Two of the most camera-fluent people alive went for a walk in New York, paused for a fan photo, and let one of them climb onto the other’s back in the middle of the sidewalk. Nothing about it read as accidental.
Deuxmoi posted the photos Wednesday as an exclusive, credited to Backgrid: Blake Lively, 38, and Ryan Reynolds, 49, on what the account called a playful date night, Reynolds carrying Lively piggyback after her Louboutins gave out. Within an hour the post had thousands of likes and a comment section that had already made up its mind.
The read, near unanimous in the replies, was that the night was staged, a paparazzi call placed by the couple themselves, with the words damage control recurring down the thread.
The skepticism has a backdrop. Lively spent the past year in litigation tied to “It Ends With Us,” the 2024 film she starred in and Justin Baldoni directed. In April a federal judge dismissed 10 of her 13 claims, including her sexual harassment claims against Baldoni. In May, Lively and Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios settled before the case reached trial. A hearing over attorneys’ fees was still on the calendar this month. A glowing New York date night reads differently against that timeline, and the internet noticed.
