Daily Briefing: Lively v. Baldoni
Actor Blake Lively is accusing her "It Ends With Us" co-star Justin Baldoni of carrying out an online smear campaign. President Joe Biden is achieving a campaign promise to address the death penalty. We have the top five financial resolutions you should make for 2025.
🙋🏼♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert, Daily Briefing author. Dreaming of a white Christmas is better than traveling during one.
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni feuded. Next came the smear campaign, she alleges.
Black Lively claims that her "It Ends With Us" co-star Justin Baldoni coordinated a PR campaign with a crisis firm after she took issue with on-set behavior, according to a copy of a legal complaint obtained by Paste BN on Saturday. Lively's lawyers called the alleged plot "'social manipulation' designed to 'destroy' Ms. Lively's reputation" by Baldoni, who directed the film.
The background: When it was released in early August, a rift between Lively and Baldoni derailed the media tour for the film, which is about breaking generational cycles of domestic violence.
- Now, new details have emerged on the stars' feud: Ahead of the film's release, Baldoni hired a PR team, along with producer Jamey Heath, to counter Lively's private allegations of harassment by engaging in a public spear campaign, the complaint says.
- What is astroturfing? The complaint alleges Baldoni's PR team planned to plant stories to sway the public against Lively during the film's promotion, showing a heightened level of control over the narratives about celebrities.
- A sisterhood gathers behind Lively: America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel, and Amber Tamblyn, who co-starred with Lively in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" franchise, issued a joint statement on Sunday in support of Lively.
Biden commutes sentences of most federal death row inmates
President Joe Biden announced on Monday that he is commuting the sentences of nearly every inmate on federal death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole, in a move intended to keep his successor, President-elect Donald Trump, from going forward with executions he had previously halted.
The background: Biden pledged to end the death penalty during his presidential campaign and had been under pressure from progressive lawmakers and criminal justice activists to commute the sentences of federal death row inmates before Trump takes office. Read more
More news to know now
- Biden signed a bill to fund the government after a threat of a holiday shutdown.
- Trump says he might demand control over the Panama canal.
- A fentanyl antidote is saving lives. But it isn’t ending the fentanyl crisis.
- Five are dead and over 200 injured after a driver rammed a German Christmas market crowd.
What's the weather today? Check your local forecast here.
Luigi Mangione to be arraigned on state murder charges
Luigi Mangione is set to appear in court in New York on Monday for arraignment on state murder charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The Manhattan District Attorney's office said it was coordinating with federal authorities, who are currently holding the 26-year-old shooting suspect in a detention center in Brooklyn. Read live updates from Paste BN.
What's the latest on bird flu?
Public concern over bird flu ratcheted up last week as the H5N1 virus continued its sweep through the nation's dairy and poultry farms and the first American was hospitalized with a severe infection. The strain of H5N1 bird flu that infected a Louisiana patient is different from the one that has infected cattle, poultry and farmworkers for most of this year, U.S. health officials said. If the virus continues to infect more people and animals, it will have more opportunities to mutate, potentially becoming more contagious or dangerous. Here's when experts say to worry.
Today's talkers
- Aaron Pierre is ready for his breakout with "Mufasa."
- If you're feeling lonely during the holidays, you're not alone.
- Is no tax on tips really good for workers?
- Despite climate change, skiing isn't going away any time soon.
- These 15 last-chance Apple deals will arrive before Christmas.
What are your 2025 financial resolutions?
If you want to sober up quick on New Year’s Day, open your credit card statement. The most popular financial New Year’s resolutions for 2025 represent the opposite, basically, of what many of us do around the holidays, which is spend money and take on debt.
Here are the top 2025 money goals:
- Build up your savings, or pay down your debt
- Make a budget
- Save for emergencies
- Earn 5% on your savings
- Repay 25% of your credit card debt
Read more from Paste BN's Money experts about how to set these goals, keep track of them and why they matter the most.
Photo of the day: The Nittany Lions win eighth national championship
It's a historic win by the Nittany Lions: Penn State coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley became the first woman head coach to win a Div. I volleyball championship in NCAA history on Sunday with a defeat of Louisville.
Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at Paste BN, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com.