The 50th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live featured Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively subtly referencing their ongoing legal dispute with Justin Baldoni, the director and star of It Ends With Us.
Saturday Night Live debuted as NBC’s Saturday Night on October 11, 1975. To celebrate the milestone, a three-hour special aired on February 16.
In addition to reuniting a variety of former cast members such as Eddie Murphy and Kate McKinnon, the special included appearances from Adam Sandler, Miley Cyrus, and well-known celebrities like Deadpool’s Ryan Reynolds and Gossip Girl’s Blake Lively.
The event opened with a performance by Paul Simon and Sabrina Carpenter, who sang Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Homeward Bound’ (1966), offering a preview of the musical acts lined up for the evening.
Following this, Steve Martin delivered a monologue, later joined on stage by John Mulaney and Martin Short. Kristen Wiig then performed an opening sketch as her character Dooneese.
The show featured the popular ‘Black Jeopardy’ sketch, a segment highlighting the show’s best physical comedy moments with Sally O’Malley, and a performance by Emma Stone from Poor Things, who participated in a humorous rendition of Wicked’s ‘Defying Gravity’.
As if that wasn’t enough, an audience Q&A session hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler took place, during which Reynolds stood up to pose a question.
When asked by Fey how he was doing, Reynolds replied: “Why? What have you heard?”
Lively gave Reynolds a sharp look after his response, her smile fading, which seemed to add to the humor of the moment.
For those following celebrity news, it’s well known that Reynolds and Lively are involved in a legal dispute with Baldoni, who co-stars with Lively in It Ends with Us.
In December, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, who also directed the film, accusing him of sexual harassment, attempting to damage her reputation, and causing her ‘severe emotional distress’.
Baldoni denied these allegations and countersued, filing a $400 million lawsuit. His team even launched a website outlining the lawsuit and accusations.
A judge has scheduled a trial date for the legal conflict, instructing lawyers to be ready to tackle issues related to pretrial publicity and legal conduct.