Bethenny Frankel is fully on board with the joke Ryan Reynolds made during SNL 50: The Anniversary Special, which referred to Blake Lively’s ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni.
“Absolutely brilliant of SNL to invite and include Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively to lean into the humor. They are the epicenter of pop culture. It is the zeitgeist. Bullseye,” Frankel, 54, said in a TikTok video posted Sunday, February 16. “For Ryan and Blake to participate is nothing short of genius because the only way to weather a storm is to go straight through it.”
She continued, “As I keep saying, no one knows what actually happened. So, all of the speculation is tricky and risky business, but that was very smart. Bravo.”
Commenters were quick to share that they didn’t agree with Frankel’s take.
Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds Put on United Front at ‘SNL 50’ Amid Legal Drama
“I am tripling down and saying that SNL was nothing short of brilliant for having them on last night,” Frankel said in a separate TikTok posted on Monday, February 17. “It’s marketing genius. They are the epicenter. They are the zeitgeist that is popular culture. They often have disruptive people on, they talk about disruptive topics, they will have both political candidates on. They will have people mocking both political candidates. From their standpoint, it was nothing short of brilliant.”
The former Real Housewives of New York City star also said it was “smart” of Reynolds, 48, and Lively, 37, to attend Sunday’s event.
“From a marketing standpoint, it was a great idea on everyone’s part,” Frankel continued. “Not everyone lives in the bowels of TikTok, reading every single legal document and knows every single thing that you guys all know.”
@bethennyfrankel Replying to @JennyG
oops I meant Ryan #ryanreynolds #blakelively @Saturday Night Live – SNL #snl @CANDACE
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler took the stage during SNL 50 on Sunday and called on celebrities in the audience for a Q&A session. When Reynolds raised his hand, Fey and Poehler asked how he was doing.
“[I’m doing] great. Why, what have you heard?” he replied. Lively kept her face void of emotion while sitting next to her husband during the moment.
Lively has been embroiled in a legal battle with It Ends With Us director and costar Baldoni since December 2024. At the time, she filed a complaint against the actor’s Wayfarer Studios production company, accusing him of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment. (Lively has since filed a lawsuit against Baldoni that includes similar accusations. Baldoni continues to deny all allegations against him.)
Baldoni responded with two lawsuits of his own. He first sued The New York Times for $250 million after they were the first to publish Lively’s complaint in full. (The newspaper plans to “defend against the lawsuit,” they shared in a statement to Us.)
He also sued Lively, Reynolds and publicist Leslie Sloane for $400 million, accusing them of extortion, defamation and false light invasion of privacy, among other claims.
How Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds Are Coping Amid Justin Baldoni Lawsuits
Lively’s legal team called Baldoni’s strategy “desperate” in a statement to Us last month. The legal battle is set to go to trial next year.
Most recently, Lively subpoenaed Baldoni’s phone records, which her legal team said “will provide critical and irrefutable evidence,” in a statement to Us earlier this month.
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman called it an “an ordinary part of the litigation” in his own statement but said the amount of information Lively’s team has requested is “extraordinary.”
“They are asking for every single call, text, data log, and even real-time location information for the past 2.5 years, regardless of the sender, recipient, or subject matter,” Freedman’s statement continued. “This massive fishing expedition demonstrates that they are desperately seeking any factual basis for their provably false claims. They will find none.”
