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'It's almost like a weapon': How the blonde bombshell has symbolised desire and danger Western culture, she says, has built a whole mythology around female blondeness − from religious iconography and fairy tales, to art and advertising − that has told specific stories about what it means to be blonde. In cinema's early years, comedies such as Platinum Blonde (1931) and Bombshell (1933), starring Jean Harlow, embedded concepts of the dazzling, devastatingly beautiful blonde into the cultural vernacular. "The idea that you're a bombshell, it's almost like a weapon," says Nead. "On the one hand, it is this kind of ideal, but at the same time, it's also threatening."   Before Harlow, there was another − more natural-looking − blonde on the scene: Mary Pickford, whose amber curls helped earn her the moniker of "America's Sweetheart". But while Pickford played the guileless girl waiting to be rescued, Harlow's peroxide blonde ...

Blake Lively drops two claims against Justin Baldoni


The actress Blake Lively has attempted to withdraw two of the claims she made about director Justin Baldoni.

Both have been engaged in a legal dispute since Lively sued Baldoni in December 2024 after they worked together on the film It Ends With Us, accusing him of sexual harassment and a smear campaign.

Baldoni's legal team asked Lively to release her medical records, including therapy notes, as part of its defence against her claims she suffered "severe emotional distress and pain, humiliation, embarrassment", Variety said.

Lively is trying to drop claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress, the publication added.

In January this year, Baldoni counter-sued Lively and her husband, the actor Ryan Reynolds, on claims of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy.

Lively and Baldoni have been locked in a dispute since It Ends With Us, which is an adaption of a best-selling Colleen Hoover novel, was released last summer.

In the film Lively played the main character, Lily Bloom, a young woman who grew up witnessing domestic abuse, and winds up in the same position years later.

The singer Taylor Swift had been summoned to a US court last month, after it was alleged she encouraged Baldoni to accept script rewrites by Lively.

Representatives for Swift said at the time "she was not involved in any casting or creative decision" and "never saw an edit or made any notes on the film".

The subpoena was dropped about two weeks later, after Swift's legal team objected that the legal order amounted to an "unwarranted fishing expedition", Variety said.

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