'I can't stop thinking about the Green Lantern press tour.'

If you're chronically online — or hey if you've just been online at all in recent days — you're probably aware there is a social media storm crashing down on Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. 

It's all thanks to Blake's new film It Ends With Us, and some negative reactions to the press tour she's currently doing and Ryan's surprising involvement in the movie. As with any good PR disaster, there's also her side to the story, and plenty of angles to unpack.

But I'm not here to talk about that, I'm here to talk about another Blake and Ryan moment that's been stirred up as a result of the chaos: the Green Lantern press tour.

I remember this press tour vividly. 

I remember the LA premiere, where Blake wore an iconic Chanel gown and styled her hair in a loose braid that I called genius and my mother called messy. She was dressed to the nines, wearing one million bangles on her wrists as she jangled down the red carpet. Ryan was also there. 

I remember how Seth Rogen was starring in another superhero movie called The Green Hornet and everyone kept getting confused about which movie was which. 

And I remember the chemistry. The clearest case of chemistry you've ever seen. I'm talking giggling, flirty touches and non-stop compliments for one another.

There was chemistry and there was... a wife. And a boyfriend. Specifically, Ryan Reynolds was married to Scarlett Johansson and Blake Lively was dating her Gossip Girl co-star Penn Badgley. 

Yeah, Blake and Ryan weren't actually single when they first met.

By the end of the press tour, both couples had called it quits and I can't help but think it would've gone down very differently with fans had it happened today. 

I think about it all the time. Mostly because of the factors. Thoughts are all about the factors, you know the layers, the complexities. Some have dared to call me a big thinker, so let's break down my thoughts for you here...

Blake and Ryan meet in 2010, filming Green Lantern.

Blake was 23 and still starring as Serena van der Woodsen on Gossip Girl. Ryan was 34 and had branched out from college comedies to rom-coms and a few action films.

They had some green lycra, brunette hair dye, and a dream of one day winning an MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss. That dream went unrealised, but they did succeed in making a movie.

Ryan was leading the way in his second superhero role to date. At that point in time, he'd played a version of Deadpool in Blade: Trinity and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But he wasn't like the Deadpool everyone is obsessed with today, he was kind of 'meh' to many people. 

So, Ryan moved on to play Hal Jordan/The Green Lantern and was joined by Blake as Carol Ferris.

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds in The Green Lantern. Image:

Hal Jordan was a test pilot who acquired superhuman powers after being chosen by the Ring. Oooh. With his powers, and the support of his childhood-best-friend-turned-romantic-interest Carol, he defeated the evil Parallax.

Run of the mill superhero stuff, it's what happened behind the scenes that I'm really interested in. 

Ryan and Blake have previously said they were "just friends" on set, and that romance came later... but it doesn't make looking in the rearview mirror any less fascinating.

The Green Lantern Press Tour.

I can't tell you a single thing I was doing in 2010, but I can tell you all about this press tour. It's still seared into my brain, 14 years later. 

And I can't help but think how people would've reacted to the story now, as it's been made clear on social media in the past few days that not a lot of people know this.

I'm especially curious given the recent drama surrounding Anyone But You co-stars Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney, who became the subject of countless think pieces, social media posts and tonnes of vitriol because people thought they might be having an affair. They were not, by the way. She's happily engaged to Jonathon Davino, who was a producer on the film and is friends with Glen. But I digress!

In July 2010, Blake and Ryan kicked off their press tour with an appearance at Comic Con in San Diego: the convention for fans of all things nerdy. What I wouldn't give to be there.

During the panel on The Green Lantern, Ryan was asked about the fact that Scarlett Johannson was playing a Marvel character and whether that was causing any problems at home. 

"We've had strongly worded dinners," he quipped to the delight of the audience. 

Hindsight makes for some awkward viewing, that's for sure.

Between the start and end of this press tour, both Blake and Ryan would separate from their partners and be fuelling romance rumours.

Ryan and Blake at Comic Con in 2010.

Blake Lively and Penn Badgley break up.

After three years together, Blake and Penn called it quits in October 2010. Which was particularly tough because they were still starring together on Gossip Girl. 

They'd been dating on and off from 2007 to 2010 and fans were devastated. So many tears were shed! At least we'll always have Dan and Serena... though, honestly she should've ended up with Nate. 

Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johannson announce divorce.

Also in October 2010, Ryan and Scarlett separated. In December 2010, they announced their divorce to the world. 

"After long and careful consideration on both our parts, we've decided to end our marriage," they said in a joint statement at the time. "We entered our relationship with love, and it's with love and kindness we leave it. While privacy isn't expected, it's certainly appreciated." 

The divorce was finalised in July 2011, after Green Lantern had premiered.

The press tour continues. 

In May 2011, the press tour ramped up ahead of the cinematic release in June, and photos of these two grinning at each other like the two most-in-love people on earth were everywhere. 

Blake and Ryan's friendship had blossomed on set, which meant they had plenty of anecdotes to share on the press tour that sounded very average to most people but seemed to spark insane amounts of joy for fans.

"Blake Lively sabotaged Ryan Reynolds with cupcakes," headlines read after Blake revealed she liked to bake for Ryan and the rest of the crew. 

"It was just a way to sabotage Ryan," People quoted Lively as saying. "He was working out as much as he was, and I'm the girl. I'm supposed to look better."

Big stuff.

As they walked red carpets, fans began to swoon at the suggestion that there was real-life chemistry and tabloids began to speculate they were in love at last. And I mean, of course they were. This is not giving platonic.

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds at the LA Premiere of Green Lantern. Image: Getty.

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are "confirmed" to be a couple.

At an undisclosed time between their respective break-ups and October 2011, the pair began dating.

In October, Lively and Reynolds sparked dating rumours when they were spotted outside an apartment in Boston, where Reynolds was filming the action film R.I.P.D.

A source confirmed their relationship to People at the time, saying, "They are very much a couple. They're really happy together."

Years later, Ryan would reveal that they started seeing each other following a botched double date attempt with friends. 

"We were buddies for a long time, which I think is the best way to have a relationship, to start as friends," Reynolds told Jess Cagle on SiriusXM in 2016.

"About a year after Green Lantern had come and gone and we were both single, we went on a double date — she was on a date with another guy, and I was on a date with another girl — and it was like the most awkward date for the respective parties because we were just like fireworks coming across," he said.

I'll bet. I feel awkward just looking at photos of the two of them from this time. 

Hey besties. Image: Getty.

Blake + Ryan 4eva.

Not only did it seem like no one cared all that much about the timelines of both splits happening mid press-tour, but it also seemed like the entire world was rooting for this man and woman to be together.

What quickly followed their relationship confirmation was gushing headlines about how cute they were, a wedding in 2012, and their first fashionable red carpet appearance as a married couple at the Met Gala in 2014. 

That moment solidified them as one of Hollywood's golden couples, and they've remained that way ever since.

Fans will literally post photos of them together and say "couple goals" and it's a picture from when he was a married man. It's uniquely unhinged and I love it.

Like the Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter and Kenneth Branagh cheating scandal, or Julia Roberts' cancelled wedding, this chaotic story seems to have fallen into the celebrity information abyss. Only to be plucked out of obscurity whenever the internet suddenly remembers.

I am grateful to the internet for resurfacing this Green Lantern tale once more, so I can spend hours of my time contemplating the great, somewhat uncomfortable, love story of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. 

Feature Image: Getty.