Blake Full of life’s effort to save lots of her embattled fame by being named one among Time journal’s 100 most influential folks could have purchased her some restricted good will, however she’ll quickly be confirmed because the “Mean Girl” actress who tried to “bastardize” the #MeToo motion by falsely accusing Justin Baldoni, her director and co-star, of sexual misconduct in essentially the most public manner doable.
That’s, this comeuppance for Full of life is inevitable if Megyn Kelly has something to say about it — because the brash YouTuber and podcaster mentioned on her present the day after Full of life was honored. Kelly spoke with some authority concerning the Time occasion as a result of she, too, walked its pink carpet and was honored that evening as one among right now’s 100 most influential folks.
“I don’t think what she’s doing to Justin Baldoni is in any way fair, gracious, nice or just, and so I couldn’t help looking at her the whole night like some sort of twisted, mean girl, like there’s something wrong with this person, because all the allegations that she’s launched against him have fallen apart, virtually every single one of them,” Kelly mentioned on her April 25 present.
Kelly’s opinion of Full of life may matter as a result of she has turn into influential in methods Full of life isn’t — at the least on the suitable — along with her top-ranked each day YouTube present and podcast. Kelly is also amongst a crowd of widespread “content creators” who’ve been profitable followers throughout the political spectrum with their aggressive protection of Full of life’s authorized struggle with Baldoni, who directed her and co-starred along with her within the 2024 movie “It Ends With Us.”
Kelly actually pulled no punches on the pink carpet on the Time 100 occasion. As an alternative of politely demurring from commenting, as controversy-avoidant celebrities are likely to do, she got here out and informed a reporter that Full of life shouldn’t be honored.
“It’s a ridiculous joke,” Kelly mentioned. “I think she launched a fake #MeToo allegation against (Baldoni), and she’s lived to regret doing it, because virtually every allegation she has made has fallen apart. And so for her to be honored for doing that, to try to ruin a man over absolutely nothing, is a scandal.”
Kelly additionally took Time journal to activity on her present. Whereas she mentioned that the Time editors and employees had been “lovely” to her, particularly given her pro-Trump politics, she mentioned she couldn’t assist however discover the entire occasion “off-putting.” She admitted that she wrestled with whether or not to attend, although getting her photograph taken on the pink carpet was tempting. As soon as she determined to go, she knew she wasn’t going maintain again if requested by Full of life.
On her present, her visitor, journalist Mark Halperin, a former editor at Time, agreed that the Time 100 gala is “a scam” that exploits the publication’s journalism model.
“It is not an exercise in journalism. It’s an exercise in stroking and cultivating advertises,” mentioned Halperin — additionally a former political analyst for NBC and MSNBC who notably from these networks in late 2017 after a number of girls accused him of sexual misconduct amid the launch of the #MeToo motion.
Kelly additionally famously had her #MeToo moments, being one among a number of girls who accused for the late Fox Information chief Roger Ailes of sexual harassment. It’s clear that Kelly doesn’t put Halperin in the identical class of predator as Ailes, provided that she had him on her present and sought enter from him on her assertion that Full of life is attempting to turn into a “MeToo heroine.”
With Halperin, Kelly additionally expressed dismay a few speech that Full of life gave on the gala, which centered on her mom, Elaine Full of life, being a survivor of a office sexual assault.
“I have so much to say about the last two years of my life, but tonight is not the forum,” Full of life started, alluding to her controversial authorized battle with Baldoni.
“What I will speak to separately is the feeling of being a woman who has a voice today,” the “Gossip Girl” star mentioned. With that, she spoke about her mom surviving “the worst crime that someone can commit against a woman” and mentioned it was necessary that girls communicate up about such crimes “instead of shutting down in fear and unfair shame.”
However as an alternative of being moved by Full of life’s phrases, Kelly accused her of utilizing her “mother’s rape” to garner sympathy and to and “improve her standing (with) a whole legion of people who no longer like her.”
“It’s like, ‘Feel sorry for my mom, feel sorry for me, because I understand trauma,’ and the-wink-and-a-nod-piece of it was is that ‘I, too, am a victim’ and like, ‘the torch has been passed,” Kelly mentioned.
“I just thought it was such an obviously manipulation of her image,” Kelly continued. “I have no idea what happened to her mother, but I thought it was just one of the most cynical displays.”
In that vein, others on-line have joined Kelly in deriding Time’s declare that it was giving Full of life an honor that acknowledges the leaders shaping the world right now and defining its future.”
NewsNation columnist Paula Froelich raised questions on why Full of life was honored amid her authorized controversy with Baldoni.
Time journal printed a brief essay by civil legal professional Sherrilyn Ifill who praised Full of life for donating $1 million to the NAACP six years in the past and for being a “philanthropist and a student of our country’s most intractable problems.” Others on-line identified that Full of life as soon as boasted about her and husband Ryan Reynolds getting married in 2012 on a Southern plantation with a historical past of slavery. She thereafter launched a failed life-style and e-commerce web site that offered dear clothes and residential decor gadgets that had been impressed by “the allure” of the antebellum South.
Froelich mentioned there gave the impression to be a transparent effort by Full of life’s legal professionals and brokers to get her an award that might assist whitewash a blemished fame.
It’s not going that Kelly will cease excoriating Full of life as her authorized saga with Baldoni continues to wind by the courts over the following 12 months. “I have to tell you it’s pretty cathartic to say you you really feel, ” Kelly mentioned.
In a lawsuit, she has accused him of being sexually inappropriate in the course of the manufacturing of “It Ends With Us” in 2023 and 2024.
Her representatives additionally went to the New York Occasions to shared detailed allegations that shaped the idea of a blockbuster information story about Baldoni that additionally alleged that he, his publicists and manufacturing orchestrated a smear marketing campaign towards the actress after the movie’s August 2024 launch. Baldoni has filed a counter-suit, denying the sexual harassment allegations and saying that Full of life and Reynolds sought to wrest management of the film from him and defamed him within the New York Occasions story.
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