In Purported Leaked Voice Message, Justin Baldoni Laments Being “Sent To The Basement” By Blake Lively During ‘It Ends With Us’ Premiere
Justin Baldoni bemoaned being banished to the basement by Blake Lively during the It Ends with Us premiere, according to a purported leaked voice message he sent to his associates.
The message was played in full on The Megyn Kelly Show during an interview the former Fox News host conducted with Bryan Freedman, Baldoni’s attorney.
More from Deadline
Kelly provided little context as to how she obtained the message, but Freedman said in the interview that he planned to put “every single text message, every single document” in the public domain. Freedman has repped Kelly in the past. Deadline has been unable to independently verify or date the voice message.
During the message (full transcript below), Baldoni said he was “sent to the basement with all my friends and family” for over an hour because he was not “allowed to be seen” with Lively and the cast.
“We start laughing because of the ridiculousness of this whole thing and I realize like on a night that was supposed to be so materialistically joyful, I was in the basement with the people that love me the most and we were all joyful and laughing cos none of that s**t matters, none of it,” he said.
The premiere took place at New York City’s AMC Lincoln Square Theater on August 6, 2024. Baldoni and Lively were not pictured together during the curtain raiser for Sony’s Colleen Hoover adaptation.
Publication of the voice memo is the latest escalation in the volcanic dispute between Lively and Baldoni, the latter of whom directed as well as starred in hit movie It Ends With Us. Lively has sued over her accusations of sexual harassment and an online smear campaign, but Baldoni is yet to formally retaliate against his co-star. Freedman pledged to Kelly that Lively would be sued “into oblivion.” Baldoni has already sued The New York Times over its explosive article on the saga, headlined: ”We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.’
In an interview with NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo earlier this week, Freedman expanded on his strategy to flood the zone with private communications over the It Ends With Us affair.
“We’re going to take what the young kids call receipts, and we’re going to take those text messages and we’re going to put them out for the public to see,” the Hollywood lawyer told Cuomo, who is also a client. “And we’re doing it as we speak, and we have been doing it, and what you’re starting to see is you’re starting to see a complete turnaround in this story, and you’re starting to see a turnaround, because people are questioning, is this truthful or not?”
Deadline has contacted Lively’s reps for comment on the Baldoni voice message. In a statement on Tuesday, her attorneys said: “Ms. Lively’s federal litigation before the Southern District of New York involves serious claims of sexual harassment and retaliation, backed by concrete facts. This is not a ‘feud’ arising from ‘creative differences’ or a ‘he said/she said’ situation. As alleged in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and as we will prove in litigation, Wayfarer and its associates engaged in unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing against Ms. Lively for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set.”
“While we go through the legal process, we urge everyone to remember that sexual harassment and retaliation are illegal in every workplace and in every industry. A classic tactic to distract from allegations of this type of misconduct is to ‘blame the victim’ by suggesting that they invited the conduct, brought it on themselves, misunderstood the intentions, or even lied. Another classic tactic is to reverse the victim and offender, and suggest that the offender is actually the victim. These concepts normalize and trivialize allegations of serious misconduct.”
Freedman told NewsNation: “It is painfully ironic that Blake Lively is accusing Justin Baldoni of weaponizing the media when her own team orchestrated this vicious attack by sending The New York Times grossly edited documents prior to even filing the complaint.”
Justin Baldoni’s voice message:
“On what could have been one of the most beautiful nights of my life career-wise, I literally was sent to the basement with all my friends and family for over an hour because I wasn’t allowed to be seen, she didn’t want me anywhere near her or the rest of the cast.
“So they ushered me off the carpet and sent us down to the basement, we were down there together, my friends and family, the people that love me the most.
“We start laughing because of the ridiculousness of this whole thing and I realize like on a night that was supposed to be so materialistically joyful, I was in the basement with the people that love me the most and we were all joyful and laughing cos none of that s**t matters, none of it.
“That’s not why we’re in the business … to attend a premiere and be celebrated like that, we’re in it because we’re artists and we believe in what we do and because we want to create art that touches people’s souls and can move people.
“And that’s what we did, that’s what you both did and I believe that will follow us, the truth will prevail and light and love will win.”
Best of Deadline
Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
