Sony executives privately skewered Blake Lively for launching her Blake Brown hair-care line during the It Ends With Us press blitz, calling the move “epic-level stupid” and blaming her for igniting the firestorm that nearly torched the $351M-grossing film.
Hollywood’s nastiest publicity war just got uglier. Freshly unsealed court filings show Sony Pictures brass unloading on Blake Lively for turning the It Ends With Us promo cycle into a personal commerce platform, allegedly refusing to protect “the show” and instead spotlighting her Blake Brown hair-care brand.
The Smoking-Gun Quotes
Sanford Panitch, Sony’s Motion Picture Group president, wrote in an August 2024 internal note that “the hair sell at the same time was epic level stupid,” adding, “She wouldn’t listen. She knows better. She did it to herself.” Panitch claimed Lively orchestrated cast-wide unfollowing of director-star Justin Baldoni and “kicked him off the movie,” moves he said invited internet sleuths to dig deeper.
CEO Tom Rothman echoed the sentiment, conceding Lively “didn’t deserve” the social-media backlash yet asserting she “brought it all on herself by refusing to listen to advice … and by selling her products.”
How the Hair-Care Launch Collided With Press Tour
Lively unveiled Blake Brown on Instagram while doing global press for the Colleen Hoover adaptation. Sources close to production told Entertainment Weekly the timing was accidental—the film’s release had shifted months after her brand’s manufacturing calendar locked—but Sony execs saw only optics chaos.
The $351M Success They Can’t Ignore
For all the finger-pointing, Sony’s own spreadsheets show the Lively-approved cut opened to $80M domestic and powered past $351M worldwide. In a deposition, Sony marketing president Josh Greenstein admitted Lively’s version was “a stronger cut” and praised her for elevating “an OK campaign” into “an unprecedented success.” Executive VP Ange Giannetti texted Lively: “Blake 50m dollars!! Your blood sweat tears brilliant smarts heart and soul in every single frame.”
Hoover Stuck in the Middle
Author Colleen Hoover told Sony weeks before the premiere she was “used to being neutral” but couldn’t promise to attend if Baldoni’s team appeared, writing, “Feelings have been hurt and boundaries have been crossed.” Her email undercuts Sony’s narrative that Lively alone fueled the rift.
What This Means for the May Civil Trial
Lively’s harassment suit against Baldoni—and his countersuit—heads to trial in May. The newly public Sony chatter hands her legal team ammunition: internal proof that studio leadership blamed her commercially rather than investigating workplace-conduct claims. Lively’s attorney Sigrid McCawley fired back that the documents show “the Sony/Lively cut was the one chosen for release and was an unprecedented success,” adding the studio “made hundreds of millions of dollars” from Lively’s creative input.
Bottom Line
Sony wanted a syrupy romance hit; it got a blockbuster and a PR bloodbath. The memos expose an age-old studio tension—when a star’s entrepreneurial hustle collides with corporate messaging, executives will privately torch their own talent even while cashing the box-office checks. Whether jurors view Lively as a victim of retaliation or a marketing rogue could decide not just this case, but how much control stars retain over their personal brands during future studio campaigns.
Keep your alerts locked on onlytrustedinfo.com for the fastest, most authoritative updates as the It Ends With Us legal war escalates toward trial.
