Speaker 1: It's n side with I w BSS radio. Stop stop
Speaker 1: stop stop it stop it stop stop stop stop stop
Speaker 1: stop stop. That is from it ends with us. Uh
Speaker 1: what a film? What a movie with Blake Lively and
Speaker 1: Justin Baldini and it's this whole situation is so disturbing
Speaker 1: because as far as a film goes, which compared to
Speaker 1: the to the topic at hand here that you know,
Speaker 1: the film is is secondary. Right now, I think it's
Speaker 1: a terrific film. I think it's well done. I think
Speaker 1: it's realistic. I think it has a great message at
Speaker 1: the end. But with what has transpired and the ugliness
Speaker 1: that has been revealed in this is just so disturbing.
Speaker 1: It's not surprising, but it's still disturbing. And joining me
Speaker 1: right now is our good friend from New York City
Speaker 1: and CBS entertainment reporter Cooper, Lawrence Cooper.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3: Of course, I'm always here for you, you know, especially when
Speaker 3: you talking about my favorite topics.
Speaker 1: Well, I know, and I am going to get to this,
Speaker 1: but here's a big market Seese. Cooper was on the
Speaker 1: set of this film, which we will get to. Can
Speaker 1: you just update us right now as best you can
Speaker 1: on where things stand because I think it's been getting
Speaker 1: a little confusing on who started, what went, and where.
Speaker 3: Okay, I will give you the very quick timeline to
Speaker 3: understand what happened on set. Justin Beldoni and his I
Speaker 3: guess directing partner is a production partner. Producing partner, Thank
Speaker 3: you very much, were inappropriate with Blake Lively. She felt
Speaker 3: very uncomfortable, and she had asked them for two things.
Speaker 3: She asked for independent producers so that she didn't have
Speaker 3: to deal with them directly, and she asked for an
Speaker 3: intimacy coach because she felt that some of the things
Speaker 3: that he was doing on set were deliberately misogynistic and
Speaker 3: deliberately targeting her. She felt she felt unsafe on that set,
Speaker 3: so she asked on set privately. She didn't make news
Speaker 3: about it, she didn't call a publicist. She literally just
Speaker 3: said it to them and that was that. Then the
Speaker 3: movie came out and it wasn't really getting great reviews,
Speaker 3: and because they had a tumultuous relationship on set, they
Speaker 3: didn't really do a lot of press together, and he
Speaker 3: felt that somehow she was sabotaging the film, and he
Speaker 3: claims that she was basically tanking the film. He then
Speaker 3: proactively said, well, she's going to ruin her reputation. He
Speaker 3: hired his own PR firm to basically go after her,
Speaker 3: and these texts that were revealed to New York Times
Speaker 3: basically said it was his PR from talking to each
Speaker 3: other saying that we're going to bury Blake Lively. So
Speaker 3: as a result, she wasn't gonna saything this entire time,
Speaker 3: but now that this came out, then she realized she
Speaker 3: had to sue him, so she did. Now he's countersued
Speaker 3: for four hundred million dollars, which I don't know how
Speaker 3: he thinks he's ever going to be worth that, but fine,
Speaker 3: that's the number he chose. So he's countersuing Blake Lively,
Speaker 3: Ryan Reynolds and Leslie Sloane, the person who is in
Speaker 3: charge of their PR. And that's where we're at right now.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for setting that straight, because I've had
Speaker 1: discussions with people, and as I remember it, he started
Speaker 1: this publicly. Now that's not to say she didn't have
Speaker 1: cause to come out and say so, because I believe
Speaker 1: she did. Because Blake Lively has been in this business
Speaker 1: for a long time. My daughter, a teenager, has discovered
Speaker 1: gossip Girl on Netflix. It's on all the time. So
Speaker 1: Blake Lively is a veteran actor, she knows the deal.
Speaker 1: She has been on sets, she has seen a lot,
Speaker 1: She's experienced a lot, and automatically I thought, okay, when
Speaker 1: she came out to defend herself, I said, there's something
Speaker 1: got to be going on because she has never done this.
Speaker 2: There's no history of.
Speaker 3: He drew first blood. You're correct, that's.
Speaker 1: Right, which to me, which when you say, look, you
Speaker 1: drew first like, I go, the guy was paranoid. So
Speaker 1: I feel as I analyze this, Folks, again, I'm not
Speaker 1: playing journalists here, I'm playing talk show hosts. I analyzed
Speaker 1: this is he knew he did something wrong. He knew
Speaker 1: he did something wrong, so he tried to get ahead
Speaker 1: of it and it came back to bite him.
Speaker 2: In the ass.
Speaker 3: Right, That's exactly what happened.
Speaker 1: Crazy Right now, let's talk about the things that happened
Speaker 1: on set and see if there's any I'm going to
Speaker 1: play devil's advocate, Folks. I believe Blake Lively. I'm on
Speaker 1: her side. I'm doing this to make an argument. The
Speaker 1: argument that he says he was trying to create an
Speaker 1: atmosphere for the condition of the film, method acting and
Speaker 1: so forth. I mean showing her pornography on his phone
Speaker 1: that has no business being on a set, but making
Speaker 1: her uncomfortable, creating tension. Is there any substance to that.
Speaker 3: I'm going to tell you one yes, because I was
Speaker 3: on set and I was there for one of the
Speaker 3: scenes where he kept trying to kiss her, but like,
Speaker 3: really just go for it at a at a point
Speaker 3: in the film that it would not really have made sense,
Speaker 3: and you can see how uncomfortable she was. In fact,
Speaker 3: while I was standing there on set, I was watching her,
Speaker 3: and I was thinking, you know, usually when two actors
Speaker 3: are working together, they kind of, you know, back and forth,
Speaker 3: chat figure something out. I know he was also the director,
Speaker 3: so even more reason why they would chat. They had
Speaker 3: nothing to do with each other. She was on her
Speaker 3: phone talking to her I'm going to say, kids, I
Speaker 3: was talking to people, maybe Taylor Swift, I don't know
Speaker 3: who she was talking to, but she was on her phone.
Speaker 3: And as soon as they said action, she handed her
Speaker 3: phone to an assistant and then got on set and
Speaker 3: then did her thing. And you can see she was
Speaker 3: very uncomfortable, and I was thinking, well, the story that
Speaker 3: we had been told was that this film was supposed
Speaker 3: to be done and in the can before the actor strike,
Speaker 3: but because the strike happened, it delayed their shooting. So
Speaker 3: now they're shooting months later. They're getting it done. And
Speaker 3: she wanted to be with Ryan, she wanted to be
Speaker 3: with her kids. She didn't want to be on set.
Speaker 3: Maybe that's why, Maybe that's why this whole thing is
Speaker 3: weird and uncomfortab. Maybe she just didn't really want to
Speaker 3: work right now, wants to be with her kids. And
Speaker 3: I thought it was odd. But then there was the
Speaker 3: scene where he was trying to kiss her, and you
Speaker 3: can see as people, not as actors. There was something
Speaker 3: going on that just looked she looked uncomfortable, and I
Speaker 3: had no idea. Thought, maybe they don't get who knows.
Speaker 3: I can speculate all I want to. I did not
Speaker 3: know what was happening, but I just knew something odd
Speaker 3: was happening. And I remember going home and telling my boyfriend, like,
Speaker 3: this was a weird day on set. It was not
Speaker 3: like a normal day I would normally have. And then
Speaker 3: the whole story came out. Oh, yes that's what we
Speaker 3: were seeing. Now it all makes sense. But you know actors,
Speaker 3: especially famous actors, when they are on set and there's
Speaker 3: all these people around them and they know they're being watched,
Speaker 3: they're on their best behavior. So if there is something off,
Speaker 3: it's very evident because they behave in a way that
Speaker 3: is definitely different. And that's what was going on that day.
Speaker 3: And now it makes perfect sense that at that point,
Speaker 3: it was towards the end of the shooting schedule, they
Speaker 3: were almost done, and when they got done with the scene,
Speaker 3: she turned him and said, can I go now, which
Speaker 3: I thought was very interesting. I'd never usually asked, oh,
Speaker 3: are we done? Okay, cool, we're cut, Okay, I see
Speaker 3: you later. It's never can we Can I go now?
Speaker 3: And I remember thinking, wow, that's that's very unusual. And
Speaker 3: I don't know why she said that, because she was
Speaker 3: just so you know, she was lovely to everybody. She
Speaker 3: was so sweet and so kind, So I wasn't thinking, well,
Speaker 3: she's just you know, the B word, that's where it
Speaker 3: must be. No, she was absolutely lovely, but with him,
Speaker 3: she wasn't. And I didn't know whether it was part
Speaker 3: of the scene, if it was method acting, but now
Speaker 3: I know it was because he was making her uncomfortable.
Speaker 3: And he created a hostile work environment, and she was
Speaker 3: quiet about it. She didn't say anything to anybody. But
Speaker 3: you're right. Once the film was done and she went
Speaker 3: off off, you know, in her world and did Lady
Speaker 3: Deadpool had had more things to do beyond that. I
Speaker 3: think he tried to get ahead of it because he
Speaker 3: was afraid that she was going to tank him in Hollywood,
Speaker 3: and sure enough, you know, his agent dropped him. They
Speaker 3: have the same agent. If I was the agent, who
Speaker 3: would you keep Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds some guy
Speaker 3: that no one knows who he is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not even close. But I remember the TV
Speaker 1: series Castle with Nathan Fillion, and.
Speaker 2: I forgot them more. Yeah, I forgot the way.
Speaker 1: I'd loved She was terrific actor, but I forgot the
Speaker 1: woman's name who played But they did not get along.
Speaker 1: They could not stand each other on set, but they
Speaker 1: made it work on the show.
Speaker 2: So there are examples.
Speaker 1: Well, we could go back to All in the Family,
Speaker 1: you know, where Jean Stable did and Carol O'Connor did
Speaker 1: not get along, But it wasn't like this.
Speaker 2: They just didn't see eye to eye.
Speaker 1: So there are instances where you could be on the
Speaker 1: set where the leading man in and the leading lady
Speaker 1: just don't get along, but when they say action, they
Speaker 1: do their job.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: You and I could sit here and spend an hour
Speaker 3: coming up with examples of people who famously hated each other,
Speaker 3: but yet we're professional and did their jobs, and as viewers,
Speaker 3: we would never know that there was no relationship there.
Speaker 3: This is different. This is a hostile work environment that
Speaker 3: he created and really didn't do anything to make it
Speaker 3: okay for her because the fact that even towards the
Speaker 3: end of the shooting schedule that she was still feeling
Speaker 3: uncomfortable like that. It just I have to tell you
Speaker 3: my feeling about him on set. Somebody else said to
Speaker 3: me while we were there, He's really a bully, isn't he?
Speaker 3: And I hadn't observed him long enough. But this is
Speaker 3: somebody that had been on set longer than I had.
Speaker 3: They were there for a couple of weeks, and they
Speaker 3: said he's a bully is the word they used. So
Speaker 3: I just took their word for I was like, well,
Speaker 3: maybe that's why you left. I had no idea. But
Speaker 3: now that the story has unfolded, you know, it's kind
Speaker 3: of the end of usual suspects where you're like, what's
Speaker 3: going on? Then suddenly you look around the room and go,
Speaker 3: oh oh oh, it all makes.
Speaker 1: Sense right right, and you drop them up where we're
Speaker 1: at and you drop them all geting crashes on the floor,
Speaker 1: and you go. Of course, Cooper Lawrence is our guest
Speaker 1: CBS Entertainment reporter. We got a lot more to uncovered
Speaker 1: regarding it ends with us right here on WBC's Nightside.
Speaker 2: Back after this, now back to Dan ray Mine from
Speaker 2: the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 1: Man stop, please stop, please stop stop.
Speaker 2: Look at me, look at me, look at me, look.
Speaker 1: You look at me, Look at I love you baby,
Speaker 1: look at me, please please.
Speaker 2: That is from this is us. The audio is creepier
Speaker 2: than the video.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it really is it really.
Speaker 2: I just was. I'm listening to this, I go, it's
Speaker 2: worse a horror film, Oh my god, which I mean,
Speaker 2: unfortunately for Blake Lively it was.
Speaker 1: But always we're talking about the situation between Blake Lively
Speaker 1: and jessin Boldona here when Cooper Lawrence joining a CBS
Speaker 1: Entertainment reporter, and I mean he's just a think you know,
Speaker 1: the guys that think, and but when you listen to
Speaker 1: that or you watch that scene. Her acting ability to
Speaker 1: put all of this aside and deliver that performance is amazing.
Speaker 3: She's a professional, She's doing her job. I mean, people
Speaker 3: don't know that. You know, you and I really we
Speaker 3: have a long history of fighting and suiting. But look
Speaker 3: at us.
Speaker 2: You never know, right yeah, yeah, sure, yeah, you kick
Speaker 2: my ass.
Speaker 1: No, but that's true. No, no, no, but I mean
Speaker 1: to just go that deep and then get it done.
Speaker 1: And then they go cut and she goes jerk and
Speaker 1: you know, leaves. But this is what the sick part
Speaker 1: of this as we take a look at this Baldona character.
Speaker 1: He writes a movie or co wrote a movie and
Speaker 1: directs a movie about domestic violence, sexual assault, and then
Speaker 1: he commits it while he's making it.
Speaker 2: How sick is that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? And the sickest part about it is that the
Speaker 3: script had a lot of problems. So he had asked
Speaker 3: Ryan Reynolds, who was a producer on the film, to
Speaker 3: doctor the script. And all these text messages went back
Speaker 3: and forth where Valdoni comes over and he's with Blake
Speaker 3: Lively and Ryan Reynolds and Kayla Swift happened to have
Speaker 3: been there and they were just sort of going over
Speaker 3: the script and discussing it together, and he sends this message,
Speaker 3: Oh what that was just such a wonderful session. You guys,
Speaker 3: are you really punched up the script? It's so perfect now.
Speaker 3: And now he claims that he felt pressured to say
Speaker 3: that because of their star power, which doesn't make any
Speaker 3: sense because if you read the text, they come across
Speaker 3: very genuine like in retrospect, you could say anything depending
Speaker 3: on how you feel about somebody. But in the moment,
Speaker 3: he was obviously very grateful because the script did have problems.
Speaker 3: You know, it's based on a book, and you should
Speaker 3: definitely read the book because it's better than the movie
Speaker 3: in my opinion. But it's interesting that, you know, they
Speaker 3: gave him a lot of creative control. And I think
Speaker 3: sometimes in Hollywood. Here's an example of how the level
Speaker 3: of narcissism is just off the charts in Hollywood. So
Speaker 3: justin Baldoni, the news comes out today that he is
Speaker 3: counter sewing her for four hundred million dollars. I would,
Speaker 3: if I were him, put that out there and then
Speaker 3: go home and just kind of hide from the paparazzi
Speaker 3: and just give it a minute. Not him he went to.
Speaker 3: He was at LAX with his family because he knows
Speaker 3: that's what the paparazzis are when you when you're very famous,
Speaker 3: when you're that famous, you don't go to the IVY,
Speaker 3: you don't go to LAX. You know how to avoid DMZ.
Speaker 3: But not him. He couldn't wait to get on TMZ
Speaker 3: and he didn't say no comment. He was on camera
Speaker 3: telling him all about how you know he's going to
Speaker 3: survive this because of his family and they have such faith,
Speaker 3: they have faith. It just all comes across like a play.
Speaker 3: It doesn't come across genuine and I don't know that.
Speaker 3: I think sometimes celebrity's narcissism gets in the way of reality.
Speaker 3: And I think, to me that was a mistake.
Speaker 2: There's no doubt it does. But let's face it.
Speaker 1: I mean, she's a star, and Blake Lively and Ryan
Speaker 1: Reynolds have an incredible body of work and they're much
Speaker 1: larger in the business than him. But where his sickness,
Speaker 1: and I do believe is sick has cost him is
Speaker 1: if he simply directed the film, was a professional and
Speaker 1: put it out there. The film made three hundred fifty
Speaker 1: one million dollars at the box office.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much of that is attributed to
Speaker 1: the controversy.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure. What do you think.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of it because the film, I think,
Speaker 3: you know, it did really well. It's on Netflix now,
Speaker 3: it's doing better on Netflix than it did you know,
Speaker 3: anywhere else. Yeah, I think people are very interested to
Speaker 3: see the chemistry between them. Can you tell a lot
Speaker 3: of people did read the book and they were kind
Speaker 3: of interested in seeing the book made into a movie.
Speaker 3: But this has been going on since they started filming.
Speaker 3: You know. Oh, they were seen on the street kissing.
Speaker 3: They're filming the movie. Ah, this is so exciting. So
Speaker 3: I think we've been following this story from the very beginning.
Speaker 3: So whether the movie is good or not is kind
Speaker 3: of irrelevant.
Speaker 1: It's well, if it doesn't happen, If this doesn't happen,
Speaker 1: and the movie comes out, what do you think it does.
Speaker 3: If what doesn't happen, I mean.
Speaker 1: If this controversy doesn't happen, If Balboni is a gentleman,
Speaker 1: if they get along, everybody's great, they put out the movie,
Speaker 1: what happens to the movie. How much money does it make?
Speaker 1: Is it up for awards or does it simply just
Speaker 1: go away.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it would have bombed. I think it
Speaker 3: would have absolutely bombed, just because nobody really knows who
Speaker 3: he is. I mean, she has her following, what is that? Okay?
Speaker 3: But I think you're right. I think a lot of
Speaker 3: the success of the movie now is post all of
Speaker 3: this information. And you know, I'm so cynical that there's
Speaker 3: a side of me. I was like, was this the
Speaker 3: plan all along? Do they secretly love each other? And
Speaker 3: this is the whole plan to get us to watch
Speaker 3: this movie? Like that's how cynical I've become.
Speaker 2: I said the same thing.
Speaker 1: Of course, I go, is this a pr gimmick? I mean,
Speaker 1: is he taking a bullet here to generate some buzz? Now?
Speaker 1: I if you were to rate the movie in a
Speaker 1: scale of one to ten, what would.
Speaker 2: You give it?
Speaker 3: I mean, I thought she was terrific. I think the
Speaker 3: script had some problems, maybe a six.
Speaker 2: See, I liked it. I liked it. I was going
Speaker 2: to give it an eight. I liked it.
Speaker 1: I liked the movie like because I thought, first of all,
Speaker 1: it's a terrific message.
Speaker 2: Secondly, I thought there was I thought it was realistic.
Speaker 1: In that you know, we it's always very easy, especially
Speaker 1: for men you know or you know you talk about well,
Speaker 1: I mean it was just a doctor in Boston, you know,
Speaker 1: now two hundred cases of alleged sexual abuse, and we're like, god,
Speaker 1: why do people stick around?
Speaker 2: How come people don't speak up? How come people don't
Speaker 2: you know?
Speaker 1: And this movie illustrated how hard it is, you know,
Speaker 1: because you know where he comes across.
Speaker 2: He's very genuine. The guy has a history.
Speaker 1: He lost his brother as a result of his actions
Speaker 1: when he was younger.
Speaker 2: He has that guilt.
Speaker 1: He's a doctor, he's an emergency you know, he's trying
Speaker 1: to save patients. So you have this thing that, oh
Speaker 1: my god, this guy is saving lives, right, and he's brilliant,
Speaker 1: but he's haunted by his past. So at first you
Speaker 1: think he's a very lovable character, and that obviously changes
Speaker 1: when he has these outbursts and he commits and he
Speaker 1: hits her right where so.
Speaker 2: I thought it was.
Speaker 1: And she doesn't run away, She sticks around and she says,
Speaker 1: you know it was you know, he just got mad
Speaker 1: once and.
Speaker 2: She justifies it. So I thought it was very realistic.
Speaker 1: Then I'm giving him away the movie now, but you know,
Speaker 1: she's you know, because she has a baby in the
Speaker 1: marriage and she goes.
Speaker 2: You know, I stayed with.
Speaker 1: The baby he's out, which I thought was a very
Speaker 1: realistic ending. So I thought the movie was well done,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, and that this guy, just
Speaker 1: if he had done nothing, I thought, and just been
Speaker 1: a normal human being, I.
Speaker 2: Thought it would have worked out for him. But I
Speaker 2: guess I'm in the minority. There, I am in the minority.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, you get people that are really big
Speaker 3: Colleen Hoover fans, She's the woman who wrote the book originally,
Speaker 3: and they have such high expectations. But the problem is,
Speaker 3: you know, a book is long, and if you if
Speaker 3: you actually turned a book into a movie, the movie
Speaker 3: would be six hours long. No one's going to sit
Speaker 3: there for all that time. So you have to condense
Speaker 3: it and pick out the parts you think are going
Speaker 3: to tell the story in the best way. So I
Speaker 3: think there are these purists that are like, oh, I
Speaker 3: wasn't that seen in the movie, or I thought that
Speaker 3: was an important character. So I think a lot of
Speaker 3: you get those critics as well, who are looking for
Speaker 3: the same level of dialogue that was in the book.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I agree with you, though I think I
Speaker 3: think the story this looks the story was really well written.
Speaker 3: It's a it's a very interesting story, and listen well
Speaker 3: acted considering what we actually know about them right now,
Speaker 3: so right, I mean, yeah.
Speaker 1: And it was in Boston, and I like seeing Boston.
Speaker 1: See I like, you know, so I got sucked into it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I admit, you know, I got something to it.
Speaker 1: But I also think that books should be at least
Speaker 1: six episodes in a series.
Speaker 2: That's what I think. I think.
Speaker 1: I think trying to do a movie off a book,
Speaker 1: they change half the stuff anyways, half the time, the
Speaker 1: endings change. I mean, but for some reason, as a
Speaker 1: based on Ernest Hemingway's book, I mean, like, just show
Speaker 1: the movie and then if you have a great novel
Speaker 1: and a great book, you know, make it eight episodes
Speaker 1: if you will, just like, oh, what was the Nicole
Speaker 1: Kidman and Liev Schreiber on the on Martha's Vineyard.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you.
Speaker 3: Saw a perfect couple.
Speaker 2: I liked it, you know, I thought it was pretty good.
Speaker 3: YEP, I loved I don't know why they didn't get
Speaker 3: more attention than Golden Globes. I thought they were both
Speaker 3: terrific in it. I thought. I thought the story was unpredictable.
Speaker 3: I loved every character, and I had no idea where
Speaker 3: it was going. And you know, I watched so much
Speaker 3: of this I'm always like, yeah, I see where this is. No,
Speaker 3: it was. I'm really curious as to why it was
Speaker 3: ignored by all the critics, why it didn't get any nomination.
Speaker 2: I mean, Golden Globes of Tamura was big time with
Speaker 2: the international.
Speaker 3: Well, it always is. It's a foreign press.
Speaker 1: No, I understand that, but I think even with the
Speaker 1: foreign press in the in the past, I would have
Speaker 1: to look it up that they've been a little more
Speaker 1: welcoming to the films within the United States.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: It seemed to me they really favored the international product
Speaker 1: this time, which it was well deserved. I mean, don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, but I think probably there was there
Speaker 1: was a lot of competition on the international level.
Speaker 2: You know this set.
Speaker 1: By the way, Jenny Slate Boston, we got to give
Speaker 1: her a shout out her love Yeah, Boston.
Speaker 3: Kids, good for her, terrific. Yeahs. So she's in if
Speaker 3: you haven't seen it, ends with us, she is in it.
Speaker 3: She plays the best friend. She's just terrific. She's just yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: she's very charming and you know, but I wonder she
Speaker 3: knew what was going on inside the set. I don't.
Speaker 3: I think I had heard she made some comments about it,
Speaker 3: but I think to be smart, she and uh Hassan
Speaker 3: Minaj that who is also they both stayed out of it.
Speaker 3: They say, what are you gonna do with it?
Speaker 2: You know, I mean you can't, you know, what are
Speaker 2: they gonna do? Look? Do you have time for a
Speaker 2: little more conversation here?
Speaker 3: I always do for you, always.
Speaker 2: Because I want to get into TikTok a little bit too.
Speaker 1: That that's coming up with Cooper Lawrence right here from
Speaker 1: CBS Entertainment on WBZ. If you're on Night Side with
Speaker 1: Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio, CBS Entertainment guru
Speaker 1: Cooper Lawrence joining us here on WBC's Nightside. We've been
Speaker 1: breaking down what's going on with ends it ends with us?
Speaker 1: Before we move on, Cooper, what do you think happens?
Speaker 1: How does this thing wrap up?
Speaker 3: If they're smart, they'll settle somebody. They'll settle it out
Speaker 3: and we won't have to sit and watch them go
Speaker 3: to court against each other. But the thing is you know,
Speaker 3: Ryan Reynolds and and Blake Lively have the richer the
Speaker 3: richer daddy, so I wouldn't go after them. I mean basically,
Speaker 3: Justin Baldoni is punching up, and I think he doesn't
Speaker 3: really understand what he's in for. So I think that
Speaker 3: he's going to either settle with them or walk away.
Speaker 3: He's not going to win against them. There is no
Speaker 3: way They're too powerful.
Speaker 2: Well he's done, right, Oh yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3: He lost his agent. I don't think anybody would work
Speaker 3: with him at this point because listen, he didn't go
Speaker 3: after people that everybody hate, like Gwyneth Paltrow. You know,
Speaker 3: he went after these two beloved, amazing people, Ryan Reynolds,
Speaker 3: he's so beloved, and Blake Lively. So he does come
Speaker 3: across like kind of an ogre in this thing, like
Speaker 3: you know what, who doesn't love Blake Lively? So I think, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: I agreed, So he was screwed no matter what. Yeah
Speaker 1: to me, Like I said, look, he made the mistake
Speaker 1: by being paranoid at the beginning.
Speaker 3: But I think he's a narcissist and I think he
Speaker 3: thinks that he is in the same rarefied air as
Speaker 3: they are, and when he realized he wasn't. That's what
Speaker 3: this is really all about. I think the level of
Speaker 3: narcissism which is listened very common in that industry. But
Speaker 3: I think he's he's really certifiable, in my opinion.
Speaker 1: I don't know him absolutely right now. Absolutely, there's no
Speaker 1: doubt about it. He absolutely is okay. By the way, obviously,
Speaker 1: what's going on in Los Angeles is it's just awful.
Speaker 1: It's just awful, terrible, Yeah, I mean, and it's throwing
Speaker 1: the entertainment industry. People are putting on the brakes even
Speaker 1: though it's weird. I talked to a a producer buddy
Speaker 1: of mine. He says, believe it or not, dude, people
Speaker 1: are still calling me from meetings and I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: that's amazing. How long What does it do to the industry?
Speaker 1: I mean, how does this is a six months?
Speaker 2: Is it a year? I mean, do you have any
Speaker 2: idea whatever?
Speaker 3: I have a Yeah. I have a friend who's a screenwriter,
Speaker 3: and he and I had this conversation because he's in
Speaker 3: he's in there, so I was kind of curious what
Speaker 3: he thought. And he said, after the Sister strikes, you know,
Speaker 3: after the writers build strike, and the actors strike, Hollywood
Speaker 3: was really having a hard time recovering. He said, this
Speaker 3: is really putting a nail in the coffin right now.
Speaker 3: There's this is absolutely no way that they're going to
Speaker 3: be able to continue, because it's not just the big
Speaker 3: famous people whose houses burnt down, it's also you know,
Speaker 3: the grips and the makeup artists and all those people
Speaker 3: who lost everything who can't work there, who had to leave,
Speaker 3: who have nothing. So even if you know the big
Speaker 3: stars somehow find a way to rally, who's going to
Speaker 3: hold a camera, who's going to hold the microphone, who's
Speaker 3: going to edit? They just they've it's decimated the entire
Speaker 3: industry right now and it's going to be a while
Speaker 3: before it comes back. I have a couple of friends
Speaker 3: in the industry who have literally left the country to
Speaker 3: go do their work elsewhere because it's just it's just
Speaker 3: been too much for them and they and it's cheaper
Speaker 3: to live outside the country right now, it's certainly in
Speaker 3: that area.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have the same situation that Australia had.
Speaker 1: Win Fred who was a dual citizen here in Australia
Speaker 1: when made TV TV shows in Melbourne.
Speaker 2: You know, which is not a bad gig.
Speaker 1: But I'm glad you brought that up because when I've
Speaker 1: been talking to friends as well, and I said, you know,
Speaker 1: Hollywood is really it's it's a factory town. You have
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills, we get it. You have the red carpet,
Speaker 1: but like that's the one percent of the one percent.
Speaker 1: But you and you also have working actors who you go, oh,
Speaker 1: I remember that person. Ohthough I've seen that person that
Speaker 1: you know that make a living, okay, but they're not
Speaker 1: household names, and they have mortgages, just like the grips,
Speaker 1: and just like the the the the the limo drivers
Speaker 1: or the lighting people and the audio people in the
Speaker 1: people don't understand that that it's a factory town in
Speaker 1: that way.
Speaker 2: So your point is well taken.
Speaker 3: Well, I blame us. I think I think us, as
Speaker 3: the news reporters, we focused, I mean you and I
Speaker 3: I mean like collectively focused too much on celebrities. Which
Speaker 3: celebrities lost their homes and playing their tiktoks and their instagrams,
Speaker 3: you know, of them losing everything. And while that's really
Speaker 3: terrible and really sad because especially for their children who've
Speaker 3: lost everything, who don't have any skin in the game
Speaker 3: other than they don't have any of their stuff anymore.
Speaker 3: The perception for the rest of the country is, why
Speaker 3: do I care If some multi millionaire lost their house,
Speaker 3: they go, it's just one of their houses. They'll go
Speaker 3: build another one. But the thing is that is a
Speaker 3: tiny percentage. It's important to remember that the people that
Speaker 3: lost everything are not either not in the industry, or
Speaker 3: like you said, they're living paycheck to paycheck and they're
Speaker 3: hoping to get work. So that's the majority of people there,
Speaker 3: which is why we should donate and do whatever you
Speaker 3: can do to help people, just the way they helped
Speaker 3: us here in New York during nine to eleven or
Speaker 3: the way, or during Hurricane Sandy, like you know, we
Speaker 3: saw a lot of charity here, so I think giving
Speaker 3: back now is the time time.
Speaker 2: I agree one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, we need to remember that I'm not on TikTok.
Speaker 2: I assume you must be.
Speaker 3: I am. Unfortunately, I hate it. I do it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, it's one of those things.
Speaker 1: I mean, can I ask you a personal question here
Speaker 1: on the radio? Sure, do you make any money off it?
Speaker 3: I'm not on TikTok for money.
Speaker 2: Okay, but no do you? But do you? I know
Speaker 2: you're not.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, no no. I don't make money
Speaker 3: off of any of my social media.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: For me. The thing is, there are influencers whose sole
Speaker 3: purpose is to They're actually classes right now being given
Speaker 3: at universities in this country that are high end universities
Speaker 3: that are hard to get into, and their classes on
Speaker 3: how to be an influencer, how to get those contracts,
Speaker 3: how to turn what you're doing on social media into
Speaker 3: a real business. That's very different than someone like me,
Speaker 3: where I'm just on there to comment on entertainment, to
Speaker 3: promote something that CBS News is doing. So it's a
Speaker 3: it's a totally different animal for me. I don't make
Speaker 3: any money off of any of my social media. That's
Speaker 3: never the intention for me. But there are people that
Speaker 3: that is really their soul. So someone's on there, Let's
Speaker 3: say they're they're doing a cooking video. They're doing lots
Speaker 3: of cooking videos, and they're doing very well. They have
Speaker 3: two million viewers and their videos get you know, millions
Speaker 3: and millions of hits. They have products that they're on
Speaker 3: there promoting. They get paid by those companies to promote,
Speaker 3: you know, Queisin art or whatever they're using, they're they're
Speaker 3: going to be out the money. Those are the people
Speaker 3: that are really going to suffer. And again not celebrities,
Speaker 3: just some woman who you know is doing unboxing videos
Speaker 3: with her kid. So I think it's they could go
Speaker 3: over to YouTube, they can go elsewhere, which I think
Speaker 3: a lot of people are doing right now. But there
Speaker 3: are people that do make their living off of TikTok.
Speaker 2: I read the average income as one hundred and thirty
Speaker 2: one dollars a year.
Speaker 3: Know that that's true, I've read it. I've read that
Speaker 3: it's much less than that. The people that make a
Speaker 3: lot of money on TikTok. Most people make very little.
Speaker 3: They average ten to twenty thousand dollars a year if
Speaker 3: they're lucky to get something here and there.
Speaker 2: But that I don't think that makes a difference in
Speaker 2: somebody's life.
Speaker 3: Of course, Oh my gosh, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah it does. Yeah, So where are you as far.
Speaker 1: As the fact that it's going away?
Speaker 3: You know, for me, you know, Vine went away, and
Speaker 3: I thought that was great at the time. My Space
Speaker 3: went away back then. You know, these these social media
Speaker 3: sites come and go. You do get on the next
Speaker 3: one and you move on and it's you know, I'm
Speaker 3: sorry that you're making so much money on TikTok. Go
Speaker 3: make money on whatever the next one is. I just
Speaker 3: think if you if you have a brand to sell,
Speaker 3: you can sell that brand anywhere. It doesn't have to
Speaker 3: be TikTok. You can take your brand. In fact, most
Speaker 3: of the influences were already saying to their followers, come
Speaker 3: find me on Instagram, come find me on Snapchat. So
Speaker 3: you know, it's only one more platform. And if it's problematic,
Speaker 3: I think that should be a.
Speaker 2: Concern, somebody else will step in.
Speaker 3: Something else you'll step in, who hopefully will not be
Speaker 3: trying to harvest data of your eleven and twelve year
Speaker 3: olds who are on TikTok, even though they're not allowed.
Speaker 1: To be right right? Oh please, oh come on, forget
Speaker 1: the age limits. Are you kidding me? I want to
Speaker 1: know what you're watching? Do you have time for one
Speaker 1: more segment?
Speaker 2: Of course?
Speaker 1: All right, thank you, Cooper, Cooper Lawrence is the best.
Speaker 1: We're going to find out what she's watching. And that's
Speaker 1: next year on WBZ.
Speaker 2: Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World
Speaker 2: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 1: Get back here with Cooper Lawrence our a buddy from
Speaker 1: CBS News and CBS Entertainment.
Speaker 2: So what are you watching? What's hot out there?
Speaker 3: Now? You got to prepare yourself for the Oscars, which
Speaker 3: you're coming up March second, and it's only I feel
Speaker 3: like the Oscars are only exciting if you've seen enough
Speaker 3: of the movies.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 3: If you've seen nothing, then you've no interest in watching it.
Speaker 3: So if you have Netflix, make sure you watch Amelia Perez.
Speaker 3: That will absolutely get nominated for everything. The other big
Speaker 3: film is going to be Nickel Boys. It's on everybody's list,
Speaker 3: right So those are the two films that I recommend
Speaker 3: the most. Right now. This weekend, we're watching season two
Speaker 3: of Severn, which is on Apple TV Plus, and it's
Speaker 3: that kind of crazy. If you haven't seen the first season,
Speaker 3: you should probably start watching from the beginning so you
Speaker 3: know what's going on. But it's kind of a wacky,
Speaker 3: the well written show.
Speaker 1: We talked about it last night, and I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what I told my buddy.
Speaker 2: We were talking last night about Seventh.
Speaker 1: The premise when you tell me that if I go
Speaker 1: to work, I forget what happens at home, and when
Speaker 1: I go home, I forget what happens at work. I'm
Speaker 1: okay with that, you know. Initially, if I'm at home
Speaker 1: and I'm not thinking of work, I'm great. And then
Speaker 1: I'm at work and I don't have one of my
Speaker 1: kids calling me bitching about something, I'm fantastic. I've tried
Speaker 1: to get into it and I just can't get into it.
Speaker 2: I can't. I don't know why.
Speaker 3: It's pretty out there. Yeah, it's pretty out there, but
Speaker 3: the acting is quite good to me right now, the
Speaker 3: best thing on television. If you don't have Peacock, it's
Speaker 3: worth at least just grabbing it and watching it with commercials.
Speaker 3: If you have not seen The Day of the Jackal,
Speaker 3: that's what Eddie Redmain was nominated for.
Speaker 2: I've heard it's really good. He's a great actor.
Speaker 3: My god, he's more than really good. This is this
Speaker 3: is one of the best things I've seen on television
Speaker 3: in a long long time. It is so well acted
Speaker 3: and so well written. You'll recognize Charles Dance as well
Speaker 3: from Game of Throne. There'll be a lot of actors
Speaker 3: and he'll be like, oh, that's that guy from that thing.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of familiar faces. But more importantly,
Speaker 3: it's a really well written story, and they do a
Speaker 3: really good job of taking you through each episode so
Speaker 3: that you it feels like you've watched a movie in sections.
Speaker 3: It's really very i think, very brilliantly does well.
Speaker 2: Peacock needs it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I know that they were making jokes about
Speaker 3: it at the Golden Globes that it's you know, it's
Speaker 3: hard to find some on Peacock, but frankly they're actually
Speaker 3: doing good this they're doing pretty well right now. And
Speaker 3: if you want to watch something kind of old but good,
Speaker 3: there's another show on Peacock called Mister Mercedes that is
Speaker 3: also quite good that I recommend. It's from twenty seventeen,
Speaker 3: but again a lot of actors you'll recognize in it,
Speaker 3: and it's a really interesting storyline.
Speaker 2: What's what's the premise for that?
Speaker 3: What's the premise of that? Is? It all starts out
Speaker 3: with so all these people are queuing up too for
Speaker 3: like a job fair, and you get to know some
Speaker 3: of the people online, this woman with a baby, there's
Speaker 3: a guy who tells his stop story and as they're
Speaker 3: all standing there waiting, a guy in a clown mask
Speaker 3: in a Mercedes comes and plows into them, and it's
Speaker 3: a mass killing, and it's the story of them trying
Speaker 3: to find this mister Mercedes. And as the years passed,
Speaker 3: the cops, one of the main cops retires and it's
Speaker 3: it's but he's not going to give up on it.
Speaker 3: And it's got a lot of terrific actors in it.
Speaker 3: Mary Louise Parker is in it. There's just a lot
Speaker 3: of really terrific acting and it's just a really interesting story.
Speaker 3: It becomes like it's a psychological thriller that again very
Speaker 3: very well written. I don't know where I was in
Speaker 3: twenty seventeen that I didn't know about it, but I'm
Speaker 3: glad that Peacock has it now. I think it's like
Speaker 3: three or four seasons of that.
Speaker 2: What did you see SNL fifty.
Speaker 3: I'm not an SNL fan, but I love the movie.
Speaker 1: At the ninety minutes leading I thought they did a
Speaker 1: great job with the movie, like The nine is leading
Speaker 1: up to ESNL, I thought it was terrific.
Speaker 2: I thought they did a good job.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I saw some pieces of it. I saw some
Speaker 3: of the interviews of it. I'm just you know, I
Speaker 3: don't know why it never resonated with me, but it never.
Speaker 3: It just never really did not. I don't know what
Speaker 3: it is about it.
Speaker 1: Well, here's the reality of SNL is that the legend
Speaker 1: is better than the show, right because it's.
Speaker 2: Hard to do.
Speaker 1: I mean, to do ninety minutes of live television and
Speaker 1: have everything hit is impossible. And then each cast, as
Speaker 1: they change over, each cast has to get their groove.
Speaker 1: You have to get used to it. I mean, everybody
Speaker 1: loves Weekend Update and I do too. But when those
Speaker 1: two guys started, you know, you know, Colin and Chi,
Speaker 1: they sucked and they even talked about it. They did.
Speaker 1: They go, Yeah, for the first year, we were terrible,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, and now they're great.
Speaker 3: So, yes, I've got a great, great groove.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they've got a great Did you see The Diplomat?
Speaker 3: Of course? Yeah, that's so again. If you haven't seen
Speaker 3: The Diplomat, that's they just released the the second season
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 2: I've watched the second season. It's awesome. Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Did you see the final episode of the second season.
Speaker 3: I did, Yeah, I watched the whole thing. Yeah, it's again.
Speaker 3: It's Kerrie Russell, right, and she's she's not Felicity anymore.
Speaker 3: All I mean, she is just so incredibly terrific, and
Speaker 3: her character reminds me a little bit of her character
Speaker 3: in The Americans right where she has that kind of
Speaker 3: very savvy sophistication to her. But again very well written.
Speaker 3: The storyline is really terrific, and you're following the characters
Speaker 3: and they're all so well developed that you care about
Speaker 3: everybody you're watching. I don't like when they just focus
Speaker 3: on one or two characters and you have to just
Speaker 3: everyone else is just kind of there to support them.
Speaker 3: The Diplomat is different. I think everybody has their storyline
Speaker 3: that goes on in it, and it really is about
Speaker 3: Carrie Russell becoming you know, she's this diplomat and how
Speaker 3: she kind of negotiates her way through the White House.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a terrific show, and you're right, you care
Speaker 2: about every character.
Speaker 1: Final question before I let you go, what did you
Speaker 1: think of Nicki at the Globes?
Speaker 3: Terrific? One of the best hosts that they've had. I
Speaker 3: thought she was edgy, but not too hedgy, as she
Speaker 3: said she said, I decided was I'm going to roast
Speaker 3: them or toast them? And she went with a toast,
Speaker 3: which I think was smart because had she gone with roasting.
Speaker 3: It would have been just a little too far for
Speaker 3: the globes, you know, the way Rickie Gervaide did, which
Speaker 3: I thought was terrific, but I think it was just
Speaker 3: too much for regular audiences. I thought she was fought on,
Speaker 3: she was clever, she was beautiful, she looked great. I
Speaker 3: just thought she was the perfect toast. I see why
Speaker 3: they signed her for twenty more years.
Speaker 1: I want to be her friend, yeah, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not like being a pig male like, oh, she's
Speaker 1: really hot, Yeah, she's attractive. I want to be your friend.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's it, Like I want to I want
Speaker 1: to be like her friend.
Speaker 2: And I think that's very likable, very likable.
Speaker 1: Like I want to be your friend. Like And that's
Speaker 1: why I think she should host it for the next
Speaker 1: twenty years.
Speaker 3: Cooper, they keep bringing That's why they keep bringing Conan
Speaker 3: and Brian back to host the Oscars for the same reason.
Speaker 3: He's so likable that even if you don't like the Oscars,
Speaker 3: you're watching for Conan.
Speaker 1: I love his podcast. He's so good now. I mean
Speaker 1: I I think he's at his best with yeah, and he.
Speaker 3: Just they just announced that he's winning the Mark Twain
Speaker 3: Award this year, so I think he's I think this
Speaker 3: is really his year. Whatever comeback is about to happen.
Speaker 3: We are on the precipice of it for Conan.
Speaker 1: Another Boston guy. All Right, Cooper, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: You are our friend. I appreciate your time and enjoy
Speaker 1: the Oscars.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Okay, Pat, we'll see Lady Cooper. Laurence CBS entertainment reporter.
Speaker 1: She's fantastic joining us here on WBC. Coming up next,
Speaker 1: Tanya a Fox. She covers the NFL. She's a podcaster,
Speaker 1: and she's all over social media with great hot takes
Speaker 1: on sports. She joins us from Los Angeles. Coming up
Speaker 1: next on WBC's Night Side,