Justin Baldoni Lawsuit Alleges Blake Lively Used Taylor Swift to Pressure Him Amid ‘It Ends With Us’ Fight
The legal battle between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively in the aftermath of “It Ends With Us” expanded its blast zone Thursday morning, with a new lawsuit by Baldoni including text messages between Lively and Baldoni, her co-star and director. In the texts, Lively seemingly alludes to Taylor Swift as “one of her dragons.” The superstar is a friend of Lively.
In the lawsuit, filed against Lively and her husband, actor-producer Ryan Reynolds, on Thursday morning, Baldoni alleges that the couple hijacked the film “It Ends With Us,” and sought to wreck his public reputation with false allegations of sexual harassment. Baldoni is seeking $400 million in damages. Swift is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, nor is her name mentioned in the filing beyond a reference to “Taylor” in a text message sent by Baldoni to Lively.
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Swift’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In text messages between Baldoni and Lively that are included on pages 23-25 of the 179-page filing, Baldoni discusses a rooftop scene in the film that Lively had allegedly reworked in the script. In the lawsuit, Baldoni’s lawyers claim that “Baldoni felt obliged to text Lively to say that he had liked her pages and hadn’t needed Reynolds and her megacelebrity friend to pressure him.”
The suit alleges that Lively, along with Reynolds, gradually asserted control over “It Ends With Us” during production, including the rooftop scene in which Lively and Baldoni’s characters first meet. According to the filing, Lively summoned Baldoni to her penthouse in New York, where Reynolds and a “megacelebrity friend” — who appears to be Swift — both praised Lively’s version.
“Also was working on rooftop scene today, I really love what you did. It really does hep a lot,” Baldoni wrote in the text message. “Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor) You really are a talent across the board. Really excited nd grateful to do this together.”
In a later text from Lively, according to the complaint, the star references Reynolds and another person (whose name is redacted) as being “absolute titans as writers and storytellers outside of their primary gig.” Lively continues, “They also know I’m not always as good at making sure I’m seen and utilized for fear of threatening egos, or fear of affecting the ease of the process. They don’t give a shit about that. And because of that, everyone listens to them with immense respect and enthusiasm. So I guess I have to stop worrying about people liking me.”
The lengthy message closes with Lively comparing herself to Khaleesi, the dragon-controlling queen played by Emilia Clarke on “Game of Thrones,” and alluded to powerful forces that she has in her corner. Lively wrote: “If you ever get around to watching Game of Thrones, you’ll appreciate that I’m Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons. For better or worse, but usually for better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. You will too, I can promise you.”
Baldoni’s complaint asserts that this was Lively’s way of exerting pressure on Baldoni.
“The message could not have been clearer,” the complaint states. “Baldoni was not just dealing with Lively. He was also facing Lively’s ‘dragons,’ two of the most influential and wealthy celebrities in the world, who were not afraid to make things very difficult for him.”
Lively filed her own lawsuit against Baldoni, producer Jamey Heath and publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel on Dec. 31, 10 days after an initial complaint against them with the California Civil Rights Department. The actor accused Baldoni and others of orchestrating a clandestine media smear campaign against her, in retaliation for her complaints about facing alleged sexual harassment on the set of the film. In response, Baldoni first sued the New York Times — which was the first outlet to report on Lively’s complaint — alleging that the paper had worked with Lively’s team, taking the text messages out of context in order to defame him. At the time, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, promised that more lawsuits would follow.
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