbers.
Justin Baldoni‘s latest attempt to pull Taylor Swift into his defense against sexual harassment and retaliation allegations from It End With Us co-star Blake Lively looks to be going off the rails faster than the Grammy winner’s upcoming The Life of a Showgirlalbum is expected to rocket to the top of the charts.
Not yet approved by a judge in the case that goes to trial next spring, Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studies inner circle want to see Swift deposed “during the week of October 20-25 due to Ms. Swift’s preexisting professional obligations. However, the recently engaged singer has not been “agreed” to the sit-down next month, which comes weeks after discovery in the matter was supposed to be over, and Baldoni’s side has presented no “evidence” to justify it, says a sharply worded filing by Lively’s lawyers today.
Calling the effort first made public by Baldoni in a September 11 letter to the court, another move “to fuel their relentless media strategy,” Lively attorney Michael J. Gottlieb wants federal Judge Lewis Liman to deny the Swift deposition, its dates and the discovery extension effort. “Even if one were to take the Wayfarer Defendants’ representation at face value, they have not come close to establishing good cause for their requested relief,” the Willkie Farr & Gallagher partner insists.
“The Wayfarer Defendants assert that Ms. Swift is not available for a deposition until October 20, 2025, yet are silent about their efforts (if any) to schedule this deposition during the existing discovery period,” Gottlieb adds.
“That is likely because, as explained in the attached correspondence between the parties, see Exhibit A, the Wayfarer Defendants do not appear to have contacted Ms. Swift’s counsel regarding a date or location about the deposition until earlier this week,” Lively co-lead lawyer states.
“In this respect, the Wayfarer Defendants’ lack of diligence, and disrespect for Ms. Swift’s privacy and schedule, is astounding. Discovery has been ongoing for more than six months, and Ms. Swift is someone whose calendar should be presumed to be packed with professional obligations for months in advance,” Gottlieb continued. “At any point over the past six months, the Wayfarer Defendants could have noticed a deposition, served a subpoena, and negotiated an agreeable time and place for this deposition. But they did not.”
As the overall matter heads towards its March 9, 2026 trial date start, Judge Liman will have the final word – for now – on bringing Swift on board and giving Baldoni and his Wayfarer co-founders more time for their own depositions.
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in a scene from ‘It Ends With Us‘
Sony Pictures Releasing / courtesy Everett Collection
Having been round this maypole before over the months since December 2024 when Lively first made her claims to California Civil Rights Department of what went down on the IEWU production and the online smear campaign that allegedly followed, Swift’s reps did not respond to Deadline’s request for comment on the supposed deposition next month and the back-and-forth correspondence. Baldoni and Wayfarer’s PR team also did not answer a request to respond to today’s damning letter from Livley’s side.
Blake Lively and Taylor Swift attend a private party at Lucalli Pizza restaurant in Brooklyn on January 10, 2024 in New York City (Getty)
Robert Kamau/GC Images
Swift and Lively’s long friendship had been a distinct sub-plot in the IEWU legal battles, with tabloid fodder that the duo have fallen out over the controversy adverse Eras Tour performer getting tainted with the whole thing. Swift was name checked in the self titled Scenario Planning document that Baldoni crisis PR chief Melissa Nathan, who is also a defendant in the case, put together in the summer of 2024 as IEWU‘s premiere loomed. “As part of this, our team can also explore planting stories about the weaponization of feminism and how people in BL’s circle like Taylor Swift, have been accused of utilizing these tactics to ‘bully’ into getting what they want,” the five-pager said in a section called “Scenario 3: Ryan comes forward in defense of his wife.”
On the docket, Swift talking to Baldoni’s Bryan Freedman-led lawyers was a media storm back in May and June. Even before that, Swift, who contributed her ‘My Tears Ricochet’ tune to the Lively cut of IEWU, made a cameo or two in various filings with IEWU director Baldoni feeling ganged up on when Swift’s name was brought up as one of Lively’s “dragons” who backed her suggestions for changes to the movie.
While it does seem that Swift and Lively may not be hangin out that much of late, at least publicly, but the former is still the godmother to one of the latter and Ryan Reynolds’ children. No word, if Lively and Reynolds are going to Swift’s wedding with repeat Super Bowl champ and Kansas City Chief player Travis Kelce – but then again there is no word when that American royalty nuptial day is happening and who is going besides Swift and Kelce.
What we do know is that Swift’s new Life of a Showgirl album is se to drop on October 3 — a few weeks before the deposition Team Baldoni want her to give.
‘The Life of A Showgirl’ album cover
Instagram/ taylorswift / Mert Alas / Marcus Piggott
Zoë Kravitz, the ultimate Hollywood cool girl, just made her directorial debut with Blink Twice — the buzzy thriller starring her finance, Channing Tatum. Luckily for us, this isn’t a Don’t Worry Darling situation — a director and actor finding love while their production burns. And it definitely wasn’t an It Ends With Us situation — a director and actor publically waging war against each other.
But beyond the drama, the main difference between the Blink Twice rollout (complete with a very cutesy press tour featuring Channing and Zoe) is that people are actually responding well to the it-girls directorial debut. A nepo baby with actual talent? More likely than you’d think.
Zoe has been stretching herself as an actor in recent years, with an especially high-profile role as Catwoman in Robert Pattinson’s emo turn as The Batman. She even got props for her acting chops for her role in Big Little Lies — Season 3 when? — and Hulu’s take on High Fidelity. But Kravitz is new on the directing scene and trying to prove her mettle.
Just from the trailer (which features the song “Iko Iko” by the Dixie Cups), you can tell Blink Twice is shot beautifully. From its vibrant color saturation to the interesting perspective choices, Zoe is as invested in the beauty of her film as her enviable beauty routine.
To the point that some freeze frames in the film feel like Sofia Coppolla-esque tapestries that would be at home on Tumblr — except her subject isn’t girlhood, it’s fame and excess.
And since that’s the world that Kravitz grew up in, she knows it well. Yes, some of the aesthetics start to make the movie feel like a collection sumptuous shots vying to mean something, to say something important.
It’s clear from the beginning that Kravitz understands the evils of fame. But does her attempt to convey them to us translate or fall flat thanks to its own self-importance?
While Blink Twice thinks it’s Get Out meets Saltburn, it’s more horrifying than most people will be able to stomach and less effective than Kravitz thinks.
Watch the Blink Twice trailer here:
Is Blink Twice a horror movie?
Blink Twice is billed as a thriller, blending psychological elements with violence and gore. The reviews are coming in and they’re falling in the upper middle percentage range with a 78% on Rotten Tomatoes. Not bad for an ambitious debut. Kravitz, who is surprisingly tight with Taylor Swift, even got the stamp of approval from the megastar via Instagram.
“This film is incredible. Thrilling, twisted, wickedly funny, and visually stunning. The performances are phenomenal. @zoeisabellakravitz conceptualized this, wrote it, obsessed over every detail, and directed it with such a clear and bold vision. I’m so blown away by what she’s accomplished here and I can’t wait to watch everyone discover this film and this brilliant filmmaker,” said Swift on her Stories.
Sure enough, she’s faring better than Swift’s other bestie, Blake Lively, whose It Ends With Us press tour has made her Hollywood’s recent favorite villain. Other stars like Ayo Edebiri have been singing the director’s praises but we have to wonder … are they just being good friends? I’ve been known to support my besties even when they make questionable decisions. Or in this case, movies.
But here at Popdust, we’re not going to applaud any movie just for deigning to have a female director and a moralistic stance on rape culture. Just look at Promising Young Woman by Emerald Fennell, who also directed Saltburn. The buzzy revenge fantasy starring Carey Mulligan got rave reviews from other critics, but we found it wanting any real message. In the same way, Blink Twice falls into the trap of style over substance. Or rather, so much style in the beginning that the director has to rush to hit us over the head with substance by the end.
In a lot of ways, Blink Twice, which was originally called Pussy Island, feels familiar. We’ve seen the “rich dude bad, women fight back” narrative so many times that it feels a bit 2017. Though this time, the story has echoes of Jeffery Epstein (a sentence I shudder to type) and more contemporary references, some are wondering if Kravitz is just cashing in on a narrative that’s already been done to death.
What’s the premise of Blink Twice?
The movie starts with Naomi Ackie as Frida doomscrolling on her phone — relatable. Scrolling past TikTok after TikTok, she stops at a video of a man we later know is Slater King (Channing Tatum), a tech billionaire who is apologizing for something we don’t know about. Frida watches the video with rapt attention before looking him up as we watch, getting the full download of King and his fame. I’ll admit: it’s a compelling opening scene — even if it starts with its protagonist on the toilet. James Joyce did it in Ulysses, after all, and Kravitz is a fan of learning from the greats.
So now that we’ve seen Frida’s life, an admittedly rushed rendering of a Struggling Person, we’re supposed to rationalize the pressing need for escape that leads her to abandon everything to follow a billionaire to a private island. That, as well as the fact that she has a crush on him before they even meet. As a cocktail waitress (and aspiring nail artist), she’s working King’s event while staring at him and sighing like a lovesick teenager. The two have a meet-cute that might make you think this is a romantic drama: she trips, and he offers his hand to help her hip. Cue the first of many sexually charged close-ups of Channing Tatum’s face. Zoë Girl, if I was making a movie that was 50% intimate shots of Channing Tatum, I’d have gotten engaged to him too.
After just one night, Frida gets swept up into King’s world and agrees to go on a lavish island getaway that turns into a nightmare. It starts off idyllic, if not a little strange. Kravitz’s directorial eye really shines in sun-drenched snaps of this idyllic retreat where Frida spends a series of seemingly perfect days alongside a cast of characters that include a former reality TV star (Adria Arjona), a wine snob (Simon Rex), and Slater’s therapist/consultant (Christian Slater). As we learned from Jonah Hill, it’s always a red flag when a person’s therapist becomes their friend.
Yet, all of King’s behaviors are explained away with a shrug — “this must be what rich people do,” Frida rationalizes with her best friend Jess (Alia Shawkat). Until Jess goes missing, the dream vacation turns into a nightmare.
Is Blink Twice a good movie?
On paper, it sounds like it could be a sharp, timely thriller set poolside with sleek Spanish architecture. This is a familiar premise, popular in shows like The White Lotus and films like Knives Out. The costume design is on point too, with the women decked out in flowing white dresses that grow more and more sinister as the movie progresses. But style can only take you so far, and Blink Twice often feels like it’s trying too hard to be provocative and edgy.
The pacing is a major issue. The film’s first half drags, with endless, repetitive scenes of partying and flirting. It’s like Kravitz is so enamored with the glamorous setup that she forgets to move the plot forward. Zoë, if you wanted to make a party movie, you should’ve done that instead of spending over an hour on an ad for a luxury resort before shoving a moralistic ending down our throats. And it’s not just the messaging that’s heavy-handed; it’s the sudden shift to visceral, stomach-turning images of sexual violence.
When things finally do kick into high gear, the action feels chaotic and the plot unearned. Out of nowhere, we’re inundated with gratuitously graphic scenes that make me wonder: do we really need more female-gaze movies about sexual assault when they say nothing new, offer no fresh perspectives and trigger potential trauma?
I felt like I was having a panic attack during the whole second half of the movie. It was an overwrought but ultimately unoriginal lecture set to horrifying scenes of violence against women. And wasting such incredible actors’ work on this tired narrative feels like a missed opportunity. Where there was potential for deftness and nuance, we got a sanctimonious sledgehammer that added nothing new to the conversation about rape culture.
Blink Twice is clearly trying to say something about power dynamics, consent, and the way powerful men can manipulate and abuse women. The problem isn’t that these themes aren’t worth exploring — they absolutely are. But the movie’s approach often feels heavy-handed and simplistic. It’s giving: “I just discovered feminism and now I’m going to make a movie about it.”
There are moments where the movie hits its stride — the sequence where Frida starts piecing together what’s really happening on the island is achingly tense and well-executed. Ackie’s back and forth with Arjona in this sequence is one of the most satisfying parts of the film — but also where it starts to go south.
Blink Twice cast
Yet, despite the circumstances, the actors managed to put on career-defining performances. Naomi Ackie’s turn as Frida is almost good enough to make us forget that the character’s actions — namely, going on a trip with a famously problematic billionaire she met that night — are contrived and unjustified. She shines in the romantic moments and the comedic breaks and is hauntingly convincing in the more violent portions of the film.
Ackie especially shines alongside Adria Arjona, who is having a great summer starring in both this and Hit Man. The two make me wish this movie was more like Bodies Bodies Bodies, comedic and gory without the forced attempt at wokeness. Her character starts as a typical jealous mean girl who embodies the “cool girl” trope as a former contestant of a Survivor-type show starring girls in bikinis and evolves into one of the film’s standout roles.
Channing Tatum is a pleasant (or unpleasant) surprise. Known for his comedic roles, his raunchy dance moves, and, let’s be honest, his abs, Tatum shows he can do more than just flash that million-dollar smile. His Slater King is charming on the surface but has an underlying current of menace that grows more pronounced as the movie progresses. Those close-ups of his eyes go from seductive to sinister. But as the movie reaches its climax, Tatum hits the end of his range and, like the movie, falls flat. I just kept thinking I’d like to see him use this intensity for an actual romance — something like The Vow but with more substance.
Ultimately, the cast is the main reason to watch this film. And the curiosity about what goes on in Zoë Kravtiz’s mind. If it looks like Blink Twice up there, it seems it’s a beautiful but dark place. Despite the nepo baby allegations, there’s definitely potential here. She clearly has a good eye and knows how to create an atmosphere. With less of a need to prove something and a tighter script, she could definitely make something truly impressive in the future. The trouble with being a nepo baby is that you always have to prove you’re not just talented but “deep.” That there’s something within you that justifies your fame. Kravitz was trying to prove that here and ended up doing too much that it basically amounts to nothing.
Blink Twice controversy
What’s surprising is how little the film’s darkness — so overdone in the film — was revealed in the press tour. Clearly, Zoë has trouble with balance and tends to err toward extremes. While Blake Lively is getting flack for not emphasizing the themes of It Ends With Us enough during the press tour, the same criticism can be leveled at Kravitz. Her press rollout seems more like an ad for her relationship with Tatum than a movie about violence against women.
Kravitz has also come under fire for wading into the cancel culture debate — especially when her film is about the hollowness of celebrity apologies. She admitted to loving Roman Polanski in an Esquire interview, where she said she knew it was “controversial.” “It’s okay that somebody bad was involved in something good … What are we supposed to do, get rid of America?” But as someone making a movie about men who abuse their power over women, it’s disappointing to hear such a flippant response on such a nuanced topic.
Kravitz is not the only one whose hypocrisy is a blot on the film’s pietistic aspirations. Alia Shawkat is famously friends with Brad Pitt, who is the ultimate symbol of the status quo — despite his own allegations of violence against women and his seemingly duplicitous public persona. Yes, he’s far less sinister than Slater King, but where do we draw the line? Is badness about degrees? Or have we lost all nuance as viewers that we only recognize bad character when they murder and rape. Is that the unintentional message of Zoë Kravitz’s dark delusion?
In the end, Blink Twice is a bag of cotton candy. Rich, but hollow. It’s stylish but shallow, provocative but predictable. It’s the kind of film that will spark some interesting conversations, even if those conversations are more about what the movie was trying to do rather than what it actually achieved.
New players at the late-summer box office are struggling to find their footing. Holdovers Deadpool & Wolverine, Alien: Romulus and It Ends With Us are easily beating new offerings on the August marquee, including suspense thriller Blink Twice and The Crow reboot. Marking Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut and starring Channing Tatum, Blink Twice looks to […]
We’re in the best of times (brat summer), but we’re also in the worst of times (constantly fielding articles by Some Guy about how brat summer is dead). But how could brat summer be over if I feel it in my heart? If they’re still playing “Guess ft. Billie Eilish” at Tenants of the Trees in LA (where Charli XCX herself had her birthday party for some reason)? And if the impact of brat summer is still causing ripples through the culture it cannot be over.
No, I’m not talking about Kamala’s brat green rebrand. I’m talking about something more substantial — the very same thing that had last summer in the same chokehold: the infectious and irresistible power of girlhood.
Last summer caused a vibe shift. Culture started catering to women. Let’s be real: Women have been the drivers of pop culture for a long time. I, for one, will never forget that artists like The Beatles and Elvis, who are still taken seriously as iconic musical artists today, caused fanatical frenzies, not unlike artists like Justin Bieber and One Direction. Yet, despite our clear good taste, women have historically been written off as fickle while culture catered to men.
Just think of how the 2000s were defined by blockbuster summer movies. Usually, an action movie would dominate, followed by a “chick flick” that was relegated to date nights or the whims of teenage girls. Yet, when Barbenheimer resurrected this dynamic, one had a clear chokehold on the internet and the world. And since I haven’t seen Oppenheimener-flavored Olipops, no prizes for guessing which one it was.
This summer isn’t defined by movies (Twisters and It Ends With Us aren’t the Barbenheimer redux we wanted) it’s characterized by music. And while the guys gave it the old college try — Kendrick did release the ultimate hater anthem with Not Like Us in the Spring — the girls take it yet again.
And despite seasonal albums from established pop stars like Dua Lipa and Ariana Grande, queer (or queer-coded) female artists have blown up this summer. All of them have also been grafting behind the scenes for years before finally getting their flowers. But now the world is listening. We’re learning. And we’re obsessed.
Of course, there’s the princess of the summer, Sabrina Carpenter, who is the latest Disney veteran to make it big. We’ll get to her Disney drama later, but this summer, it’s all about our Short n Sweet queen’s infectious earworms. We called it earlier this year: she is the moment. Her rise to fame has been inevitable.
Then there’s the surprise star of the year, Chappell Roan. So glad bisexual women decided not to gatekeep this absolute star. The fact that I’ve been listening to Chappell since 2020 and I’m still not tired of “Pink Pony Club” says a lot.
But Charli XCX’s mainstream moment is arguably the most surprising. Charli is a giant to music lovers and, of course, the queer community. A real dyed-in-the-wool party girl, she grew up in the clubs and doesn’t just talk the talk, she throws the parties. Despite her collaborations with literally everyone, her Grammys, and her hits, Charli XCX is only now becoming a household name. Why? Because we’re finally ready for her.
Girlhood is brat. Brat is girlhood. Girl, it’s so confusing, but it’s about being a girl
Girlhood is the name of the game and Charli writes for the girls and the gays. Her album speaks to the desire to hold on to the feeling of youth juxtaposed with the realities of growing up. Who can’t relate? She talks about themes integral to girlhood: going on vacation and thinking it will change your life, going to a party and thinking it will change your life, and having dinner with a girl and thinking she hates you.
The latter was the impetus for the internet-breaking track “The girl, so confusing version with lorde.” After Charli released the original version of “girl, so confusing,” the internet rightly assumed it was about her years-long pseudo-beef with Lorde. Lyrics like: “I’m all about throwing parties / You’re all about writing poems,” and “People say we’re alike, they say we’ve got the same hair,” added fuel to the fire of their reported feud. So imagine our surprise when Charli released a version with Lorde herself. Like Miss Ella, honestly, we were speechless.
Lorde knew what she was doing when she said: “When we put this to bed, the internet will go crazy.” Sure enough, the internet erupted. And it did the same once again when footage was released of the two scream-singing their instant classic of a collab at Charli’s birthday party. What a way to put the feud rumors to bed.
Will Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo work it out on the remix?
After Lorde and Charli worked out their decade of competition over a Jack Antonoff beat, the internet speculated: who would be next to quell their beef with the power of song? If it seems like the plot of a Disney movie, get in for the ride — the Disney of it all has just begun.
A few weeks ago, sources reported that former Disney stars turned stadium-selling pop stars Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter might be collaborating on a song. With the upcoming release of Carpenter’s highly anticipated album sneaking up on us, fans speculate that this could be a surprise track waiting on the record.
If you don’t understand how earth-shattering this is, let me take you back to 2021, when Olivia Rodrigo first took the world by storm with her song “drivers license.” The song, and subsequent album, chronicled her heartbreak about how her costar and ex-boyfriend Joshua Bassett left her for “that blonde girl.” The blonde in question? Sabrina Carpenter.
That’s right. Our very own me espresso was the villain in the “drivers license” saga. And you mean to tell me the two of them have put their boy drama aside to collaborate? Please, please, please tell me if this is true. If it is, I’ll be sat watching it unfold. As if I needed another reason to eagerly await the release of Short N Sweet.
In the meantime, I’m making a list and checking it twice about all the other celebs I want to see quell their beef. And yes, the list gets more and more unhinged as you go down, tis the summer of collabs. And our favorite artists are proving that magic can be made if they do it together. Billie and Charli did it. Kendrick and the entire rap community did it. Who is next?
This is my ultimate dream. The Paris Olympics may have made you fantasize about what life would be like if you hadn’t quit JV basketball, but it made me dream about seeing my beloved One Direction again. After all, I can’t watch an opening ceremony without thinking about their performance at the 2012 London Games. Stranger things have happened than a boyband reuniting. The second they announce a tour, I’m quitting my job and dedicating my life to following them around on tour. Hold me to that.
Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan
The Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo feud is the closest our generation will ever get to experiencing the magnitude of drama caused by Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff. As the two defining Disney sensations turned movie stars of their time, Duff and Lohan were pitted against each other by the media. Everybody knew it: the two were rivals in their careers and in their relationships. We’ll never experience that kind of TMZ-stoked animosity again. But we’re older now. Duff and Lohan are both in new phases of their careers. If they worked it, the (millennial side of the) internet really would go crazy.
Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber
These two divas have been competing to be the prince of pop for years. And their silent feud runs deep. In a radio interview at the beginning of Shawn’s career, Justin responded to a question about the other Canadian crooner with the dismissive and deadly, “who’s Shawn Mendes?” Then, after Mendes appeared with Hailey Baldwin at the Met Gala in 2018, Bieber quickly reignited his relationship with our favorite nepo baby and married her. Talk about winning the battle. The two already have a song together, “ Monster,” but no one is buying that they’ve really worked it out. I want to see Shawn at Justin and Hailey’s baby shower or bust.
Justin Bieber and Harry Styles
Speaking of pop feuds, Bieber and Styles have been toeing a tension-laden line since 2012. Rumors swirled that One Direction was supposed to open for Bieber on his Believe tour but the plans were canceled — and dreams died. Reasons abound as to why but I suppose we’ll never know. As someone who attended that Believe tour, I have been waiting for them to work it out on the remix ever since.
Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus and The Jonas Brothers
Other feuds from my childhood I want fixed: the Disney Channel stars involved in the seminal sustainability single, “Send It On.” That was our Fleetwood Mac Rumors. With loyalties crossed, relationships breaking friendships, and a whole lot of teen angst going on, the Disney Channel producers had one song and one song only to change lives. While we were watching “Send It On” play during Disney breaks, we had no clue about the drama simmering beneath the surface. But imagine if they put that to bed? The internet would go crazy.
Joe Jonas and Taylor Swift
Of all of Taylor’s exes, she’s clearly already worked it out with Taylor Lautner — who was backflipping across her Eras tour stages for a brief stint last summer. But the reconciliation I really want is between Taylor and Joe. Sure, she’s written some scathing songs about him. And she told the world on Ellen that he broke up with her in 17 seconds. And she’s befriended Sophie Turner. But for a brief moment, Taylor made up with Kanye West, so stranger things have happened. Can you imagine a mashup between “SOS” by The Jonas Brothers and “The Story of US” by Taylor Swift? My Spotify Wrapped would become unshareable.
Katy Perry and Taylor Swift
Though allegedly this feud started due to the backup dancers, Perry has become one of Swift’s famed list of enemies. And as the queen of “Karma,” Swifties know that all of Taylor’s adversaries never fare well — just look at Ye or Scooter Braun. Katy Perry’s comeback might be another one of these casualties. Ouch. If the two managed to reconcile their “Bad Blood,” imagine the album Katy Perry would create.
Nelly Furtado and Fergie
Remember the song “ Give It To Me” by Timbaland, Nelly Furtado, and Justin Timberlake? Thanks to TikTok, the song experienced a recent resurgence. But did you know the entire song is a diss track? Justin Timberlake’s verse is about Prince (more insane than “what tour? The world tour”), Timbaland’s verse is about Scott Storch, and Nelly Furtado’s verse is about Fergie. But what if we stopped pitting two pop icons against each other and instead begged them both to have a comeback … together?
The Don’t Worry Darling Cast
The Don’t Worry Darling press tour pitted all our favorite stars against each other in the public arena: Harry Styles, Florence Pugh, Olivia Wilde, Chris Pine, and Gemma Chan. And while that trainwreck of a movie doesn’t need a sequel, I would animatedly watch one just to keep keen eyes on the press tour.
The It Ends With Us Cast
If we thought there would never be another press tour as dramatic as Don’t Worry Darling, Justin Baldoni of the It Ends With Us cast just hired Johnny Depp’s lawyer — so it’s inarguably surpassed its dramatic predecessor. With Blake Lively and Baldoni both waging a press war, some are hoping It Ends With Us will just … end. But I need a little entertainment to tide me over into fall. And if the movie itself won’t provide it, the hope of a last-gasp reconciliation might.
Kendrick Lamar and Drake
I know this will never happen. In fact, if it did, I’d lose some respect for Kendrick, honestly. But sometimes I like to imagine that all of this was just marketing for a joint album a la “Watch the Throne.”
As the first hire for the It Ends With Us film adaption, screenwriter-producer Christy Hall knew she had a long road ahead of her.
After she was asked to pen the script by director Justin Baldoni, who developed the movie via his Wayfarer Studios shingle, and author Colleen Hoover, whose 2016 best-seller inspired the adaptation, Hall jumped right into immersing herself in the book and its beloved story.
“I like to do that first, just fall in love with every word, fall in love with every moment, fall in love with every line,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. And that’s kind of my marinating piece of it.”
Christy Hall
Cindy Ord/Getty Images
From there, she started creating the screenplay, aiming to stick to the “core story as much as possible,” while also being “extremely strategic and systematic” about what stays in from the book and what doesn’t. In addition, she wanted to make Hoover proud as well.
It Ends With Us follows Lily (Blake Lively) who overcomes a traumatic childhood and embarks on a new life. But after getting romantically involved with neurosurgeon Ryle (Baldoni), she sees sides of him that remind her of her parents’ abusive relationship. And when someone from her past, Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), reenters her life, it complicates things even more and Lily must learn to rely on her own strength to move forward.
Now, years later and with the film finally in theaters, Hall hopes the adaptation “destigmatizes” domestic violence and “sparks a lot of conversation” around the subject.
“I just think it’s art’s job to ignite conversations that can be uncomfortable and hard. But it’s kind of its job to shed light on the darker corners of society,” she says. “And I really believe that art saves lives. I believe this book has saved lives. So I just really hope that the movie can continue the legacy that Colleen Hoover herself started.”
Below, Hall also talks with THR about the pressure “to do this book justice” for Hoover, book fans and everyone involved in the adaptation, her process of writing the screenplay, and why she hopes the movie inspires Hollywood to tell more stories that “society needs.” The conversation took place before reports of a rift between Lively and Baldoni came to light.
Going back to the beginning, how did you first get attached to pen the script?
My film Daddio came out like six weeks ago, [Baldoni], read that as a spec. He also read an adaptation I did for 21 Laps, Shawn Levy’s company. And he reached out to me and said, “I just really feel in my bones that you’re the one to adapt this.” I had not read the book at the time, but he said, “Look, go read it. You’re gonna wanna do this and give me a call.” And that’s exactly what happened. I went away and I read the book and I really, absolutely fell in love with Colleen Hoover as a result. I love that she’s very vocal about that this was inspired by events in her life. I love that I felt like I was just reading a very classic love story and that slowly but surely you realize that Lily was a frog in boiling water. I ultimately called Justin and said it would be my honor and privilege if you guys will have me.
He set up a Zoom with me and Colleen … and we hit it off right away. There was a lot of trust there. I was kind of auditioning for her. I was telling her these are all the things that I feel like we can really preserve in the novel, and then here are things that I think we can continue to explore. Because it’s not a novel, it’s a screenplay, there’s limited real estate. It’s a three-act structure – I was already flagging for her that I maybe want to explore in terms of additions to the narrative. And then here are things that I already instinctively feel like might need to be cut. I basically just laid it out for her. And I like to speak very honestly in meetings, like this is my instinct and if it doesn’t feel like a good fit for you, then no harm, no foul. But I like to be very transparent in meetings like that. And I was thrilled that at the end of that conversation. It was probably an almost two-hour Zoom that we had just really talking about it, really unpacking it. And at the end, she told Wayfarer, “that’s our girl,” so I was thrilled. I felt like I’d won the lottery.
Originally, we thought this was gonna be a small indie movie that maybe Wayfarer would sell on the other side. But I’m a big believer, if you build it, they will come. So it’s been an incredible journey to go from writing a script and then Sony got involved and then Blake got cast and now it’s just swelled into something that is just deeply exciting and humbling.
Knowing the book and story are beloved by so many fans, did you feel any pressure when it came to adapting it into a screenplay?
Not just by the fans, but by everyone involved. Hundreds of people gathered together to create a village to make this movie. And I believe that everyone was there for the right reasons. We all wanted to do this book justice because we were all fans. So, yes, I felt outside pressure because there’s a lot of expectation around this book. But I even felt internal pressure. I love this book. And Colleen chose me and I was damned if I was gonna let her down.
Can you walk viewers through the process of taking an established story in a book and transforming it into a screenplay?
I take a few months to read it and then read it again and then read it again and read it again and just completely immerse myself in the original material to the point that I almost have it memorized. Then from there, you have to start already thinking in a three-act structure, you already have to really be thinking about drive, you have to be thinking about the midpoint, you have to be thinking about the turns. The other complicated thing about this one is it’s a dual timeline, so you have even less real estate if you think about it. There are two stories being told, there’s the past timeline that basically starts when we see Lily wake up and then all the way until she’s seeing – spoiler alert – Atlas being loaded into the ambulance. Then the present timeline. You have to be extremely strategic and systematic about what holds and what doesn’t. And I think a lot of it was just sticking with the core story as much as possible.
No decision was made lightly. We wanted everything to be blessed by Colleen herself because if Colleen isn’t happy, I don’t know what the point [is].
Knowing there is a heavy topic in the story, notably domestic violence, what kind of preparations and research did you do to help make sure its depicted accurately?
I know Wayfair partnered with a company, I believe it’s called NO MORE, to just make sure that we were getting it right and that we were being extremely thoughtful about the decisions we were making. And again, I have a lot of respect for the fact that this is not an autobiographical story, but it is inspired by true events in Colleen’s life specifically. So just really allowing her to be our North Star and then also working with this organization. They read the script, they saw early assemblies of the edit. I think that partnership was a really integral part of it.
Once the film is fully cast, do you go back and make any changes to the script after knowing which actor is playing each character?
I actually try not to write with an actor in my head. Especially for this because in Colleen’s novel, the characters she’s created are very distinctive, very specific. And so [I’m] just trying to honor what Colleen had created in these characters. I absolutely love everyone’s performance. I think Blake’s performance is just absolutely pitch perfect. I have to say Jenny Slate — she is Allysa. I mean, she’s everything you want her to be when you’re reading the book. I feel like it was just cast extremely well and I feel like those performers just really delivered characters that again started with Colleen. I’m just really, really proud of them for that.
I know you couldn’t be on the set due to the writers strike that year, but can you talk about your other role as a producer of the project?
I was able to be deeply involved all the way up until my union [Writers Guild of America] announced the strike. And then as soon as the strike was over, I was able to then be involved and give notes on the edit and I saw very early assemblies, and I was able to then be activated again, which was great. So I’m very proudly a producer on this film, but I’m also very proudly a member of the WGA. I’m sad I couldn’t be on set every day, that was the intention. But also I’m very proud to have stood with my union.
Since you’re been on this journey since the beginning, literally as the first hire, what do you hope audiences walk away with after seeing the film?
I hope that it maybe destigmatizes this subject matter. This can be an uncomfortable subject matter, and I feel like this tends to just kind of be relegated to indie movies talking about domestic abuse. And I’m really proud that… I have to give a shout to Sony to put out a movie that is very glossy and commercial. There’s a lot of wish fulfillment around it. It’s very beautiful. And also it’s tackling a tricky subject matter. So I hope it destigmatizes, I hope it sparks a lot of conversation. I hope that victims who are seeing this movie might seek help. I hope that abusers who see this movie might also seek help. … I hope it inspires friends of victims, you know, you don’t have to force your help but you can offer it and you can render yourself a lifeline and a very safe place to run to if and when a victim is really ready to receive that help. I just think it’s art’s job to ignite conversations that can be uncomfortable and hard. But it’s kind of its job to shed light on the darker corners of society.
Let’s start with something about me: I hate Colleen Hoover books. I despise how TikTok convinced the world that her writing was revolutionary, her plot lines intricate, her style original. It’s a step above airport romance novels in my opinion…so when one of her hit novels, It Ends With Us, was adapted to a movie starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, I was disappointed but not surprised.
And to make matters worse, I was constantly reminded of this fact because it was filmed on my street in Hoboken, New Jersey…but enough about me. It Ends With Us finally hit theaters on August 9, and the press tour has been nothing short of catastrophic.
We have the internet up in flames ready to burn Blake Lively at the stake for a multitude of reasons (including, but definitely not limited to) her fashion sense, her “pick me” attitude, or her dismissive commentary on domestic abuse, which is a main focus of the film itself. Not only that, but there’s clear tension between Justin Baldoni and the rest of the cast, who stumble over cute press questions like “What was it like working together?”
It’s all very reminiscent of Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry, Darling, which starred Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, and was riddled with obvious cast member drama from the beginning…yet, it’s less hilarious and more annoying. But let’s break down the It Ends With Us press tour drama before you get even more confused.
What’s Going On With The It Ends With Us Cast?
Let’s put it into perspective. Things have gotten so bad that director and actor, Justin Baldoni, has hired the same PR crisis manager (Melissa Nathan) that both Johnny Depp and Logan Paul have used. As the press tour surged on, fans began to notice Baldoni was absent from group press events as reports swirled about disputes between himself and Lively during post-production.
If you see Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni on the same couch together during this press junket, then consider yourself lucky. They’ve split up their press tour with respective outlets: Baldoni gets Access Hollywood, Today, ET!, and GMA; Lively gets Vogue, Capital FM, and CBS Mornings.
Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that disagreements arose during the final cut while filming. Lively, a producer on It Ends With Us, had scenes she wanted and even commissioned her own cut of the film. However, Forbesassures this can happen without indicating a feud.
Fans have been reading in between the lines during press interviews. Lively has made a few interesting comments furthering the creative control rumors. At one point, she even mentions her husband, Ryan Reynolds, wrote a scene in the film, which some believe was the start of their fight. Then, in another interview, Lively shares she got in a fight with an unnamed person about removing a Lana Del Rey song from the film.
However, given the film’s references to domestic violence, this Lana Del Rey song could have been considered controversial. “Cherry” details loving a man despite all of the hard times in an extremely toxic and unhealthy relationship. So, if Baldoni was the one Lively had to fight, he may have had a point.
In his own interview with Elle, Baldoni admits to tensions on set: “There are all these things that happen every day on set, there’s always friction that happens when you make a movie like this. Then at the end of the day, it’s that friction, I believe, that creates the beautiful art,”
Cast member Jenny Slate adds fuel to the fire by dodging questions about Justin Baldoni. Slate told a reporter that it “must be difficult working two jobs” when asked what it was like working with him. When Baldoni was asked about Lively, he claimed it “seems like she’s ready to direct.”
There’s been nothing but shade, and apparently, the movie isn’t even that great. What I think everyone can agree on is this press tour needs to end.
In mid-June, star-producer Blake Lively traveled to Dallas to attend author Colleen Hoover’s Book Bonanza for a Q&A in the lead-up to the August release It Ends With Us. Lively surprised the 2,000-plus attendees when she announced they could screen a rough cut of the movie adaptation the following night.
The screening of the movie — the first of Hoover’s popular novels to hit the screen — proved to be a stroke of marketing genius for Sony, which bought rights to release the movie from Wayfarer Studios, whose co-founder, Justin Baldoni, both directed and stars in the film.
“Colleen Hoover’s Book Bonanza and her fans sparked the fire that was the beginning of the cultural movement,” says Josh Greenstein, a veteran marketer and president of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group.
Absent, however, from the Dallas gathering was Baldoni. The version shown that night was Lively’s preferred rough cut of the movie.
By the time the movie opened Aug. 9, an ugly war had erupted on TikTok and other social media platforms pitting Baldoni and Lively against each other. Many took aim at Lively, despite reports that some cast and crew members, including Lively, felt uncomfortable over Baldoni’s behavior on set.
The rift became undeniable when Baldoni didn’t appear in any cast group photos with Lively, Hoover and the other lead stars at the New York premiere (many had also unfollowed him on Instagram). He later didn’t attend the U.K. premiere, and instead stayed in New York for several appearances on CBS Mornings and the Today show. In recent days, he hired PR crisis communications exec Melissa Nathan.
It Ends With Us stars Lively as Lily Bloom, a woman who overcomes a traumatic childhood watching her father abuse her mother to embark on a new life in Boston and fulfill a lifelong dream of opening her own business. A chance meeting with charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni) sparks an intense connection, but as the two fall deeply in love, Lily begins to see sides of Ryle that remind her of her parents’ relationship. When Lily’s first love, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), suddenly reenters her life, her relationship with Ryle is upended, and Lily realizes she must learn to rely on her own strength to make an impossible choice for her future.
Sony’s marketing campaign — in staying true to Hoover’s book — conveyed that It Ends With Us isn’t a story of victimhood, but a story of redemption. It traverses falling in love, becoming an entrepreneur, friendship and family, alongside pain and trauma. “Lily is a survivor and a victim, but that doesn’t define her, as she is in charge of her identity and her story. These themes were important to the campaign,” says one source connected to the film’s rollout.
Lively echoed those same sentiments when asked at the New York premiere on Aug. 6 about what she would say to survivors who see this movie and recognize their own traumas. “I think that you’re so much — and not to minimize it — but you are so much more than just a survivor or just a victim. While that is a huge thing, you are a person of multitudes, and what someone has done to you doesn’t define you. You define you.” Hoover has always said the same of her book.
Sony is fully in sync with Lively.
“Blake, Colleen and so many women put so much effort into this remarkable movie, working selflessly from the start to ensure that such an important subject matter was handled with care. Audiences love the movie. Blake’s passion and commitment to advancing the conversation around domestic violence is commendable,” Sony Pictures Entertainment Chair-CEO Tony Vinciquerra told The Hollywood Reporter. “We love working with Blake, and we want to do 12 more movies with her.”
Baldoni has been vocal about why he felt like this story needed to be adapted for the big screen, previously telling THR, “This is one that could actually make a real difference, this could save life.” He also acknowledged that the topic of domestic violence needed to be treated with care in the adaptation.
The female-fueled pic exceeded all expectations in debuting to $50 million last weekend at the North American box office to almost catch up with the third-weekend earnings of Deadpool & Wolverine, starring Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds.
On Monday and Tuesday, It Ends With Us it overtook Deadpool to top the domestic box office charts for a five-day domestic tally of $64 million, a tidy sum for a film that cost $25 million to produce. Overseas, it’s opened to north of $30 million, meaning it’s likely already crossed the $100 million mark.
Sources have told THR that there was a fracture between Baldoni and Lively in the postproduction stage, wherein two different cuts of the movie emerged. Lively commissioned a cut of the movie from editor Shane Reid, who was an editor on Deadpool & Wolverine, according to multiple sources.
On Friday of the movie’s opening, Baldoni was asked if he would consider directing the book adaptation of Hoover’s sequel It Starts With Us. He suggested that Lively might be best suited for the job.
Even if Ryan Reynolds insisted upon wielding NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” (and its signature choreo) as the song for the opening scene of Deadpool and Wolverine, Blake Lively (a.k.a. Mrs. Reynolds) has seen fit to remind people that her millennial-oriented loyalties are forever with Britney Spears. Even when she “lightly” shades Lively for pulling an Ambular in Clueless by “going through her laundry.” Indeed, lately, and at their own peril, millennial women have taken a shine to paying major homage to one, Miss Spears.
It started earlier this summer with Halsey releasing what amounted to a bad cover version of Spears’ 2000 hit, “Lucky.” Although Halsey assured fans that she, of course, got Spears’ permission to use the song and “pay homage” to it with an accompanying video, Spears posted a rather unfavorable take on the single by saying, “For obvious reasons I’m very upset about the Halsey video. I feel harassed, violated and bullied. I didn’t know an artist like her and someone I looked up to and admired would illustrate me in such an ignorant way by tailoring me as a superficial pop star with no heart or concern at all. I have my own health problems which is why I took down my IG account yesterday. I will definitely be putting it back up to show I CARE. I’m speaking with my lawyers today to see what can be done on this matter. It feels illegal and downright cruel.”
Soon after, the post was deleted and replaced by Spears’ insistence that the condemnation was merely “fake news !!! That was not me on my phone !!! I love Halsey and that’s why I deleted it 🌹 !!!” Whether or not Spears’ phone was possessed by another person or another one of Spears’ personalities is at one’s discretion. However, based on this other recent “emotional flare-up” on Spears’ part, it appears as though she may very well have been the true culprit behind the Halsey shade. This based on the fact that, after Blake Lively showed up to the August 6th premiere of It Ends With Us wearing the Versace butterfly dress that Spears famously sported in 2002, Spears felt obliged to respond “indirectly” by, days later, posting a video of herself wearing a riff on the same dress (albeit shorter and differently cut) with the caption, “UPDATED VERSION OF MY 2002 VERSACE DRESS 👗 !!! I LIKE IT WAY BETTER. SHOWS MY LEGS !!! 💅🏻👗🌷🌷.” She then included the post-script, “I’m no @blakelively but I like it.”
Of course, while some might try to insist Spears meant “no shade,” her dick-swinging behavior of late was on-brand for her post-conservatorship, no-fucks-given vibe. (Besides that, why choose to make mention of the same dress and assert her dominance over it at the exact moment after Lively chose to wear it?) In point of fact, Spears has come a long way from being self-effacing and unwilling to take credit for all that she’s done for and contributed to music and pop culture, suddenly suffering no fools when it comes to “tributes.” Regardless of how effusive they might be. This even includes Lively’s gushing Instagram story post directed at Spears upon donning the dress: “Today’s mood. The ultimate queen who made us all want to sparkle and write and share our stories. Britney, us millennials all have a story of a moment, or of years that you made us want to shine and inspire awe, with strength, and joy and immensely hard work. Thank you for your example and your contribution to women telling their stories. So excited about your biopic and all you have to come.” Naturally, this sort of “love letter” to another “stronger than yesterday” woman is befitting of somebody who is known, apparently, as a “crown straightener” a.k.a. “a woman going around straightening all the women’s crowns around her.”
At the premiere itself, Lively continued to rave, “It’s Britney’s actual dress. It should be in the Smithsonian or the Met [instead, it was available via Tab Vintage]. But it’s on me. I feel so lucky.” Ah, that word—which also serves as the song title that Halsey recently “borrowed.” So yes, it would appear that the fellow millennial women showing Spears so much love of late aren’t exactly getting it in return in quite the same maudlin way, with Lively also noting at the premiere, “This dress meant so much to me because of what she meant to me.” Maybe, in this case, Spears was offended by use of the past tense, with Lively continuing, “Like, she was just somebody who represented, like, love and beauty and youth and hard work and determination and strength, and she was in touch with her sexuality and her delicacy and she just sort of represented it all.” To which one must ask: then what does she represent in the present tense?
During what some would like to call her “heyday” (a generally off-putting word used to signify that one’s prime is over), Spears wore the dress to Versace’s presentation of the 2003 women’s spring/summer collection in October of 2002, shortly after her very public breakup with Justin Timberlake—the one that, as she described it, turned her from a pop princess into a “harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy.” This stated in her memoir The Woman In Me. A book that also takes pause to mention what the Versace butterfly dress and the trip to Milan that year meant to her, with Spears stating, “That trip invigorated me—it reminded me that there was still fun to be had in the world. That party was really the first thing I did to put myself out there after the breakup with Justin—on my own, innocent.” A far cry from her declaration of being “not that innocent” in 2000. In any case, perhaps Lively choosing to home in on that particular aspect of her sartorial iconography felt, somehow, like an invasion of what the form-fitting gown signified to her: a newfound liberty—emerging from a chrysalis after being imprisoned in bubblegum pop/Timberlake land.
At the It Ends With Us premiere, Lively also mentioned, “When this dress was available I was like, ‘Yes, I need it!’ I’ve had it for almost a year now and I’ve been saving it for this.” Not just because one of Spears’ songs appears on the soundtrack, but because it does have a certain “floral-themed” quality to it that correlates with Lively’s flower shop-owning character, Lily Bloom. And while a few might question the relevance of the movie using Spears’ 2003 single, “Everytime,” during the ending credits of the film (performed, instead, by Ethel Cain), any millennial girl can tell you that the song was aimed at Timberlake. At the time when their relationship reigned supreme in the hearts and minds of America, the aftermath of that relationship proved just how, that’s right, toxic (to name another Britney single) the dynamic actually was. Much the same as Lily and Ryle’s (Justin Baldoni) in the movie. Or Lively and Justin Baldoni’s behind the scenes of making it.
In any event, like Halsey, Lively wasn’t deterred from continuing to express her love for Spears even after the “misunderstanding,” “hearting” Spears’ post about the updated version of her dress (the caption, in typical Spears style, was later deleted). A supportive move (in the wake of having cold water dumped on her enthusiasm) that was almost as uncaring and unbothered as Halsey saying, after Spears (or her “handler”) publicly declaring her disdain for “Lucky” 2.0, “I love Britney!!!! I always have and always will[,] you were the first person who ever made me realize what it means to feel inspired. And you continue to inspire me every day.”
Because, no matter what Spears tries to do to deter her original millennial fanbase, there is, evidently, no behavior she can engage in that would ever turn them away from her often uncouth responses to their expressions of love. Besides, when you’ve got a territorial dick to swing, you’ve got to swing it.
