Words by Nikki Peach Hollywood \u2018It\u2019 couples are often put on a pedestal, but they are seldom able to stay there. Sometimes it feels like the only thing people love more than seeing celebrity couples rise to the top is watching them fall.<\/p>\n The latest victims are former Hollywood favourites, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. The couple first got together in 2011 and married the following September, and they now have four children together \u2013 three daughters and a son. Until recently, they were widely considered untouchable. Aside from gushing about each other in interviews, they have managed to keep details of their family life fairly private and have both remained popular and largely inoffensive players on the Hollywood scene.<\/p>\n However, in a summer that sees them both star as leads in two of the biggest box office films \u2013 Deadpool & Wolverine and It Ends With Us \u2013 the tide has started to turn. While Reynolds has been promoting a Marvel blockbuster alongside Hugh Jackman, Lively has been promoting the screen adaptation of Colleen Hoover\u2019s best-selling novel, which deals with themes of generational trauma and domestic abuse.<\/p>\n They have both been marked presences on the red carpets of each other\u2019s premieres, and Lively even said that Reynolds \u2018wrote the iconic balcony scene\u2019 in It Ends With Us, which was news to the screenwriter Christy Hall who said she had \u2018no idea\u2019 Reynolds was involved. The Gossip Girl star said, \u2018He works on everything I do; I work on everything he does. His wins, his celebrations are mine and mine are his.\u2019 As such, Lively has been accused by some of using the film to promote their brand as a couple.<\/p>\n Some fans have even accused them of wanting It Ends With Us and Deadpool & Wolverine to be their \u2018Barbenheimer\u2019 moment \u2013 referencing the box office battle between Barbie and Oppenheimer last summer, where fans were encouraged to dress up in pink and black to see each film. One fan on X wrote, \u2018Blake Lively is finished. A movie about domestic violence is not Barbie 2.0\u2019<\/p>\n Lively has also been criticised for appearing to make light of the film\u2019s darker themes during interviews by telling fans to \u2018grab your friends, wear your florals\u2019 and to head to the cinema. The actress later clarified that she thinks her character Lily Bloom \u2018is not just a survivor, and she\u2019s not just a victim, while those are huge things to be, they\u2019re not her identity\u2019.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] This has been in stark contrast to the director, Justin Baldoni, who has repeatedly emphasised the film\u2019s more serious nature. At a screening in LA, he spoke to the audience before the film started and said, \u2018This film is about love, it\u2019s about hope, it\u2019s about romance. But it\u2019s also about something very serious \u2013 intimate partner violence. [\u2026] If you see somebody at the end of this film sitting alone and shaking or emotional, maybe consider going up to them and asking them if you can support them in some way.\u2019<\/p>\n The apparent discrepancies between Lively and Baldoni\u2019s understandings of the film, and indeed their approaches to marketing it, have been widely discussed online with Lively receiving a great deal of backlash. Last week, she appeared to respond to the criticism via her Instagram story, writing: \u2018One in four women aged 18 and older in the US alone have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Intimate partner violence affects all genders, including more than 12 million people every year in the United States. Everyone deserves relationships free from domestic violence.\u2019 She also shared a link to the National Domestic Violence helpline as a resource.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for Lively, the backlash surrounding her promotion of It Ends With Us has meant a series of past interview clips have resurfaced online. In one viral clip from the Caf\u00e9 Society press junket in 2016, journalist Kjersti Flaa says \u2018Congratulations on your little bump\u2019 to a then-pregnant Lively and the actress sarcastically responds, \u2018Congratulations on your little bump.\u2019 Flaa has since admitted the interview left her feeling \u2018paralysed\u2019 and \u2018like a complete failure\u2019. The interaction has become a breakout search term on Google, with \u2018Blake Lively rude interview\u2019, \u2018Blake Lively awkward interview\u2019 and \u2018Blake Lively bad interview\u2019 all related queries.<\/p>\n Lively has also been called out for using the hype around It Ends With Us to promote her haircare line, Blake Brown Beauty, which she launched in tandem with the film. She also sponsored the premieres with her alcohol company, Betty Buzz, and had cocktails named after characters. One such drink is called \u2018Ryle you wait\u2019, with Ryle being the name of the man who abused her character in the film. Another is called, \u2018It Ends With Buzz\u2019.<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/08\/imago752155188.jpg” alt=”Jennifer Aniston” title_text=”imago752155188″ force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” min_height=”107px” custom_padding=”||0px|||” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]‘It is a careful lesson in PR and a reminder not to underestimate the savvy of your audience’<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”|||0px||” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]