Entertainment
Justin Baldoni Reflects on ‘Intense’ Year in Podcast Taped Before Blake Lively Court Filing
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- Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively are in an ongoing legal battle after the actress sued the actor/director, accusing him of sexual harassment and a retaliatory public smear campaign to “destroy” her reputation
- The accusations came months after the release of their film It Ends with Us, and Baldoni responded by countersuing the actress
- Although he did not discuss Lively in his newly-released podcast appearance, he chronicled his “intense” year
Before being sued by Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni was already having an “intense” year.
Baldoni made the revelation in an episode of the Gent’s Talk Podcast released on Monday, Feb. 10. The installment was filmed in November 2024 — a month before Lively, 37, filed a lawsuit against her It Ends with Us costar and director, 41, accusing him of sexual harassment, followed by a retaliatory public smear campaign to “destroy” her reputation.
“This morning, I sent a text message to my best friend Jamey and the president of my company, Tera, and I told them that I wasn’t in the best place,” Baldoni said on the podcast. “I told them that I was exhausted, that I haven’t given myself time to recover or time to heal.”
Jamey Heath is the CEO of Wayfarer Studios and Tera Hanks is president of the production company.
Baldoni, who also directed It Ends with Us, said his emotions were the result of “an intense year.”
Araya Doheny/Variety via Getty
“A lot of material success and a lot of emotional stress was very hard on me and my family. I wear a lot of hats, and I carry a lot because I love what I do,” he said, noting that he has “love” for his company.
“I love the people that work for us. I love the movies that we make. I love the impact that we have and yet sometimes it’s easy to, as you said earlier, fall back into our programming and be swept away in the current of self and be kind of overtaken by the wave of success and opportunity,” Baldoni said.
He explained that after waking up at 4:30 in the morning with his “heart racing,” he realized that he was dealing with “some anxiety” and “not in the best place.”
After checking in with himself, Baldoni said he was reminded that he needed to prioritize his time and “just haven’t given myself the time to heal from this year that I needed.”
He said that “in the spirit of vulnerability,” he shared the same message with his assistant and a similar text message with his publicist, Jennifer Abel.
The actor shared that he is a “work in progress,” who is “always trying to be radically sincere and authentic to myself” to “have the most impact.”
“And sometimes I can get lost in the same way that everybody gets lost, but healing isn’t linear, and growth isn’t linear, and if you don’t have setbacks and if you don’t have plateaus, then you don’t have the opportunity to group and to push forward,” said Baldoni.
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The podcast’s release comes amid Baldoni’s ongoing legal battle with Lively.
On December 21, Lively named Wayfarer, Baldoni, Heath, Abel and others in her lawsuit.
On December 31, Baldoni sued The New York Times for $250 million, alleging libel, false light invasion of privacy, promissory fraud and breach of implied-in-fact contract, after the outlet published a story titled “We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine” about the allegations against him.
A month later, Baldoni filed another lawsuit suing Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, their publicist Leslie Sloane and Sloane’s PR firm Vision PR, Inc. for $400 million, on claims of civil extortion and defamation, among other claims.
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Baldoni and Lively are scheduled for trial on March 9, 2026.
Entertainment
Ariana Grande goes Instagram-official with on-again boyfriend Ricky Alvarez after announcing break from the spotlight

Ariana Grande officially hard-launched her on-again boyfriend, Ricky Alvarez, on Instagram.
The “Petals” songstress took to the platform Wednesday to share several loved-up photos with the dancer, including a cozy mirror snap that showed his arm wrapped around her shoulder.
While Grande only showed herself and Alvarez from the neck down, she didn’t shy away from tagging him.
A second blurry snap showed the couple hugging, as the Grammy winner, 33, appeared to be wearing purple fairy wings.
Grande included several selfies and photos of her dogs in the sweet photo dump, which she simply captioned, “🌱 ! ♡.”
As for Alvarez, 35, he reshared a photo of the pop star sporting a “Petal” T-shirt via his Instagram Stories Wednesday.
He also reposted Grande’s second photo of them hugging.
Last month, Page Six exclusively confirmed that Grande and Alvarez, who dated from 2015 to 2016, had rekindled their romance following her breakup with Ethan Slater after three years together.
“But she isn’t rushing back into the relationship,” an insider told us. “She has a lot on her plate at the moment and is still incredibly busy with her tour schedule, so they’re taking things one step at a time.”
The source explained that Alvarez “has remained close with Ariana’s family over the years, and that’s something she really appreciates.”
“He has also made an effort to show up and support her while she’s on tour, which hasn’t gone unnoticed,” the insider continued.
The “7 Rings” singer embarked on the “Eternal Sunshine” tour in June, and Alvarez was notably in attendance at several shows.
Insiders told Page Six that Grande has been leaning on her beau, who has been “super supportive” of her, as she prepares to take a step back from the limelight when she wraps up her tour in September.
According to her rep, she will take a “much-deserved break” after enduring “endless, ongoing public scrutiny.”
Another source told Page Six that the “Yes, And?” singer also plans on spending her time off with Alvarez, along with her family and friends.
Grande and Alvarez met in 2014 when the latter became her backup dancer. Alvarez later joined Grande on the 2015 Honeymoon Tour.
Entertainment
‘Roseanne’ star defends sitcom’ axing over comedian’s tweets

Former child star Michael Fishman became emotional while laying out his thoughts on the “Roseanne” reboot’s cancellation back in 2018.
Fishman — who played the title character’s son, DJ Conner, on the beloved sitcom — shared a social media comment regarding the years-old controversy, which saw Roseanne Barr fired from her own revival series after a string of controversial tweets.
“The reboot got canceled because Roseanne made the usual jokes a comedian makes but America decided to backstab Roseanne,” the comment read atop an Instagram reel shared Monday.
“At the time the LGBTQ and woke crap took over and started destroying anything it could. Roseanne was one of the people that all of a sudden got flack for remaining to be a edgy comedian,” it continued. “Funny thing is even if she was racist, she had already said more egregious jokes and nobody batted an eye before.”
Fishman responded directly to the comment on camera, saying, “I get this every day. I get these kinds of ignorant and inaccurate comments daily,” he began, appearing to be exhausted by the sentiment.
“Mostly, I try to ignore them. For over eight years, I’ve been dealing with it quietly,” he continued. “Usually, I don’t respond.”
The actor, now 44, went on, noting, “After eight years, turning the other cheek really isn’t helping.”
“So, I guess the world failed to learn the lesson. So I’m going to point out. We are perpetuating a lie, and people are using a political smokescreen to justify the indefensible,” he said, referencing how Barr called her own actions “indefensible” in an apology at the time.
Back in 2018, Barr was brought to task in the court of public opinion for publicly sharing a polarizing tweet comparing former President Barack Obama’s advisor, Valerie Jarrett, to an “ape.”
The comedian, now 73, defended herself at the time by claiming she’d been on a sleep aid called Ambien and didn’t know that she thought Jarrett was white. She also later blamed God. Ultimately, the show’s reboot was axed by ABC before a second season could materialize.
It was quickly retooled as “The Conners” — without Barr — and that sitcom lasted seven seasons, ending in 2025.
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“Those justifications, they’re leading to real consequences. Real crimes,” Fishman said, referencing current-day tragedies involving the deaths of black Americans like Tasia Fortune, Trey Reed and Nolan Wells.
“Dehumanizing people is never a joke,” he noted. “See, when we’re onstage as comedians, or on camera, we have the freedom to say whatever we want. But that doesn’t mean there’s no responsibility and no consequences.”
“The brilliant comedians help us laugh at the darkest, darkest topics,” he went on. “Sadly, in this case, there was no joke. And the show was rightfully canceled. It’s the last time I’m really gonna go into this.”
Fishman allowed in his commentary that “good people make mistakes,” and confessed that he “love[s] the one who made this mistake” and “always will.”
“I’ll always have compassion and love [for Barr], and I’ve shown it continuously and she helped the world understand that good people can make mistakes,” he said.
“But there was no joke. There was only damage and dehumanizing — and perpetuating racial tropes leads to real-world consequences,” he added in part.
“And the only people who are backstabbed were the people who were targeted by the statements. And those who became collateral damage from it,” he said.
Fishman then addressed those who had defended racist comments online or shared their own.
“Be smart enough to just shut the hell up,” the actor concluded the upload. “Don’t finish the statement, don’t hit send and certainly don’t rage against anybody else. Because words have real-world consequences, and some of us deal with them every day. That’s freedom of speech.”
Fishman captioned the reel, “Humanity crumbles when justify dehumanization and stay silent to suffering, inequality, exclusion, and oppression. We can do better. I was shaped by the show I grew up on. Now I am building bigger. Words have consequences.”
A rep for Barr did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment on Tuesday evening.
Back in 2018, Barr addressed the controversial tweets multiple times, apologizing and insisting that it was politically, and not racially, motivated.
The social media rant was “about asking for accountability from the previous administration about the Iran deal, which Valerie Jarrett is the author of, and that was what was in my head,” Barr said in a 2018 interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
She added that her initial reaction to the public outcry “was shock that they were saying it was racial, when it’s political.”
In a separate 2018 podcast interview with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Barr said, “I have to face that it hurt people.”
“When you hurt people even unwillingly there’s no excuse. I don’t want to run off and blather on with excuses,” she added. “But I apologize to anyone who thought, or felt offended and who thought that I meant something that I, in fact, did not mean. It was my own ignorance, and there’s no excuse for that ignorance.”
Entertainment
Lizzo models teeny purple string bikini to ring in ‘Fat Liberation Month’

Lizzo has a message for her “ladies over 200.”
The “About Damn Time” singer celebrated “Fat Liberation Month” on Instagram Sunday, posing poolside in a sparkly purple two-piece from her Yitty Swim line.
Lizzo, 38, wore the brand’s Swim Luxe Triangle Bikini Top ($44.95) and matching side-tie thong bottoms ($39.95), finishing the look with oversized Gucci shield sunglasses.
She tipped her face toward the sun in one shot, her copper curls loose down her back. A cheeky Story upload captured her glancing over her shoulder to show off the thong bottoms.
“Happy Fat Liberation Month 💕 calling all my ladies over 200 go outside n POP sumthin🙏🏾,” she captioned the post.
Followers piled into the comments to co-sign the message. “Lizzo said confidence all month long! Love the energy. 🙌✨” wrote one, while another added, “Curvalicious!!! Get it Lizzo!”
The Grammy winner launched Yitty as a size-inclusive shapewear label in 2022, later expanding into swim.
She wore one of her own Yitty designs on the July Sports Illustrated Swimsuit digital cover — a moment she said she’d been manifesting for years.
“When I was younger, I saw it and never imagined somebody with my body type would be on the cover,” she told the publication. “It’s just incredible to see how we’ve redefined sexy, redefined confidence and redefined what a swimsuit body is since I was a kid.”
The singer — whose fifth studio album, “Bitch,” dropped in May — has been open about her fluctuating weight over the past few years, which included dropping 60 pounds after starting her wellness journey in fall 2023.
She also put 20 pounds back on this year — a decision she said was fully intentional.
“I wanted to get thicker. I wanted to get juicier and thicker, and I did,” she told SI.
In an August 2025 interview with Women’s Health, she made clear her message wasn’t tied to the number on her scale.
“Body positivity has nothing to do with staying the same,” she told the outlet. “Body positivity is the radical act of daring to exist loudly and proudly in a society that told you you shouldn’t exist.”
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