Blake Lively's Shadiest Moments

Blake Lively is a lot of things: beautiful, well-dressed, charming. Unfortunately, she can also be highly controversial. Don't believe us? Here are just a few times the Gossip Girl starlet stirred up some trouble.

Blake Lively married actor Ryan Reynolds at the Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, S.C. in 2012. Perhaps the couple chose the location because of its lush greenery or its romantic history—The Notebook (2004) was filmed there. Unfortunately, like many plantations, it also has a horrific backstory. Slaves were once kept on location, and the venue even boasts of its own Slave Street (including eight original slave cabins) on its website.

Girl, you couldn't rent out a Ramada or something?

A plantation wedding wasn't the only culturally insensitive incident that Lively spawned. In October 2014, her Preserve style site featured an editorial called "Allure of Antebellum." The story said (via Gawker),"The term 'Southern Belle' came to fruition during the Antebellum period (prior to the Civil War), acknowledging women with an inherent social distinction." You know what that social distinction was, especially before the Civil War? Being rich and owning slaves.

When sites called Lively out for the story, she sicced her lawyers on her critics. In a cease and desist letter posted on Gawker, Lively's attorneys accuse the blog of "causing Preserve and Lively financial and reputational harm." Gawker did not back down, and their post still stands. Preserve has since folded.

In "the irony could be cut with a butter knife" news, the controversial "Allure of Antebellum" story on Lively's Preserve site may have profited from the labor of workers she hadn't paid. Lainey Gossip reports that portions of the language in the contentious article closely mirror another writer's language from a 2010 piece in The Examiner. You be the judge:

A portion of the story on Lively's site said, "While at times depicted as coy, these belles of the ball, in actuality could command attention with the ease of a hummingbird relishing a pastoral bloom."

A similar section in The Examiner article reads, "...the southern belle of the 1800s knew how to relegate authority and tasks with the ease of a hummingbird enjoying a rose bloom."

Blake Lively's Preserve created some tongue-in-cheek beef with another rich, blonde domestic goddess: Martha Stewart. "Let her try [to compete with me,]" Stewart told The Huffington Post in 2014. "I don't mean that factiously! I mean, it's stupid, she could be an actress! Why would you want to be me if you could be an actress? I just did a movie yesterday, though—I can't even tell you about it—but I want to be Blake Lively."

Stewart and Lively are reportedly very good pals, but perhaps they should both stay in their lanes. Lively shuttered Preserve in 2015, telling Vogue, "We have an incredible team of people who do beautiful work, but we launched the site before it was ready, and it never caught up to its original mission: It's not making a difference in people's lives, whether superficially or in a meaningful way. And that's the whole reason I started this company, not just to fluff myself, like 'I'm a celebrity! People will care what I have to say!' It was never meant to be that, and that kind of became the crutch because it was already up and running."

Page Six reports that Lively fumed at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival when master of ceremonies Laurent Lafitte told director Woody Allen onstage, "It's very nice that you've been shooting so many movies in Europe, even if you are not being convicted for rape in the US." It's widely assumed Lafitte was referring to accusations from Allen's adopted daughter that he sexually abused her at age 7, and also referencing director Roman Polanski, who exclusively films across the pond to avoid jail time in the States for sexual relations with a minor.

When asked about Lafitte's dialogue, Lively told Variety, "I think any jokes about rape, homophobia or Hitler is not a joke. I think that was a hard thing to swallow in 30 seconds. Film festivals are such a beautiful, respectful festivals of film and artists and to have that, it felt like it wouldn't have happened if it was in the 1940s. I can't imagine Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby going out and doing that. It was more disappointing for the artists in the room that someone was going up there making jokes about something that wasn't funny."

Of course, the significance of Fred Astaire performing in blackface and Bing Crosby allegedly abusing his family seems lost on Lively. As for Lively's assessment of Allen, she told the Los Angeles Times in May 2016, "It's amazing what Woody has written for women." Lively stars in Allen's Café Society (2016). She said the director's personal controversy did not affect her ability to work with him. "It's very dangerous to factor in things you don't know anything about. I could [only] know my experience. And my experience with Woody is he's empowering to women," she told the L.A. Times.

Blake Lively's most recent infraction is much less serious, but no less annoying. The Hollywood-born beauty posted a split-image Instagram photo of herself from a red carpet soirée. One side featured Lively in a golden gown from the front, and the other side focused on her derrière. The caption read, "L.A. face with an Oakland booty." Those born before 1995 likely recognized the reference to Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back," but it still caused a firestorm on Twitter, with one user writing,"Blake Lively, instead of your Oakland booty, tell us more about how Woody Allen empowers women and the abuse allegations are not your business." Another tweeted, "Another day, another rich white woman using WOC's bodies as a punchline and commodity. As if Blake Lively wasn't the worst already." Yikes.