Hollywood thrives on glitter, red carpets, and carefully curated images. But behind the flashbulbs, betrayal often lurks in silence — and Candace Owens claims to have uncovered one of the most shocking betrayals yet. According to her explosive analysis, Blake Lively didn’t just clash with her It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni. She may have outmaneuvered him completely, aided by her husband Ryan Reynolds and, astonishingly, with help from one of the most influential newspapers in the world.

The Metadata Mystery That Started It All

Owens’s investigation centers on a technical clue: the metadata of a New York Times article that ran on December 21, 2024. The article — portraying Baldoni in a sharply negative light — seemed too perfectly timed. Blake Lively had filed a civil rights complaint in Los Angeles just hours earlier, yet the Times had a full exposé ready to publish within 24 hours.

That alone raised questions. But then internet sleuths discovered something more damning: the article’s URL metadata dated back to December 16, 2024 — four days before Lively’s legal filing. How could the Times have archived an article about Baldoni days before the complaint was even public?

Owens claims the answer is chilling: “It wasn’t reporting. It was collusion. Someone fed the story in advance.”

A Hollywood Power Couple’s Shadow

Owens goes further, accusing Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively of collaborating with the Times to strategically frame Baldoni. She points to file names allegedly discovered on the paper’s servers, including phrases like “Smear Baldoni” and “Lively Topper”.

While mainstream outlets often prepare background pieces for expected scandals, Owens argues the language in these files suggests an agenda — a coordinated attempt to damage Baldoni’s reputation before the legal battle even began.

If her claims hold weight, this wouldn’t just be bad journalism. It would be evidence that one of Hollywood’s most famous couples had leveraged media power against a co-star.

The Rooftop Rewrite

The metadata mystery is just one part of Owens’s narrative. The real flashpoint, she says, was the infamous rooftop scene rewrite.

According to Owens, Lively pushed aggressively for changes to the script — a move that Baldoni, ever the diplomat, initially resisted but ultimately accepted. The real bombshell? At a private meeting at Lively’s penthouse, Baldoni reportedly walked into a room where not only Blake but also Ryan Reynolds and Taylor Swift were present, all pressuring him to adopt Lively’s rewrite wholesale.

For Baldoni, who had built his reputation on amplifying female voices and respecting co-stars’ creative input, the gathering seemed like a show of force. He relented, apologizing in voice notes later leaked, telling Lively he valued her contributions and never wanted her to feel dismissed.

But according to Owens, this “brainstorming session” was less collaboration and more coup.

The Red Carpet Betrayal

Fast forward to the film’s premiere. While the cast posed and smiled, Blake Lively dropped a revelation that stunned the industry. Asked about her involvement in the rooftop rewrite, she casually credited Ryan Reynolds: “My husband actually wrote it.”

For Baldoni and his team, the statement was devastating. They had reshuffled budgets, adjusted schedules, and bent over backwards to accommodate what they thought was Lively’s creative vision. To discover, in front of flashing cameras, that Reynolds had ghostwritten the scene was humiliating.

Owens calls it the “final knife twist.” By giving her husband credit, Lively effectively erased Baldoni’s sacrifices, making him appear like a weak director who had been sidelined on his own film.

Reynolds’s Comedic Jabs

Adding fuel to the fire, Owens points to Reynolds’s own social media activity. Promotional skits for Deadpool & Wolverine contained jokes about “finicky directors” and “rom-com types who can’t handle conflict.” At first, they seemed like harmless Deadpool humor. But Owens argues the timing and tone mirrored Baldoni’s controversies too closely to be coincidence.

Even more curious? A cryptic credit in It Ends With Us thanking “Gordon Reynolds,” which fans suspect was an Easter egg nod to Ryan. Owens interprets this as a covert victory lap — subtle proof that Reynolds’s fingerprints were on the script all along.

A Pattern of Power Plays?

Pulling together metadata, text leaks, social media posts, and that red carpet remark, Owens presents a damning case: Baldoni was systematically undermined.

The New York Times metadata suggests articles prepared days before allegations surfaced.

The penthouse meeting revealed Reynolds and Swift backing Lively, cornering Baldoni into compliance.

The premiere bombshell credited Reynolds with the rewrite, erasing Baldoni’s directorial authority.

The Deadpool “jokes” appeared to mock Baldoni publicly under the guise of humor.

In Owens’s framing, this wasn’t a simple co-star disagreement. It was a carefully executed strategy by Lively and Reynolds to sideline Baldoni, exploit his conciliatory nature, and control the narrative around the film.

The Bigger Question

The controversy leaves Hollywood — and fans — with uncomfortable questions. Did Blake Lively truly betray Baldoni, or was she simply advocating for herself in a male-dominated industry? Did Ryan Reynolds support his wife or strategically maneuver himself into the film’s creative spotlight? And is Candace Owens uncovering real collusion, or simply spinning evidence to fit her theory?

Whatever the answer, one truth remains: the story has already changed how people view the film and its stars. Instead of a romantic drama about survival and strength, It Ends With Us has become the backdrop for one of Hollywood’s most tangled power struggles.

Owens ends her analysis with a warning: “Sometimes betrayal hides in plain sight. And sometimes, the biggest smiles on the red carpet conceal the sharpest knives.”