Justin Baldoni sues Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds for $400M — and drags Taylor Swift into ‘It Ends With Us’ battle
Justin Baldoni filed a bombshell $400 million defamation and extortion lawsuit against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds amid their ongoing “It Ends With Us” feud — and Taylor Swift has been dragged into it.
The actor-director accuses his former co-star in the complaint obtained by Page Six of utilizing the pop superstar to further assert control over the production of the popular film.
The lawsuit claims Baldoni was invited to Lively’s New York City penthouse, where Reynolds and “a famous, and famously close, friend” of the couple were present, and allegedly gushed about the direction in which Lively had taken the script with her rewrites.
After the meeting, Baldoni then texted Lively about the pivotal “rooftop scene” from the movie, per the complaint, and seemingly appears open to the feedback.
“I really love what you did. It really does help a lot,” he wrote. “Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan or Taylor).”
Lively responds by telling her co-star that she wants him to “win” as a director and actor, and that they are on the same team with the same goal.
Lively then goes on to gush over Reynolds and Swift, calling them “absolute titans” as writers and storytellers, adding, “I’m so lucky to have them as creative barometers” and that they are her “dragons” who protect her in her battles.
However, Baldoni’s attorneys now argue that their client “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 message could not have been clearer. 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.”
Swift’s rep did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.
The lawsuit further alleges that aside from script rewrites, Lively also “began inserting herself into the production process in intrusive ways well beyond the scope of her contractual entitlement.”
“For example, Lively began to insist on creative control over her character’s wardrobe,” Baldoni claims.
“While lead actors are sometimes granted approval over their characters’ general look, they generally do not receive full control over.”
Baldoni’s lawsuit also addresses allegations Lively made in the initial California Civil Rights Department complaint she filed and subsequent lawsuit against the actor for emotional distress and harassment.
The “Gossip Girl” alum has claimed that her co-star made her feel uncomfortable on several occasions by allegedly making sexually suggestive remarks, including speaking about his past porn addiction.
However, Baldoni explains the porn discussion taking place when they were developing a scene and Lively “offered up” that she had never seen porn in her life, prompting her co-star to mention his issues.
Baldoni also denies that he ever walked in on Lively when she was breast-pumping or breast-feeding for her newborn, as was alleged in her complaint.
His lawyers argue in the new lawsuit that Lively was actually “so close and comfortable” with the director that she “freely breast-fed in front of him during meetings.”
“She took photos of him holding and soothing her crying baby in her penthouse,” the complaint further claims. “They laughed deliriously during late-night writing sessions. All of these events took place after the alleged sexual harassment. Lively’s accusations seemed to come out of the blue.”
Baldoni claims that Lively was the one who made “derogatory comments” about his appearance, “telling him he should undergo rhinoplasty.”
The suit also disputes Lively’s claim that Baldoni hired a crisis manager in order to disparage her reputation, claiming her own past, resurfaced interviews were to blame for the shift in public perception.
“Lively’s disastrous marketing efforts and tone-deaf press interviews and appearances backfired and led to widespread criticism of Lively’s promotional approach to the Film’s highly sensitive focus on domestic violence,” his lawyers claim.
Baldoni’s publicists, Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan, who are also named as plaintiffs in the suit, add in a statement to Page Six, “To be clear, Ms. Lively and her team initiated this smear campaign in the media for the sole intention of gaining undeserved public sympathy for her own missteps.
“Over the last month we have received death threats, abhorrent abuse and vile anti-semitic slurs hurled at us due to her decision to use us as scapegoats for her own choices promoting her film in which she made millions of dollars.”
They conclude, “With this filing, we lift our own curtain of what happens when the entitled weaponize power, fear and money to destroy, intimidate and bully those who get in their way.”
In his lawsuit, Baldoni also blasts Reynolds for allegedly becoming angry and aggressive with him at an all-hands meeting that took place as tensions among the cast members grew.
“Reynolds demanded that Baldoni apologize to Lively for actions that had either never happened or had been grossly mischaracterized,” his lawyers allege. “Baldoni resisted apologizing for things he had not done, further enraging Reynolds.”
The attorneys claim that a producer and Sony representative who were present for the meeting left in “shock.”
“The producer said that in his 40-year career, he had never seen anyone speak to someone like that in a meeting,” the complaint states.
“The Sony representative said later that she often thought of the meeting and her one regret was not
intervening to stop Reynolds’ tirade against Baldoni.”
Page Six has reached out to reps for Lively, Reynolds, and their publicist, Leslie Sloane — who is also named in Baldoni’s lawsuit — but did not immediately hear back.
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman, meanwhile, further alleges in his complaint, “Lively stole Wayfarer’s movie, hijacked Wayfarer’s premiere, destroyed Plaintiffs’ personal and professional reputations and livelihood, and aimed to drive Plaintiffs out of business entirely.
“It further appears that Lively worked for months with the equally powerful New York Times to prepare a false and damaging narrative to deploy against Plaintiffs.”
Freedman adds in a statement to Page Six, “This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media.
“It is clear based on our own all out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret.”
He adds, “Blake Lively was either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth. Ms. Lively will never again be allowed to continue to exploit actual victims of real harassment solely for her personal reputation gain at the expense of those without power.
“Let’s not forget, Ms. Lively and her team attempted to bulldoze reputations and livelihoods for heinously selfish reasons through their own dangerous manipulation of the media before even taking any actual legal action. We know the truth, and now the public does too. Justin and his team have nothing to hide, documents do not lie.”