Bethenny Frankel is spilling the behind the scenes tea from an It Ends With Us premiere.
The Real Housewives of New York City alum has recounted her “off-putting” experience at the New York film premiere on TikTok, as the legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni continues.
“I have the craziest It Ends With Us premiere story that I totally forgot about and I’m putting the pieces together now,” Frankel said, adding that she hadn’t shared the story because she thought it would get her “cancelled.”
The 54-year-old said she attended the premiere with her colleague, Danielle, and walked the carpet before being told that there was an hour break between the carpet and film.
“Something that I’ve never seen in over 20 years of going to movie premieres… Now maybe that happens. I’ve never seen that happen,” she said, before sharing that her and Danielle decided to go and get margaritas.
She claimed she then ran into one of Lively’s team members, who she had met before.
“They’re a little distant and a little icy to me,” Frankel recalled. “Just, there’s something that I’m like, ‘Wow, OK,’ and in other circumstances, this person is not this way and it just, it was slightly off-putting to Danielle and I. We both noted it.”
Things ramped up when Frankel returned to the premiere.
“So we walk upstairs and we see Anna Wintour. She passes us, I’m like, ‘Oh my God,'” she said. “So then we keep walking and this guy says to me, ‘Oh Bethenny, you know Justin [Baldoni], he was on your podcast.’ And he’s in this one line and we say hello to each other.”
Frankel admitted that she did not remember Baldoni but added he was “very nice.” She then realized that Baldoni was in line to see the film in one theater, while Wintour was heading towards a different one.
“Usually, not usually, always, unless it’s a weird different screening, the premiere is in one giant theater,” Frankel explained. “But here, he’s in one theater, something’s going on somewhere else. I saw Anna walk this way.”
Frankel said that she and Danielle were seated in a theater and it felt like “everybody” was separated.
“The vibe was off … so what I didn’t tell anybody because I thought I would be canceled, was we left,” she said, adding she thought she’d get flack for leaving because you don’t just show up to a premiere, walk the carpet and take off without seeing the film.
“The vibes were not vibing,” she said of why they took off. “Like, wasted hair, makeup, outfit, to go to the city, drink a margarita in a mason jar, take a bucket of popcorn, take two bites, see Anna Wintour, see Justin Baldoni and left to go back to Connecticut.”
“Like, talk about blue balls,” she joked, after adding how excited she was to see the film.
She then explained that “something was definitely awry from the jump and it was palpable.”
“It felt like I was doing something wrong, but it felt like I was also doing something right,” she said of her decision to leave. “Something was f–cked.”
Last week, Baldoni filed a $250 million lawsuitagainst The New York Times for its coverage of Lively’s legal complaint. Lively later filed a federal lawsuit of her own, in which she reiterated allegations of sexual harassment, as well as claims Baldoni and others orchestrated a smear campaign against her.
In his lawsuit, per The New York Post, the actor accused Lively of “systematically sidelin[ing]” him from the film’s marketing, including allegedly trying to get him banned from the movie’s premiere in New York City,
“Further undermining Baldoni’s role, Lively initially refused to permit his attendance at the Film’s premiere,” the lawsuit claimed, per the outlet. “Only after significant pressure did she reluctantly agree to allow Baldoni and the Wayfarer team to attend, but under humiliating conditions.”
Among the alleged “conditions,” Baldoni alleged that he was “segregated” from the rest of the cast at the premiere.
“The Wayfarer team and their families, including Baldoni and Heath, were segregated from the main cast, barred from the exclusive after-party, and forced to organize their own event at additional cost,” the lawsuit read.
He went on to further recall how he and his family were allegedly treated during the event.
“Baldoni’s participation on the red carpet was cut short, and his family and friends were confined to a makeshift holding area in the basement before being escorted into a separate theater after Lively’s departure,” the lawsuit claimed. “Not only had Lively stolen the Film, but she also robbed Baldoni and his team of any genuine opportunity to celebrate their hard work.”
Lively’s lawyer’s later released a statement in reaction to the filing.
“Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively’s California Civil Rights Department Complaint, nor her federal complaint, filed earlier today,” the statement read. “This lawsuit is based on the obviously false premise that Ms. Lively’s administrative complaint against Wayfarer and others was a ruse based on a choice ‘not to file a lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer,’ and that ‘litigation was never her ultimate goal.'”
“As demonstrated by the federal complaint filed by Ms. Lively earlier today, that frame of reference for the Wayfarer lawsuit is false,” the statement continued. “While we will not litigate this matter in the press, we do encourage people to read Ms. Lively’s complaint in its entirety. We look forward to addressing each and every one of Wayfarer’s allegations in court.”
