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If you've been on the internet at all in the last week, there's a chance you've seen THAT Hollywood Reporter magazine cover. You know, the one about Justin Baldoni's Baha'i faith, with artwork of Justin holding a copy of It Ends With Us and Blake Lively slingshotting her phone at him. It's very evocative — or "sexist," according to Blake Lively. But no matter what you think, there's a good chance it'll make you say, "What am I looking at?"
Here's how Justin Baldoni's Baha'i religion reportedly influenced the making of It Ends With Us.
Is the Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni feud just "a perfect storm of two opposing personalities”?
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The Justin Baldoni vs. Blake Lively legal battle hinges on Blake's claims that Justin sexually harassed her on set (and then orchestrated a campaign to ruin her reputation), while Justin considers her "outrageous" claims to be defamation. The Hollywood Reporter reportsRyan Reynolds has been "extremely active" trying to "drum up as much support" as possible in their personal and professional lives.
As we get closer to their March 2026 trial (and see countless websites, text leaks, and voice memos from both parties), one insider wonders if the whole situation boils down to "two opposing personalities."
“The Justin that I know isn’t capable of doing the things that he’s accused of doing because he truly sees himself as this feminist. But Blake clearly got grossed out,” the insider tells THR. “I honestly feel like it was a perfect storm of two opposing personalities.”
According to THR, the Baha'i faith has over 5 million followers in more than 230 countries, with 3,000 members in LA alone — including Rainn Wilson, Penn Badgley, and Justin. While one source from Justin's 2019 film Five Feet Apart claims it “had shades of Scientology," another says they'd never "worked with a male director who was so worried about everyone’s emotional and mental well-being."
“There was an openness and emotionality to his style that was more typical of a woman, and it probably wouldn’t be an issue if it was a [female director] because of the preconceived notions of gender," they continue. "But if you get a bunch of teamsters together who are told that they should share their feelings, of course someone is going to ask, ‘Why is he such a freak?’ But [Justin] genuinely believes that if we do this, we’ll work better as a group. There’s a little bit of an arrogance to it. It’s like he doesn’t want to acknowledge the world we live in.”
Blake Lively just spoke out about the "extremely offensive" story, saying it "seems to explain away documented examples of sexual harassment and retaliation by calling them ‘cultural misunderstandings.'"
What do you think about the idea this is all just a "misunderstanding"? Let us know in the comments.
