logo
‘Tense': It Ends With Us star speaks out amid Justin Baldoni, Blake Lively drama

‘Tense': It Ends With Us star speaks out amid Justin Baldoni, Blake Lively drama

News.com.au2 days ago

It's the most talked-about co-star feud in Hollywood – and there's now been yet another development in the legal war between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively.
The stunt double for Baldoni, who directed and starred in It Ends With Us alongside Lively, has given a new interview, opening up about the apparent tension and alleging that the actress was 'closed off' during production.
'You could tell that the set was tense,' Thomas Canestraro told the Daily Mail. 'There was some discomfort from everybody.'
The stunt actor, who joined the project for the final two weeks of filming, attributed much of the atmosphere to delays related to the 2023 writers' strike – but added that he also sensed an issue between Baldoni and Lively.
'What I did experience was filming that was taking longer than expected,' Canestraro told the publication, explaining he'd questioned: ''What's happening here? Why are we taking so much time to film all of this scene? Why are we not on schedule?''
Canestraro had previously worked with the Gossip Girl actress on a marketing campaign for A Simple Favor back in 2018, and said it had been an 'extremely easy time' and that he'd felt 'comfortable' teaming up with her again.
However, he claimed, he'd noticed a difference in her attitude this time around, and that she'd appeared to be 'more closed off'.
Noting that he'd been unaware of the issues that had arisen between the movie's lead stars, which would later result in a massive legal and PR war, Canestraro pointed out that those in the know 'did a good job of doing damage control'.
Back in December, Lively filed an explosive lawsuit against Baldoni for emotional distress and lost wages. A month later, Baldoni returned serve, suing Lively – as well as her husband, Ryan Reynolds – for $US400 million ($A623 million), accusing them of attempting to destroy his reputation.
Their court showdown is set for March 2026.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Aldi is being sued by Oreo maker Mondelez for 'blatantly copying' packaging
Aldi is being sued by Oreo maker Mondelez for 'blatantly copying' packaging

ABC News

time2 hours ago

  • ABC News

Aldi is being sued by Oreo maker Mondelez for 'blatantly copying' packaging

The company behind US snacks such as Oreos and Chips Ahoy is suing the American branch of the Aldi supermarket chain, alleging the store's biscuit brands are "blatant copies" of its products. This isn't the first time the supermarket has found itself facing a challenge over similarities in the packaging of its products and those of other brands. Here's what we know. Chicago company Mondelez filed a federal lawsuit this week which alleged Aldi's packaging of several of its biscuit products was "likely to deceive and confuse customers". It also alleged that the packaging threatened to irreparably harm Mondelez and its brands. The company is hoping for a court order that would stop Aldi selling the products and monetary damages. In the lawsuit, Mondelez displayed side-by-side photos of multiple products. For example, Aldi's chocolate sandwich biscuits and Oreos both have blue packaging, with images of the treats arranged in similar orientations. The supermarket's Golden Round crackers and Mondelez's Ritz crackers are packaged in red boxes with a breakout blue field with yellow lettering. Mondelez said it had contacted Aldi on numerous occasions about "confusingly similar packaging." It alleged Aldi discontinued or changed the packaging on some items but continued to sell others. Aldi has not yet publicly responded to the case and did not respond to requests from multiple US news outlets. Aldi, which was founded in Germany, keeps prices low by primarily selling products under its own labels. It's one of the fastest-growing grocery chains in the US, with more than 2,500 stores in 39 states. In Australia, there are currently 600 Aldi stores. Yes. Aldi has faced multiple lawsuits around its packaging and brands around the world. Last year in Australia the company Hampden Holdings and Lacorium Health Australia sued Aldi Foods for breach of copyright in relation to children's food products. Hampden licenses intellectual property to Every Bite Counts which sells children's food products under Baby Bellies, Little Bellies and Mighty Bellies which are sold in Australia. In 2018 and 2019, Aldi engaged the company Motor Design to re-design the packaging for its baby food and product range. The case found that in April 2019, Aldi instructed Motor Design to reuse the Little Bellies brand as the "benchmark" for the re-design of the packaging for the Mamia dry food range. Court documents compare the packaging on both brands showing similar names of products, images and colours. Aldi was found liable for copyright infringement for its puff products, which are three of the eleven products Hampden raised. However, Aldi was found not liable for the other products' branding such as rice cakes. Included in evidence were emails between the supermarket and design firm which discussed the similarities between the new design and its "benchmark". "Unfortunately I have received feedback that this particular artwork is too close to our benchmark, I understand we are now on V5 of artwork rounds," it read. A post-it note from the design first said "Aldi have now had legal come back to them and state this design is too close to the benchmark — no shit!" The supermarket no longer sells products with that packaging and has appealed the federal court's ruling in Hampden's favour. Separately, Aldi won a federal court appeal in 2018 against a deceptive conduct ruling over haircare products brought against the supermarket chain by Moroccanoil Israel. In the UK, an appeal court ruled in favour of a cider company called Thatchers, which sued Aldi over design similarities.

Ex-hotel security guard says Sean 'Diddy' Combs paid him $US100,000 for video of LA hotel assault
Ex-hotel security guard says Sean 'Diddy' Combs paid him $US100,000 for video of LA hotel assault

ABC News

time2 hours ago

  • ABC News

Ex-hotel security guard says Sean 'Diddy' Combs paid him $US100,000 for video of LA hotel assault

Warning: This story contains details of sexual abuse and domestic violence. A former hotel security guard has testified that Sean "Diddy" Combs gave him a brown paper bag stuffed with $US100,000 ($154,000) in cash, for what he hoped was the only copy of surveillance footage of him viciously attacking his then-girlfriend, R&B singer Casandra Ventura. The video shows Ms Ventura, also known by her stage name Cassie, at an LA hotel in 2016. Eddy Garcia, 33, said the hip-hop mogul repeatedly made the comment that his career and image would be destroyed if the video of the assault became public, before giving him the bag of money. Prosecutors at Mr Combs's sex trafficking trial in Manhattan have made the footage a centrepiece of their federal case against him. It shows Mr Combs kicking, beating and dragging Ms Ventura at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles. They contend it supports the claims of three women, including Ms Ventura, who allege Mr Combs sexually and physically abused them over two decades. Prosecutors say Mr Combs's persistent efforts to hush up the episode fit with allegations he used threats, fortune and fame to get what he wanted. Mr Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering charges. After the attack, Mr Garcia said he spoke several times to Mr Combs's chief-of-staff Kristina Khorram, telling her he couldn't show her the recording but "off the record, it's bad." He said during one phone call she put a "very nervous"-sounding Mr Combs on the phone, who "was just saying he had a little too much to drink" and that, as Mr Garcia surely knows, "with women, one thing leads to another and if this got out it would ruin him." "He was talking really fast, a lot of stuttering," Mr Garcia said. Mr Garcia said he became nervous and scared when Ms Khorram called him on his cell phone, the number for which he had not provided, and she put Mr Combs on. "He stated that I sounded like a good guy," Mr Garcia testified, adding that Mr Combs again said "something like this could ruin him." When he told Mr Combs he didn't have access to the server to obtain the video footage, Mr Combs said he believed Mr Garcia could make it happen and that "he would take care of me," which Mr Garcia said he took "to mean financially." Mr Garcia said he checked with his boss and was told he would sell it to Mr Combs for $US50,000. When he told Mr Combs, he said the music producer "sounded excited." "He referred to me as 'Eddy my angel,'" Mr Garcia said, adding that Mr Combs told him: "I knew you could help. I knew you could do it." Within two days of the attack on Ms Ventura, Mr Garcia gave the accused a storage device containing the footage in exchange for $US100,000 in cash which Mr Combs fed through a money counter before putting in a brown paper bag. Mr Garcia signed a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement, shown in court, that required he pay $US1 million if he breached the deal. At the time he said he was making $US10.50 an hour working hotel security. The former security guard said he signed a declaration swearing that there was no other copy of the video. He said he signed the papers in an office building with Mr Combs's bodyguard and Ms Khorram present. Mr Garcia said he didn't fully read the documents, explaining that he was nervous and "the goal was to get out of there as soon as possible." After signing, he said, Mr Combs asked him what he planned to do with the money and advised him not to make big purchases. Mr Garcia said he took that to mean he shouldn't do anything that would draw attention. Mr Garcia said he gave $US50,000 to his boss and $US20,000 to another security officer. He pocketed $US30,000 and used some of it to buy a used car, he said. He said he used cash and to avoid a further paper trail, never put the money in the bank. A few weeks later, Mr Garcia said Mr Combs called him and asked if anyone had inquired about the video. Mr Garcia said no, recounting Mr Combs's ebullient greeting: "Happy Easter. Eddy, my angel. God is good. God put you in my way for a reason." Mr Garcia said he asked the accused if he might have future work for him, and Mr Combs sounded receptive. But Mr Combs never responded to his later inquiries, the witness said. Another hotel guard has testified he recorded the footage on his phone so he could show it to his wife. Mr Combs could face life in prison if convicted on all counts. Prosecutors have said they may finish presenting their case next week, allowing the defence to put on its case. AP

Mountainhead review: First film from Succession creator promises 'eat the rich' but neglects to feed the audience
Mountainhead review: First film from Succession creator promises 'eat the rich' but neglects to feed the audience

ABC News

time2 hours ago

  • ABC News

Mountainhead review: First film from Succession creator promises 'eat the rich' but neglects to feed the audience

The "eat the rich" subgenre has been so well covered in the past decade that it's become overexposed. But the trope du jour does still offer a singular cinematic delight: watching entitled, horrible, rich people get what's coming to them. What: Four tech billionaires hide out in a palatial mansion while their creations tear the world apart. Starring: Steve Carell, Ramy Youssef, Cory Michael Smith, Jason Schwartzman Directed by: Jesse Armstrong When: Streaming now on Max Likely to make you feel: like you've already seen this story Whether they end up bankrupt, castaways or as human s'mores, there is a catharsis to seeing billionaires suffer in fiction because they so rarely receive their comeuppance in real life. In Succession creator Jesse Armstrong's first foray into writing and directing a feature film, he asks: "What if I did an eat-the-rich film, but just give the audience 'the rich' part?" Mountainhead is a very long bottle episode of TV, set in the most expensive bottle you've ever seen. Tech creator Hugo 'Souper' Van Yalk (Jason Schwartzman) — short in both stature and standing (his net worth is less than $1 billion) — invites three of his closest frenemies to his steely, sprawling, secluded compound for a weekend of poker. Randall Garrett (Steve Carell) — net worth $63 billion — is the oldest of the bunch and he can feel it. Multiple doctors have diagnosed him with an incurable cancer which he rejects, dismissing his latest physician as a "simpleton". Venis 'Ven' Parish (Cory Michael Smith) — net worth $221 billion — has just pushed a frightening new AI-generative feature onto his omnipresent social media platform, Traam. Ven's actually only on the trip because he needs to schmooze Jeff Abredazi (Ramy Youssef) — net worth $59 billion and quickly climbing — owner of an AI company whose code way outstrips Traam's version. In a classic horse-before-the-cart move, Traam's AI isn't so great at sorting fact from fiction, leading to unverifiable videos that flare political tensions internationally. Ven needs Jeff's superior tech to fend off faceless federal forces that are putting pressure on Ven to fix his platform before fake videos tear the planet apart. Because all these man-child characters have the emotional intelligence of an egg, Ven can't quite muster the humility to ask for Jeff's help. As the quartet trade barbs and only semi-literate technobabble in Armstrong's trademark galloping, insult-a-minute dialogue, real-time disasters trickle in from their smartphones: Gangs in South America are killing innocents after deep fake videos called them informants; AI-generated deep fakes of ideologically fuelled violence have inflamed conflict between multiple countries. In response, the four men cast themselves as kings of the new world, indulging in casual debate over who is going to be installed as leader of which impoverished country. The world crises in Mountainhead were so true to life that Youssef says he found it difficult to differentiate between the horror filtering in from his prop phone and his real phone. "At a certain point, I didn't really know which was which, and unfortunately a lot of these things started to blend together," he says. "I think our emotions were definitely tested with how escalating everything in the real world is right now." And therein lies the real problem with Mountainhead. In a world where almost indistinguishable headlines are shrieked at us from all angles, why on earth would we want an uncanny recreation as entertainment? In the past week, AI-generated deepfake videos shared widely across Twitter and Facebook inflamed the conflict between India and Pakistan, with experts claiming the platforms didn't do enough to temper the misinformation. Youssef points to Armstrong's strength of tone — which kept millions engaged in the abhorrent actions of his Succession characters — as the saving grace of this purported comedy. "It never felt like we were making fun of what was happening. We were more making fun of the people who are so reckless," he says. Which could work, if any of the characters did or said anything half as disturbingly comical as their real-life counterparts. Randall takes obvious inspiration from billionaires like US venture capitalist Bryan Johnson, who is perhaps more well-known for his radical attempts at "anti-aging". But absolutely nothing Randall says in his ample screen time is as hilariously dystopian as Johnson taking a whole litre of his 17-year-old son's blood to put in his body in an attempt to reverse aging, only to turn around and say the process had "no benefits detected". Ven, with his problematic social platform, weird connection with his infant child and direct line to the president, is reminiscent of Elon Musk. But the character's cringe displays pale in comparison to Musk's gamut of baffling behaviours or squirm-worthy jokes — from setting up a Tesla showroom on the White House lawn to his obsession with 420 gags. Mountainhead was turned around at an astonishing rate. According to Armstrong, he pitched the film to HBO in December last year and production was wrapped by April. This kind of accelerated birth should make the comedy feel fresh and relevant. Instead, Armstrong makes observations and comedy that feel not just dated, but unnecessary. His visual metaphors — like the cold, cruel design of Souper's "home" and the constant, overflowing tables of food (TikTok creators identified luxury grub as the new status symbol ages ago) — are cartoonish in a way that makes you cringe for the creator. The machine gun references to "going to the moon" and bunkers in New Zealand are groan-worthy. His filming style — all shaky cam and quick zoom-ins — ape the reality-TV feel of Succession, but can't pull anything out of Mountainhead's characters except insufferably flat reaction shots. It's clear Armstrong thinks his dip into the world of wannabe tech oligarchs is clever and new, but it quickly becomes repetitive and boring. You can recreate the same effect by doomscrolling Twitter for 20 minutes and you might see a cute cat gif. There are going to be Succession-heads who thought the show deserved 10 more seasons and will likely christen Mountainhead meaningful satire. However, if you do not fall into this group, I implore you to go for a run, touch grass, hug a loved one, draw a picture, bake a cake — all of these actions are more radical in their defiance of dangerous billionaires than watching a rushed recreation of our current societal woes. Mountainhead is streaming on Max now.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store