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Hollywood’s mind-control games · The Front

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, December twenty four. Green's leader Adam Bandt says
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  Speaker 1: Labor is coming closer to the Greens position of full
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  Speaker 1: support for Palestine, saying Anthony Alberonizi has been forced to
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: admit the Greens were right all along in criticizing Israel.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: That's an exclusive interview live on Beaustralian dot com dot
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  Speaker 1: u right now. How are we being manipulated on social media?
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  Speaker 1: That's the big question burning from Hollywood right through to
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  Speaker 1: all of our feeds as actress Blake Lively launches legal
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  Speaker 1: action against a coast and a production house she says
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  Speaker 1: deliberately sought to destroy her reputation and her life. Today,
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  Speaker 1: Who's controlling what we see online? It was one of
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  Speaker 1: the biggest movie releases of twenty twenty four, the longer
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  Speaker 1: waited cinematic adaptation of Colleen Hoover's blockbuster novel It ends
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  Speaker 1: with us, we.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: All have an idea of what love can be.
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  Speaker 3: I want to see you again. Now you see me,
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  Speaker 3: you know what I mean.
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  Speaker 1: The film's stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni who also
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  Speaker 1: directed It Ends with Us, embarked upon a flashy press
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  Speaker 1: tour reminiscent of the media blitz, executed to perfection by
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  Speaker 1: Margo Robbie's Barbie.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, honestly, I didn't have any hesitations.
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  Speaker 3: To me. It was a no brainer.
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  Speaker 1: But the longer it went on, the more things felt.
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  Speaker 3: A bit off. There is clearly something going on with
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  Speaker 3: this movie.
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  Speaker 4: They were at the premiere last night, they're all still
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  Speaker 4: not interacting with justin mind you.
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  Speaker 3: He's the producer, director, and a main character.
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  Speaker 1: He was rarely pictured with his co stars on red carpets.
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  Speaker 1: Lively was criticized for her lighthearted promotion of a film
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  Speaker 1: about domestic violence.
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  Speaker 2: It Ends with Us as in theaters now, so grab
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  Speaker 2: your friends, where your.
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  Speaker 3: Florals and had out to see.
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  Speaker 1: It, and for using the publicity tour to spook her
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  Speaker 1: haircare and alcohol brands. Old interviews resurfaced in which Lively
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  Speaker 1: appeared condescending, rude.
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  Speaker 3: Or bratty. What's the best way for them to be
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  Speaker 3: able to talk to you about this? How would you
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  Speaker 3: recommend they go about it? Like asking for my address
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  Speaker 3: or my phone number, or like my location share or
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: I could just location share you, and then we could.
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  Speaker 1: It quickly became a pylon of a particularly new kind,
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  Speaker 1: a social media avalanche of negative videos, posts, and stories
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  Speaker 1: apparently made by creators who'd all come to a similar
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  Speaker 1: conclusion blake Lively was horrible.
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  Speaker 5: After her concerningly vapid answers to fairly serious questions, I
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: found myself asking has she always sounded like this?
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  Speaker 3: I think my algorithm was tricking me.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Ellie Dudley is The Australian's Legal affairs correspondent. She's also
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: in her twenties, which means she's a prime target for
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: this kind of viral social content.
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  Speaker 3: I was just being fed so much content that told
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  Speaker 3: me that Blake Lively was a bad person.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: On Friday, blake Lively filed a legal complaint revealed by
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: The New York Times in which she accused her co
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: star Justin Baldoni and others of legal violations, including sexual
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: harassment and retaliating against her for a workplace complaint. She's
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  Speaker 1: claiming Baldoni, producer Jamie Heath, their film company Wayfarer and
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  Speaker 1: its billionaire founder Steve Sarrowitz, and public relations people they
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  Speaker 1: employed crafted a sophisticated social media astroturfing campaign in which
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: they created and then fed an onslaught of negativity against Lively.
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  Speaker 1: The lawsuit claims it was all in an attempt to
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  Speaker 1: intimidate Lively into staying silent about her claims that Baldoni
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and Heath had behaved badly on set. Lively's lawsuit says
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  Speaker 1: the social media campaign was retaliation for a meeting held
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  Speaker 1: in January twenty twenty four in the middle of shooting
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: for the film, in which Lively presented a list of
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: thirty demands. We've used AI voices throughout this episode to
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: read from the legal complaint.
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  Speaker 2: No more showing nude videos or images of women, including
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  Speaker 2: producers who were mentioned of mister Baldoni's or mister Heath's
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  Speaker 2: previous pornography addiction or BL's lack of pork. No more
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  Speaker 2: descriptions of their own genitalia. No more inquiries by mister
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  Speaker 2: Baldoni to BL trainer without her knowledge or consent to
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  Speaker 2: disclose her weeak. An intimacy coordinator must be present at
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  Speaker 2: all times when Biella is on satin scenes with mister Baldon.
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  Speaker 1: Lively said after she signed on to make the movie,
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  Speaker 1: Baldoni suddenly introduced sexual and nude scenes she hadn't agreed to,
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  Speaker 1: including wanting her to be totally nude in a scene
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  Speaker 1: where her character gives birth.
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  Speaker 2: When miss Lively objected to these editions, mister Baldoni insisted
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  Speaker 2: he had added them because he was making the film
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  Speaker 2: through the female gaze.
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  Speaker 1: Baldoni's denied the allegations, saying the complaint is categorically false
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  Speaker 1: and accusing Lively of trying to tank the film. In
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  Speaker 1: the end, the movie was a huge success, earning hundreds
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  Speaker 1: of millions of dollars at the box office and telling
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  Speaker 1: a powerful, domestic, violent story to audiences who didn't necessarily
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: go to the movies expecting to be dealing with such
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  Speaker 1: big themes. But the legal dispute opens a window into
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  Speaker 1: how reputation is now, perhaps more than ever, being manipulated.
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  Speaker 1: The really explosive part of the lawsuit is a series
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  Speaker 1: of text messages Lively says she obtained by subpoena they
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  Speaker 1: pre brought to show. Baldoni's publicist, Jennifer Abel in August
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, messaging PR consultant Melissa Nathan that her client,
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  Speaker 1: Justin Baldoni, wanted the PR professionals to destroy Lively's reputation.
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  Speaker 1: Abel allegedly texted.
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  Speaker 3: He wants to feel like she can be buried.
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  Speaker 1: Nathan allegedly texted Abel back, we can't rate.
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  Speaker 5: We will destroy her. Ima Jennifer documents saying all the
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  Speaker 5: things that he once ends up in the wrong hands.
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  Speaker 5: You know, we can bury anyone, but I can't rate
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  Speaker 5: that to him coming up?
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  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean for women in the
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  Speaker 1: public eye and for the way we consume social media.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I sat down with Ellie Dudley and The Front's producer
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Kristin Amiot to dig into what this all means.
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  Speaker 3: So let's talk.
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  Speaker 1: About the way you absorbed the social media coverage of
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: the press tool for It ends with Us? Was that
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  Speaker 1: how you first became aware that this movie even existed.
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  Speaker 3: When I first saw it, it was because I saw
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  Speaker 3: something about Blake Lively and the rest of the women
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  Speaker 3: in the cast not following justin on social media, and
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: then also them not posing for photos with him on
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: the press tour, them doing entirely separate junkets. That sort
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: of stuff started pointing some big arrows towards something isn't
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  Speaker 3: happy here. What is going on?
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  Speaker 1: It really is the epitome of the guilty pleasure, isn't
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: it spending time watching reels or scrolling through content in
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  Speaker 1: your feed that you know is being served up to
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  Speaker 1: you because you've already told the algorithm that you like it.
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  Speaker 1: My version of this is Meghan Markle content. So TikTok
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: and Instagram have deduced that I really like Kate Middleton
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: and I think she's very classy, and I really think
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  Speaker 1: Meghan Markle is trouble.
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  Speaker 3: And so I am constantly.
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  Speaker 1: Served videos of Megan Markle being weird or being horrible,
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  Speaker 1: being rude to people, even though I know it is
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  Speaker 1: not organic content. It's not just being served up to
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  Speaker 1: me because most people agree with me. I can't help
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  Speaker 1: myself kind of indulging in watching these videos.
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  Speaker 3: And there's a bit of a trend on TikTok. I
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  Speaker 3: don't know.
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  Speaker 4: If you ever go to the comment section of those
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  Speaker 4: videos that you're served, it can be about anything. It
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  Speaker 4: could be Meghan Markle, it could be people cleaning carpets,
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  Speaker 4: whatever it is people are in the comments, and they
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  Speaker 4: will often you'll often see the same phrase over and
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  Speaker 4: over again, which is I built this algorithm brick by brick,
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  Speaker 4: So there is this self awareness of people recognizing that
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  Speaker 4: they are being served the exact content that they want
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  Speaker 4: to can assume at that moment in time, and it
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  Speaker 4: might be ten carpet cleaning videos in a row, but
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  Speaker 4: they understand I am the person who has created this.
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  Speaker 4: It is just serving me what I've asked for and
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  Speaker 4: what I've already engaged with.
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  Speaker 1: In May, a podcast investigation by Alexi Mostris of Tortoise
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Media exposed a stunning social media assault against the actress
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  Speaker 1: Amber Herd. A defamation suit brought against her by her
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  Speaker 1: ex husband, actor Johnny Depp in twenty twenty two whipped
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  Speaker 1: up a social media frenzy in which more than fifteen
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  Speaker 1: million posts targeting Herd and calling her a liar were
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  Speaker 1: published on x. Depp ultimately won the suit and was
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  Speaker 1: awarded almost sixteen million Australian dollars in damages. What Mostres
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  Speaker 1: uncovered in the Hugeolled Amber podcast wasn't a dedicated fan base,
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  Speaker 1: but a sophisticated campaign perpetrated in large part by the
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  Speaker 1: Saudi Arabian disinf amation network known as the Ministry of Flies,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: the country's crown Prince, Muhammed bin Sulman. It turns out
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: is a big fan of Depths, and the actor appears
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: to have reciprocated Saudi Arabia's help in the form of
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  Speaker 1: positive publicity, including praise of Saudi Arabia's cultural revolution.
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  Speaker 3: There is something about these cultural moments. So when you're
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  Speaker 3: engaging with that and seeing what people think, you're telling
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  Speaker 3: your algorithm, please feed me more of these videos. I
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  Speaker 3: love them. Show me what you've got.
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  Speaker 4: And the enjoyment, to a certain extent, comes from the
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  Speaker 4: stakes being so low for any of us. You are
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  Speaker 4: observing this exchange, this cultural exchange that's going on.
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  Speaker 1: It's interesting because one of the things that social media
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  Speaker 1: is doing is critiquing the mainstream media, is saying, question
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  Speaker 1: everything and be a skeptic. And yet, because of the
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  Speaker 1: extremely addictive and delicious nature of particularly video content on
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  Speaker 1: social media, we don't apply that same skepticism and caution
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  Speaker 1: to what we're being served on social right.
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  Speaker 3: And if social media is holding the mainstream media to account,
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  Speaker 3: who's holding social media to account? Which I think is
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  Speaker 3: where we end up. I think there's something really interesting
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  Speaker 3: because young people today are becoming increasingly more literate when
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: it comes to what they're consuming online. They're able to
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  Speaker 3: pick something that is an AI generated video, or they're
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  Speaker 3: able to see a tabloid headline that just seems a
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  Speaker 3: little bit off kilch, how something's not quite right. But
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  Speaker 3: what happens when there is an entire force at play
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  Speaker 3: pushing at social media algorithm to change the way that
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  Speaker 3: the public thinks. How can an individual possibly push up
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  Speaker 3: against that?
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  Speaker 4: There's also a possibility that this actually proves her argument
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  Speaker 4: in that if indeed Justin Baldoni and the people he
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  Speaker 4: employed can orchestrate a campaign so devastating that it can
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  Speaker 4: dismantle the reputation of somebody.
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  Speaker 3: Like Blake, live with the standing that she has.
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: In Hollywood was to say, it can't also work in
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  Speaker 4: his favor and actually build up his brand in the
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: same process. And in fact, that branding exercise, purely from
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: a marketing perspective, has been going on for several years
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: before he came to this film. He did a ted
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: talk about sort of vulnerability and masculinity that went viral
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: I think in around twenty seventeen. He then parlayed that
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: into two books a podcast about male vulnerability toxic masculinity,
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  Speaker 4: discussing these things in a really open end. It appeared
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: to be an intellectual way. So there is a marketing
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: exercise that's been going on long before this that while
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: it can allegedly do damage, it can also build the
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: foundations of something that's powerful in a different way.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, does it basically boil down to the idea
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  Speaker 1: that society, men and women, and particularly now in this
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  Speaker 1: age of social media, doesn't like a woman who stands
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: up for herself and says, I don't like the way
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  Speaker 1: you're behaving.
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  Speaker 3: I'm boss here. This is my call? Is that it?
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  Speaker 3: I think it's more than that. I think that if
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: we believe everything that Lively has put in her legal complaint,
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  Speaker 3: then I think that we can believe that these men
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: decided to shut down a woman that was trying to
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: make a workplace safer. I then think that they succeeded
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: in doing that. They spread a narrative, and they choreographed
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: a campaign trying to damage her reputation. That worked. And
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: I think that women and other people on the internet
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  Speaker 3: bought into that because they like to shut down a
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  Speaker 3: woman that's standing up for herself, and also because it's easy,
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  Speaker 3: and also because they loved the drama of it.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, she seems to have it all, doesn't she
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: She's stunningly beautiful, very stylish, extremely rich and very successful.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: You know what's not to hate.
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  Speaker 3: And broadly liked as well. Right. She built this entire
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: brand around being a nice lady. She's got her fun,
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: playful relationship with her husband and Ryan Reynolds, and they've
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: built this brand about being really, really likable. They flew
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: too close to the likable sun, if you will, and
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: got burnt. And so the Internet is really happy to
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: pile on to somebody because you know that they're doing
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: too well, or they're too successful, or they're too beautiful
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: or whatever it is.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Ellie Dudley is The Australian's Legal affairs correspondent. Over summer,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: we'll be right here on the front with the headlines
• 14:31
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  Speaker 3: From all of
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Us here at the Front and The Australian, have a
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: merry Christmas, a happy Haneker, a brilliant new Year, and
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: a beautiful time with your favorite people.