Ryan Reynolds made a scripted joke about his wife Blake Lively’s ongoing legal drama with her It Ends With Us director-star Justin Baldoni during the SNL50 special. During the three-hour celebration of Saturday Night Live’s five decades on air, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler called out Reynolds in the audience, prompting him to say “Great! Why? What have you heard?” with a worried look.
According to Wally Feresten, a longtime cue card holder at SNL who has worked for 35 years, Reynolds pitched his own line to replace the original joke. However, an SNL spokesperson denied this claim, stating that Feresten is not part of the creative process. A source close to Reynolds confirmed that the opening joke was scripted by SNL and never changed.
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman expressed surprise at the joke, stating that he couldn’t think of anyone who would make jokes about sexual harassment in such a situation. Lively has been suing Baldoni for sexual harassment and facilitating a smear campaign against her since December, with Baldoni filing a $400 million lawsuit against the couple.
The situation escalated earlier this week when Lively filed an amended complaint, alleging that two actresses made feel uncomfortable by Baldoni are ready to testify.
Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/snl-denies-ryan-reynolds-pitched-snl-50-joke-1236141910