Bethenny Frankel believes Blake Lively and Jennifer Lopez have something in common.
The former “Real Housewife” made the comparison while discussing Lively’s controversial “It Ends With Us” press tour in an Instagram video Thursday.
Notably, the “Gossip Girl” alum has been under fire for marketing her Betty Buzz cocktail brand and Blake Brown haircare line while promoting the movie, which depicts domestic violence.
“Celebrities have now reached a fever pitch of trying to triple- and quadruple-dip in monetizing businesses other than their core business,” Frankel, 53, told her followers. “It’s become a common practice to try to really bum-rush and smash and grab as much as you possibly can at the same time.
“So if she’s dressed and in hair and makeup doing press tour for a movie, leaving her family and kids and so is he [Ryan Reynolds], she is going to maximize it,” the ex-Bravolebrity continued, noting that “this was an issue with Jennifer Lopez.”
Frankel recalled the Grammy nominee, 55, “marketing two movies, her drink, her relationship [with Ben Affleck], an album and a tour” earlier this year.
“Her audience got waterboarded and didn’t want it,” the “Big Shot with Bethenny” alum said.
Frankel went on to explain why Lively’s “savvy audience” has been criticizing her for promoting products “in a lighthearted way” instead of discussing the film’s “very sensitive subject matter.”
She concluded, “It just is not sitting well. You can’t fit 25 pounds of s–t in a five-pound bag. It will explode, and then you’ll have s–t all over you.”
In the video’s caption, Frankel clarified that she was giving her two cents “as someone who grew up in a domestic violence home and who has experience in the monetization of media.”
She called the situation “the perfect storm, a cautionary tale and a convergence of mishandled circumstances.”
While Frankel doesn’t believe in “pile-on cancellation,” she hoped people would learn from “other people’s blind spots and mistakes.”
Lively has yet to directly address the negative comments surrounding her floral fashion-filled press tour, but she did subtly respond by posting domestic violence resources on her Instagram Story this week.
She also shared a clip from an interview with BBC News in which she described how her character, Lily Bloom, was not “defined” as a “victim” or a “survivor.”
Lively’s director and co-star, Justin Baldoni, however, has been credited for regularly addressing the movie’s serious themes in interviews.
The actor, who plays Ryle Kincaid, has yet to do press with Lively — or take any red carpet snaps with her — amid mounting speculation that they are feuding.
Us Weekly reported Thursday that Baldoni felt “sidelined” by Lively during filming, with a source claiming she “stifled the creativity” on set.
Additionally, insiders told Page Six that the “Jane the Virgin” alum made Lively feel “uncomfortable” and was “extremely difficult” to work with.
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