Lively v. Baldoni 48 - Blake Bamboozles Baldoni at Book Bonanza

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors — the audio is the record.

0:00:25 Thomas: Gavel in gavelinos. It's Thomas. That's Lydia. How are you doing?

0:00:29 Lydia: I am doing well. I have, man, let's see, one gavel, two gavels, three gavelS. I just have a lot of gavel's. I've a lot gavel. They're sharp. They ready to go.

0:00:34 Thomas: Have you sharpened them? Your gavels are sharp.

0:00:41 Lydia: Yeah, armed and dangerous with my gavel'S.

0:00:43 Thomas: I need to borrow your gavel sharpener.

0:00:44 Lydia: Where would you sharpen the gavel? Like the stick end? I'll hammer somebody and stabs and it's like a shank. Like if we ever end up in jail. Got it.

0:00:46 Thomas: The other end, the stick end. Yeah, it's like a double weapon. Like you can like, you can hit with it. Yeah.

0:00:57 Thomas: Yeah, it's my prison gavel. No, I've long said I'm gonna have my own gavel. First on trial, when the judge does something, I'll be, "I could do that too. Bang, bang, you know, I'm innocent. Dang, dang, dang." Yeah, I think it's gonna go real well. Speaking

0:01:01 Lydia: You just take Take it from the judge. Like after you get your sentence, steal it and take it with you.

0:01:11 Lydia: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Clank, clank ,clank. Yep. Yep. I think you're going to be really successful in court. Oh, boy.

0:01:20 Thomas: Of things going well, we got a lot to talk about today. We're gonna get to play a clip from Book Bonanza. It's, it's rare that we get to play, I mean, not super rare, but it's a little bit rare that we get, uh, multimedia involved in our complaint evaluation we have before, in terms of the, you know, we got the bar scene stuff.

0:01:27 Lydia: All right. Exactly. Patrons got a Candace Owens exclusive regarding the bar scene.

0:01:41 Thomas: Yeah, I forgot about that. But this is actually from, well, I can't remember if it's the complaint or the timeline, but there's something that was linked in the complaint of the timeline. And so I had to naturally had to check it out. Most likely it would probably not be the complaint, but you never, you just never know with these folks. It's so many pages. Nobody read it but us. I'm excited. So there's that. There's all kinds of other stuff. We're going to talk about producer credits. There's a lot to get through. So with our gavels properly sharpened, is the other end a pencil though, or is it just a stabbing thing? I

0:01:50 Lydia: Yeah, probably the timeline. Yeah, true, true. Wait, so wait, how many ends are you trying to say that there are gavels? Okay, so you're saying it's not a shank, it's a

0:02:17 Thomas: Think a gavel pencil. No, the end that we're sharpening, like a gavel-pencil combo. I mean, you could stab somebody with it, it's harder wood than a pencil, like it's more substantial wood, but you maybe it's a pen, I don't know. You know how, um,

0:02:25 Lydia: Pencil, it's really sharp pencil. Yeah. Yeah, it's gonna be a Lord of the Rings reference. I thought it was gonna be related to the trees that aren't trees.

0:02:36 Thomas: No, no, no, it's It's the trees that aren't trees. Do they go around shanking people? The ants? No.

0:02:45 Lydia: I don't know, I... Yeah, they could.

0:02:48 Thomas: You know how Draco Malfoy's dad has the wand that he puts? See, this is why you got to hear me out. Let me cook. Yeah, I'm going to have a gavel that's in a little holder like that. And then I'm gonna pull it out and it's sharp.

0:02:52 Lydia: Yes, I do. And his like little walking cane staff thing. Yeah, you're right. You're right, and then you'll be like, Draco.

0:03:04 Thomas: So it's like you start to actually kill a child and then you get interrupted by your slave elf. It's a weird thing that happened in a kid's movie. Very weird thing. A near -naked slave elf stops an adult from killing a child.

0:03:18 Lydia: Yeah, I'm trying to kill this 12 -year -old, okay? No, second movie. He's not nine. You start Hogwarts when you turn 11.

0:03:22 Thomas: Yeah. I don't even think. He's like nine in that one. The second movie, he's not 12.

0:03:31 Lydia: Come on.

0:03:32 Thomas: One starts Hogwarts when one turns 11. Yeah. Oh, you're right. I don't remember that kind of thing. Okay. They look so young, but you're right. No, I stand corrected. So he was going to murder a 12 -year -old child. Yeah. Well, you've set the tone and we'll bring that kind of rigorous analysis. We'll bring that kind of rigorous analysis to, uh, the complaint here that

0:03:33 Lydia: No, it's when you're 11. That's why everybody on their 11th birthday was waiting for their letter from Hogwarts. Yeah. Oh, boy.

0:03:45 Lydia: That'S the kind of fact checking you guys can expect on this show. With a literary flair. Since we're talking about Book Bonanza.

0:03:57 Thomas: Now we're going to leave that aside. Oh, okay. Oh yeah. You're right. All right. Right. You are Harry. Oh man. Barely anything left in my brain, but occasionally, Unfortunately, good times. So we'll take our break and you can support the show. Hear our nonsense even earlier than you might otherwise at patreon.com slash gavel pod. Skip the ads, get the early stuff, even occasional bonuses. We're hoping for one this month that you're going to really like, I think. And after this break, we'll get back into the complaint.

0:04:13 Lydia: Yeah, expecto patrionum.

0:04:42 Thomas: Spectro Patrionis.

0:04:52 Ad: [Ad break 1 — ad music]

0:04:52 Thomas: All right. So we can go back to the narrative because it's we've kind of caught up to that now.

0:04:56 Lydia: Well, you say that. So paragraph 144, yes. But 143, I think is who knows what time this is from. Ultimately, Lively replaced the film's editors with her own choice, an editor often used by Reynolds, and the film'S editors had to be let go. Don't think that's true because they have the credits on IMDb. They're credited in the movie. I don't think they're actually let go, let go for the week while she was working.

0:05:03 Thomas: Hmm.

0:05:12 Thomas: Hmm, let go. Yeah. What would that mean? Because like, it's also like, well, you're well, your work here is done. Hmm?

0:05:25 Lydia: Yeah, yeah, exactly. She also replaced the film's award-winning composer with composers from Reynolds' recent project, even though the film's composer had already finished the score with an orchestra, which is costly. That's also, I think I talked about this before, but that, you know, that happens, that, that's not unheard

0:05:27 Thomas: Who cares? Yeah. And it might not be great. I don't know. Like, again, so much of this is like, I am fully willing to accept that Blake was an asshole on something or went too far on something. Thing or like, man, I don't know. Like, I I don't know what the score was. I don't know why she would care. I also don't know why this would be proof of her conspiracy. You know, like, she made up accusations so she could have a different composer. Like, what? I don't know.

0:06:01 Lydia: Of Well, and that's the thing, it has to go all the way back to, that's the reason that she created these false allegations. Yeah, otherwise it's just its own

0:06:03 Thomas: Weird. Yeah. She complained way back when. Yeah. Yeah.

0:06:12 Lydia: Lawsuit. Sony, Sony supported Lively's demands and even enforced her dictate that the film's director and editors not be permitted to even view her cut. Wayfair and Sony found themselves in the unprecedented and uncomfortable predicament of having two competing versions of the film, one made by the film's actual director and one made by a person with no contractual or creative right to even approach the editing bay, let alone make her own cut. But in light of Lively's, okay, here, here's one other thing though, with no contractual right to even approach the editing bay unless she had say over, you know, any promotional material involving her image and likeness, I would think that if she's not pleased with how things are going in the editing bay, like, I don't know, I would probably walk up to the editing bay and be like, hey, I'm not okay with this. Yeah.

0:06:53 Thomas: Yeah. But this is what's so confusing. Well, why don't you... Yeah, go ahead and finish this.

0:06:56 Lydia: But in line with that, I would say that she's a little bit more of a, of Lively threat to withhold promotion of the film as well as her thinly veiled threat. We, and we've read this again

0:07:02 Thomas: Okay, yeah. They kept this bullshit in both versions.

0:07:05 Lydia: Yes, so skipping through, tellingly, in a side-by-side comparison of audience tests, Baldoni's cut scored significantly higher with key audience demographics. Editor One shares that in the Dream Team chat, so Editor One, Two and Justin. Editor One says, in our key demo over 20 percent higher in the excellent rating and 15 percent higher and the definite recommends, that says it all. And Justин says, one would think, winky face, I'll have info at four. Okay, this is May 31st, by the way. Editor Two snarkily responds, here is my info, quote, she lost, can we now move move forward, thank you. Editor One responds, the only group she went up with in the excellent category was men, and they are absolutely not our audience, and that's only because she focused more of the movie on herself and men like to look at Blake Lively. Men are such pigs. Editor Two says, I feel like the up and men and women over 35 is something to look out but it's so close that it could be just that particular audience and or the trailer factor, or maybe there's something there to to consider. Yeah.

0:07:30 Thomas: Okay.

0:07:50 Thomas: It's fucking stupid.

0:08:02 Thomas: So that's editor two being who editor two has been this whole time, which is, you know, she's with Justin, like employed by Justin, but has been pretty like level-headed. But that first comment, here's my info quote, she lost. Can we now move forward? Thank you. Like what? That's just, that's so not that person, but I don't know. I think a lot is being made of these numbers and I get it. Obviously you want a film, all things being equal to score better on a focus group, but like this is not science man like a little bit of points here and there. It's not like, ah, see, this one is two percent better, you know? It's like, that isn't to say, I, I do think if you look at the overall numbers his movie scored a little but better. That 12 with under 35 females, it does kind of look, it looks a bit like an outlier statistically, and it's because it's kind of like you're dealing with such a small sample size and you're doing with scales of things that are kind tricky, like excellent versus good versus very good, you know?

0:08:32 Lydia: Oh, Yeah. If we had someone on here breaking down the actual like statistical approach of this kind of focus group, like what is excellent versus very good and how do you parse that out? And everyone's going to have a different interpretation of what excellent versus very good is. I think the recommendation is probably important. Would you recommend this movie? Yes or no kind of thing. And obviously they had a more robust scale, I guess. Yes, definitely versus who knows what else, because we don't have all the detail, but yeah, in in terms of just like rating the overall like impression of the film for you as a person with these these words that are probably not defined in any particular way, who knows what kind of data you're actually getting there.

0:09:07 Thomas: Like Yeah, yeah. Still, again, I'm not, his movie did score a little better, no denying that, but is it enough to where you'd be like, okay, this is so obviously, you know what I mean? It, it would be one thing if it was stark numbers, if it's numbers that, these are small sample sizes, this is very weird question, like stuff that's like difficult to quantify, like exactly how much people like a thing if it's close enough. Like if they're within reason, because like, mind you, everything, every company ever puts out ever tests well on these things, you know, no company does these tests and finds like new Coke, you know, like no company Does that and they're like, well, new Coke said everyone fucking hated it.

And it sucks. And they're like, doesn't matter. Let's release it anyway. And yet still, there are massive failures. So like, this process is not perfect. You know, like I think you can have test audience scores that are good with just about anything. And it doesn't always mean that that's, I don't know how the industry looks at these. Like I would imagine that they're definitely something to make a decision with, but I'm sure there's any number of examples of something testing well and then being a complete failure. So I doubt this is like gospel truth, you know?

0:10:00 Lydia: Yeah. Right. Yeah.

0:10:48 Lydia: And I mean, let's look at this. Yes, definitely, you know, theatrical targets is 83 and both of them missed the mark there. Like, I don't know, I just kind of like

0:10:57 Thomas: Oh yeah. Yeah. In terms of like recommending it. Yeah, it's kind of weird. And she did a little better with the 35 and over, you know, like, I dunno, I also don't know how these are weighted if if they're the

0:10:58 Lydia: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, how many people are in each of the categories?

0:11:08 Thomas: Quantities. Yeah, we actually don't know. Yeah So like if she had more people of the 35 and over, yeah, I don't know, I'm not sure how the groups were, but whatever. So it does seem like Editor 2 has kind of wanted to move on, so maybe she was just being a little snarky with "she lost, can we now move forward, thank you." Okay, and Editor 2, what, wait, Editor 2 worked on her edit though?

0:11:19 Lydia: Yeah.

0:11:28 Thomas: Right, initially, yeah.

0:11:26 Lydia: Yeah, uh, initially And then she brought in Shane, uh, Reed to finish it.

0:11:30 Thomas: Well, yeah, but that for a while though, like she did detailed work with Blake for like a week, right?

0:11:34 Lydia: Yeah, but they also haven't seen it, so I guess she doesn't know how much of that work is still in the movie.

0:11:39 Thomas: Well, we At this point we don't know if that happened first, do we? Yeah, I don't know. That just seems so out of character, doesn't it? But who knows?

0:11:44 Lydia: Uh, that's true. I feel, yeah.

0:11:51 Thomas: I mean, I think it would be pretty weird to mislabel that. So maybe I'm wrong. All right, let's continue on paragraph 146 here that we have no proof of and we don't know if it existed, but okay.

0:11:53 Lydia: Yeah. Not surprisingly, Lively reneged on her promise and insisted and insisted that her version be released to the public instead of Baldoni's cut as director, even claiming that the book's author, Colleen Hoover, would refuse to promote the film as well if Lively's version was not chosen.

0:12:11 Thomas: Claiming. Yeah, she might be making that up though. Even claiming. Like that's a lie someone would tell because they'd just be like, all right, gonna call Colleen Hoover. What? The first I'm hearing of this, like, yeah, it's just, it'S once again, in this constant gaslighting language all the time, claiming that the book's author would refuse to promote it.

0:12:20 Lydia: Sony called to tell Wayfair that neither Lively nor any of the cast would promote the movie unless Lively was chosen.

0:12:38 Thomas: Wow. Okay. Holy shit. That escalated quickly. What the fuck?

0:12:43 Lydia: Baldoni was forced to choose between killing the film and his own career by insisting on his own creative vision and rights, or putting out a version of the film that Baldoni knew could still be so important to domestic violence survivors, even if it differed greatly from what it could have been. Baldoni reluctantly chose the latter and stood down, allowing Lively's version of The Film to be released and promoted. Baldomi was essentially forced to fire himself as director and allow Lively to finish his film, knowing it it was the only choice he could make to serve the greater good. Okay.

0:12:55 Thomas: Sure. Yeah. What a hero. Serve the greater good.

0:13:15 Lydia: Two days later, Baldoni was hospitalized with a serious spine infection. Eventually, with the key demographic being the focus, do you know why he got hospitalized with the spine infection? Because he went to go get experimental injections done to relieve his pain. Yeah.

0:13:20 Thomas: Okay, Jesus. No. What for what? Back pain? Oh, okay. I mean, honestly, if you have a lot of bad back pain is you, you, You do stuff. Yeah, I don't really judge him for that too much.

0:13:36 Lydia: Do whatever you can kind of think of. Yeah. Yeah.

0:13:40 Thomas: Unless it's like some real bullshit.

0:13:40 Lydia: I can't remember if he went TO Mexico. I think he might have gone TO Mexico for his. Yeah.

0:13:43 Thomas: Yeah, man. Yeah, I'd still would stay within like, you know, our medical system, but that's just me.

0:13:47 Lydia: Oh, no. Know, everyone goes to, like, Turkey, Mexico, all the things. I was, I was seeing when that news hit with the key demographic being the focus, Sony and Screen Engine, the audience testing company, convinced Lively to put back as much of Baldoni's edit as they possibly could. None of this was officially communicated to Baldoni, but whispers reached him that part of his cut made it back into the final

0:13:49 Thomas: Yeah. Hmm. Ah, oh, good. That's definitely what I would put in my legal document.

0:14:09 Lydia: Release.

0:14:09 Thomas: Well, I don't have any proof, but there's whisper. A little bird told me be

0:14:13 Lydia: Yeah, Baldoni made sure to thank and apologize to his editors whom Lively had caused to be let go, right?

0:14:19 Thomas: Let go. They already finished. They're already finished either way, didn't they? Like, either he had a version or are we to believe that I guess they would have worked a little more on his version or something?

0:14:29 Lydia: Perhaps, yeah.

0:14:29 Thomas: I don't know. Whatever. They are. Already did, they're not being let go.

0:14:31 Lydia: And we get some texts here. "I'm so sorry" from Justin. "I'm so sorry. I love and adore you both and will fight for you and your recognition and sing your praises to the end. This will all work out. It's painful, but it will be okay, and we can rest knowing that we have created a beautiful work of art together." And yet, dot dot dot. "I'm so sorry." June 6, he sends a picture of him in the hospital with his wife giving him a kiss, and he says, "Hope ADR went well. Being admitted for three days for potential infection." We've talked about this because remember, I thought it was the alternative dispute situation, but it was just the oh, oh, I don't remember. It was so long ago.

0:14:37 Thomas: Yeah.

0:15:02 Thomas: I don't know if we ever said that on the podcast, did we? Oh, just in, like, our first conversation with the lawyer with the California employment lawyer. Yeah, Lydia was like, "Oh, hope ADR, well, alternative dispute resolution." Actually, both of you said that. I was like, I don't think that's that. I think it's the dial What is it? Alternative dialogue replacement or audio? No.

0:15:11 Lydia: Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's what it was. Adding the voice after. Yeah, yeah, all audio.

0:15:25 Thomas: Auxiliary dialogue replacement. There's something else, ADR, what, what does that stand for? It is. Yeah.

0:15:25 Lydia: No, auxiliary, something like that. Yeah alternative dispute. Just kidding.

0:15:34 Thomas: No, that comes up first.

0:15:36 Lydia: Yeah okay. No.

0:15:36 Thomas: Automatic dialogue replacement. I don't know why it's automatic though. I don'T think it is automatic. That's kind of weird.

0:15:40 Lydia: No. Hope ADR went well. Being admitted for three days for potential infection. So now you have a real reason to why I'm not doing ADR. Winky face. And so that's what like made Me think, oh, maybe it was because he's getting himself out of the HR situation. But no. I love and adore you both. Thanks for standing by me through all this. You guys are amazing. Editor one, holy cow, feel better. We didn't want to bug you during all of this, but our secret source has let us know that the new version they are previewing tomorrow has a bunch of our version put back in.

0:15:49 Thomas: Okay. Okay.

0:16:07 Lydia: We just have to keep Keep it quiet because we want to keep our back channel open. Feel better. Get well soon. We love you. And all of this craziness, health, and movie is going to work out, damn it. Appreciate you both so much from Justin.

0:16:07 Thomas: Note, it's only editor one who said anything. Kind of interesting. And also I donT get what the point of this is because if Blake's putting a bunch of his stuff back in, well then isn't that what he wants? Like it isn't.

0:16:20 Lydia: Yes. That's his movie, right?

0:16:29 Thomas: Yeah, and he's still the director. He's still got all the credits. I don't know. Yeah I guess I don't know what to think about this really. And if

0:16:36 Lydia: Yeah. Right, right. Well, but before we move on, we get

0:16:46 Thomas: His version tested better, according to him, then yeah, okay, that should, that should be good, right? Okay. Well, now in the timeline we missed some stuff. Okay. Hmm.

0:16:48 Lydia: One more text here after paragraph 147, which says, by June 2024, which is the time we're in,

0:16:52 Thomas: We were already in that

0:16:54 Lydia: Lively was dictating much of the marketing for the film she had stolen from Baldonian Wayfarer. And so I'm like, I'm expecting something about that. But all we get is a text with no dates, Dream Team again, no dates. And he's talking about a spinal infection.

0:16:57 Thomas: Yeah, what the text with Editor One again, or Dream Team Yeah, what?

0:17:07 Lydia: Is this a different spinal infection or is this the same one? And he just is telling them again.

0:17:12 Thomas: What the fuck?

0:17:14 Lydia: Infection in my spine, pretty serious. Great doctors and caught it early. Blank had a feeling. My body is done. Too much stress. Will be in hospital probably until Tuesday now. Then IV antibiotics via a PICC line for six weeks, which means can't travel. Regarding Garfield, so happy he liked it because the Garfield movie. It was a Wayfair production, so it's a separate conversation, but just so everybody knows. Editor one, damn, then just take care of yourself. If Blake is so determined to handle the marketing on the movie, then just let her. Perfect time to look out for number one.

0:17:26 Thomas: Yeah, geez. Oh. Huh. Once again, just editor 1 one. Yeah.

0:17:44 Lydia: Just editor one and that's the only thing that we get to support this thing that she was dictating much of the marketing for the film.

0:17:50 Thomas: Yeah, it's just, it's not even primary source, it's not even secondary, it's tertiary. It's it's someone that Justin, I guess, told about that, that is then saying it back to Justin. Like, we don't even get Justin's text saying she's doing such and such. Like, what? Why is that the best evidence he has for this?

0:17:54 Lydia: No, it's responding. Right.

0:18:09 Thomas: But whatever.

0:18:06 Lydia: Yeah. All right. So let's pause there, because unless those are two different spinal infections happening at very different times, that makes sense for us to swing back over to the timeline and fill in any blanks that we have from this early June period.

0:18:20 Thomas: Yeah. So then quick, paragraph 148 here: Lively shamelessly remove

0:18:28 Ad: [Ad break 2 — ad music]

0:18:32 Thomas: Baldoni, the, again, parentheses, the film's co -star in case we didn't know by now page 86 of this complaint the film co-star director and executive producer who had championed this film for five years and whose company had co-funded the entire project

0:18:33 Lydia: And maybe was in over his head and here's the proof

0:18:49 Thomas: Yeah, and sexually harassed her, shamelessly removed, and then we got that huge parenthetical, and then out of all posters, trailers, and other promotional materials. That definitely didn't happen. Not at

0:18:58 Lydia: Yeah, which is not true. We talked about that going through the trailer.

0:19:07 Thomas: All true, she continued to refuse to promote the

0:19:09 Lydia: Going through posters, what that stuff looked like, that's just absolutely not true. Also not true, because she did promote the film when all those things were out there anyway with his name on them. So that's a flat out lie.

0:19:12 Thomas: Film otherwise. Yeah. Yep. That's entirely untrue. Yeah, I guess you just, you just do that. You just flat out lie all the time, apparently. You know what's funny is betwixt some, some of these recording sessions, we've talked about the Taylor Swift thing a million times, obviously. I don't think I fully understood, apparently, that Blake had arranged an exclusive Taylor Swift song. I thought she was just securing a song, like, for the soundtrack or some crap, you know, or for a promo thing. Okay, I, I understand, but you don't need that, doesn't add anything to that, which was already like, oh, that's a big score. Like, no wonder Sony's like into it. I didn't realize she, she secured an exclusive song. That's insane.

0:19:24 Lydia: I guess so.

0:19:42 Lydia: Yeah, like "Anti-Hero" or something. Just a song that already existed. That's it, that's, it's a Taylor Swift song. You can just nod.

0:20:01 Thomas: Like, obviously, Sony is going to be like, yes, definitely, 100%. I suppose you could cynically say, like, that's how devious she is in wanting to strong arm him out of it. But I don't know. That's also just a really, really good value for the movie and is way better than whatever fucking Baldoni's doing. Like, if you're a studio and you're looking at, hmm, who do we value more? Who do we want more? Or the guy who's been accused of all kinds of shit who has a couple credits to his name, or someone who's going to get us an exclusive song from the world's, like, biggest pop star.

0:20:02 Lydia: Yeah. Yeah, I would say she's the biggest. Yeah yeah.

0:20:35 Thomas: I don't know if there's some K -pop, I don'T know, you know? Those are always surprisingly way bigger than anything we have. But yeah, maybe the world'S biggest star. I was already on that side of the argument when it was just a song, not an exclusive, like new release or whatever. That's crazy. So I just wanted to point that out because we did that somewhat recently in the timeline. And now it's even more of a good point.

0:20:57 Lydia: So now we're going to talk about Book Bonanza. Let's see. Let'll switch over to the timeline here.

0:20:59 Thomas: Like, hmm, there's some interesting stuff. And there's also a link that I've opened up that I don't think you've seen.

0:21:06 Lydia: Oh yeah, I don't think I have.

0:21:08 Thomas: We'll get there. But there's video of what we're about to talk about, I think.

0:21:10 Lydia: Oh cool. So on page 82 of the timeline on June 3rd it says Baldoni is informed that Lively would be attending Book Bonança with Hoover instead of Baldoni. Jennifer Abel, Baldoni's publicist at Jonesworks, and Baldoni share a text exchange change, disheartened at how things have unfolded. Jen Abel says, "Hi, Jamie just filled me in about Book Con. I know this is devastating and such a kick in the gut. It's petty and childish at this point. I'm just making sure you're okay. We will get through this. Eye on the prize. Her attending Book Con is a win for the film ultimately, and if she wants to drag her ass to Texas, then let her.

You can be home with your family, which is important." For whatever reason, they underlined some elements of of this email from Jen Able. The parts that are underlined are "eye on the prize. Her attending Book Con is a win for the film ultimately." Fine. But then the other thing that they underline is "be home with your family," like Why? That was like just for Emily. Like, yeah, it's very strange. I don't know why they bothered with that. And then we get a big red circle around Baldoni's response, which is, "She's kicked me out officially from the film. Now she's finishing it all. I can't be involved. Music, sound, VFX, everything. I'll make it through

0:21:48 Thomas: Yeah.

0:21:58 Thomas: What? That's his alibi. So he wasn't committing a murder or something like.

0:22:20 Lydia: Somehow. Just, just need to feel it all."

0:22:21 Thomas: Is this the first time Jan Abel has entered the picture here?

0:22:24 Lydia: It might be. Now, I think we mentioned this previously, that Book Bonanza is Colleen Hoover's event. Jen Abel keeps calling it BookCon. I don't think that's how it goes by. It seems kind of generic. But Colleen Hoover did end up going, obviously, again, it's her event, with Blake Lively and Brandon Sklenner.

0:22:30 Thomas: Yeah.

0:22:43 Thomas: So this is where in the timeline we get a link. This is so funny. It's not a I know we've gone on at length. I think if if people are with us, they're probably with us. So I shouldn't even bother saying this, but this isn't that important, except it just shows how fucking obviously they're willing to manipulate the truth and lie. So why don't you read that June 12th timeline entry?

0:23:02 Lydia: All right. Wayfair is informed that Blake Lively told Sony that she will be showing audiences at Book Bonanza her cut of the film, regardless of Sony or Wayfarer's approval. She later admitted on her panel at the event that the, quote, "studio begged her not to show the film," but ultimately they, quote, "didn't have the option to say no," in brackets, as she brought the movie with her on the airplane. Oh my god, it's like a heist.

0:23:26 Thomas: So you haven't seen this, right? Just even just reading that, I think you can already, I was already able to easily see what this is. What do you think this is?

0:23:34 Lydia: Yeah, like it's certainly not like this Vegas heist that they're trying to make it out to be. I think what it is is she is working the audience to make them feel like what they're seeing is like, like not even allowed by the distribution. Yeah.

0:23:44 Thomas: Yes, obviously. This is the car salesman saying, I got to go and back and see if my manager will let us even do this deal, but I'll go ask the manager. It doesn't hurt to ask. I can't guarantee it. Yeah, obviously it's so silly to try to make it, to make it into a serious point that the quote, the studio begged her not to show the film. She's gone rogue, everybody. As though that wouldn't have been completely agreed upon and obviously just good working of the crowd. And keep in mind, this is book bonanza. Also keep in mind, didn't we just read a text that said he's already out of everything?

0:23:59 Lydia: Yeah.

0:24:09 Lydia: Yeah, it's Insane.

0:24:25 Lydia: Yeah.

0:24:26 Thomas: So we already read a text where Baldoni himself says, I'm out, locked out. So then why would it even matter if at this point, according to him, again, his own sources here, if he is already completely locked out and she's doing everything on her own, well, that's her fucking movie, I guess. What do you mean it wouldn't be her cut? Like, obviously it's going to be her cat. I feel like that text was an exaggeration. I feels like it's kind of a combination of the two things. Like, the text was an exaggerations. He wasn't completely locked outta the film, I don't think. And second, this is her showing something to a group of people in a place. It's actually not, so it's kind of interesting. I don't know how much we want to play, but it was, sounds like it was a really fucking cool event.

0:24:38 Lydia: Yep. Yeah.

0:25:05 Thomas: Like if they had something like this for something I liked, I'd be pumped because There was this book bonanza, and then what happened was, like, the, I think either, I can't remember if it's then or, like, the next day they're busing people to the preview site or something, the preview

0:25:07 Lydia: Yeah, totally.

0:25:18 Lydia: Oh, okay. Two months before the movie comes out

0:25:21 Thomas: Theater, so it's super cool, um, for those fans But it doesn't really mean mean anything. It is a little weird, admittedly, if it were true that the film isn't finished and and they haven't signed off, maybe, or somebody hasn't signed up on the final cut. It's a bit weird, but also it's group Of people physically there for private screening for the author's own event. These are people who are seeing the film a hundred times anyway. Like, it doesn't even matter really, and it's obviously just showmanship. It's honestly working the crowd. So they gave us that one time stamp. I watched, like, this whole thing. It's really interesting just to see, like, the the promo and the whatever. And it's people with their diehard fans. It's Blake playing to the crowd. But if we go back, we actually hear more context for what's happening. So I think it's kind of interesting.

0:25:37 Lydia: Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

0:26:22 Thomas: Skellner.

0:26:26 Clip: Come on, Denny. One second, one second, one second. We got a little surprise for you guys. Another one? It's not cinnamon rolls from Jersey.

0:26:41 Clip: Because, like, we got buses. We got little clip from the movie that we've edited to get marketings put together, like a little piece of the movie. You know, like at Comic-Con, they do that? This is like Comic-con, but like for women. I've, I've coined it Coho-ma-con.

0:27:03 Clip: You're showing them? You haven't even showed me. No, I mean like, I don't know, we thought like, like, normally like Comic Con they do like three minutes, but we put together like 20 minutes to show. Teaser for Brandon, just 20 minutes.

0:27:20 Lydia: Oh, dang.

0:27:24 Clip: 20 minutes doesn't really seem like enough, though.

0:27:35 Clip: I don't know if we can stay up that late. The movie's not done, though, like, the movie's We've got, okay, so we've got score in the movie, and we showed it to, like a small audience, Like, you do, like temporary score until, like the movie is complete, and I'm just like, like, oh, put Finding Nemo, like, it's like a wink Easter egg. Why do you have a Finding Nemos score in this movie? It's like, how on earth are you guys that keen? So, yeah, it is not, the movie is not done yet. So, what you're saying is, like, an arc of a book. If they got to see the whole thing early, it wouldn't be like what they'll see in theaters? But just like, not like vastly different. I mean, we could show the whole movie to my... I think it's a good idea. I'm a... I mean, do you guys want to see the whole movies? Yeah. Or 20 minutes. Brandon probably does. Nobody cheered for 20 minutes. I kind of want to see the whole movie then. Yeah, it's fine. You brought us so many gifts today.

0:27:56 Lydia: Oh my

0:28:46 Thomas: Milking the crowd. It is kind of cool.

0:28:48 Lydia: God. They have here like are so excited.

0:28:50 Thomas: Yeah, they are losing it.

0:28:50 Lydia: It like makes me so happy for all those people in the room. Yeah.

0:28:53 Thomas: There is not even like an audience mic. They are just picking it up on their mics. Like that is how loud they are. She is milking the crowd. What is funny is the MC guy, I am quite confident had no idea this was happening. He was ending the thing. Yeah. Like unless he is the greatest actor in the world. I don't think he is.

0:28:58 Lydia: Yeah, yeah. It seemed like yeah, yeah, right.

0:29:09 Thomas: He's just some guy. He was motioning like, oh, we're going to take the picture and had no idea. But clearly Colleen and Brandon were in on this. Oh, that's not enough that like he knows it's coming, obviously. And so this idea that this is like, she later admitted on her panel that the studio begged her not to show the film. So funny.

0:29:30 Clip: Thank you, guys. I know last one, we're going out with a bang, but honestly, you guys, like, y'all are the only audience in the world that's going to see this cut. Um, it, it is an early, early

0:29:43 Thomas: That's not her saying this is it. This is the cut.

0:29:45 Lydia: Or even like this is my cut.

0:29:45 Thomas: Well, that that's Colleen Hoover.

0:29:48 Lydia: This is like or this is Blake's cut. There's no attribution there or anything. Thing, no one's trying to take credit for this. It's This is like an early draft of what the film is eventually going to be. Can I pair that too with, if we jump back over to the narrative paragraph?

0:29:50 Thomas: Yeah. Yeah. It's an early cut. What?

0:30:02 Lydia: 149: Over Sony's objection, Lively insisted on screening her cut at Book Bonanza, Colleen Hoover's annual convention, yeah, hosting authors and fans from around the world, an event that Baldoni had long been excited to attend. But Sony made it known to Wayfarer that, per Lively, Baldoni could not attend. Notwithstanding the obvious promotional and PR risks, Lively appeared on a panel alongside Hoover and other cast members, icing out Baldoni from this critical event for his own film. He was not even allowed to review the final cut. The final cut before it was shown to the world.

0:30:08 Thomas: It's not the final cut. She even said in the thing to the world.

0:30:35 Lydia: It's a room of 2 ,000 people. Yeah. Crazy.

0:30:37 Thomas: Yeah, she said 2000 of the hardest hardcore fan. They might as well be like the patrons on Patreon that made this happen. Really? I'm looking ahead and I want to make sure they don't like, I want want to see if they have any documentation of this or if they're truly just taking her car salesman hype of like, oh, they didn't have a choice. And using that to say that against Sony's wishes that she just went rogue, unless they have an email or something, I just want to check. I want to see if They have any of that. I don't see any proof. And yet all they show us is an email. And this I think is even in not only their own timeline, but in the narrative is an an email from Sony saying, hey, we had a great fucking book, Bonanza. It went great. It was awesome.

0:30:44 Lydia: Yeah, exactly.

0:31:23 Lydia: Yeah I'll do you one better. Immediately following this paragraph in the narrative there's the conversation between Jen and Justin which we read and then there's a series of texts with the editors that Justin sent and part of that he says says they're showing it at Book Bonanza. And editor two says the whole movie, yep, hers from Baldoni. Editor one, wow, in all caps, Justin Baldoni was supposed to be ours. And then I was uninvited. Whole thing is pretty cruel and intense. So even from his own text message, he is not indicating that Sony was strong-armed into showing the movie before the entire world or whatever. He is saying that was the plan the entire time, was that they were going to be surprising everybody with a cut of the film. He insists here that it was supposed to be his cut and not her cut. And again, it's also not the final cut. It's just a draft. I don't know. It's just silly. Yeah.

0:32:14 Thomas: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

0:32:15 Lydia: Sounds like Sony was in on it the entire time.

0:32:18 Thomas: And as you say, it almost sounds like he was in on it, like he was going to be there too. And he makes it out in the complaint to be all Blake, but like Colleen Hoover, they had already had a fight and she didn't want to be around him anymore, right?

0:32:20 Lydia: So yeah.

0:32:31 Lydia: Yep.

0:32:31 Thomas: I mean, we don't know. I mean, We can guess, right.

0:32:34 Lydia: I think I think we figured out it's early May is when they had their dinner and they had their falling out.

0:32:39 Thomas: Yeah. She had a falling out with Baldoni. I know I've already said this: Baldoni had first crack at telling her his bullshit story, and still she was like, well, fuck this, and you still want to blame Blake for that? How in the world could that be

0:32:52 Lydia: Yeah, yeah. The messenger in that situation is you, Justin Baldoni. Like, not Blake.

0:32:59 Thomas: Blake's fault? Yeah, and so what we have instead of any evidence that this was against Sony's wishes, we have an email they put in the timeline, a bunch of, like, promo. He also says Wayfair was only made aware that Brandon and Isabella would be in attendance the day of the the event. Sony later notified Wayfarer that it was Lively who reached out to Brandon and Isabella and paid for their travel and lodging. All right, I don't know what that matter. Yeah, like, what it was the point made there, like, and there were other people who had a good time with me not being there

0:33:26 Lydia: I Don't Know Why That Matters. Yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is very strange.

0:33:37 Thomas: Don't tell the newspaper I was mad, or do tell them I was bad. I feel like we've already done this, but June 17th it says Lively brings on a new composer. I think we already, so I think the narrative is going back and forth.

0:33:44 Lydia: Yeah, we talked about that. There's a little piece in here, though, that I don't think we mentioned when we talked about the composer where they had basically said the original composer was let go, even though he had completed the score, etc., etc. But then they clarify here, despite the significant financial implications, paying out the original composer in full. So okay, he was let go. And his music, I guess, wasn't used in the film, which, as I said, when we talked about it, that happens. That happens all the time and it's not like this person lost their job. Yeah, they got paid. They still got paid for the gig. Yeah

0:34:14 Thomas: My music is never used on films. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds like a thing that probably happens all the time. So on June 18th, so a few days after Book Bonanza, Sony executive number three, far from saying, oh my God, did you see that Blake Lively stole the movie? She Ocean's 11'd us. She, yeah, we're on the phone with the FBI now. Far from that, they say, we had a very successful weekend at Book Bonanza and the fans loved the book art displayed at the event. We would like to release this art as our second teaser poster for domestic distribution since it has already been released internationally in many markets. It only makes sense to use it domestically as well. We'd love to start printing tomorrow to get it into theaters. However, this version does not have Justin Baldoni's a film by credit, so we would need to waive that. Please let me know if this is approved.

0:34:32 Lydia: Yeah, cross state lines with it.

0:35:07 Lydia: Yeah, so the way that they frame this again is that he's waiving his right to a film by credit for all promotional materials, which we know did not happen. It's this particular artwork that was done where it wasn't included, and they still, they have to get approval for that to be used. You know, like, here's a version of the art that has been made. It does not include the film by credit. Are you okay with us printing it and sending it out to theaters? Does not mean that nothing exists where the film buy credit.

0:35:32 Thomas: Yeah, And we've been through it, but he should not have a fucking film by credit. It's insane.

0:35:35 Lydia: Yeah, I know. It's checkoff motion.

0:35:38 Thomas: It's absolutely insane. Yeah, so the narrative has jumped ahead to, like, July. So we can see if the timeline has anything interesting

0:35:45 Lydia: Yeah, we do. So this is going to be talked about at length in the narrative, but for whatever reason the organizational structure, we're not there yet. But in the timeline we are, where it says on the same day that Baldoni waives his film by credit for that particular piece of art, Wayfarer also reluctantly agrees to give Lively a producer credit on the film. This was an ask that she took to Sony, despite it being a decision properly made by Wayfarers. Sounds like it still was a decision that Wayfar was making, but whatever.

0:35:58 Thomas: Here Yeah. Yeah.

0:36:14 Lydia: She was originally credited only as an executive producer, but both Wayfar and Sony no longer had the leverage to oppose her demands or the will to deal with the fallout if they were to deny the credit at that point.

0:36:24 Thomas: So That's interesting, because that's a very lawyer way to write that. Both Wayfair and Sony no longer had the leverage to oppose her demands. That would imply to you, to a, to a reader who thinks they're reading, like, not not a lawyer. That would imply that Sony didn't want this to happen. This is typical dirtbag lawyer stuff.

0:36:44 Lydia: Right.

0:36:44 Thomas: Well, it's technically true that Sony no longer had the leverage to oppose her demands, but we don't necessarily know if they even wanted to or the will to deal with the fallout if they were to deny the credit at that point. They're just implying that Sony wouldn't. Yeah, I think they really want to get Sony in on the victimhood. I think it would make them look better if she was doing this to both Sony and Wayfarer, but that's

0:36:51 Lydia: Yeah, right. Right, exactly. That piece is missing.

0:37:00 Lydia: Yeah, it's a bunch of like linguistic tricks.

0:37:27 Lydia: Yeah.

0:37:27 Thomas: Just lying by omission and by implication. You would really think that means Sony didn't want it. No, I don't know, maybe they didn't, but we don't have any evidence. So I'm once again looking ahead just to make sure, but I don't see any proof that Sony had a problem with this. Maybe it exists and they didn's show it, but it really feels like that was just misleading lawyer bullshitting where you're like, yeah, they they couldn't, they didn't have the energy to oppose her anymore. It's like, did they oppose her? Well, no, but they also didn't have the energy to.

0:37:41 Lydia: They also didn't have the energy because they have a lot going on. And so this is kind of like the stepping stone to a PGA mark, because then it continues to say Wayfair conceded to this producer credit and informed Sony while also remarking that, quote, they would not be advocating for her getting the PGA mark as that is not applicable. Given Lively's contributions to the film, it was collectively agreed among the producers, all Wayfarer people, that she had not earned the distinction of the PGA mark. I guess Alex Sachs could be included in there and then she's not Wayfarers connected.

0:37:44 Thomas: Yeah. Sure. Yeah. And this complaint about like, oh, she didn't go through Wayfair. She went through Sony. Well, yeah, we already know they're communicating through Sony executives. They each have their own Sony executive that they're communicating through because they can't talk to each other. Blake doesn't want to talk to them. We already know that's what's happening. Happening, so for all we know, this was her relaying the message essentially through the Sony executive.

0:38:20 Lydia: Right. And you can see that later in the timeline, too, because when Jamie is giving, you know, notice to Sony that they're agreeing on the producer credit but not agreeing to a PGA Mark, he sent it to Sony Legal, the legal department at Sony. And not, you know, not just an executive at Sony, not any of their other folks that they had been interfacing with in creating this film. He's he's communicating with the legal department like this is sensitive stuff. Things have devolved terribly. Yeah.

0:38:49 Thomas: Oh yeah.

0:39:04 Thomas: Yeah, and so Jamie writes Sony Legal saying they agree, as you're saying. They don't want her to get the PGA Mark, but why, why are they agreeing? I don't get it. At this point, what, what do they even have to lose? Like, if they've, they've made it out to where they're being backed into a corner, because for one, there was like the contract that she wouldn't sign, and then there, there was the song. So that was like kind of strong arming because, you know, Sony really wanted that exclusive song, which makes sense. And so Sony was like, Hey, can you just agree? Like it's your funeral essentially. Like this is going to, but now what would this even be? Like they already, according to Justin, he's lost complete control of the film. You know, like there's, there's no, I think the Taylor Swift thing happened. So what would even be the continued leverage here? The leverage that Blake would have to To strong arm them into agreeing to this producer credit, I

0:39:37 Lydia: Mm -hmm. Yeah. As of June 3rd, he said he was out.

0:39:56 Lydia: Well, it's the continuing, it'S the press tour, right? None of that has happened yet. Leading up to the premiere, any events happening at the premiere specifically, like, I guess she could withhold her attendance from the premiere.

0:40:07 Thomas: Guess. But so where does that end? Like, is it just we're to believe that because she could threaten to do that, sky's the limit for her? I just don't I don't know. This doesn't seem like she should get a producer credit. Right. I don't know if this is retconned into them just saying they they oppose this or not. You know what I mean? Like, because I don't know what leverage Blake would have even had at this point. You know, you can keep saying the promo thing, but that's already kind of started. That's already happened. Right.

0:40:15 Lydia: Mm -mm. Yeah.

0:40:32 Lydia: A little bit, but I mean, they haven't done, like the whole press junket.

0:40:36 Thomas: Right. But I mean, if she's already begun this thing, she's already shown a cut of the movie at Book Bonanza. She's already done all this. It would be, it'd be weird. Like you could call her bluff and be like, I don't believe you're going to just quit promoting the film. Like, I do not believe that. And also this is entirely us making that up. That is not anywhere in the text.

0:40:44 Lydia: Yeah. Mm -hm. Oh, yeah. No, exactly.

0:40:53 Thomas: It is not even demonstrated that they oppose the producer credit. Now they oppose the PGA thing, right? But there is no, there is not evidence they oppose the producer thing. I do know if that is just retconned or what.

0:40:58 Lydia: Yes.

0:41:11 Ad: [Ad break 3 — ad music]

0:41:11 Thomas: All right. Well, that is where we are going to leave it. We just ended on the kind of producer discussion. It gets it's even dumber with the PGA thing. That's what I think the next episode is the PGA thing. And I think now, now that, yeah, it would be funny if she was trying to get her tour card for being in the, being in The Movie. Yeah, I know. Like, hey, PGA, I'll get you an exclusive Taylor Swift song, PGA tour. People don't even know what we're talking about yet, I don't think.

0:41:19 Lydia: Mm. Not golf. Mm -hum. I mean at this point, give it to her, you know? She's been through so much. No.

0:41:40 Thomas: Well, we've talked about a little bit, I think. That's the thing. This thing's so repetitive, competitive, and swirly, you know, like, we've already talked about a lot of the stuff, but also haven't, but, uh, that's what's coming next episode, and that means, you know what that means, don't you, at last. We'll be at, I believe, the biggest telling on themselves next episode, I think. That means it's coming next up, so yeah, you should be, should be very excited. It's seriously a major telling on themselves. I'm gonna leave this in no matter what, but it's gonna be funny if I'm wrong, wrong and then, like, next episode I'll be like, "Guys, I'm sorry, it was folks, it was, uh, it was, you know," we'll see. Yeah, and then I'll refuse to do it, but instead just launch a

0:41:46 Lydia: Mm -hmm. What? Ooh -wee. Cool. I'm excited.

0:42:10 Lydia: Okay. You have like a public apology you have to make.

0:42:22 Thomas: Campaign to silence you and all my critics. Yeah, we're in crisis. I keep getting Harry Potter stuff wrong, and I keep promising stuff that's not there

0:42:22 Lydia: Yeah, there you go. Higher crisis PR. Yeah. Yep.

0:42:32 Thomas: All right, well, that'll be really exciting. Thanks to everyone for listening, and of course the supporters of Patreon .com slash gavel pod and we will see you gavels in hand next episode. Everyone fucking hated it and it sucks, and they're like, "Doesn't matter, let's release it anyway." Well, I don't have any proof, but there's whisper, a little bird told me what's

0:42:43 Lydia: Gavel out.

0:43:17 Lydia: It's going to be a Lord of the Rings reference. Well, it's a patronus, so that's why I said it the way I did, but that's okay.

0:43:24 Thomas: What? Oh, it's the, it is a patronus. Okay, you're right. Yeah, that's, that's once again right

0:43:24 Lydia: It is a patronus. Yeah. Yeah, but the spell to, yeah. Right you are, Harry.