Britney Spears Accused Of Shading Blake Lively After Flaunting 'Updated' Versace Dress

Is there bad blood between pop star Britney Spears and actress Blake Lively? Fans certainly seem to think so!

It all started when the "Gossip Girl" alum wore the "Gimme More" singer's 2002 Versace dress to the premiere of her film "It Ends With Us" in New York City. After the glittering gown made headlines, the Princess of Pop took to Instagram to share a "better" version of the dress.

On Tuesday, August 6, Blake Lively showed up to the "It Ends With Us" premiere in New York City wearing a dress out of Britney Spears' closet. She wore the sparkling Versace gown that Britney Spears wore in 2002 with silver heels and rings from Lorraine Schwartz's fine jewelry line.

The floral elements in her dress were a nod to her character, Lily Bloom, who opens a flower shop in the movie. In an interview with Peoplemagazine, the 36-year-old explained that "It is Britney's dress," going on to joke, "It should be in the Smithsonian or the Met. But it's on me. I feel so lucky!" She then proceeded to praise the pop star in her Instagram Stories.

Blake Lively also took to social media to praise the "Toxic" singer. "The Shallows" actress called Britney Spears “The ultimate queen who made us all want to sparkle and write and share our stories." She fittingly put the singer's hit song "Everytime" in the background of the post. The song also appears in the movie.

“Britney, us millennials all have a story of a moment, or of years that you made us want to shine and inspire awe, with strength, and joy and immensely hard work,” Lively wrote. “Thank you for your example and your contribution to women telling their stories.”

“So excited about your Biopic and all you have to come,” she added. Some have speculated that Lively is attempting to throw her name in the casting pool for Britney Spears while wearing her dress. Sydney Sweeney, Sabrina Carpenter, and Addison Rae have also been mentioned, but it is possible they might cast an unknown actress in the highly coveted role.

On Saturday night, the "Crossroads" actress posted a video of her showing off a new Versace dress. "UPDATED VERSION OF MY 2002 VERSACE DRESS. I like it way better. Shows my legs !!" she wrote along a long string of emojis.

After she was accused of shading Blake Lively online, she quickly changed her comment. "Updated version of my 2002 Versace dress !!! I'm no @blakelively but I like it … show my legs !!!" the revised caption read.

However, by Sunday morning, the pop star seemed to have removed the caption from her post entirely. Although Spears frequently prohibits comments on her Instagram posts, including this one, the post did score a "like" from Blake Lively.

In late July, the Britney Spears removed her Instagram account, something she does frequently, and took to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, in order to threaten Halsey with legal action over her "Lucky" music video. Although "Lucky" did sample Britney's song, Halsey reportedly had permission to do it.

“For obvious reasons I’m very upset about the Halsey video. I feel harassed, violated, and bullied,” Britney wrote in a screenshot obtained by TMZ. “I didn’t know an artist like her and someone I looked up to and admired would illustrate me in such an ignorant way by tailoring me as a superficial pop star with no heart or concern at all.”

“I have my own health problems which is why I took down my IG account yesterday. I will definitely be putting it back up to show I CARE,” she continued. “I’m speaking with my lawyers today to see what can be done on this matter. It feels illegal and down right [sic] cruel.”

Within an hour, the "Oops!... I Did It Again" singer quickly backtracked and took down her post threatening legal action, seemingly insisting that she didn't even write it.

In a new tweet, Spears wrote, "Fake news !!! That was not me on my phone !!! I love Halsey and that’s why I deleted it !!!" This tweet has also since been deleted.

Many fans agreed that Spears did not write the original statement due to the lack of emojis and extra punctuation, while others speculated that it might have been a PR stunt in order to raise awareness for Halsey's new music video, which highlights her health struggles with several pop culture references.