Justin Baldoni breaks his silence to say absolutely nothing

There is a very specific choreography to the modern celebrity dispatch. It requires sombre lighting, a passing mention of 'trauma', and an insistence that the speaker is desperately reluctant to speak at all. Justin Baldoni has just hit all three marks, breaking his silence on his legal battle with Blake Lively to assure the public that he and his wife, Emily, are 'healing'. The video, which has predictably divided PR experts into the standard camps of 'heartfelt' and 'creepy', is a triumph of form over substance.

The actual contents of the statement are impressively sparse. Baldoni notes that there has been 'injustice and pain', and clarifies that they 'didn't want to add to the noise'. This is a fascinating strategy: combating noise by releasing a highly publicised, purposefully vague video that immediately generates international headlines without offering a single new factual detail. It is the rhetorical equivalent of waving a white flag while holding a megaphone.

All of which forces a rather blunt question about Baldoni’s current place in the cultural ecosystem. When a high-profile spat yields a solemn broadcast that tells us strictly nothing we didn't already know, one has to wonder what purpose this level of public visibility is actually serving. Beyond the baseline maintenance of his status as a recognisable person who is going through things, his broader relevance feels increasingly abstract.

We have reached a point where the performance of moving on has entirely eclipsed the need to have anything to say. Baldoni is healing, loudly, in front of everyone, proving that you do not need new information to make the news. You just need to look deeply pained while you say nothing at all.