A Saturday Night Live worker has claimed that the joke Ryan Reynolds made referencing his wife Blake Lively's ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni was changed last minute.
If you didn't see the SNL 50th Anniversary special, then you'll have missed the moment that Reynolds was picked out of the crowd by host Tina Fey.
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Fey asked him 'how's it going', leading the Deadpool and Wolverine star to quip: "Great, why? What have you heard?"
In case you hadn't heard, Reynolds is mentioned several times in Baldoni's lawsuit against Blake Lively, which was launched after she sued the It Ends With Us director and actor alleging sexual harassment among other claims.
While the matter is meant to be going to court next year, there have been plenty of public statements about it and the legal battle is high profile enough that a joke alluding to it in the SNL anniversary made it in.
SNL worker Wally Feresten, sometimes referred to as 'cue card Wally', has now claimed that the joke was Reynolds' idea and that the line was switched from what it previously was in rehearsals.
Appearing on the Australian radio show Fifi, Fev and Nick, Feresten said: "He had a different line in rehearsal and he pitched that. So that was his idea to do it.
"We wouldn't want to do anything too controversial unless they were in on it. Yeah, that was his line. That was his idea."
However, People reports that a spokesperson for SNL denied Feresten's claims and said that the worker wasn't involved in the writing process for episodes.
They report that Reynolds' joke was 'pitched by SNL and never changed', but a different joke Reynolds told while he was standing up was 'rewritten in rehearsal'.
The joke has had a reaction from elsewhere, as Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freedman hit out at Reynolds for what he said.
Speaking on the Hot Mics With Billy Bush podcast, he said: "I'm unaware of anybody, frankly, whose wife has been sexually harassed and has made jokes about that type of situation.
"I can't think of anyone who's done anything like that. So it surprised me."
Among the mentions of Reynolds in Baldoni's lawsuit are claims that the actor swore at Baldoni over what the actor and director says are 'entirely and categorically false' allegations that he 'fat shamed' Lively.
Reynolds is accused in the lawsuit of launching an 'aggressive tirade' against Baldoni and of contacting his talent agency William Morris Endeavor (WME) to tell them they were working with a 'sexual predator' and should drop him.
LADbible has contacted SNL for comment.
Topics: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Saturday Night Live, Justin Baldoni, Celebrity, TV and Film
Joe Harker