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Justin Baldoni Says He Got 'Chills' From Blake Lively's Beauty in Voice Note

Justin Baldoni once gushed over Blake Lively’s beauty, according to a newly released voice memo.

“Hey Blake I hope the fitting was super successful, thank you for sending me those pictures,” Baldoni, 42, told Lively, 38, in the message, which was obtained by TMZ on Monday, February 2. “That was really cool. I was in the department head meeting and I was waiting for them to load and I legit got the chills when I saw it. You look beautiful. It’s going to work so well.”

Per TMZ, the voice memo was sent before It Ends With Us began filming in 2023. Baldoni, who was Lively’s costar and director on the film, appeared to be discussing the Gossip Girl alum’s costuming.

Us Weekly has reached out to Baldoni and Lively for comment.

The memo is the latest unsealed court exhibit, and comes just days after Us Weekly obtained a separate memo from Lively in which she spoke affectionately toward Baldoni while discussing how overwhelmed she felt with returning to work and filming back-to-back projects after giving birth to her fourth baby. (Lively shares daughters James, 11, Inez, 9, and Betty 6, and son Olin, 2, with husband Ryan Reynolds.)

“Hey. I hope you’re so well. Just wanted to connect just to put something on your radar. So, between us. Like, this is so premature for me to even share this with you. All good, all good stuff. Headline is great, good, great stuff,” Lively began in the message, which was sent in February 2023 during pre-production. “But I was talking to Ryan [Reynolds] and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I should share this,’ but he was like, ‘You guys have such a great trust, you know. Fill him in.’”

She continued, “Just the idea of going back to work every day right away and also the idea of, you know, prepping for our movie and wanting to work out every day and all that and yet being on set every day. I’m like, ‘What have I done?’ The only reason that I’m doing [that movie] before is because I gave them my word and I wouldn’t go back on that and felt like I had to make it work. But having a week off in between, it’s just a lot. It’s a lot.”

Lively explained that she was “panicking” the closer “reality” of shooting got, confessing she really only wanted to “focus” on It Ends With Us.

“Obviously, there’s selfish reasons I’m telling you this,” she quipped. “If by chance you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, if I could go two weeks earlier, that would actually be great,’ then amazing. And if it is what it is, then it is what it is.”

She added, “Selfishly, what I would love about that, is that Ryan and I have also been really stressed about spending a month apart. None of it is your problem. That’s why I’m talking to you as a friend at this point more than anything but the idea of spending all of June apart is a lot. The most we have ever done is less than two weeks.”

At the end of her voice note, Lively concluded, “So nice talking to you. Not talking to you, this is so sad. This is my social interaction these days, just talking into voice memos. OK, I hope you’re well. Send my love to your family who don’t know me. Take care, bye.”

Both of the costars’ voice memos were sent nearly one year before Lively sued Baldoni for sexual harassment and trying to ruin her reputation. Baldoni denied all the allegations against him and countersued Lively, but the lawsuit was dismissed in June 2025. Lively’s suit remains ongoing and the pair are scheduled to head to trial in May.

The voice memos are just a small piece of recent unsealed documents that contain thousands of emails, text messages, depositions and more pertaining to the case. Reynolds, 49, Taylor Swift, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Brandon Sklenar, Jenny Slate and It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover are just a few mentioned or featured in the docs.

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We found the best MacBook deals during Amazons Big Spring Sale — including the MacBook Neo

Amazon’s third annual Big Spring Sale runs from March 25 to 31, and the opening day of the sale already features deals on must-have tech — including flagship Apple products. Apple just refreshed and expanded its MacBook lineup earlier this month, and some of the new Apple laptops are already on sale.

The colorful new MacBook Neo with Touch ID is a whopping — wait for it — $9 off. (Don’t forget about the Apple Store’s $100 education discount.) Of course, there are better deals to be had.

Amazon’s biggest discount thus far is going to a 15-inch M4 model with 24GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, which is now $300 off — its lowest price ever. You can also score 13-inch M4 MacBook Airs starting at $899. Remember: Apple has discontinued the M4 MacBooks, so once supplies dry up, they’ll only be available on the refurbished market.

SEE ALSO:

Amazon’s Big Spring Sale is back: The best deals already live on Apple, robot vacuums, headphones, and more

The brand-new M5 MacBook Airs and M5 Pro/Max MacBook Pros are all $50 off for the Big Spring Sale, and that’s probably going to be as cheap as they get for now. (The then-new M4 models got the same discount last year.) Look for better deals in a couple of months come Prime Day.

This is just day one of the Big Spring Sale, and Mashable will be keeping track of all the latest MacBook price drops. Check back to be the first to know about the top Apple deals.

Note: Deals marked with a 🔥 have dropped to a record-low price.

Best MacBook Air deal

$949
at Amazon

$1,199
Save $250

 

Why we like it

The 13-inch M4 MacBook Air may be a last-gen laptop, but it’s still an incredibly capable ultraportable, now $250 off for its lowest-ever price. It’s faster than much pricier Windows laptops, and it has the same 12MP Center Stage webcam, Liquid Retina display, and 18-hour battery life as its new M5 counterpart. This particular model is also well future-proofed amid the ongoing RAM crunch — thanks, AI.

Read Mashable’s full review of the Apple MacBook Air (M4).

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Amazon Big Spring Sale 2026: Tablet deals are in full bloom with savings on the latest iPad Air

Best Big Spring Sale Tablet Deals

An Apple iPad Air with M4 chip

A Samsung Galaxy Tab A11+ (WiFi) tablet

An Amazon Fire 7 Kids

Amazon’s Big Spring Sale kicks off on March 25. The seasonal sale, which runs through March 31, focuses on seasonal transition items – think cleaning supplies to freshen up your home and camping supples to get outdoors. However, it wouldn’t be a sale without tech deals, too.

Ahead of the sale, we’ve spotted early savings on tablets, good timing considering Apple just dropped a brand new tablet. The Apple iPad Air with M4 chip just dropped this month, and the good news is, it’s already on sale. But if iPads aren’t your thing don’t worry, there are plenty of other tablet deals to shop.

Here are all the best tablet deals to shop ahead of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale.

Best Tablet Deal

$559
at Amazon

$599
Save $40

 

Read our full review of the Apple iPad Air (M4).

Apple’s latest iPad drop is the iPad Air with M4 chip. It’s one of the retailers speediest, most efficient tablets, scoring 13,176 on the Geekbench 6 test, which puts it ahead of most laptops. When Apple released the new iPad Air, they didn’t raise the price, keeping the midrange tablet at $599. However, it already receive a price cut at Amazon.

Ahead of the Big Spring Sale, get the Apple iPad Air with M4 chip for just $559. While that’s only $40 in savings and less than 10% off its list price, it’s still a great deal considering it’s a brand new tablet.

So while we might like this deal best, if you want some bigger savings, there are plenty more deals to shop.

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Joss Whedon’s Cancellation Still Makes No Sense, Unless It's An Attack On You

By Joshua Tyler
| Updated

The first twenty years of the 2000s belonged to Joss Whedon, and he found that success by becoming king of the nerds. His was the mind behind the most successful geek properties of all time, and he was Marvel’s chief genius, the architect of assembling The Avengers. Then, in 2021, he was cancelled. I still don’t understand why.

First, it must be said that Joss Whedon definitely did bad things, and he’s not someone I would ever be friends with. The source of my confusion isn’t a debate over whether he’s a virtuous person; he isn’t. What doesn’t add up is why Hollywood’s powers think his level of virtue should determine whether or not he’s allowed to work.

To understand how strange Joss Whedon’s cancellation is, first, we need to understand what he’s accused of. Here’s a simple, bullet-point list.

Joss Whedon’s Bad Behavior

  • Joss Whedon is accused of saying mean things to Ray Fisher and Charisma Carpenter.
  • Joss Whedon was a bad husband and had consensual relationships with his actresses.
  • Joss Whedon’s sets weren’t always fun, according to some people.

None of these things is good, but to put them in context, let’s compare that list to things done by other Hollywood notables who aren’t cancelled and can do whatever they want. 

Woody Allen’s Bad Behavior

  • Woody Allen is accused of molesting his daughter, Dylan Farrow.
  • Woody Allen married his adopted daughter. 
  • Woody Allen cheated on his wife with his adopted daughter.

That seems worse than Joss Whedon. A lot worse. Yet Woody Allen isn’t cancelled. Let’s try someone else, maybe Woody Allen is a one-off? What about acclaimed director Roman Polanski, who frequently wins Oscars and can work on anything he wants? 

Roman Polanski’s Bad Behavior

  • Roman Polanski pleaded guilty to, and was convicted of, raping a 13-year-old child. 
  • Roman Polanski pleaded guilty to, and was convicted of, drugging a child.
  • Roman Polanski fled the country to escape justice.

Roman Polanski has suffered zero consequences and instead is frequently nominated for awards and praised as a genius. What about a more modern figure, like Mel Gibson?

Mel Gibson’s Bad Behavior

  • Mel Gibson was arrested for a DUI, which endangered the lives of others.
  • Mel Gibson is on tape making sexist and full-on anti-Semitic and racist comments.
  • Mel Gibson pleaded not guilty to domestic battery against a helpless woman.
  • Mel Gibson is on tape making violent threats.

There was, for a time, some vague noise about cancellation over Gibson’s anti-semitic comments, but it never happened. He kept working, getting payday roles in big Hollywood movies like Daddy’s Home. At this very moment, Mel Gibson is working on directing The Passion of the Christ 2. Meanwhile, Joss Whedon’s Firefly series is being handed over to a talentless hack who made a bunch of terrible superhero shows, because Whedon is not allowed to work.

Maybe Joss Whedon’s problem is that most of his bad behavior revolved around things that happened at work. Let’s take a look at another big, Hollywood director.

James Cameron’s Bad Behavior

  • James Cameron is accused of saying mean things to Ed Harris and other actors.
  • James Cameron was a bad husband and had numerous consensual relationships with his actresses.
  • James Cameron’s sets aren’t always fun, and he’s known to yell at people, mistreat his cast, and physically endanger them.

James Cameron’s history seems similar to Joss Whedon’s. Yet he’s currently in production on another Avatar movie, and no one seems to mind any of it.

Evil Flourishes In Hollywood

Mel Gibson, Roman Polanski, and Woody Allen are not edge cases. Neither is James Cameron, whose behavior is pretty much a mirror of every successful Hollywood director. The movie-making business is full of people who are, by any objective measure, extremely evil.

To actually get punished, you usually have to be as bad as Harvey Weinstein, a serial assaulter and abuser with dozens of accusers. He’s now in jail, where he belongs, but if he gets out (and that’s a real possibility), he’ll never work in Hollywood again.

By comparison, Joss Whedon said some vaguely mean things, was a bad husband, and yet, like Harvey Weinstein, he’s never going to work again. It doesn’t add up.

The Psychology Behind Hating Nerds

Until the early 2000s, nerds like Joss Whedon and the nerd audience he represents were treated like a joke. Nerds were disrespected, hated, and entire movies, like Napoleon Dynamite, were built around the idea of how funny it was to bully and dunk on them.

That changed as Hollywood began to see the profit potential behind catering to geeks, but that doesn’t mean the powers that be were happy about it. They couldn’t be, because of something called Status Identity Threat Syndrome.

Status Identity Threat Syndrome (noun): A psychological response in which individuals experience anxiety, defensiveness, or hostility when the traits or skills that underpin their social status and self-worth are devalued or displaced within a shifting hierarchy.

Extroverted networkers tend to build influence through visibility, relationships, and social fluency, the traditional, human-centric routes to power. For most of human history, these kinds of networkers ran not just Hollywood, but the entire world. When “nerd” types, people who win through technical mastery, obsessive focus, or systems thinking, start outperforming them, it scrambles that hierarchy. 

Napoleon Dynamite gets shoved into a locker for laughs

Psychologically, it’s a form of status inconsistency: the traits that used to signal dominance (charisma, connections) suddenly matter less than competence in domains the networkers don’t control. That creates anxiety, because it’s not just losing, it’s losing in a way that makes your skill set feel obsolete.

People defend traits on which they base their self-worth. If success shifts away from social skills like extroverted networking, those invested in social capital can feel threatened. So if you’re an extrovert who has built your entire life around looking cool, seeing an awkward nerd succeed would, from a well-founded psychological perspective, make you very nervous.

Anti-Nerd Bigotry Is Real

As you might expect, as the founder of sites like GIANT FREAKIN ROBOT, I’m something of a nerd. The more successful I’ve gotten, the more the extroverts who man the levers of power dislike me, and the harder they’ve worked to push me out. It’s not something unique to me; it’s something that happens to every introverted nerd in every industry and social corner. Ask them about it, and they’ll tell you.

It’s why educational research shows that introverted students are more likely to be ignored by teachers, receiving less attention and help, resulting in lower grades and fewer opportunities. It’s why data shows that extroverts are more likely to get favorable outcomes in court and even receive superior medical care. It’s why introverted nerds, on average, make 20% less than their extroverted counterparts, despite data showing they demonstrate superior competence at work.

Joss Whedon isn’t the only nerd to be cancelled over allegations like these. Pixar’s bespectacled, Hawaiian shirt-wearing John Lasseter was kicked out of Hollywood for giving a hug. Anyone seen Harry Knowles lately?

I’m not arguing here that Joss Whedon should be un-cancelled; he seems like a hypocritical jerk. Also, Harry Knowles always struck me as a sleaze; we’re probably better off without him. But if being unlikable is the baseline standard we’re setting for whether or not you’re allowed to work, then shouldn’t Woody Allen be locked up in a torture dungeon, instead of being celebrated as a genius?

Make it make sense. Until you do, I’m going to assume you hate nerds and respond by hating you right back. I’m also never going to celebrate anything by Roman Polanski. Sorry, Rosemary’s Baby.

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