If Blake Lively thought for a moment that donuts would help her gain a much-needed tactical victory, she sorely miscalculated. Deep in the throes of her ongoing war with her "It Ends With Us" costar and director Justin Baldoni, Lively recently stopped by a friend's Connecticut bake shop to do some "baking with genius food friends" and hand out treats to customers. Online detractors swiftly accused her of pulling a "PR stunt" to seem more relatable, and trolls flooded the shop's Yelp page, complaining that the haircare entrepreneur had failed to tie back her very long locks in the kitchen. Clearly, this is a battle that has escalated way beyond baked goods at this point. But this doesn't have to become an endless quagmire. I have a degree in conflict resolution, and I know what I'd advise.
First, let's briefly yet exhaustedly recap. The trouble began last summer during the decidedly chilly press blitz for the much-anticipated Colleen Hoover adaptation of her best-selling novel. At the time, a torrent of fan antipathy and hit pieces was mainly directed at Lively—in particular, for her seemingly tone-deaf approach to a story about domestic violence.
