Norwegian journalist Kjersti Flaa, who went viral in August for her “nightmare” interview with Blake Lively, has denied any involvement in Justin Baldoni’s alleged smear campaign against his It Ends with Us co-star Lively.
Lively, 37, who led the romance drama based on Colleen Hoover’s best-selling 2016 novel alongside Baldoni, who also directed the picture, has sued him for sexual harassment and accused him of beginning a campaign to “destroy” her reputation.
Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freeman, has called the allegations “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.”
Hours after the lawsuit came to light, The New York Times published a story revealing private texts between Baldoni, publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis management expert Melissa Nathan, whose previous clients included Johnny Depp, Travis Scott and Drake.
The messages detailed an alleged smear campaign created to “bury” Lively, the newspaper reported.
The article also notes Flaa’s 2016 interview with Lively, which she uploaded months ago amid a growing online backlash against Lively. It’s “impossible to know how much of the negative publicity was seeded” and how much was simply “noticed and amplified,” the Times reported.
Flaa has since spoken out and denied having anything to do with Baldoni and his alleged smear campaign against Lively.
“I have to say something because now things are starting to snowball,” Flaa said in a recent video uploaded to Threads, “and people start thinking that I had anything to do with the smear campaign against Blake Lively that was orchestrated allegedly by Justin Baldoni and his team.”
She noted: “I also read the article in The New York Times this morning, I’ve been reading through the lawsuit, and I see there’s been a lot of dirty work going on behind the scenes, and I just wanted to say that I have nothing to do with it.”
When “I read the text messages that [were] going back and forth between Justin Baldoni’s PR team, I was as shocked and appalled like everyone else, and I would never take part in anything like that. That’s such an insult to me,” Flaa added.
Addressing the situation further in a new YouTube video, Flaa said that she would “never take money to jeopardize my integrity as a journalist.”
“Some people have started these conspiracies that I am connected to the PR campaign against Blake Lively; that is not true,” she said.
“I see how people are trying to make a connection here that I’ve been working with Justin Baldoni’s PR company because it’s just too much of a coincidence that my video was posted at that time. As I’ve said before, I posted the video after I had seen the movie,” she explained. “And I had a bad experience with Blake Lively, and at that time I was like ‘I’ve kind of had enough of Hollywood’ ... so I decided to post the video.”
In August, the day after the release of It Ends with Us, Flaa uploaded a YouTube video titled: “The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job.”
The video was a recording of an old 2016 press junket interview in promotion of Lively’s film Café Society, directed by Woody Allen. Lively was accompanied by her co-star Parker Posey.
Prior to the interview, which presumably would have taken place around the film’s release date in July, the actor, who was then 28, had announced that she was pregnant with her second baby with her husband Ryan Reynolds in May.
Flaa began the interview by congratulating the actor on her “little bump” after which Lively sarcastically responded: “Congrats on your little bump.”
Posey appeared to attempt to diffuse the tension by showing off her backside “bump,” after which Lively went on to speak about the actor’s “lovely lady lumps” as Flaa waited to begin the interview.
Speaking about the film, the journalist said she found it “visually amazing,” and asked whether Lively and Posey enjoyed the fashion, which played a big role in a film set in the 1930s.
Lively is then seen ignoring Flaa, and instead turns to Posey to say: “Everyone wants to talk about the clothes, but I wonder if they would ask the men about the clothes.”
Although Flaa insisted that she “would” have asked the male actors the same question, Lively seems to ignore her as she goes on to speak with Posey about the best outfits worn by the men in the film.
In the video’s description box, Flaa called it the “most uncomfortable interview situation I have ever experienced.”
