After the Justin Baldoni drama, Blake Lively hides an apparent quarrel with Anna Kendrick in order to shed the image of a "villain."

Arriving at the UK gala showing of "It ends with us" at the Odeon Luxe in Leicester square, central London on August 8, 2024, American actor Blake Lively poses on the red carpet.(AFP)

Blake Lively is making every effort to shed her reputation as the "Mean Girl," as she no longer wantsstories about her to portray her as the "villain" on every film set. This summer, the Gossip Girl star's name unexpectedly took center stage in Hollywood rumors because of her connection to the big-screen version of Colleen Hoover's contentious novel It Ends With Us. Even before the movie's release, her sheer participation in the project sparked a great deal of criticism for a number of reasons.

But when she made a clear separation from both her co-star and the movie's director, Justin Baldoni, during the It Ends With Us premiere in New York in August, that's when the real beast came out. After a series of controversies sparked by the pair's alleged disagreement, Lively's past and marriage came under scrutiny for a host of other contentious reasons.