Hailey Bieber has been pulled into the Justin Baldoni, Blake Lively drama, propelling her name to trend on X. As reported by Us Weekly, Justin Baldoni allegedly used the Rhode founder's name as an example of the smear campaign he wanted to execute against his It Ends With Us co-star.
Per the outlet, text messages included in a legal complaint showcase Baldoni sending a screengrab of a thread on X that touched on “Hailey Bieber’s history of bullying women." He allegedly wrote, “This is what we would need.” Screenshots of the same have since broken out on X, drawing varied reactions from many.
While some claim Lively is in the wrong, others consider the screenshots to be damning evidence. Here's how one user replied:
"men in hollywood are weird."
Others online had even more to say:
"stuff like this makes you wonder how many other PR teams plot things like this against other celebs," one user pointed out.
"god hailey bieber just deserves the biggest apology and so much peace in her life," one user demanded.
"hailey bieber deserves the fattest apology from the internet like RIGHT NOW," another echoed.
"Hailey doesn't deserve this tbn ! She is so matured to handle this situation perfectly. The hate against her has gone on for years without reason, undermining her value and respect among fans, friends, and even her husband for things she’s not guilty of!" one user said in Bieber's defense.
The comments didn't end there, as users were visibly distraught over Hailey Bieber allegedly becoming the target of a hate train:
"Seeing the Hailey Bieber thread as an “example” of what they should do to Blake Lively felt soooo sinister,. Like damn if there’s one thing u can count on it’s that the internet will get excited to hate a woman & ABUSIVE MEN KNOW/GET TO USE THAT," someone penned.
"hailey bieber’s hate train was orchestrated by someone from hollywood (and we all know who) and y’all won’t ever change my mind being harassed and bullied for FIVE MONTHS in every single platform over something she didn’t even do was insane and the worst part is that she was the one who had to contact the person who commented on multiple hate TikToks about her to please ask people to stop," another pointed out.
"this isn’t really anything new though. a lot of artists’ labels will pay twitter accounts to love or hate that person in order to sway the narrative," one added.
"i’m sorry but hailey beiber being the case study for the perfect bullying campaign against a woman online is taking me out," someone else noted.
While scores online were raging over the alleged scheme involving Hailey Bieber, many users were also divided between supporting Juston Baldoni or Blake Lively.
Justin Baldoni cites Hailey Bieber as an example for his alleged smear campaign: Here's what we know
Per US Weekly, Blake Lively's lawsuit accuses Justin Baldoni of devising a plan that "went well beyond standard crisis PR,” noting that Melissa Nathan, the crisis specialist, had proposed “a practice known as ‘astroturfing,’ which has been defined as ‘the practice of publishing opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.’”
As reported by People Magazine, however, Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has since refuted the allegations, noting that they are all "false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt." In the screenshot, Justin Baldoni wrote, "This is what we would need," to which PR executive Jennifer Abel replied:
"Yes I literally just spoke to Melissa about this on the break about what we discussed last night for social and digital. Focus on Reddit, TikTok, [Instagram]."
People Magazine further reports that the same day, Abel messaged Nathan saying,
"I'm having reckless thoughts of wanting to plant pieces this week of how horrible Blake is to work with… Just to get ahead of it," to which Nathan said "same."
Per US Weekly, Lively's December filing claims that “millions of people (including many reporters and influencers) who saw these planted stories, social media posts, and other online content” were the “unwitting consumers of a crisis PR, astroturfing, and digital retaliation campaign."
“That is precisely the goal of an astroturfing campaign,” the lawsuit stated. “To light the fire and continue to stoke conversations secretly, blurring the line between authentic and manufactured content, and creating viral public takedowns.”
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Lively filed her complaint against Justin Baldoni on December 20, accusing him of causing her “severe emotional distress.”
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