Blake Lively backlash escalates for calling Gossip Girl cast 'monkeys' once

Blake Lively is getting slammed left, right, and centre as a resurfaced video shows her awkward remark for her Gossip Girl castmates.

In a now-viral TikTok clip, Lively seemingly offends her castmates Leighton Meester, Ed Westwick, and Penn Badgley at a 2008 panel discussion at Paleyfest.

Lively was revealing the 'promises' Gossip Girl creators made her so that she'd agree to star as 'It girl' Serena van der Woodsen in the teen drama.

Lively jokingly mentioned one promise involving Westwick's character, Chuck Bass, who in the original books has a pet monkey.

"Another promise was no pet monkey," she recalled. "Chuck has a pet monkey with coordinating outfits. And I was like, 'I would love to be part of the show but I can't act with a monkey,'" Lively said with a laugh.

She then turned left and gestured to her costars, saying, "Well, I got a few of them."

Meester, who was sitting next to Lively, appeared unamused, scrunching her face over the jab.

Westwick and Badgley, who were also seated on her left looked down without a smile. Lively immediately insisted it was a joke.

"C'mon it was a joke! Lord have mercy!" she exclaimed as the clip ended on an awkward note.

Unlike the audience that burst into laughter, the joke wasn't appreciated in the comment section of the video shared by TikTok user @thedisasterguru.

"That is SO Sarah Jessica Parker coded," one TikTok user commented, further explaining that the term basically means someone is 'self centered but always performing as a good person.'

A second user added, "Y'all are realizing this now? I always got Mean Girls vibes from Blake Lively." Others were surprised Lively and Meester weren't close in real life, speculating that moments like this could be the reason.

"Leighton just sitting back knowing this day would come," one fan wrote with a laughing emoji.

"Dying at all the resurfacing clips of blake," said another, referring to her old interviews that have been resurfacing in the light of her recent responses at media talks for her new film It Ends With Us.

One TikTok user recalled an instance during a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants interview where Lively appeared to dominate the conversation, leaving her co-star, America Ferrera, visibly uncomfortable.

The recent backlash supercede her controversy with the film's director and costar Justin Baldoni as the two avoided each other at film promotions after he reportedly made her 'uncomfortable' about her postpartum body during the shoots.

However, Lively's choice to center the press talks around her red carpet outfits instead of the film's domestic violence theme fuelled the matter against the actress herself.

Ever since, clips of at least four old interviews have emerged on social media, with her blunt responses sparking online backlash.