For years, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds were regarded as Hollywood’s golden couple: attractive, witty, hugely successful and seemingly beyond reproach. They had thriving careers, influential friendships, vast wealth and the sort of high-profile marriage that made other celebrity relationships seem ordinary.

But Hollywood insiders now say the couple’s once-untouchable image has lost some of its shine.

“Two years ago, having Blake and Ryan at your party made you look important. Today, having them there might make people uncomfortable,” an A-list Los Angeles party planner told me. “They’re still famous. They’re just not the social prize they used to be.”

The shift marks a dramatic reversal for the pair, who once appeared to have mastered Hollywood’s complicated popularity contest. But after Lively’s unsuccessful legal battle involving her It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni, I’m told that some industry heavyweights are reconsidering whether to associate with them.

“The question isn’t whether Blake and Ryan are talented. It’s whether working with them comes with complications,” said a veteran casting director.

The bitter legal dispute lasted nearly a year and a half, bringing private communications into the public domain and putting additional strain on several relationships.

Newly unsealed court records obtained by the Daily Mail on Friday appear to show Reynolds sharply criticizing Sony Pictures in messages to talent agent Warren Zavala. He reportedly accused the studio of failing to adequately defend his wife as she faced criticism over apparent missteps during the film’s promotional campaign.

“[Sony] need[s] to frame it the right way! This isn’t hard… They just need to go f***ing straight at this,” Reynolds wrote.

“They have to stop bullsh***ing us and get in front of this,” he added.

Zavala replied: “They are covering their ass. It’s about exposure.”

The casting director source said the disclosure highlighted the risks of working so closely with the couple. “Nobody wants their private texts appearing in the next lawsuit. Executives have careers to protect, too,” they said.

The messages emerged after another explosive development in the Lively-Baldoni legal dispute: the release of private communications that appeared to refer to Lively’s then-friend and the godmother of her daughters, Taylor Swift.

“I happen to have a few dragons. For better or worse, but usually for better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really, we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. You will too, I can promise you,” Lively allegedly told Baldoni in a reference to Swift.

Swift was later served with a subpoena during the legal proceedings. At the time, a source in her circle said she “wanted to keep as much distance from the controversy as possible.”

Given Swift’s notably career-focused approach, it was perhaps unsurprising that her friendship with Lively eventually appeared to fracture.

Now, the couple who once seemed to have Hollywood firmly on their side may be confronting an uncomfortable reality: the industry can move on from even its most celebrated stars.

Having spent years representing some of entertainment’s biggest names, I know that the industry is far less sentimental than its glamorous public image suggests. Success typically buys you influence, not loyalty.

‘The Baldoni controversy has introduced something Hollywood hates almost as much as a box-office flop: uncertainty,’ says a veteran entertainment executive.

Perhaps the most surprising casualty of the chaos is Reynolds’ reputation.

For years, he was Hollywood’s ultimate businessman. He could sell gin, mobile brands, soccer teams and superhero movies while making audiences feel like they were sharing an inside joke. His marketing company, Maximum Effort, turned that charm into a commercial empire.

Yet the man who built a fortune understanding public perception appears to have struggled to control the narrative surrounding himself

‘Nobody needs to announce they’re distancing themselves,’ says an industry insider. ‘They just stop calling, stop inviting and stop defending you. Hollywood doesn’t always slam the door in your face. It just stops opening it.’

Of course, that doesn’t mean Lively and Reynolds have lost every friend or that their careers are finished. If the industry has any defining quality, it’s hypocrisy.

‘Give Ryan another Deadpool-sized blockbuster or Blake a major hit and watch what happens,’ says another industry insider. ‘The executives who are nervous today will be fighting to have dinner with them tomorrow. Suddenly, everybody will remember how much they’ve always loved Blake and Ryan.’

Right now, the controversy is fresh, the legal battles remain a distraction and the couple’s next major commercial triumph has yet to arrive. But give them a win and the calculation likely changes overnight.

‘They don’t necessarily need to win back every former friend, silence every critic or convince everyone they behaved perfectly. They need to deliver the one thing Hollywood values above everything else. A hit,’ adds a talent who has worked with them both.

Until then, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are no longer the couple everybody wants to be. They’re the couple Hollywood is watching cautiously, weighing the potential rewards against the possible headaches.

‘Hollywood’s loyalty has never been about friendship, fairness or principle. It follows the money,’ says a top executive. ‘Right now, Blake and Ryan are discovering just how quickly the winds can change.’

In Hollywood, loyalty doesn’t last forever. Neither does disgrace.

A daytime mail robbery in Sacramento has raised election concerns after officials said ballots could have been among the items taken, with Election Day drawing near.

The theft happened at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in the College Glen neighborhood. Surveillance video reportedly shows a man arriving in a gray SUV, opening the back of a USPS truck and grabbing multiple trays of mail before leaving.

Authorities said a nearby resident witnessed the incident as it unfolded.

Investigators are now working to establish whether any election ballots were included in the stolen mail.

US Postal Inspector Jonathan Lanning confirmed that ballots could have been affected.

“Mail was stolen, and there may have been ballots affected by the theft,” Lanning told KCRA.

The robbery occurred shortly after Sacramento County began mailing ballots ahead of Election Day, prompting concerns that some voters may not receive their materials in time.

Sacramento resident Mary Brown told KCRA that a USPS delivery containing ballots for her great-grandchildren never arrived as expected.

“I looked at my informed mail, and it was supposed to have my great-grandchildren’s ballot,” Brown said. “It was mailed. It should’ve been in my mailbox that day.”

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Brown said she discovered the mail theft through a neighborhood app and was left wondering whether the ballots had been taken with the rest of the mail.

The possibility that the ballots were stolen caused her to fear that her great-grandchildren might lose their opportunity to vote.

“I was panicked because they weren’t going to be able to vote,” Brown said.

Election officials, however, say voters have a way to address missing ballots.

Ken Casparis of the Sacramento County elections office told KCRA that voters who do not receive their ballots can contact the office and ask for replacements.

“You can contact our office to request a replacement ballot,” Casparis said. “You can do that either by phone or email. And we’ll go ahead and reissue your ballot for you.”

Casparis said the county will count only the first ballot returned with the voter’s valid signature.

As the investigation continues, postal inspectors are advising voters to monitor ballot deliveries through the California Secretary of State’s website and watch for any missing election mail.

The US Postal Inspection Service is offering up to $100,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

Anyone with information is asked to contact postal inspectors at 1-877-876-2455.

Disturbing police bodycam video captures two South Carolina children alive in the weeks before authorities found them dead from starvation and dehydration inside their home.

Justine May, 31, was arrested on September 29 and charged in connection with the deaths of her children, 15-month-old Harlow Deacon and 2-year-old Emory Deacon.

Police discovered the children deceased at the family’s home in Ladson. The coroner determined that neglect led to their deaths, citing starvation and dehydration.

Authorities carried out at least 13 welfare checks at the residence during the weeks before the children died.

Bodycam footage released by the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office shows deputies conducting two of those checks, on August 30 and September 12, offering a glimpse inside the home before the tragedy.

During one visit, May appeared frustrated when she opened the door and saw police waiting outside again, according to the footage.

“How can I help you?” she asked as children cried and dogs barked inside the home. She then told officers, “No one can come in.”

When officers asked her to step outside to speak with them, May appeared irritated and responded, “Why?”

Deputies asked May whether she was hearing voices or intended to hurt anyone. She said no, adding that her former fiancé had fabricated claims about a mental health crisis.

When asked to explain her side of the situation, May refused. “I don’t want to tell it. The police know. I’m not doing this at all. I’m not telling my side at all,” she said.

May also described her former fiancé and her mother as “crazy,” claiming they repeatedly called police about her. In the footage, she held one child while the other crawled nearby.

During the August 30 welfare check, officers were permitted to enter the home. The residence appeared clean and orderly, and the children could be seen following their mother as deputies spoke with her.

A social worker explained that authorities had become concerned because no one had seen the children for more than a week. He also said their father, Zack Deacon, had attempted to visit them.

The social worker told May that people had alleged her mental health had “apparently declined” since she separated from the children’s father.

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May rejected that allegation, insisting instead that Zack had behaved “erratically” when he came to the home.

When a caseworker noticed that one of the toddlers had a rash, May replied, “Yes, she had a diaper rash, like a normal baby does.”

None of the visits resulted in deputies finding any concerning behavior, the sheriff’s office previously stated. 

No welfare checks were made after September 20, a little over a week before the girls would be found dead. On September 22, the sheriff’s office made the decision to stop going to May’s home.  

‘The decision was made by the on-duty supervisor to discontinue additional welfare checks based on the totality of the information available at that time, including the previous contacts, the involvement of DSS and Mobile Crisis, and the absence of new actionable information indicating an immediate threat to Ms. May or her children,’ Sheriff Carl Ritchie said in a statement. 

When police arrived at her door on September 29, the mom allegedly admitted she had been in a ‘blur’ for two weeks and couldn’t remember the last time she fed her children. 

Deputies then found the children’s bodies inside the home.  

The Sheriff’s Office is now working through the bodycam footage of the welfare check to create a timeline of the girls’ deaths, Ritchie said at a press conference. 

Zack, through his lawyers, has asked for a review of conduct into how the police handled the case. 

‘Emory and Harlow deserve the truth,’ lawyer Gedney Howe wrote in a statement. ‘Their father deserves to see the file, not to learn about the case on the news.’  

The Daily Mail has reached out to Zack’s lawyers for comment.  

President Trump has not yet decided whether the public should be allowed to watch the firing-squad execution of Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan, saying Saturday that he would “make a decision ultimately.”

“He was vicious. He was violent,” Trump said of Hasan while speaking with reporters at the White House.

Trump said officials were weighing two competing arguments: keeping the execution private or broadcasting it as a warning to others. “By showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did,” he said, adding that he was aware of the military’s preference but had not made a final decision.

His comments came the same day he said he had not been involved in the proposal to livestream the execution, though he acknowledged why military officials might want to make Hasan an “example.”

“They want to do that because they want to set an example. I wasn’t involved in that decision, but I understand the decision,” Trump told CNY Central on Friday during a visit to Syracuse. He was in New York to campaign for Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s bid for governor when asked whether he had approved a live broadcast.

Asked whether he supported the execution itself, Trump gave a more definitive response: “I did.”

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The remarks appeared to soften Trump’s earlier suggestion that he had approved plans to televise the execution.

During the interview, Trump also revisited the 2009 Nidal Hasan shooting at Fort Hood, an attack that led the military to announce its first firing-squad execution since 1945. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has said the execution is scheduled to be broadcast live on Dec. 3.

“He went in and killed 14 people. He badly, badly wounded 22 people,” Trump said, describing Hasan as entering a room, opening fire and shouting what he called inappropriate statements. “So, I guess they want to have it serve as an example, and I understand that very well.”

Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in the Nov. 5, 2009 massacre inside a medical facility at the Texas military base.

“I really don’t care how he goes as long as he goes,” Trump said. “And I think that the death penalty is a very worthy way of going for him.”

Vice President JD Vance, speaking at a campaign event in Ohio on Friday, said he would not watch the execution if it is ultimately televised.

“I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen,” Vance said. “If it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it.”

Student protests over deteriorating schools, despite billions of euros in public education spending, are becoming part of a wider French crisis. Experts say the unrest reflects the country’s worsening finances, President Emmanuel Macron’s weakened political center and the growing influence of radical movements, taking the demonstrations well beyond their original focus on education.

Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ senior envoy for Europe, told News Media in an interview from Paris that the protests began in September with valid complaints about school conditions. Since then, she said, political groups seeking a confrontation with the state have increasingly taken advantage of the discontent.

“Overall, I’d say the anger is real, but the violence, I would say, is organized,” she said, arguing that vandalizing or destroying schools would not improve France’s education system.

Salaries, social contributions and pensions for teaching and non-teaching staff accounted for 72% of education spending, while only 8.5% was directed to investment, including infrastructure and equipment. The figures cover France’s entire education system rather than high schools alone, according to France’s Education Ministry’s 2026 statistical overview.

Harvey Feigenbaum, a George Washington University professor of political science and international affairs who studies French politics, said the country is struggling to balance costly social commitments, weak economic growth and mounting demands to reduce government spending.

“France is in deep debt. It wants to cut its expenses,” Feigenbaum said. He added that years of fiscal strain, combined with neglected school buildings, have intensified frustration among students.

The depth of France’s financial challenge is reflected in its debt burden. Eurostat reported that French public debt reached 117.6% of gross domestic product in the first quarter of 2026, the third-highest level in the European Union after Greece and Italy.

Reuters reported Oct. 8 that higher borrowing costs and growing investor concerns have sharply reduced the government’s ability to calm unrest with new spending, an approach used during earlier waves of French protests.

That financial pressure is unfolding alongside an increasingly fractured political landscape, giving parties on both the left and right opportunities to harness public anger.

Macron’s political center collapses

Feigenbaum said many of the crisis’s deeper political roots can be traced to Macron’s legacy.

After winning the presidency in 2017, Macron pledged to break with France’s traditional left-right divide. His goal was to combine policies from both camps within a new centrist political movement.

Instead, Feigenbaum said, the strategy weakened France’s established moderate parties without building a stable governing coalition capable of replacing them.

“What he ended up doing was attracting the moderate voters from the parties of the moderate left and the parties from the moderate right, and essentially destroyed those parties,” Feigenbaum said.

The disintegration of the traditional center, he said, opened additional space for movements with more polarized and uncompromising positions. 

“Macron is a smart man, but he’s a terrible politician,” the professor said.

Macron’s contentious pension reforms demonstrate how difficult it is to convince French voters to accept cuts to long-standing public benefits, Feigenbaum said. The changes prompted widespread protests, and implementation of the 2023 retirement reforms has since been suspended until 2028.

The political challenge intensified after Macron called snap parliamentary elections in 2024. The vote produced a sharply divided National Assembly, leaving no bloc with a governing majority.

“Even if the government wanted to do something coherent, they simply don’t have the votes to do it,” Feigenbaum said.

That paralysis has left Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu handling the immediate unrest while Macron faces questions about the stability of the political system he helped reshape.

Why are France’s schools struggling despite billions in spending?

The protests began in the Paris suburbs in September amid complaints about overcrowded classrooms, inadequate heating and cooling, aging buildings and teachers who were not replaced when absent.

Rodan-Benzaquen said the anger reflected years of educational instability, frequent ministerial changes and reforms that have failed to resolve persistent school problems.

She also pointed to a broader sense of anxiety among young people about their economic future, artificial intelligence, climate change and international conflicts.

According to the OECD’s September 2026 Education at a Glance report, France spent $16,674 in funding per student in general upper secondary education in 2023, compared with an OECD average of $12,421, adjusted for purchasing power.

Yet teachers and students continue to complain about basic shortages.

Responsibility for public high school buildings and equipment falls to regional authorities, while the national government oversees much of the education system, including teacher staffing.

Feigenbaum said France’s centralized education structure makes national leaders the focus of public anger when schools fail to deliver.

The pressure has already forced a concession.

Reuters reported Friday that Education Minister Édouard Geffray announced an emergency plan to deploy 3,000 qualified educators to particularly affected schools, costing several dozen million euros.

Student unions welcomed the measure as an initial victory but pledged to continue demonstrating.

The spending figures raise broader questions about whether France’s financial and political priorities have left sufficient resources for maintaining school infrastructure and meeting students’ needs. They do not, however, establish that teachers’ unions or other organized constituencies have improperly diverted funding.

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How the far left entered the unrest

As the demonstrations expanded, the involvement of France’s hard-left La France Insoumise party, known as LFI, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, became an increasingly contentious issue.

Reuters reported Oct. 1 that French intelligence agencies had told a government crisis meeting that LFI and affiliated activists played a role in fomenting the unrest. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez also cited agitators moving between schools to encourage violence.

LFI has denied responsibility and accused authorities of aggravating tensions through their response.

Rodan-Benzaquen said far-left movements were capitalizing on students’ frustration.

“There is an obvious instrumentalization, obvious manipulation,” she said, arguing that activists were seeking to push some protesters toward violence.

She linked the unrest to what she described as Mélenchon’s broader political strategy ahead of France’s 2027 presidential election.

“His idea is that, on the one hand, he will scare voters on the right and on the far right, who will then go to vote for the far right, and, on the other hand, he would mobilize his own camp,” she said.

Rodan-Benzaquen argued that intensifying political confrontation could help Mélenchon consolidate his support among younger voters and immigrant communities, while portraying the far right as an increasingly serious threat.

She described it as a calculated political strategy rather than a spontaneous response to students’ concerns.

The involvement of LFI politicians has been documented by French media, although there is disagreement over whether the party helped initiate the demonstrations or became involved after the protests began.

An Oct. 2 investigation by Le Monde examined a police intelligence assessment describing radical left activity around schools in Seine-Saint-Denis but questioned whether the evidence established that the movement itself was politically orchestrated.

Feigenbaum offered a more cautious interpretation, describing some of the violent perpetrators as fringe provocateurs who exploit broader demonstrations without necessarily directing them.

“They’re not being organized by some, you know, some mastermind at the national level, at least as far as anyone knows,” he said.

Islamist influence or political solidarity?

The demonstrations have also raised questions about whether Islamist groups and pro-Palestinian activists are seeking to use the unrest to advance broader ideological causes.

Rodan-Benzaquen argued that Mélenchon’s emphasis on Gaza and the Palestinian cause has helped bring together political constituencies that might otherwise have little in common.

“It’s sort of the idea of sort of an intersection of different movements where they manage to bring together the different groups, the far left, Islamist movements, pro-Palestinian activists,” she said.

She pointed to Palestinian flags appearing during the demonstrations as an indication of how the movement has expanded beyond its original educational demands.

The FDD expert argued that Islamist elements were attempting to capitalize on the turmoil, although she cautioned against reducing the entire crisis to immigration or religion.

“But this goes far beyond the issue of immigration. It goes far beyond the issue of Islamism. It goes far beyond the issue of Islam,” she said.

A crisis France cannot simply spend its way out of

The government’s latest concessions have not ended the protests.

According to Reuters on Friday, 141 schools remained closed while students continued demanding broader reforms. Nearly 10% of teaching hours in French public high schools remained unstaffed.

For Rodan-Benzaquen, one of the greatest dangers is that the demonstrations reflect a society increasingly divided into competing political realities.

She described how her 17-year-old son created separate left-wing and right-wing Instagram accounts and encountered radically different portrayals of the same unrest, one emphasizing police violence and the other violence by protesters.

“Now, if you live in two drastically different realities, it is very complicated to come to any form of dialog and end agreement,” she said.

Her warning extends beyond France’s current protests.

“We are in an extremely polarized environment,” Rodan-Benzaquen said, noting that social media can deepen divisions and allow confrontations to escalate rapidly.

Feigenbaum sees an additional structural danger of a government burdened by accumulated financial obligations and deprived of the political consensus needed to reform them.

The result is a country spending heavily to sustain its public institutions while struggling to deliver the services citizens expect and a political system increasingly consumed by conflict over how to fix them.

What began as a rebellion against broken classrooms has become a test of whether France can reconcile its costly promises with its financial reality before the divisions consuming its schools deepen further.