"INSULTING!" Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni Settlement Plus Met Gala Reaction | With Adam Mondschein

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0:30Piers Morgan:We've got to talk about the Met Gala. OK, here he comes. This is Sam Smith, who would like us to call him they, them. Here they come. Because he's had so many identities over the last few years. I don't know. I like the sequence. I feel like Cardi B looks like a literal, like, anal prolapse and a piece of intestine. But I feel like there's just better people to criticize than Sam Smith here. Baldoni versus Blake Lively. It is hard, from where I'm sitting, to think of this as anything other than abject humiliation. He is overwhelmed, I think. The burden that this is on the family, I think he really wants to tell his story.

1:05Piers Morgan:Please tell him to come on the show if he wants to have his say. The Met Gala is always a source of great intrigue and irritation, and this year's exhibition of haute couture did not disappoint. I can personally attest that I was both greatly intrigued and irritated by Santa Smith, for example, who dressed as a plus-sized bearded wizard mermaid of flexible gender, And it's fair to say that the people's eyebrow was raised by action hero Dwayne The Rock Johnson and his big skirt. We always learn a lot from the Met Gala. Most importantly, we learn what our most irritating celebrities would wear if cost, taste and the ability to see were no obstacle.

1:44Piers Morgan:This year, we also learned that many prominent US commentators are in fact socialists. Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren, were the principal sponsors and hosts of this event. That led to boycotts and protests from some prominent people who apparently thought all of the previous galas were understated, salt-of-the-earth, working-class fare. This week also brought a bombshell conclusion to the real-life showbiz soap opera of the year, if not decade, if not millennium, Baldoni versus Blake Lively. More than enough to justify assembling an uncensored panel to talk about everything other than the Iran war.

2:17Piers Morgan:Joining me is the broadcast and host of The Emily Austin Show, Emily Austin, the comedian and commentator, James Barr. the former Republican congressman and current bitchy fashion critic George Santos, and the showbiz correspondent Shasti Flohr. Well, welcome to all of you. Let's start with the... I think we'll start with the Baldoni-Blake Lively fiasco. And, Shasti, you've been leading the way on this, getting huge numbers to your views on this. You know, my view from the start of this was we had, in the case of Blake Lively, a monumental ego. running completely out of control, used to getting her own way, who couldn't believe she wasn't going to get her own way, and decided to then have her day in court to represent all victims of abuse worldwide, and all children, it turned out, who'd been abused, all sorts of justification for what she was doing.

3:11Piers Morgan:And then right at the last minute, when she had the chance to do this, she caved. And we're told she caved without being paid a single dollar by Justin Baldoni for anything and with no apology. It is hard from where I'm sitting to think of this as anything other than abject humiliation for her that could have enormous brand damaging consequence. Am I wrong? No, I think you're very right. I think everyone was really shocked on Monday because no one was preparing for this settlement to just drop like that. So I think for sure people are in shock. And of course, at the first glance, when I saw the statements from both parties, I was like, OK, that's not great for Baldoni.

3:57But I just learned that the reason why they said that she deserved to be heard is because he also wanted the ability to come out and talk about what really happened and his side of this story and what this has been like for him. So, yeah, no, I mean, I'm as shocked as everyone else of how this turned out. and I think it was such an anti-climax because I think people have been really looking forward

4:22Piers Morgan:to seeing our must-stand. And I was looking forward to testifying as well, you know? I was salivating at the prospect of all this dirty linen being aired, although I realised how catastrophically damaging it would be for everyone involved. James Barr, you normally defend the indefensible. I know you've been in Australia defending the indefensible in your show, which oddly apparently did very well, which I find very hard to believe. But anyway, welcome back to Uncensored with your tan. Can you defend the indefensible here with Blake Lively? My tan is not as indefensible as George Santos, who has no business having a tan, considering where he's recently been.

4:59I actually, I do feel sorry for Blake here. Look, I have a question for you, Piers, because the thing that annoys me about this is, look, she's an actress, she is Hollywood, and so, yeah, incredibly annoying, and that's fine. We can accept that someone is annoying. They don't necessarily deserve all this heat, But you and the Internet and everyone is always so ready to give male, like men, a sort of due process and to say, well, innocent until proven guilty. But then when it comes to a woman like Blake Lively, you just attack, attack, attack.

5:30Piers Morgan:Well, that's where you're wrong. You see, when she first wrote her op-ed piece, I think it was for the New York Times, whichever paper it was, I said it. I thought it was really powerful. Right. And I was shocked by the revelation she was making. The problem is, the more we got into the weeds of actually the reality of these revelations, the more it all fell apart. And, in fact, recently, as we saw, most of the charges against Baldoni that she'd made, they all got ruled out by the court, right? And she was left with nothing, really, other than a bit of a PR smear campaign against her, in which it was his word against hers and seemed all very inconsequential.

6:02Piers Morgan:But, no, I made the fatal error, which I normally urge people not to do, I believed her. And the truth is, you shouldn't believe anyone about anything. You should say, as we've now seen in my statement, you should listen to people when they make allegations, respect the allegations. But we went through a very weird period around the world where people were compelled to believe everyone that came forward with any allegations. And the problem with that, James, is that often it turned out they were bogus... Not often. Well, actually... I'd love to see statistics on often. Actually, quite a lot, quite a lot of them fell by the wayside.

6:44Piers Morgan:So my point is, when people make allegations, you listen to them, you take them seriously, and you let the authorities investigate them. And if need be, you let a courtroom investigate them. You just said a minute ago you shouldn't believe anything. No, no, I said you don't automatically believe it. Quite the same. No, no, we went through a period where people were told you must automatically believe, and people were described automatically as victims. Actually, no, they're accusers who may well turn out to be victims, but due process actually means... But we know, Piers. ..actually means you investigate.

7:15Piers Morgan:But we know, and I don't... But do you agree with that or not? No, I don't, actually. Really? I think we have to give people... I think we have to let people use their voice. We have to listen to them, understand it. You have to believe them. Have some empathy. Whether we believe it or not is not the same... Do you agree with me? ..as accusing them of lying. Do you agree with me? I think it's OK to give people... Well, there's... You actually agree with me, then? I'm not... I guess I'm agreeing with you, but I'm also saying that we also have to give people space to tell their story and then not accuse them of lying.

7:41No, but we're not doing that.

7:43Piers Morgan:You're not doing that. You are accusing her of lying. I literally just told you that when she did her op-ed, making all the allegations, I said it was a really powerful thing. You gave it space. I made the error of believing her. But the thing is, we know, let me just say one more thing. We know that so often these cases... Like, in so many of these cases where victims are accusing people, So many of them don't get... They don't get justice. Well, that's a different story. Time and time again. The legal system isn't fit for this sort of thing. I don't disagree with that, but that's a different issue.

8:13So what do we do about this, then? What do we do when people are saying one thing happened and we don't... How do we deal with that? I think you have to listen...

8:20Piers Morgan:Well, Emily, let me go to Emily for a response to that. Yeah. No, I just feel like, I mean, first of all, during the entire Me Too movement in America, like Pierce just said, he said exactly what I was going to say. We automatically believed women, and as a woman, while on one hand that makes me feel really good on the other hand we saw in cases like amber heard where so many women were using like sexual allegations or violence allegations as a way to get vengeance on a guy for whatever the reason was and like as a female who goes in these hollywood circles and entertainment circles and especially in sports circles we see this like i have heard with my own ears women that are like oh i'm gonna have sex with him tonight if he doesn't give me what I want.

8:59I'm going to say he raped me. And I looked at this girl and I'm like, I'm his friend. I'm going to tell him you said that. And he kicked her out of the party. My point is Pierce's point is that you don't blindly believe people. We are both sides are entitled to having their voices heard. And that's exactly what we saw unfold. Clearly Blake didn't have a case strong enough to uphold in the court of law. So to me, everything that's coming for her now is well deserved because you came to fight and then you cowered when it was time to show up for all your people that you're allegedly defending but then you cower away so it's like i i'm really not understanding what she was doing it sounded like it was attention speaking well but i found that i

9:41Piers Morgan:found that again every you get the feeling that everything with blake lively is so kind of you know orchestrated and designed for pr she turns up at the met gala a few hours after this settlement in her big dress. She looked great, right? She was a good-looking woman. She looked great in her big, long train, and she was prancing around for all she was worth. But you're thinking again, you were supposed to be going to court to represent the victims of abuse and harassment in the workplace all over the world. That's what you told the world. And then you cave at the last minute. You get no apology, no money.

10:16Piers Morgan:It's cost$60 million apparently in legal fees, which is unbelievable. all on this massive ego trip, and then you just go out like nothing's happened and go back to being the movie star. The problem, George Santos, welcome back to you on Uncensored. The problem for her, I think, is I tried to watch It Ends With Us again the other day. I thought, I'd better watch it again before we do the trial. And I found it almost unwatchable. I just can't watch Blake Lively anymore on screen. And I think a lot of people feel that because we all feel that we got conned. Right? We all believe the op-ed. We all believe she'd been harassed and abused and all this kind of thing.

10:56Piers Morgan:And then we actually, it turns out, that actually most of it wasn't true. Well, let's put it this way. First of all, great being back with you, and I'm sorry that my beach-bump tan bothers people. I mean, what are you expecting to see prison? It's only because you've got a better one than him, mate. Honestly, don't worry about that. I don't know if people expect me to see the truth and tale. He's been in Australia for God knows how long. He looks almost borderline albino, so that's what that's about. I'm excited to hear your opinion on this, though, George, as someone that is famed for lying quite often?

11:21Well, I'll put it this way. I'll put it this way. Look, I believed her op-ed when it first came out, much like Pierce. I thought it was very strong and powerful, and I thought she had a great case. And as we started learning more about the case, I was pro-Blake Lively, despite having a history of not liking her because of her gossip day era. She was very insufferable, has always been an insufferable person. But the moment I believed she was a victim, I was like, screw this. We're going to go full bore Blake Lively. I was team Lively. until the text messages with Taylor and the Ryan Reynolds stuff started coming out.

11:54And I'm like, wait, this is... And then the fact that she cowered and went into a settlement just tells everybody what we want to know. This was always about the IP of the movie, and because she saw that the movie had become a cult, I loved the movie the first time I watched it. Yeah, I did too. I don't have the desire to watch it again. I thought it was great.

12:13Piers Morgan:I saw it at the cinema the first time, and I thought it was a great movie. I really thought it was powerful. It was a great movie. And it did brilliantly at the box office. It was a smash hit. It did. That's the farce of this whole thing. It was a smash hit. It had a great nostalgia to it, too. Yes. It was a smash hit movie, and she saw money from dollar signs instead of a collaboration. And actually, you know the really weird irony is that Baldoni, from all the texts and emails, he comes across as the most groveling wokey you could imagine. This is a bloke literally going out of his way to try and be the wokest co-worker in the history of the United States.

12:47Piers Morgan:And the response to that was he ends up in a$60 million lawsuit. It's preposterous, the whole thing. Look, I think she... The funny thing for me was watching her pull up to the Met like nothing happened the day before, as you just pointed. By the way, she looked great. She was actually really well-dressed. But it's so stunning to me that she had the gall to show up after she let everybody down. It's a breathtaking brass neck of it all. It's like, you know what? I know I was going to represent all the abused and harassed women of the world and the children, but actually see me on the red carpet.

13:25Piers Morgan:James, you're saying, why? Because I think, regardless of that, you know, she's still, I don't understand why you're getting hung up on this red carpet thing. She's allowed to hit the red carpet. That is her job. I'm allowed to comment on it. That is literally her job and she is allowed to do her job. And if someone does a red carpet, we're allowed to comment on it. And that doesn't prevent her from representing. The red carpet is not her job. It's an option she makes as a celebrity. That doesn't prevent her from making, like, from also supporting people. You didn't find it jarring, James? I don't find it jarring that she's doing her job and that she's back out there.

13:57I don't find it jarring, no. But it's not her job. It is her job. She's an actress. It is a celebrity. That is her job. Why are we picking on a woman? It's not her job. I'll tell you what. No, no, no. It's an option. She choked to be there. Hold your fire panel.

14:08Piers Morgan:We have somebody who actually worked alongside Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in It Ends With Us, the actor Adam Monshine, who joins me now. Adam, welcome to Uncensored. I was just informed you've been chuckling listening to this so far. You're in the best position to talk about this because you were there, right? You were on the set with these two. What has happened here? What's your kind of overview of it all? What a great question, Pierce. What has happened here? It is the inexplicable. In a previous segment, you were talking about how do you explain the inexplicable. What started off as celebrating my friend Justin, who I've been friends with for 20 years.

14:59One of the things that I always teach young actors, because I coach and I teach theater and cinema, is the first thing you have to do is be able to celebrate the success of another person if you feel like you're going to want to make it out in Hollywood. That's the first key. And that's been the community that we come from out here in the friend circle that is Justin Baldoni. And getting to know him before he's famous, before anyone knows him, we spend birthdays packing peanut butter sandwiches, bottles of water, no pictures, no Instagramming, and bringing them to Skid Row and handing them out to people for his birthday.

15:37That's how he wanted to celebrate it. No fanfare. Over time, eventually he's on Jane the Virgin. He gets a little bit of fame. And what does he do? He turns it into the Skid Row Love Carnival. He partners with the city of L.A. He still doesn't put his name on it. He's still not the face of it. And this is a guy who literally walks the walk. He talks the talk. He walks the walk. I laughed when you said he comes across as the wokest leftist. Because it is actually his real intention. And that's what gets him in trouble. is that he's so pure in an industry that is so skeptical and so selfish and so nepotistic and so narcissistic.

16:14And he truly means what he says. He has the biggest heart of any person I've ever met. So when he is directing this big movie, the sad irony is I was a huge fan of Blake Lively's work as an actress. I was part of the casting process when he's going through all of the different choices, who could play this role that she was eventually cast in. And I pushed hard for her. He was in the circle of friends. I was like, Blake, it's got to be Blake. She's perfect. Oh, Pierce. I feel sorry for her, ultimately. Do you? I can't imagine what it must be like to be inside of her mind. Yes. I don't have a shred of sympathy.

17:00Piers Morgan:I think this was entirely, I think it was entirely self-inflicted. I mean, it's interesting because you got dragged into... I have very firm feelings about the actions that she took. And she hurt my friend and has been hurting my friend. Both Jamie Heath and Justin Baldoni, they have such huge hearts. They're really, truly great people. They're not Hollywood people. They're people that want to make movies that have a heart, that help, that are of service. And that's why they got into it, truly. Jamie is a Grammy Award winning musician who has lent his talents and voice to very uplifting music before he was thrust into the position of president of Wayfair Studios.

17:42That's not something he's coming for. Have you spoken to Justin? It's a friendship.

17:45Piers Morgan:Have you spoken to Justin since the statement yesterday that it was... Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money. Because behind every headline is a bottom line. Whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion dollar swings, there's a money side to every story. And when you see the money side, you understand what others miss. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. It's all over? I have, yeah. He is overwhelmed. I think the burden that this is on the family, the taxing, like how they were dragged into the public. And if you picture for a second, people are starting to get to know him more and his family and his kids and his wife.

18:35It is unbearable. When someone misjudges you, when someone takes you out of context, when someone takes what you have built, like Justin has a reputation and his reputation has only ever been, like I was saying, of service. Big heart. Trying to do the best that he can. The only thing I ever thought he was guilty of was sometimes being a little cheesy. But that's it. Because he's

19:01Piers Morgan:real. And it's all love. Does he feel, notwithstanding all the tremendous pressure of this, I'm sure financially as well, but does he feel a relief that it's been settled? Or is he a little frustrated it hasn't gone to court where everyone could see for themselves the reality? It's both. It's really both. I don't want to speak for him. I think he really wants to tell his story, and he deserves to be heard. The truth, the sunshine that that is, to let that sunlight in on this, has been the thing that I feel like her camp has been avoiding. Please tell him to come on this show if he wants to have his say.

19:43Honestly, I think he certainly will, because I was very excited to testify. I'm a little bummed because I was like, you're out of order. This whole court's out of order. Well, you got dragged into it.

19:56Piers Morgan:It's almost comical, this, in a way, but you got dragged into it as well in some of the claims that she was making because you were there in various scenes. And one, of course, is the birthing scene where she alleged she was, quote, nearly nude in stirrups for several hours with only a small piece of fabric covering her genitalia. You've responded to this previously by saying she was wearing a full hospital gown, black shorts, and a torso covering prosthetic to simulate pregnancy. I mean, that alone is kind of laughable that that should end up in court documents, isn't it? Insulting. I was... I mean, it's shocking when you're not used to any of this to be talked about in a way that was startling, this version of events, which is counter to my version of events, and I imagine everyone...

20:51Well, it got worse when it came to inappropriate physical proximity.

20:55Piers Morgan:She said it was invasive and humiliating. Outrageous. Invasive and humiliating to have your face and hands in such close proximity to her while she was in this state. I mean, what is she talking about? You're on a set doing a birthing scene. Time magazine. You're the doctor. Where are your hands, are they supposed to be? And the irony is that I was so far away that she would have had to shoot the baby at velocity for me to catch. That's how far away I was in reality from... Because it's for a movie. It's not real. It's not... None of it is real. And she's, again, Time Magazine's most... 100 most influential person.