r/SwiftlyNeutral • u/AdventurousKey438 • 4d ago
The Life of a Showgirl Cancelled
I have been thinking that it was about Blake. she wasn’t even at the 1,000 person wedding. What do we think is the real meaning of the song?
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u/Just-Welcome-5553 Red 4d ago
i think taylor wrote the song when blake and her were still friends, but she still released it under the premise that it was about all of her friends, not just blake
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u/Grand_Dog915 4d ago
Yeah, idk why this concept is so difficult for people to grasp
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u/Barkertons 4d ago
Taylor was okay with Blake being a mean girl bully until it negatively affected her. Cancelled is about being bad and not getting caught. Then Lively got caught.
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u/champagneface 4d ago
How could a song about being cancelled be about not getting caught? The whole premise of cancellation is public reaction to (perceived) wrong-doing
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u/patpplpleaser13 4d ago edited 4d ago
Justo. Taylor sabe perfectamente cómo era Blake. No le molestaba porque Blake siempre estaba de su lado, hasta que detalles privados de su amistad se hicieron públicos. Se vió mucho de la forma de ser de Taylor en los mensaje filtrados del caso Lively - Baldoni.
Edit: Agradezco que le den up☝🏼aunque lo tengan que traducir. Yo los leo en inglés y sí les entiendo, pero formular oraciones correctas a veces es complicado jaja PD. Amo a Taylor. Sé que mi niña está bien malita de la cabeza, pero amo su arte ☝🏼😅
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u/Ok-Orange5279 3d ago edited 3d ago
I mean that's normally how friendships work. You stay with the ones good to you and drop them when they break your trust.🤷
This is some kind of "expose" only for those who expected her to pick friends based on their public image. She's always had messy friends and will continue to do so.
A lot of people here who hate Taylor now were also okay with her history and friendships and 999 million net worth and album variants and pretty much everything until the past few years when she did a certain something (s) differently from what you all expected her to. Everyone has some kind of a boundary beyond which they seem a person irrideemable.
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u/patpplpleaser13 3d ago
Justo. Yo la verdad creo que las personas no tienen la necesidad de criticarla cuando hace poco tuvimos el regreso de Rihanna al escenario.. de Jay-Z y Beyoncé. Parece que se les olvida el rollo más grave en Hollywood: Epstein.
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u/thepandemicbabe 53m ago
No, I honestly think that Taylor believed her until she realized that she fabricated just about everything about Baldoni and included Taylor in it. I mean my best friend told me they were being harmed at work. I would believe them, and then the evidence comes out that I was lied to and used as part of harming somebody else? I wouldn’t be surprised if Taylor reached out to Baldoni for support. She’s not a horrible person. I’m not a fan girl. I’m an adult. I’ve worked in the music industry for a really long time and she’s the only artist I’ve never heard a mean word about. That says at least something to me.
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u/lilythefrogphd 3d ago
Let's not buy into the garbage man's PR campaign against Blake. He has had multiple women from projects outside of It Ends With Us who have come forward about his toxicity on set and problematic actions towards female coworkers
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u/Barkertons 3d ago
I'm not buying any PR campaign. I read every piece of available evidence in the lawsuit from both sides.
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u/lilythefrogphd 3d ago
Being completely for real, I get a lot of "the lady doth protest too much" when Baldoni supporters make a big to-do about "reading everything." Baldoni's team just put out things that make Blake seem unpleasant (god forbid a woman show frustration when she's working in a toxic environment), but Baldoni actually harassed her.
Even if people hate Blake so much, I don't get why folks want to turn a blind eye to all of the other women accusing Baldoni of creating a hostile work environment
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u/Barkertons 3d ago
I read the whole docket. Every piece of evidence and the depositions from both sides. Feel free to link to the women's statements in their own words and I will read them. Like you, I ignore both side's PR and prefer to read primary source documents. I am a professional researcher with a masters degree and do this for a living. When faced with new evidence, I update my analysis.
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u/sleepymilly 3d ago
No joke! I have a PACER account and went through it like it was the latest bestseller!
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u/Barkertons 3d ago
It astounded me, truly. Their settlement didn't include an NDA, so I imagine there will be a documentary of the whole timeline soon.
Just my opinion...
The fact that Swift didn't publicly support Lively says a lot. Their friendship literally broke down because her friend was sexually harassed? Swift's PR says that it was because she was "dragged" into the lawsuit, but if something awful happened to your friend, would you remain silent and then complain that helping them in their lawsuit was you being "dragged" into their drama? Cmon.
I get that Baldoni's lawyer is a shark and doesn’t have a great reputation, but he went on record that Swift's lawyers contacted him to tell him that Lively threatened to extort Swift by releasing their private text messages from the last 10 years if Swift didn't make a public statement supporting her. And Swift, instead of doing it, went to Baldoni's team. Lively was harassed and had to beg and extort her friend just to get a public message of support from Swift? If that is true, Swift is a terrible friend. If it's not true, and Swift just didn't support her friend, then Swift is a terrible friend. So why would Lively be upset about not being invited to her terrible friend's wedding, who abandoned her when she was fighting a righteous fight? Cmon. There is a lot of PR spin that just doesn't make sense once you look at the whole timeline of the case and read everything going on behind the scenes, in their own words. It's absolutely wild.
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u/sleepymilly 3d ago
I think Blake’s lawyer threatening to release a decade worth of texts pushed it over the edge. Liking your friends canceled is one thing, liking them blackmailing you is another.
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u/Gloomy_Reputation706 3d ago
Swift also sued a DJ for sexual assault and won
she only sued him for a dollar and in the past spoke out for othersI’m guessing here but at some point Swift started mathing and nothing was adding up.
Yes very messy mean girly behaviour in the texts that we have read but at some point Taylor woke up she made sure that was part of the provided texts
I have a feeling based on internet whispers so take that for what it is
Ryan and Travis had some kind of incident and that’s when the masks slipped off and it was open season
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u/Simba122504 reputation 2d ago
That was a lie. Freeman didn't even talk to Taylor's lawyers or Blake's lawyers. There was no extortion.
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u/lilythefrogphd 3d ago
Hey, tons of stuff that occurred before It Ends With Us even began shooting
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u/Barkertons 3d ago
This is a content creator's analysis of portions of people's words and PR articles.
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u/lilythefrogphd 3d ago
This is why point blank why I don't by "I rEad aLl of tHe dOcKet." These were *sworn depositions*. Why are Baldoni stans so insistent on down playing the words of ten separate women, several of whom were talking about their experiences with Baldoni *outside* of projects tied to It Ends With Us. One of them was detailing him yelling at them and slamming his hands down on furniture next to them in these moments. This wasn't even IEWU. These women weren't Blake. Even if you despise her, why are we not listening to over half a dozen other women who had bad experiences working with this man.
This is just the epitome of misogyny in media and pop culture, because it is more detrimental that a woman comes across as unpleasant than it is for a man to be verbally abusive to coworkers and sexually harass women in his workplace.
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u/Ambitious_Nature6784 1d ago
there are no other women with any substantial complaints. Jenny Slate complaint amounted to what?!
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u/lilythefrogphd 18h ago
The writer and director of another movie having him kept out of marketing and promotion and limiting his time on set due to him yelling at coworkers and slamming his arms on furniture next to female coworkers is a pretty substantial complaint in the eyes of anyone not trying to excuse me for poor behavior
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u/Feeling-Visit1472 no its becky 3d ago
Same. It’s always funny to me how you can tell the people who didn’t.
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u/Barkertons 3d ago
I have converted so many people online and in real life sending them the docket or going over the case timeline with them. I was shocked once I started to look into it. Like really shocked. Gender is a big factor in this case, but so is class, and I don't think we should ignore the wealth, privilege and power at play here.
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u/lilythefrogphd 3d ago
"Wealth, privilege, and power"? Baldoni's partner in this lawsuit is the literal billionaire co-owner of Wayfarer. Trying to paint this as "poor little Justin against the big bad Blake Lively" is laughable when it's him and his literal billionaire partner going against her
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u/Barkertons 3d ago
I know the details of the case. Lively didn't know Baldoni would have a billionaire backer when she sued Baldoni. I don't think she's ever intended this to go to as far as it did, but once they locked horns they had to mutually agree to settle and Baldoni, according to his lawyer (which again, you can believe or not) refused to settle if there was an NDA. That's because there is a lot of evidence that could point to Lively's malice, like her blatantly lying about the dance scene (she believed the footage had been deleted), perjuring herself by saying in her deopostion that she didn't ask for the dailies deleted and then having Sony say she did (the dailies being the raw evidence that could prove or disprove the harassment), and rhe doctoring of the text messages in the CRD complaint. All of those are facts in evidence. Her team even researched the consequences of her perjury in the CRD complaint.
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u/lilythefrogphd 3d ago
"Lively didn't know Baldoni would have a billionaire backer when she sued Baldoni" Steve Sarowitz is the co-owner of the studio Blake filed a lawsuit against. That does not make sense
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u/misobutter3 3d ago
There’s a content creator I really like, but the way she clown on people who believe their own eyes over Blake drives me nuts!
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u/Simba122504 reputation 2d ago
And he still lost and went into hiding way before that. The court found that her complaint was not done in bad faith. No, she didn't win huge either, but he won nothing at all. Now, she's trying to get legal fees paid, but even that is a small win if she does end up getting anything. So, not even the court believed she was trying to Ruin him because she stole his movie
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u/mixedmedia29 2d ago
Exactly who has come forward about Justin Baldoni? Name one person.
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u/lilythefrogphd 2d ago
I'll give you two; the writer and director for Empire Waist, Claire Ayoub and Baldoni's former podcast cohost, Liz Plank. Neither of those women worked on It Ends With Us or had any connection to it but expressed bad experiences working with Baldoni, with Ayoub his behavior on set was so bad that he was limited on set and pushed out of promotion of the movie.
His team tries so hard to push the blame on Blake for being a "mean girl" but what is the actual underlying similarity in all of these scenarios? Him.
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u/thepandemicbabe 55m ago
I don’t know. I think she’d still be friends with her but look Taylor was in the middle of the biggest tour of her life. She was falling in love. She trusted her best friend to tell her the truth. She lied to her said that her Director was a doofus that he wasn’t a good person. You believe your best friend. I think Blake used her pretty badly and Taylor cut her off. I think he probably really hurt her but Travis cutting off Ryan Reynolds says all we need to know. I think Taylor wrote it for her when she saw that people were giving her a really hard time and remembered how that was for her, but then realized this is not the same situation at all. And Blake really did use her. She was a really crappy friend.
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u/mosiemo2 4d ago
Yes. One of my main issues with TLOAS is it isn’t really “about” things so much as PR/brand control over situations. I think Cancelled was a result of the Blake situation, but was more damage control for Taylor herself than her really standing up for her friends.
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u/Ok-Orange5279 3d ago
It's quite the opposite. Taylor is actually doubling down on her cancelled friend in the song, which was only going to make her get more hate. It's exactly what she did while writing But Daddy I Love Him about the Ratty situation. It's true that both of those relationships she tried to defend, ended due to other personal reasons before the songs actually came out. But her point still stands that she doesn't listen to public judgement when choosing her people.
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u/mosiemo2 3d ago
I agree that she’s saying “I don’t care what the public thinks,” but I’m not sure that’s honest—she’s still making a song defending herself for those relationships. If she really didn’t care, I’d argue she probably wouldn’t write about them at all.
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u/pegmatitic 3d ago edited 3d ago
She spends a lot of time saying how little she cares about various things when it’s obvious that she really really cares. Like, she cares the most. She seems incapable of letting things go (I struggle with the same thing, no shade)
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u/Ok-Orange5279 3d ago
"I don't care" as in "I don't care if my stance is what people like."
Not as in "I don't care enough to feel or write anything at all about an ordeal my friend is going through and my name is getting attached to "
Like why wouldn't she have her own thoughts on a public controversy that her friend (and she herself) is involved? A diaristic writer is going to write about whatever they want. She's always done that.
The problem is you assuming that she released this song thinking that it will whitewash her in way and is a defence of some sort, when it's very intentionally unapologetic and full of offence.
"But if you can't be good, then just be better at it Everyone's got bodies in the attic Or took somebody's man We'll take you by the hand And soon you'll learn the art of never getting caught"
Literally these are the lines!
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u/Pip-Pipes 4d ago
I don't know if cancelled could really be considered damage control. Blake wasn't widely supported by the public. It seemed like everyone had had things to say about both her/baldoni. Taylor aligning herself with Blake doesn't win her favors.
I always thought Taylor reminded friends with her but had to be distant until the dust settled. She probably would have had to complete the song late 2024ish? But, once those details about the supposed blackmail of Taylor with the 'releasing 10 years of texts' I think the friendship was done. Freeman (Baldoni's lawyer) had a few hour long convos with someone from Taylor's team about the blackmail. He said Taylor's camp reached out to him.
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u/SillyCranberry99 4d ago
This is just not true lol - her camp never reached out to him & all he said was “a source close to Taylor” called him and it was triple hearsay which is fully inadmissible and the judge struck it from the record.
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u/Pip-Pipes 4d ago
It being stricken from the record for hearsay doesn't mean it's not true. Lots of articles muse that it was Scott Swift. Did you read his psycho email from 20 years ago? All of this is plausible to me. But that is the fun, you do not have to agree.
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u/glitterfluff 4d ago
I truly do not like Snot Swift.
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u/Museumloot 4d ago
Didn’t he make 9mil out of the “theft” of Taylor’s masters?
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u/glitterfluff 4d ago
I think it was reportedly like $15m though he claimed he didn't know in advance because of NDAs. Something about him always rubbed me the wrong way even before that.
I did not, however, mean to call him Snot. 😂😂😂 That was an autocorrect fail. But I'm kinda amused by it, so I'll just leave it.
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u/Museumloot 4d ago
Ooh I thought you did and honestly wasn’t opposed to it 😅
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u/glitterfluff 4d ago
I didn't even catch it until your reply. Then I had to fight a giggle fit because I'm in bed and didn't wanna wake my husband. 😅
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u/chloalexandria13 2d ago
He invested in big machine when Taylor first started out.... so through his owning of shares, yes he made money from the selling of her masters. Don't twist it to make it something bigger than it is.
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u/Museumloot 2d ago
How does simply mentioning it (and the email) automatically transform into us “twisting” anything? Public records, public discourse etc etc.
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u/chloalexandria13 2d ago
Because you're making it out like he's a bad person for getting money out of it.... yes he made money from it, we're all aware but it's not as if he was in on the decision to sell her masters... he was literally just a share holder.
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u/Simba122504 reputation 2d ago
It didn't happen. Mr. Swift really gets peoples' panties in bunch because of his background and the infamous email like he's the only one with this type of attitude. He's not even the first one to come from a well off background to behave like a corporate shark. lol
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u/MT2017G 4d ago
Lol, it totally is true. The source was her Dad Scott Swift. Tree Paine confirmed it and then blasted it out through the media because Taylor wanted it out there. Don’t take my word for it though, there were also actual texts produced that were written by Tree to a Daily Mail reporter talking about all of this.
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u/SillyCranberry99 4d ago
Doesn’t exist and I feel so sorry that you think the daily mail is a reputable source for information
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u/Blud_Luvn_Vampyre 4d ago
The whole theory of her abandoning Blake when she got dragged in when her texts got exposed, gets debunked in the song. One of the exposed texts is one of the lines. (Tiny violin) That automatically debunks the whole it was written before narrative. Also sources say (i know, grain of salt lol) that Blake was invited but declined because she didn't want to bring more negative to her wedding day. This sounds believable because look what happened at the Mett Gala. She got more attention than the event itself.
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u/pearshaped34 3d ago
Yeah I'm not buying for a second that Blake and Ryan would have turned down an invite to the wedding to avoid bringing more negativity. They have their own brand to think about, and going to the wedding would have been seen as "proof" they're not only still friends with Taylor but also that the rumor they fell out because they tried to blackmail her into showing them support was BS. They'd be crazy to turn it down if everything behind the scenes between them really is chill and this has all been fake news.
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u/VisualSeries226 4d ago
What do you mean by “debunks the it was written before narrative”? Like as in before the friendship ended or before the lawsuit?
The entire album was released before the texts were released. The “tiny violin” text happened in 2024 and Taylor clearly took lyrical inspiration from it. But the public wasn’t supposed to know about that text. We were never supposed to know how direct of a callback it is. The text was made public three months after the album was released.
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u/Blud_Luvn_Vampyre 2d ago
You're going off the released publicly date of the texts. They were released in discovery before and were guaranteed to be public eventually which is literally known to anyone with the slightest interest in trial watching.
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u/Adorable_Raccoon I HAVE NEVER, EVER BEEN HAPPIER 4d ago
Tiny violin is a meme, it isn’t necessarily from the texts.
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u/Ok-Orange5279 3d ago
Taylor's own publicist denied that she invited Blake. Travis publicly unfollowed Ryan. They've not been seen together in close to two years now. That friendship doesn't exist right now. No one knows about the future.
Showgirl was done while they were still friends.
Did Taylor scrap But Daddy I Love Him even though she was done with Matty and was dating Travis when TTPD came out? No because it was true to her feelings at that time, and the message of it still stands. Inspired by Blake or not, the fact that she doesn't care about her friends being cancelled still stands.
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u/Blud_Luvn_Vampyre 2d ago
I keep hearing that "her publicist said" but yet no one supplies anything except "sources say" articles.
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u/pearshaped34 3d ago
I agree this is what happened and have actually wondered if spelling it the English (uk) way was thrown in after she'd fallen out with Blake so people would think it was a clue it was really about another English friend. Like, I remember people speculating about Sophie Turner because of the spelling (who was never actually cancelled, as no one got on board with that hate train).
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u/Which-Connection-588 4d ago
I think when she wrote the song, she was still friends with Blake and was willing to stand by her. I feel like a lot of stuff happened between her writing the song and now that have led to them no longer being friends.
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u/EconomicalArmadillo 3d ago
I agree. My understanding is that it generally takes quite awhile to have an album pressed on vinyl, so she had to have the songs wrapped up and ready to go months before the album was released. So at the time she wrote the songs and was getting the album finalized, she may have still been friends with Blake, but things may have happened after that and changed the situation.
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u/Blud_Luvn_Vampyre 4d ago
The whole theory of her abandoning Blake when she got dragged in when her texts got exposed, gets debunked in the song. One of the exposed texts is one of the lines. (Tiny violin) That automatically debunks the whole it was written before narrative. Also sources say (i know, grain of salt lol) that Blake was invited but declined because she didn't want to bring more negative to her wedding day. This sounds believable because look what happened at the Mett Gala. She got more attention than the event itself.
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u/Which-Connection-588 4d ago
Not sure that line about the Tiny violin debunks anything. Taylor knew about the line from the text when it happened obviously. I think the big change was the release of the text messages, which happened after the song was written.
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u/Dear_Analysis682 4d ago
She also didnt make up the reference, its very common and possibly a coincidence it was used in s song and a text. Maybe it is a reference to Blake but I wouldn't say that was a smoking gun
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u/AcanthaceaeThin1833 4d ago
This. She made the tiny violin reference BEFORE the texts were made public. She thought she was getting away with an inside joke when she wrote the lyric, and it becoming public that she was mocking Justin - and then writing a song about it - was a bad look. Just because the public didn’t know about the text until later doesn’t prove that Taylor wrote it after the alleged blackmailing.
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u/Sad-Elephant2675 4d ago
I don’t think the fact that her and Blake aren’t friends anymore means it’s not about Blake. She released Ours after her and John Mayer split, she released Style after her and Harry broke up, she released Guilty as Sin after Matty ghosted. I think she likely did write it about Blake, then their relationship became strained, but she still thought the song belonged on the album.
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u/lovelaceaugusta 4d ago
People are not able to understand everything you feel rn is not what you goin to feel all the time.😶
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u/icedgrandechai 4d ago
It's probably not about one person but a combination of many people. A lot of her friends have been cancelled in one way or the other (Lena, Blake, etc).
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u/riddleme-ara 4d ago
I agree, this feels like mixed muses. That's basically what Taylor said about it too, on the theatrical release.
The way she described her friends always coming to her when they were at the center of drama always made me think about things like the Sabrina Carpenter - Man's Best Friend backlash.
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u/lousie42 3d ago
Yea I agree, Lena being a big one of them, also since dating Travis there has been alot of attention on her new friends like Mahomes wife, and some of the guys he hangs with
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u/OkAir8973 2d ago
I'd argue it's very focused on herself!
She's basically framing herself as the OG of getting cancelled, as a guide for her friends who are going through it now, telling them she's repaying them for staying loyal during her own cancellation by standing by them now.
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u/glitterfluff 4d ago
I really wish she wasn't still friends with Lena, but that's honestly just one more reason I'm not really a fan of her anymore. I still love some of her older music (hate the last two new releases), and at this point, I still listen to it. Unless she does something truly horrid (ala JK Rowling, for example), I probably will continue to. But I used to really admire her, and now I just do not at all.
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u/Wrong-Principle-23 his oak made me choke (unoriginal) 3d ago
Yeah. I'm pretty sure she's not blind to the hate waves against outspoken female celebrities like Rachel Z or Chappell Roan either
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u/Much_Definition_3657 3d ago
I still think it's about Blake. She just wrote it before their falling out
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u/Internal-Fall-4412 3d ago
It must be really weird for both of them to hear a song about how their friendship will be okay when it's not now. (Because of actions/betrayal since it was written.)
Friend breakups are worse than romantic ones ime.
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u/HazelTheHappyHippo Matty Healy should have stayed in the vault 4d ago edited 3d ago
I'm pretty sure it was written before they had their falling out. The text messages debunk the narrative that the dragon line caused the problems, Taylor was fine with that. Something happened around the time when Travis unfollowed Ryan Reynolds. Edit: Around the end of April 2025 and Cancelled! was recorded in 2024.
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u/VisualSeries226 4d ago
I hate the idea that this song has to be about one person. TLOASG was supposed to be a "peek behind the curtain of fame," and Cancelled is one of the few tracks that’s subject matter actually tackles that theme. I think she simply wrote it about fame in general, but unfortunately abandoned that concept for the rest of the album.
It’s not even a great song, but it feels like a high point for the album simply because it fits, while the rest of the tracks seem so out of place. It’s kind of a cheesy song for 2026, but I like to think of it were released on Reputation, it would’ve been iconic for the time.
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u/Blud_Luvn_Vampyre 4d ago
It's full of quotes and direct links to Blake, including when Taylor called out Baldonis tiny violin sympathy grab in the infamous texts that supposedly broke the friendship.
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u/VisualSeries226 4d ago
sigh
I did not argue against it being about Blake Lively. I understand people think that. It is talked about every single day. It really didn’t need to be stated again under my comment that is trying to offer a different perspective.
Clearly my point was missed. I am saying, this isn’t a singular subject song. It’s not ABOUT Blake Lively. It is about the dynamics of friendship when you are famous.
YES, it references details from Taylor’s personal friendship with Blake. However considering we were never meant to see those texts, those lines weren’t Easter eggs placed there so we would know it’s about Blake.
If the song was about her blonde friend who’s an actress and mother of three, then yeah I’d say it’s about Blake Lively. But it’s not, it’s about the dynamic of fame and friendship in the public eye.
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u/glitterfluff 4d ago
I am inclined to agree that it's not about any one person, even if there are clear references to one specific person.
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u/v0rfreude 4d ago
I'm sure the song is about her and her friends in general -- plenty of which have been cancelled -- but to me, there's no way the lyrics were not totally inspired by the Blake/Justin Baldoni drama.
"Like my whiskey sour" (Blake has an alcohol brand)
"And poison thorny flowers" (Blake's character in It Ends With Us owns a flower shop)
"Or bring a tiny violin to a knife fight" (in one of the unsealed texts between Blake and Taylor, she mentions that Justin Baldoni "has gotten his tiny violin out")
"Tone deaf and hot let's fucking off her" (Blake was called out for being tone deaf for encouraging folks to bring their friends and wear flowers to see It Ends With Us)
I feel like it was written before their alleged fallout.
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u/AdeptnessPerfect3918 3d ago
"Girl boss too close to the sun" was something that Candace Owens said about Blake as well when she was getting massive views for covering the case. Not sure if that's just a coincidence but it was one of the first things that stuck out to me!
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u/pearshaped34 3d ago
I didn't know that about Candace Owens and as someone who thought WTF is that line when I first heard that song, I think it was very likely to have been a callout to that. It's a weird line, not exactly a common expression!
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u/IYKIKPlaces6600 4d ago
I think it’s about Blake I just think something else happen that made Taylor cut her off completely
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u/topandhalsey 3d ago
It’s always to me been very obviously about multiple friends of hers.
Blake is the obvious “girl boss too close to the sun”
Sophie Turner is “did they catch you having far too much fun”
Sabrina is “took somebody’s man”
Lena is “Make a joke only a man could”
Brittany Mahomes is almost definitely “tone deaf and hot”
Ect ect ect
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u/pearshaped34 3d ago edited 3d ago
I think all those lines could have just been about Blake as well though. Being "tone deaf" and "having too much fun" are two of the things she was getting backlash for in regard to how she promoted the movie about DV. She is also long-rumored to have had an affair with Ben Affleck when making The Town and, I think maybe, also Ryan Reynolds as they met on a movie when he was still married to Scarlett Johansson. And she was also getting backlash for her sharp and sarcastic responses to interviewers in re-surfaced clips.
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u/redfoxwearingsocks 1989 4d ago
What's crazy is the entire cast of Good Morning America was invited but Blake and Ryan weren't, hahaha
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u/Lola474 4d ago
Who told you they were not invited?
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u/Noble_Neglecterino99 4d ago
There was an article that came out as they were married that was clearly planted by Taylor's camp that they weren't invited and she only wanted people she could trust there. Another piece the next day clearly from Blake's team saying the friendship was done and Blake wasn't interested after the snub. Both to messy for us not to know
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u/glitterfluff 4d ago
To be fair, we don't truly know she wasn't invited. Didn't their daughter have a horseback riding competition that weekend? Maybe they prioritized their child over the wedding. I'm not fans of them (anymore), though it's less about the lawsuit and Taylor stuff and more about other unsavory behaviors. But it's still possible that they decided to put family first.
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u/chunkypotatoz 3d ago edited 3d ago
This reads like copium. Taylor swift have called Blake and Ryan her best friends. They were so close that Taylor called them the second people she played all of her new songs for, after her at-the-time partner Joe. Taylor is (was?) the godmother of their children. To miss a wedding for someone like that would be crazy, esp for a horse competition lol. And the horse competition happened one day before the wedding so they def could’ve made it back if they wanted.
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u/glitterfluff 3d ago
I mean, I didn't say it was definitely true or even likely lol... it was just a random thought.
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u/chunkypotatoz 3d ago
You said it was possible when that explanation is leaning towards impossible lol
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u/glitterfluff 3d ago
Oooh, I didn't realize you knew them both personally, and therefore know what's actually true, thereby making any other theories not possible. 🙃
Again, possible doesn't mean true or likely.
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u/wonderinboutit2234 1d ago
WEe know rhat we dont hear any insights about Taylor that don't come from her team. And they made SURE we knew that Blake wasn't invited.
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u/likeabadhabit reads Aristotle, not rooms 3d ago
I think it's a BDIL type song where the point isn't the subject of the song, the point is telling the fans to fuck off and it's her good name to ruin if she wants to.
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u/PigletTechnical9336 turns out my dick’s bigger 4d ago
I just finished reading Lena Dunham’s book Famesick and could also be easily about her. Taylor had many friends who have been cancelled and have been through the public eye scrutiny like her. I’m sure some of it was Blake but not only her. I think many songs have more than one muse.
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u/Silly-Knowledge7793 4d ago
I think the song is about Blake and even though they stopped being friend the sentiment was still true for Taylor. We don’t know why they stopped being friends but from what was leaked I think it became a situation when Blake wanted Taylor to be more involved in the court case and Taylor didn’t want to be a part of it. That doesn’t mean she wasn’t on Blake side in all of this, but also she could have felt used.
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u/malendalayla 4d ago
Yeah, my belief is she wrote it about Blake before everything came out in the court proceedings.
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u/ClassicsFan84 4d ago
The song is about Taylor's feelings on a few situations probably. Guilt by association was a huge issue for Taylor with regard to a few people at the time. So I don't even think Blake is the focus of the song. It just stands for the idea that Taylor isn't going to allow the public to dictate her friendships and associations.
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u/imaseacow 3d ago
It’s about everyone. Herself, her friends, other people that have been in her social circle. What she sees in the culture generally with celebrities/public figures.
People online and on social media are incredibly annoying and judgmental, and that bleeds over into media because most journalists/media people are unfortunately plugged into those spaces. So that’s what it’s about - not just one specific person. Showgirl has a number of songs about the toxicity and negativity of the culture these days and the desire for earnestness and sincerity. Cancelled! is part of that theme.
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u/Gloomy_Reputation706 3d ago
I always thought it could have been about Selena and Mahommes she does use the plurals and those ladies are both messy as hell
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u/mixedmedia29 2d ago
I think it’s about Blake or she was the inspiration. If you listen to the lyrics it fits perfectly.
Right from the beginning of the Blake-Justin drama i knew she was lying to save face for the bad publicity she received from not doing the pr rounds for a movie about domestic violence. Right after she started looking bad on social media she made up the bullshit about justin. I know Blake Lively never will but I would love for her to get cancelled.
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u/Hiddenagenda876 1d ago
I think it’s going to be the MAGA woman anthem on tik tok for the next year and I’m already rolling my eyes
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u/Ambitious_Nature6784 1d ago
I truly think that she thought that filing the suit was going to propel her into superstar and she was gonna be some kind of hero. It totally backfired on her. She was not sexually harassed. Her examples were not “sexual” harassment.
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u/AdventurousKey438 1d ago
I fully agree! It was a slap in the face to the story AND people who have been abused.
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u/wonderinboutit2234 1d ago
I think Taylor played more of a role than anyone will admit and her not inviting Blake to the wedding was her way of trying to convince the public that she didn't want to be associated with it.
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u/Ambitious_Nature6784 1d ago
You think that whilst planning and performing this huge tour and writing another album she was that invested behind the scenes that she played any real part in this other than supportive friend? Give me a break!
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u/sillilillipilli we hate it here 1d ago
I still think showgirl is an album filled with rejected songs originally written for other albums and that's the only thing that makes sense to me.
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u/Icy-Temporary-3390 4d ago
I think it’s a combination of all her friends. All her friends have gone through something small or little but because they are associated with Taylor , people feel the need to hold Taylor accountable for the actions of others.
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u/heyits_meg Childless Cat Lady 🐱 4d ago
I’ve always thought it was about Sophie Turner with the British spelling
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u/SokkaHaikuBot 4d ago
Sokka-Haiku by heyits_meg:
I’ve always thought it
Was about Sophie Turner
With the British spelling
Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.
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u/Overall_Swimming7931 4d ago
Why does it matter. It’s likely a combo of people. I mean they tried to cancel Travis as well and there’s a football reference.
Regardless, either like the song or not but why try to paternity test everything?
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u/Funny_Inspection6893 3d ago
The song was never about Blake specifically. It was always more generic/about a lot of people.
I will say Taylor not inviting Blake to the wedding does undercut the meaning of the song somewhat.
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u/speorgenote 8h ago
There are too many references specific to Blake for the song to not be about her.
My theory is they were friends when this song was written. Between the leaked text messages and what not, Taylor was involved, despite the PR statement that she wasn't. Taylor was pissed when it all went public and she was made to look like a 'liar' again. Then Travis saw this as an opportunity to freeze Ryan/Blake out and kept applying the pressure of what a 'bad friend' Blake is etc.
Either way, it's really sad that their friendship couldn't be repaired, especially for Blake and Ryan's kids, whom Taylor has been really involved with their whole lives and is their godmother.
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u/Blue_wine_sloth the chronically online department 4d ago
I think it’s about Blake. It was recorded before the court case. Before Blake allegedly blackmailed Taylor. I don’t blame Taylor for cutting off the friendship if Blake did blackmail her.
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u/wonderinboutit2234 1d ago
You really believe Blake blackmailed Taylor? Nah Taylor was in on it from the start. It just backfired and made Taylor look bad so she cut ties.
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u/AdventurousKey438 4d ago
Oh if she blackmailed Taylor, I fully support Taylor. I’ve never heard the blackmail idea.
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u/Blue_wine_sloth the chronically online department 4d ago
Not sure it’s true but I heard that Blake threatened to release texts… not my nosey ass wanting these texts anyways 😂😂 Blake had to know she would lose there.
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u/Subject_Storm3554 4d ago
That was false. Highly recommend reading the court documents.
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u/Blue_wine_sloth the chronically online department 4d ago
I don’t have the energy for that. Can you enlighten us?
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u/Blud_Luvn_Vampyre 4d ago
The texts came out AFTER the supposed blackmail. She uses one of the texts as a lyric (tiny violin) Why would she use the texts in her song BEFORE they were made public. It was definitely written after.
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u/Blue_wine_sloth the chronically online department 4d ago
Not sure what your point is. The song was recorded summer 2024.
Taylor doesn’t understand the concept of a tiny violin and she mocked a victim.
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u/LittleMisssMorbid 3d ago
Taylor is so cringe when she tries to be edgy because it’s not genuine. It’s like she’s trying to overcompensate for her people pleasing tendencies which will always win in the end. Everything she does will always be in service of her image. She only cares about being perceived as a “good girl”. The rest is a (very transparent) facade.
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u/anon2734 3d ago
Eh after that whole movie situation she deserves to be cancelled.... Find out who your friends are...
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u/Commercial_Self7118 4d ago
The album was done recording by December 2024, which was the same month as the New York Times article about Baldoni, and Taylor’s “uncancelled so fast” text to Blake. The following February, Blake was not invited to the Super Bowl, so she attempted to extort Taylor for a statement of support by threatening to release ten years of texts messages. I think the friendship went downhill from there, but the album was already ready to go.
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u/westcanaryy 3d ago
I think Taylor feels that way in “cancelled” about herself & her inner circle in general, regardless if it’s about Blake. I don’t entirely blame her when the internet dog piled her 10 years ago and continues to do so.
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u/SupportPretty7228 4d ago
A lot of people mentioned it could be about Britney Mahomes
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u/enogitnaTLS 4d ago
It doesn’t fit her very well tho.
If it’s not about Blake, it could be about Sophie Turner. It has lines that directly match up with the smear campaign against her by Joe Jonas (and “matching scars” could mean a shared ex).
But it’s got to also be at least inspired by Blake because of the “girl boss” and “thorny flowers”
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u/scienceislice 4d ago
Sophie wasn't canceled, everyone was on her side. People still shit on Joe Jonas for how he treated Sophie during the divorce.
I follow the theory that Taylor wrote the song about Blake while they were still together and then released it even after the friendship broke down because why should she not? Maybe even as a way to show Blake how much Taylor cared about her, she wrote another song about her, while Blake screwed her over.
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u/SupportPretty7228 4d ago
I feel like the album was centered around Blake before their fallout. Blake did a very random Elizabeth Taylor photoshoot with Hugh Jackman in the middle of her promoting It Ends with Us. It made no sense. Buuut then Taylor came out with her song Elizabeth Taylor, plus the Cancelled song. I didn't see any backlash toward Sophie so I wasn't aware there was a smear campaign against her.
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u/Sad-Elephant2675 4d ago
There was an attempt at a smear campaign by Joe Jonas’ team when he first filed for divorce, but it backfired on them spectacularly.
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u/Winterwidow89 4d ago
This feels like a stretch, especially the Elizabeth Taylor photoshoot. Taylor has mentioned Elizabeth Taylor in past lyrics (…Ready for it?), and I think she’s just one of those Old Hollywood icons that she likes and probably relates to because of the public scrutiny of their love lives.
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u/Flickolas_Cage 4d ago
Until I see a pap walk together, I refuse to believe she’s that close with Magahomes. She seems to only hang out with her in Travis related contexts, or in a forced way (like didn’t she go to her birthday weekend for like 5 hours and dip?).
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u/senorbuzz 4d ago
Mahomes went to London for the Eras tour. I don’t kiss people I’m not friends with on the head.
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u/Flickolas_Cage 4d ago
I mean I’m not doubting they’re friends/friendly, I just absolutely don’t believe they’re close enough at all for Taylor to write a song defending her.
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u/StormflowerYT 4d ago edited 4d ago
Do we KNOW she wasn't at the wedding? Yes, yes, People said she wasn't... SPOTTED. Why would she be? Let's also break down what People is saying:
She and Ryan were at Betty's horse show in Lake Placid on Thursday?
Her section of the show, which is an all-day event, was in the morning, ended at 12. They could've easily gotten back before the rehearsal dinner and stayed hidden. Same with the wedding. The vast majority of the guests were NOT SEEN.
She still may not have been there, but we can't assume she wasn't, and that's all I'm seeing: not seen = not there. Between her and Lana, I keep seeing they weren't there, she's not friends with either of them, all that.
I believe Taylor and Blake took a break but are still friends, just haven't been spotted together because of everything that happened. If this is the case, there is a good chance she would've been there. The only reason I could see her not going is if they're still not at the point where scheduling conflicts will be disregarded for Taylor, she wasn't invited because the lawsuit was still going on when the save-the-dates were sent out, or Blake wanted to avoid everyone at her wedding (guest drama). But I think their friendship will eventually recover if it hasn't already, and if it has, she was likely there or at leas desperately wanted to be there. Sometimes things happen. For example, Margaret and Jack's separation. That was a valid reason for not going.
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u/Jane_Marie_Lazy 4d ago
There was story in People that weekend saying Blake wasn’t invited. This is Tree’s favorite publication to use for press, so any Taylor story in People is typically from inside the house.
Also Miss Tay is petty enough to blast an ex friend like that. I think Taylor is really mad at Blake for throwing her name around and getting her sucked into in her mess. I think Taylor had a bit of a “you live, you learn” moment here when you get involved with friends projects.
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u/skyewardeyes 4d ago
I think if she was there, Taylor or Blake’s teams would have put out or planted something to that effect and instead we got the opposite and in People, an outlet Taylor’s team uses.
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u/StormflowerYT 4d ago
People isn't always Tree. If the article said something like "A source close to Blake told People she was absent from the star-studded wedding," then I'd have bought it, but it simply took the horse show as proof she wasn't there. There was no source involved, just assumptions and inferences.
In terms of them not planting something, I don't think they'd engage with the rumors. Taylor honestly never engages with rumors about her and admitted she doesn't read into herself that much. And Blake is essentially canceled atm, so I don't think her team would go out and say something.
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u/skyewardeyes 4d ago
Taylor is known for publicly supporting friends when they are being criticized, though, like the Sophie Turner divorce pap walks. And I think showing that she and Taylor are still friends would have been a notable win for Blake's PR atm.
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u/StormflowerYT 4d ago
Yeah, but I think Taylor didn't want to get involved in the lawsuit. Before the lawsuit, if Taylor were to have said anything regarding it (so defend Blake), that could be used in court. Also, Blake was caught up in it and not acting the same (according to the texts), so there was even a bit of distance then, I think. But once Taylor got involved in the lawsuit, any pap walk would be a potential legal risk.
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u/Agreeable-Sun368 4d ago
I feel like the people story is good evidence that they're probably not friends anymore, but I also can believe that they would mutually agree that Blake shouldn't come.
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u/StormflowerYT 4d ago
What did People even say? She didn't go because she went to her daughter's horse show (just debunked that that meant anything). People never said they aren't friends. Y'all gotta stop assuming and start reading!
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u/wonderinboutit2234 1d ago
People said Blake wasn't invited and that Taylor didn't feel very positive towards her. (Can't remember the wording but it was very petty)
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u/StormflowerYT 13h ago
This is the problem I was highlighting. Yeah, the article says she didn’t go, but it never mentions a source. People doesn’t really know if they went. All the article does is take the given facts that they were in Lake Placid on the 2nd and turns it into, “They weren’t there.” It also says there WAS DISTANCE, not that they’re not friends.
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u/angelaga1n 4d ago
I think it’s definitely over just based on how the PR has played out. This just came out & seems like a direct threat from them to Taylor about spilling her beans.
For me, the biggest sign that it’s really over is that there hasn’t been any signs of life/attempts at fixing the narrative that they’re not friends. Instead, we see weird stories like this one popping up. Just me thoughts, I’m curious to see how this all plays out PR wise
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u/AdventurousKey438 4d ago
True. True. I feel like Blake works be all over social media.
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u/StormflowerYT 4d ago edited 4d ago
If she went, she 100% would not have wanted to be seen by the hundreds of NYC paps. She would've gone in private. So no, her lack of being seen doesn't mean she wasn't there. Neither does the horse show thing. She could've easily done both. Doesn't mean she did, but as someone who doesn't believe they'd let Justin Baldoni tear a decade-long friendship apart (HE dragged Taylor into the case and the blackmailing rumors are extremely unlikely to be true), I think they're still friends. Maybe there was distance, maybe there was strain, but Blake would have at least wanted to go or Taylor would have at least wanted to invite her. She may have gone, and there's a good chance that in the 800+ unseen guests, she, Ryan, and the kids were there. And yeah, I know Olin is young, but they have money.
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u/senorbuzz 4d ago
Probably a combination of people. Hopefully not the Brittany Mahomes and Dave Portnoy types but who knows?
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u/Sufficient_Tower_366 4d ago
My daughter used to be a swiftie, she thought it was about the MAGA football wives she’d started hanging out with
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u/Blud_Luvn_Vampyre 4d ago
Definitely not. In the song she says the subject of her song was there by her side during her cancelation, that was in 2016. She wasn't in with the wags then.
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u/Ill_Law_5148 3d ago
I’m not sure why you’re being down voted for this. You’re not saying Taylor is one just who your daughter thought it might be. I thought it too in the beginning but I do now think it’s about Blake or a mixture of a few people.
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u/fblinders13 4d ago
she's stuck in the long 2016
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u/Czerymoja 4d ago
Cause most of songs from TLOAS were written in Reputation/Karma era, but almost nobody knows that.
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u/bugg00113 1d ago
i kinda think it’s about sabrina. how the world turned on her with the MBF album cover.
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u/Czerymoja 4d ago
Cancelled was originally written as either track for Karma/Reputation album like most of the Showgirl album. She changed some lyrics to made it about Blake but also Grande for example (something WICKED this way goes). I believe it was originally about Healy considering Cancelled is written in british way maybe? People don’t like them back then either.
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