Hannah Berner is raising eyebrows due to a poorly timed joke she made about Blake Lively in a new Netflix comedy special amid the actress’ legal battle with Justin Baldoni.
“The word c–t was trending this year. I don’t think Blake Lively was that bad,” the “Summer House” alum, 33, quipped in “Torching 2024: A Roast of the Year,” which was released on the streaming service Friday.
The wisecrack was made in an apparent reference to several old interviews Lively gave that resurfaced amid her “It Ends With Us” press tour over the summer and showed her in a less-than-favorable light.
For instance, the “Gossip Girl” alum, 37, was ridiculed for once commenting on interviewer Kjersti Flaa’s stomach “bump,” snapping at another reporter for inquiring about her Penn Badgley romance and using a transgender slur elsewhere.
However, those problematic clips were seen from a new perspective since Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni, 40, last week, accusing him of sexual harassment and attempts to “destroy” her reputation.
She alleged the “It Ends With Us” director was not only scolded for openly discussing his past porn addiction on set, sharing “nude videos or images of women” and generally making his fellow lead star “uncomfortable,” but he allegedly also conspired with his crisis PR team to bring her down publicly.
The complaint included a text from Baldoni’s publicist to a studio rep that allegedly stated he “wants to feel like [Lively] can be buried,” to which the other person responded, “You know we can bury anyone.”
The “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” star alleged her co-star’s team also “retained subcontractors, including a Texas-based contractor named Jed Wallace, who weaponized a digital army around the country from New York to Los Angeles to create, seed, and promote content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms and internet chat forums.
“The Baldoni-Wayfarer team would then feed pieces of this manufactured content to unwitting reporters, making content go viral in order to influence public opinion and thereby cause an organic pile-on.”
Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, subsequently told Page Six that Lively’s complaint was “another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions.”
Freedman also accused the mom of four of using her publicist to plant negative stories about Baldoni, claiming his clients’ reps did not retaliate in response to those reports. Lively’s reps denied those allegations.
The lawyer concluded, “There were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.” He also alleged the sexual harassment claims were “categorically false.”
However, many have since sided with Lively — including some who have worked for and with Baldoni.
The “Jane the Virgin” alum was dropped by his talent agency within hours of the complaint’s filing, and his “The Man Enough” podcast co-host Liz Plank also quit.
Page Six reached out to Netflix and Berner for comment on whether they considered cutting the C-word joke from the special since it was released days after the complaint, but we did not immediately hear back.
A press release for “Torching 2024” that was put out earlier this week promised to feature comedians “throwing shade at the biggest moments of the past 12 months.” It also stated the special was recorded at the Bellwether in Los Angeles on Dec. 17 — prior to Lively’s legal action.
Lively’s rep did not immediately respond to our request for comment on Berner’s joke.
