Britney Spears is accused of outshining Blake Lively with a “modern” dress

It all started when the former “Gossip Girl” singer 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 glittery dress made headlines, the Princess of Pop posted a “better” version of the dress on Instagram.

On Tuesday, August 6, Blake Lively arrived at the premiere of It Ends With Us in New York City wearing a dress straight from Britney Spears' closet. She wore the sparkly Versace dress Britney Spears wore in 2002 with silver heels and rings from Lorraine Schwartz's fine jewelry collection.

The floral elements in her dress were a reference to her character Lily Bloom, who opens a flower shop in the film. In an interview with PeopleIn an interview with the magazine, the 36-year-old explained: “It's Britney's dress,” and joked: “It should be hanging in the Smithsonian or the Met. But I'm wearing it. I feel so lucky!” She then praised the pop star in her Instagram stories.

Blake Lively also praised the “Toxic” singer on social media. The “The Shallows” actress called Britney Spears “the ultimate queen who made us all shine and write and share our stories.” Fittingly, she placed the singer's hit “Everytime” in the background of the post. The song also appears in the film.

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

“I'm so excited about your biopic and everything you have planned,” she added. Some have speculated that Lively is trying to throw her name into the casting pool for Britney Spears while wearing her dress. Sydney Sweeney, Sabrina Carpenter and Addison Rae have also been mentioned, but it's possible they'll cast an unknown actress for the coveted role.

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

After being accused of insulting Blake Lively online, she quickly changed her comment. “Updated version of my 2002 Versace dress!!! I'm not @blakelively but I like it…shows off my legs!!!” the revised caption read.

However, on Sunday morning, the pop star appeared to have removed the caption from her post entirely. Although Spears often disallows comments on her Instagram posts, including this one, Blake Lively's post received a like.

In late July, Britney Spears deleted her Instagram account, something she does frequently, and turned to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, to threaten legal action against Halsey over her music video “Lucky.” Although “Lucky” sampled Britney's song, Halsey reportedly had permission to do so.

“For obvious reasons, I am very upset about the Halsey video. I feel harassed, hurt and bullied,” Britney wrote in a screenshot obtained by TMZ“I didn't know that an artist like her, who I looked up to and admired, would portray me in such an ignorant way, portraying me as a superficial pop star with no heart or conscience.”

“I have my own health issues which is why I closed my IG account yesterday. I will definitely be reopening it to show that I CARE,” she continued. “I am speaking to my lawyers today to see what can be done about this matter. It feels illegal and is downright [sic] awful.”

Within an hour, the “Oops!… I Did It Again” singer quickly backtracked and retracted her post under threat of legal action, apparently insisting that she didn't even write it.

In a new tweet, Spears wrote: “Fake news!!! That wasn't 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 may have been a PR stunt to draw attention to Halsey's new music video, which addresses her health issues with numerous pop culture references.