Blake Lively enlisted Dr. Irving Scher — the biomechanics engineering expert from Gwyneth Paltrow’s ski accident trial — for her latest Betty Buzz commercial.
The ad for the sparkling beverage company — which dropped on Tuesday, April 11 — features Dr. Scher standing in front of a white board depicting three smiling stick figures drinking various Betty Buzz products.
“See, when you look at a person drinking Betty Buzz meyer lemon sodas, they have a smile on their face,” he says in the 40-second clip. “And they think, ‘Wow, so bubbly.'”
A voice-over then decrees: “Case closed. Betty Buzz is probably scientifically the best sparkling beverage in the world.”
Lively, 35, reposted the commercial via Instagram on Tuesday. “I’m. not. that. innocent. @bettybuzz,” she wrote in the caption, referencing Britney Spears’ 2000 hit “Oops! … I Did It Again.”
The Gossip Girl alum launched the line of non-alcoholic drink mixers in 2021. The brand’s name was inspired by Lively’s 3-year-old daughter, Betty, whom she shares with husband Ryan Reynolds. The pair — who tied the knot in 2012 — are also parents of daughters James, 8, Inez, 6, and a fourth child, 2 months, whose name and sex have not been revealed.
Prior to Dr. Scher’s Betty Buzz cameo, he served as an expert witness on Paltrow’s behalf last month, drawing a stick figure diagram in court similar to the one featured in Lively’s recent ad. The 50-year-old Goop founder was sued by Terry Sanderson in 2019 for allegedly colliding into him on a ski slope in Utah three years prior.
Paltrow was found not liable for the ski accident when the jury reached its verdict on March 30. The jury concluded that 76-year-old Sanderson — who was seeking $300,000 in damages — was 100 percent at fault for the incident.
“I felt that acquiescing to a false claim compromised my integrity,” the Shakespeare in Love actress said in a statement following her legal victory. She was awarded the symbolic $1 — plus legal fees— that she countersued for.
As Paltrow left the courtroom, she turned to Sanderson and said, “I wish you well.”
The Oscar winner and the optometrist both testified during the trial, which began on March 21 and lasted eight days. While on the stand, Paltrow recalled initially thinking that the collision was a potential sexual assault.
“I was skiing and two skis came between my skis forcing my legs apart and then there was a body pressing against me and there was a very strange grunting noise so my brain was trying to make sense of what was happening,” she said. “I thought, ‘Is this a practical joke? Is someone doing something perverted? This is really, really strange.’ My mind was going very quickly and I was trying to ascertain what was happening.”
Sanderson, for his part, claimed that the Emma star crashed into him and then left the scene, which Paltrow denied on the stand. She told the court that she and her ski instructor “remained on [the] scene” and “rendered aid” to the doctor, leaving only after they felt that he had not suffered serious injuries.
