McKenzie Folks, a stay-at-home mom, has been posting on TikTok for about a year. For the past several months she has focused on the Blake Lively–Justin Baldoni legal case, giving her opinions into a sequin-covered spatula that she uses as a microphone.
On July 10, she received a notice from Google that Lively’s attorneys had submitted a subpoena for her
account information. At first, she thought it was a phishing scam. But it was real — Lively was seeking to prove that she was part of Baldoni’s digital army.
“It’s baffling,” Folks says. “I never talked to anybody in the industry. I’m from Kansas.”
The Lively-Baldoni battle is a classic celebrity feud. But Lively is doing something new by trying to unmask her online detractors — whom she claims are doing Baldoni’s bidding.
Lively is suing in federal court, alleging that her “It Ends With Us” co-star unleashed an online smear campaign against her in retaliation for complaining about sexual harassment on set. Her lawsuit, which is scheduled to go to trial in March, alleges that the online campaign is ongoing. Lively’s attorneys have also sent subpoenas to X and to individual critics of hers, including Andy Signore, Perez Hilton and Candace Owens.
The case has echoes of the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial of 2022, in which Heard faced a barrage
of criticism online. Elaine Bredehoft, who represented Heard, argues that much of it was planted by Depp’s team. (Depp’s team has denied that.)
“They basically annihilated her,” Bredehoft says. “I think it’s great that Blake Lively’s legal team is trying to get in front of it. How else do you fight this?”
Love Film & TV?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in music, film and TV in Australia and abroad.
But many of the targets of the Lively subpoenas argue that she has crossed the line and is trying to silence sincere criticism.
“They’re just offering their opinions like anyone else has the right to do,” says attorney John Genga, who represents entertainment journalist Kjersti Flaa, who also got a Google notice. “We think it’s invasive. It’s designed to intimidate these people, many of whom don’t have the means to fight it.”
A spokesperson for Lively says that subpoenas are an evidence-gathering tool, not an accusation of wrongdoing.
“There is no silencing of content creators; they are obviously making their views known,” the spokesperson said. “The subpoenas to social media companies are one piece of the puzzle to connect the evidentiary dots of a campaign that was designed to leave no fingerprints.”
The Google subpoenas seek account information for 16 YouTubers, including names, emails, IP addresses, physical addresses and bank account and credit card numbers.
Some of the targeted accounts are anonymous, though many other creators post under their real names. Several of the creators told Variety that they are simply covering the legal filings, and have not been in touch with either side.
“This case has escalated to being about so much more than it was originally,” Flaa says. “Now it’s about freedom of speech on the internet.”
Folks got interested in the case after reading the initial filings. She concluded that Lively’s claims of harassment didn’t stand up, and that Baldoni was being bullied by powerful celebrities — Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds.
“We root for the underdog,” she says.
Folks can’t afford to hire a lawyer to fight the subpoena, so she wrote her own motion to quash.
“I feel like I’m in ‘The Twilight Zone,’” she says. “This is totally a scene out of a movie — some millionaire actress coming after someone. It’s very daunting.”
Gregory Doll, a Los Angeles attorney who has been following the case, says it is “foolhardy” to go after creators. Many of them have already turned the subpoenas into content — using them to build up their followings and their authority on the case.
“I think she is trying to kill a fly with a sledgehammer,” Doll says. “It’s an absolute PR backfire in a profound sense.”
If Lively is being targeted by a more sophisticated bot attack, it will be almost impossible to peel back the layers to discover who’s behind it, he says.
“I’m going to fight them tooth and nail,” says Signore, who is producing a documentary on the
case. “This is nonsense.”
From Variety US