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The internet can’t stop talking about American actress Blake Lively’s shoes. It was her Canadian-born husband Ryan Reynold’s first time voting in America, so she posted a snap of both of them after the big moment on Instagram. It should have been Ryan’s time to shine in the spotlight, but Blake took all the glory as people noticed that her shoes looked a bit… off.

Amateur detectives quickly checked Ryan’s Instagram account and saw the same photo, but with Blake standing barefoot. The internet lost its mind for a minute there speculating just what was going on and why Blake photoshopped a pair of heels on her feet. But things turned out to be far simpler than people thought. And the key to the mystery was hidden in Blake’s Instagram stories.

Hollywood, celebrity, and pop culture expert Mike Sington explained to Bored Panda that Blake and Ryan are the “certified darlings of the internet,” so anything they post will get lots of attention. “Mainly for the cheeky humor and good-natured kidding they always inject,” he said. “Doing such an obvious photoshop on the shoes was actually kind of a brilliant way to draw even more attention to their important messaging.” Read on for more of Mike’s insights about what Blake and Ryan’s posts can mean, as well as to learn why stars are urging people to vote early in the upcoming US presidential election.

More info: Instagram (Blake) | Instagram (Ryan)

Blake Lively went voting early together with her husband, Ryan

Image credits: blakelively

Image credits: blakelively

But some people ignored the fact that it was Ryan’s first time voting in American elections and focused on Blake’s shoes

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They looked a bit… strange

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Turns out, Blake had some fun doodling shoes on her bare feet because she was bored

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Now go and vote early!

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Ryan posted the original photo without any stylish alterations on his own Instagram account

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Image credits: vancityreynolds

Hollywood’s Ultimate Insider Mike stressed that plenty of fans were impressed by Blake’s photo editing skills which made think that she and Ryan have a social media team that writes, photographs, and edits their posts. “They’re just too well crafted and spot-on to have not been done professionally, with their input of course,” he shared.

Mike also drew attention to the fact that he’s never seen so many stars and celebrities urge Americans to vote early in an election. According to the expert, there are two reasons for this. “This presidential election is so important, and we’re still in the middle of a pandemic, which could deter people from going to the polls in person on Election Day,” he said.

“I think getting your vote in early is important because you can make sure it’s counted. The mail-in ballots have bar codes on them, so you can track the progress of your ballot on your phone. So many celebrities promoting early voting seems to be a message that’s working. Early voting is up 400% now over this same time in the last Presidential election.”

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Just a bit of fun or a publicity stunt to get Americans voting?

Most likely, Blake was having a bit of fun and was probably in on the joke, as you could tell from her Instagram stories and the fact that she even tagged footwear designer Christian Louboutin in them.

Either that or she was embarrassed about having gone voting barefoot. The most likely theory, however, she was just bored. Blake even jokingly called herself a “barefoot iPhone doodler with vast experience.”

Meanwhile, Blake and Ryan also posted another doodle where the actress was wearing a different pair of brown shoes and some people thought that the detail was great when considering that she was using an iPhone.

While talking about shoes is a lot of fun, the message that Blake and Ryan were trying to send to Americans was that they should go out and vote early. The US presidential elections are right around the corner, after all.

Nearly 40 million people have voted in the US as of the middle of this week and 20 percent of the votes cast are by those who didn’t vote 4 years ago, writes The Guardian. So far, Texas is leading in early voting with the number of ballots cast early standing at over 4.6 million (or half the state’s turnout in 2016).

And here’s how people reacted to Blake and Ryan’s Instagram posts and their stories

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