Journalist recalls 'traumatising' moment Blake Lively left her uncomfortable with comment about her body
While the Blake Lively lawsuit has been settled out of court and It Ends With Us was released two years ago, the saga involving the controversy surrounding the film continues.
Lively, 38, and her co-star and director Justin Baldoni, 42, got into a public feud after the movie's release, with Lively accusing Baldoni of running a smear campaign against her.
Lively alleged that negative stories were planted on the internet by Baldoni’s crisis PR team – which she claimed included renewed interest in a very awkward 2016 interview where she confronted a journalist.
Kjersti Flaa, 53, interviewed the Gossip Girl actress for the 2016 film Café Society, and brought on Lively’s wrath when she said ‘congratulations on your little bump’ to an at-the-time pregnant star.
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Lively appeared to respond passive aggressively, saying the same thing back to her, with the Norwegian journalist not being pregnant herself.
Things got more awkward from there when Flaa tried to change the subject to asking about the costumes in Café Society, with Lively questioning if the men in the film would be asked about their clothes.
Lively then began talking to her co-star Parker Posey, who was also in the junket interview, and ignoring Flaa.
Flaa reshared the clip - titled 'The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job' - amid the controversy with Lively and Baldoni breaking out in late 2024, and has claimed the incident ‘traumatised her’.
'I couldn’t believe they were actually doing it'
Speaking to PageSix in a new interview, Flaa admitted she was ‘in shock’ during the interview, adding: “As a journalist, you always have to take the high road, you know?
“So when I was sitting there, I couldn’t react to what they were doing to me in a sense of like leaving or talking back to them or doing anything like that, because I knew if I did, then I would never get opportunities like that again.
“Not that I necessarily wanted to interview Blake again, but, you know, she has a publicist, and then they talk and then they blacklist you. That’s how it works, right?
“So I just sat there and then I started getting more and more frustrated and angry and upset and all these emotions because I was like, I couldn’t believe they were actually doing it. I was just in shock.”
Flaa added that it was a ‘really traumatising experience’. She had been one of the first names subpoenaed to speak at the potential civil trial by Lively, and would have had to take the stand if it had gone ahead.
In a previous interview with the Daily Mail, Flaa said: “For her, this is an orchestrated smear campaign against her and she believes people still love her.
“It's so delusional. She really truly believes this ... that's the tragic thing in all of this. In her wildest imagination, she cannot fathom that people don't like her.”
Why did the journalist wait until 2024 to release the Blake Lively footage?
Previously, Flaa told LADbible why she released the footage of their interview.
Apparently, it just happened to come at the time it did, as the journalist noted: “A week ago, I was contacted by another reporter who had just gotten his interview confiscated at a press junket.
“He asked me if it had ever happened to me and we started comparing notes. I remembered the horrible interview I had with Blake Lively that I never wanted to share with anyone because the experience had traumatised me so much.
“But after talking to him, I decided to put it on my YouTube channel. I think it’s about time that people behaving badly in Hollywood gets called out for it. It’s not okay, even if you are rich and famous.”
LADbible reached out to the representatives of Blake Lively for comment.
Topics: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Celebrity, TV and Film
Michael Slavin