Was Bradley Cooper credited at the end of It Ends With Us? Kjersti Flaa says Blake Lively could "blackmail" filmmaker for "unauthorized co-direction"

Journalist Kjersti Flaa recently claimed that Blake Lively could "blackmail" Bradley Cooper for "unauthorized co-direction." As per IMDb, Bradley Cooper was credited with a special thanks by Blake Lively at the end of the film It Ends With Us.

On May 18, 2025, Kjersti Flaa took to her podcast, Flaawsome Talk, to claim that Cooper might have helped Lively with some final edits in the film. According to It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni's lawsuit, Blake used her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and close friend Taylor Swift to coerce Baldoni into including her script rewrites.

Flaa stated that the Directors Guild of America (DGA), which Cooper and Baldoni are a part of, had strict rules in place to protect a director's creative authority and prohibited other actors or editors from interfering with their final decision. Kjersti remarked that Blake Lively could use this to "blackmail" Cooper into supporting her.

"There's been a lot of speculations that Bradley Cooper played a role in the final editing of the movie. Even helping in the editing room could be a gray area if it crosses the line from support to creative decisionmaking, especially if it influences final cuts, pacing, or scene structure, the DGA could view that as unauthorized co-direction," she said.

Flaa continued,

"Blake Lively has a great opportunity to blackmail Bradley Cooper as well, saying that, 'We will reveal the information that you actually directed a film that didn't have your name attached to it' because then that would really piss off the DGA and he could even be expelled for something like that."

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Justin Baldoni's claims of Blake Lively blackmailing Taylor Swift explored

As reported by Variety, on May 14, 2025, Justin Baldoni's attorney, Bryan Freedman, filed a letter to Judge Liman alleging that Blake Lively's legal team contacted Taylor Swift's attorneys and threatened to leak private text messages shared between Taylor and Blake unless the pop star deleted certain incriminating messages and released a statement in support of Lively.

There was no additional evidence to support Freedman's claims since the information allegedly came from a “source who is highly likely to have reliable information.”

Justin Baldoni - Vital Voices 12th Annual Voices of Solidarity Awards (Image via Getty)

According to Hello! Magazine, Lively's legal team "unequivocally" denied the allegations, calling them "categorically false" and "cowardly." On May 15, Judge Liman moved to strike Freedman's letter from court dockets, stating that it was "inflammatory."

Blake Lively's team issued a statement which read,

"It took the court less than 24 hours to see through Mr. Freedman's irrelevant, improper and inflammatory accusations, strike them, remove them from the court and warn Mr. Freedman that further misconduct may be met with sanctions."

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Blake Lively's alleged feud with Gigi Hadid explored

As per various outlets like Cosmopolitan and Page Six, Lively's friendship with Gigi Hadid might also be on the rocks. The model reportedly failed to invite Lively to her 30th birthday party in New York despite Blake being in town. As reported by People, Hadid's birthday party was attended by various A-listers like Anne Hathaway, Emily Ratajkowski, her sister Bella Hadid, and Gigi's partner, Bradley Cooper.

According to Page Six, an insider source close to Hadid told the outlet that Gigi was distancing herself from Lively amidst her legal battle with Justin Baldoni. Hadid is reportedly on Taylor Swift's side as the Blank Space singer allegedly expressed her disapproval at being involved in the legal drama.