To paraphrase “Bridgerton’s” mysterious gossip queen Lady Whistledown: Gentle readers, I may have gotten got.

Back in August, I wrote a column examining the infamous press tour of “It Ends With Us,” specifically the curious choice of star Blake Lively to highlight everything but the film’s domestic violence theme. She suggested moviegoers “grab your girls and wear your florals” as if the film were some ladies’ night rom-com about her florist character and not the story of a troubled relationship. She pushed tie-in cocktails made with her own liquor line. I expressed my confusion about her apparent avoidance of the film’s abuse storyline and opined that “as a savvy protector of a strong personal brand, it’s flummoxing that Lively doesn’t appear to pay anyone to say, ‘Girl, don’t do that.’”

Surprise! According to the very convincing evidence presented in a New York Times article centered on a complaint filed by Lively against director and co-star Justin Baldoni and others, she did have someone telling her not to do that — “that” being talk about the victimization of lead character Lily Bloom.

Lively and her team allege that the actress herself was victimized, starting with purported sexual harassment on set by Baldoni and ending with the press tour itself. The Times story and the complaint cast the framing as part of an intricate scheme to smear her reputation so no one would believe her, causing fans to think her insensitive and unreliable and for the press to maybe write long think pieces about it.

Like I did.

It seems to have worked, in part because “people really want to hate on women,” as Melissa Nathan, Baldoni’s high-powered PR manager, allegedly wrote in a text. Nathan also acknowledged that sentiment was “actually sad,” which makes it all the more icky she would weaponize this public misogyny against another woman.

That weaponization allegedly included the surfacing of old, less-than-flattering interviews by Lively, like when she responded to a female reporter’s admittedly dumb reference to the actress’s pregnancy bump with a pointed question about “your little bump” — as in, the reporter’s stomach. Yikes.

It’s probably easier to destroy someone already on the record making questionable choices, like Lively marrying megastar husband Ryan Reynolds on a plantation and her interest in antebellum culture. But understand that the following are all complete sentences: Blake Lively treated a reporter badly. Blake Lively got married on a plantation. Blake Lively has evidence she was the target of a reputation-damning campaign allegedly staged by a guy whose career depended on her not being believed.

All of this can be true.

Lively’s complaint set off a still-rolling ball of legal maneuvering. Baldoni and others sued The New York Times over the story, presenting his own text evidence to refute the claims. Then, Lively turned around and formally sued Baldoni in federal court for trying to damage her reputation in retaliation for his behavior, which reportedly ranged from fat-shaming, unnecessary sex scenes and nudity, to Baldoni talking at length about his sex addiction and barging into her trailer as she was nursing her baby. (Baldoni presented a text that appears to show she invited him in to run lines while she pumped breast milk.)

While the truth remains to be legally determined, the whole movie promotion undoubtedly cast Lively in an unflattering light, whether that was by her own actions or because it was engineered to.

When her complaint was first announced, I immediately pulled up my initial story to see if it showed bias. I don’t think so — the column, featuring an interview with Baltimore County native and actor Johnathan Schaech about his own experience as a victim of sexual abuse, was an accurate and thoughtful depiction of the “It Ends With Us” press tour that I’d seen, based on the information I had.

I’d specifically praised Lively’s acting in previous projects while admitting that I was “not so much a fan” of the whole plantation thing or how she responded to questions on the tour about how she would interact with fans who felt compelled to tell her their own emotional stories of abuse. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

Did that distaste make it easier for me to see her press behavior in a negative light? Maybe, but I could only respond to what I was seeing. If Lively’s telling the truth — and she’s a got a lot of receipts — that seems to have been the point. The campaign didn’t damage the box office success of “It Ends With Us,” which went on to make $351 million worldwide. But it succeeded in at least temporarily damaging Lively, though now Baldoni, who previously garnered a reputation as a feminist, is seeing his own backlash in the form of rescinded awards and the quitting of his podcast host.

This is a mess, and by the time this column is published, there could be even more accusations. It’s just a reminder that each and every thing we think we know about a situation can be colored not just by our own previous opinions and prejudices, but by a deliberate effort to exploit those feelings. We have to be vigilant, because with the ever-increasing influence of the Internet, social media and AI, this type of alleged manipulation will certainly not end with “This Ends With Us.”