US actress Blake Lively has posed for photos in an all-black outfit with British TV chef Paul Hollywood as she attended a film screening for her movie Another Simple Favour.
Lively, 37, is promoting her first movie since It Ends With Us, directed and co-starring Justin Baldoni, with whom she is involved in a legal battle.
On Tuesday, she wore a black leather jacket and flowing skirt for the screening of the sequel to the psychological thriller A Simple Favour.
She posed for photos with Great British Bake Off judge Hollywood, with whom she has appeared in adverts after becoming a fan of the British cooking competition with her husband Ryan Reynolds.
Reynolds has said he watches the programme with Lively, and the couple paid a visit to the GBBO tent in 2023.
Appearing on the black carpet at the Ham Yard Hotel in Soho, central London, Lively held co-star Anna Kendrick’s hand, smiled and looked delighted in photos with director Paul Feig and British actor Henry Golding.
Lively sued Baldoni in late December, alleging harassment and a co-ordinated campaign to attack her reputation if she spoke about her treatment on the set of the romance and domestic abuse movie.
Baldoni, who denies Lively’s allegations, filed a counter-suit against Lively and Deadpool actor Reynolds for defamation and extortion.
A trial date is set for March 2026.
The first A Simple Favour movie followed Stephanie Smothers (Kendrick), a single mother running a parenting vlog who befriends a rich and secretive PR director, Emily Nelson (Lively), until one day Emily suddenly disappears.
The new film will see the return of Emily as she invites Stephanie to Capri in Italy for an extravagant wedding – with the trailer showing a montage of explosions, glamorous parties and a body on a stretcher, and the words “revenge is a dish best served chilled, with a twist”.
Lively is best known for playing the socialite Serena van der Woodsen in hit drama series Gossip Girl.
She portrayed Lily Bloom in It Ends With Us, based on a novel by Colleen Hoover.
Another Simple Favour is due out on Prime Video on May 1.
