How Sony Got Trapped in the Middle of the Lively vs. Baldoni Battle
Days after the release of It Ends With Us last August, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquerra issued a highly unusual statement to The Hollywood Reporter praising Blake Lively, who at that very moment was being destroyed on social media over reports of a power struggle with her director and co-star Justin Baldoni and the way she promoted the movie. Notably, there was zero mention of Baldoni or his company, Wayfarer Studios, which had brought on Sony to market and distribute their adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel about a woman caught up in an intertwining tale of new love and domestic abuse.
“Blake’s passion and commitment to advancing the conversation around domestic violence is commendable. We love working with Blake, and we want to do 12 more movies with her,” said Vinciquerra, who has since retired. He likewise praised Hoover and the other women involved in the film.
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What no one knew at the time was that Sony had for months been playing the unintended role of mediator in what has erupted into the biggest uncivil war in recent Hollywood history, pitting one of Hollywood’s most powerful couples (Lively is married to Ryan Reynolds) against an ambitious third-party production company flush with funds.
It’s easy to surmise that the statement from Vinciquerra came at the request of Lively, who was eager to stop the bleeding of her public image, and virulent online comments and threats against her family and even acquaintances. Additionally, several of her fellow castmembers who — like Lively — had refused to stand by Baldoni at the film’s premiere or other marketing events were also coming under attack online and being threatened, with at least one reaching out to ask Lively if Sony could help, according to an amended complaint filed on Feb. 17 by the star, who is suing Baldoni and Wayfarer CEO Jamey Heath, among others, in the Southern District of New York for alleged sexual harassment on set and then launching a smear campaign after the film’s release.
Vinciquerra’s statement is just one of numerous examples all along the way where Sony seemingly attempted to support and appease Lively even as Baldoni’s grip on the movie slowly but surely fell away. Sony, which declined to comment for this story, appeared to have little choice but to make Lively its priority since she was vital to the film’s marketing and release. And Sony was aware of a possible troubled set.
It Ends With Us should have been a reason for lasting celebration, and a game-changer for Wayfarer after earning more than $350 million at the worldwide box office against a modest $25 million budget. Instead, it has become the ultimate nightmare for a major Hollywood studio. Sony, which only signed up to co-finance and distribute another company’s movie, now finds itself caught up in dueling lawsuits that raise allegations of harassment on set, cyberbullying, extortion and using one’s fame to wield power.
So far, Sony hasn’t been named a party in any of the lawsuits but is cited by both sides and faces its executives being subpoenaed if the case goes to trial in March 2026. “It’s a mess,” says a veteran studio executive. Until now, the mystery of how Lively’s cut of the film arrived in theaters has never been detailed. But a review of hundreds of pages of court filings answers, at least in part, how Baldoni’s cut ended up on the sidelines in favor of Lively’s. He claims wasn’t even allowed to see the cut until the world premiere.
The angst on set escalated quickly. On May 26, 2023 — just a few weeks into production — Lively called Sony production executive Ange Giannetti to log concerns over unwelcome and inappropriate behavior by Baldoni and Wayfarer CEO Heath on set, according to Lively’s amended complaint. She cited several examples of feeling sexually harassed or uncomfortable. Giannetti explained that any formal HR complaints must be lodged with Wayfarer, as it was the production company and Sony was only the distributor. Lively said she was concerned that Wayfarer would not take proper action, since it is run by the two men involved. Sources close to the matter say Lively did log several calls with Gianetti but counter the nature of the May 26 call, saying it involved Lively asking to file a complaint about on-set COVID protocols.
Giannetti is said to have taken the matter seriously and relayed Lively’s concerns to Wayfarer. She did the same when she learned from other third parties of an incident involving another actress, prompting Baldoni to write an email to the actress on June 1, 2023, saying he was aware of her concerns and that “adjustments” would be made, according to Lively’s suit. While Lively’s amended complaint does not name the actress, it says two actresses aside from Lively who flagged concerns have agreed to testify should her case go to trial.
As for Lively, she declined to file a formal HR complaint with Wayfarer and instead in November 2023 drafted a list of 17 demands that Baldoni and Heath had to sign if she were to return to work, following a months-long shutdown due to the dual writers and actors strikes.
Sony’s legal team advised Wayfarer in an email to sign the list of 17 demands but reminded that “overall, the tone of the response has to be part denying the underlying insinuations/allegations but doing so in a way that doesn’t inflame or escalate further since most of what’s on this list Wayfarer is acknowledging/addressing,” according to a lawsuit filed by Baldoni Dec. 31, 2024, in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The demands included: “there is to be no spontaneous improvising of any scenes involving physical touching, simulated sex, or nudity with respect to the artist”; “physical touching and/or comments on Artist’s physical appearance must only be done/made in connection with the character and scene work, not as to Artist personally;” and “there are to be no discussions with Artist of personal experiences with sex or nudity, including as it relates to conduct with spouses or others,” according Lively’s amended complaint.
The demands also included Sony agreeing to send Giannetti to the set, and to hiring an “A-list” veteran producer to aid Lively and represent the studio (Todd Black was later hired.) In their lawsuit, Heath and Baldoni said they signed the demands in under duress in order to save the movie. They further assert that many of the demands were based on comments or situations taken entirely out of context.
Following Wayfarer’s agreeing to the list of 17 demands, Giannetti texted Lively on Nov. 29, 2023, to say, “So glad Todd [Black] is in it now and overseeing everything but wanted to check in offer anything I can. I know this has been beyond challenging to say the least.”
A month later, both Sony and Wayfarer were caught off guard at a Jan. 4, 2024, meeting at Lively and Reynold’s Tribeca loft when she raised a total of 30 concerns. Lively, however, only required that the original list of 17 items be signed, according to the suit.
When the shoot resumed in January for about six more weeks, there were no more incidents, according to Lively.
But another saga was about to unfold. According to a Baldoni’s amended complaint, Black informed the filmmaker in late February that Lively wanted time in the editing room with him for two days, a highly unusual request because of DGA rules that allow a director unencumbered time to deliver their cut. A source close to the matter on Lively’s side says there had been so many script changes, Lively was concerned about selling a movie she hadn’t seen, particularly considering the subject matter. She also had signoff rights on a sex scene involving the younger version of her character, Lily, played by Isabela Ferrer.
Baldoni went along with the ask out of concern she would use the 17-point document against him, and because of pressure from Sony, according to Baldoni’s amended complaint. Wayfarer connected with a Sony exec to discuss the unusual situation, with the Sony exec concluding, “We are in it with you – at the end of this pain is a BIG WIN!!!” Lively ultimately joined Baldoni in the editing bay on March 12, 2024, with seven pages of script notes, which he and his editor incorporated, but she did not show up the second day.
Then, in April 2024, Sony — ever in the role of mediator — informed Wayfarer that Lively wanted solo time in the room with her own editor, saying she once again raised the specter that she wouldn’t promote the film, according to Baldoni’s complaint. (She ultimately commissioned editor Shane Reid, who worked on Reynolds’ Deadpool & Wolverine). Again, Wayfarer relented. From April 22 through May 1, Lively worked on her cut while Baldoni proceeded with his, according to Baldoni’s court documents.
“The story of the edit of the film is not relevant to Ms. Lively’s claims of sexual harassment and retaliation. It is a red herring designed to distract the public away from the grave misconduct by the defendants,” states Lively’s amended claim. “The Sony cut is the film that was chosen to be released in theaters. Ms. Lively led the Sony cut, with their support, working in close collaboration with Sony and Colleen Hoover.” She backs this up with several emails from Sony executives praising her work on the trailer and film.
While Lively calls it the Sony cut, Baldoni and Wayfarer contend otherwise. In a timeline attached to their amended complaint, they state that, “In reality, Sony did not have a studio cut; rather, Wayfarer and Sony shared a studio cut. Should the director’s cut not perform well in audience screenings, the studios collectively held the right to recut the Film. However, this never occurred, as Lively used her promotional efforts to secure the final cut.”
Creative control again became an issue in late April 2024 when Heath was outraged upon learning that Lively requested to bring creative collaborators into the editing room in addition to her own editor. According to Baldoni’s amended complaint, a Sony executive said it would be made clear that Lively would also need Wayfarer’s approval for any such involvement. “Wayfarer has final cut and runs the process. Sony is an investor and the distributor,” the Sony executive told Heath. The amended complaint further states that, when Heath noted that Sony appeared to bend over backward to accommodate Lively, the executive acknowledged the imbalance and admitted that this was not a situation anyone foresaw. But in this instance, Sony held firm. Wayfarer was told that someone higher up on the food chain spoke with Lively. She dropped the demand regarding additional collaborators.
Sony soon, though, had to manage another problem. As detailed in Baldoni’s amended complaint, a Sony marketing executive told Wayfarer that Lively was refusing to sign off on a trailer unless Wayfarer — whom she was not speaking with — would exempt her from signing long-overdue paperwork that would have rendered her threats to not promote the movie meaningless, according to Baldoni’s court filings. Sony was particularly concerned that Lively would change her mind about reaching out to best friend Taylor Swift to secure the release of “My Tears Ricochet” for the trailer. When Heath refused to acquiesce, the clearly frustrated Sony marketing executive delivered a sharp and pointed warning: “You don’t want to play ball—you are going to delay and greatly hurt the movie. Good luck. Finish director cut and [we can] can have multiple previews down the road.” Wayfarer acquiesced, according to the court filings. But the idea of releasing the cut that tested best — Baldoni’s or Lively’s — became moot.
By June, the coup was complete: Sony called Wayfarer to say that neither Lively nor any of the cast would promote the film unless Lively’s cut was used, according to Baldoni’s amended complaint. Baldoni was forced to choose between killing the film or firing himself as director and allowing Lively to finish his film. He concluded it was his only choice, according to his court filings.
And when her cut of the film screened at the book convention Book Bonanza in June 2023 before more than 3,500 people, the ecstatic response lit up social media. A Sony exec wrote Lively that he hadn’t seen that sort of response since working on a hit Marvel film years earlier, a source close to the matter says.
Even then, Sony wasn’t done playing mediator. Tensions stayed inflamed regarding other demands throughout the summer over a number of issues, including when Lively asked Sony to have Wayfarer submit letters to the PGA explaining all the work she had done (she was at that time listed as an executive producer). Lively instructed Sony to tell Wayfarer and Baldoni that “any good will left between us is done” if the letters weren’t sent, according to one of the Wayfarer’s filings. Heath and Baldoni did so, but also sent a letter to their Wayfarer lawyers saying they were signing under duress. Sony also had to deliver the news that Lively was asking that his “film by” credit be removed from a secondary poster for the film (his name had already been scrubbed from appearing alongside her in other marketing materials). In this case, Sony said he would have to sign a waiver stating he was forgoing his right for a “film by” credit on the poster, which he did.
Lively’s cut — with Baldoni listed as the director — was released in theaters and became an outsized success for a troubled film that cost only $25 million to make, opening to north of $50 million and in second place behind her husband’s film Deadpool & Wolverine, marking the first time since 1990 that two movies starring a married couple topped the box office. “Blake $5-m dollars!! Your blood sweat tears brilliant smarts heart and soul in every single frame. My God. It’s incredible. Thank you 50m times and it’s only Sat night,” emailed Sony’s Giannetti over opening weekend.
No one, and not even Baldoni, will say officially how much of his cut was put back into Lively’s cut. Baldoni’s editors told him they heard a substantial part had, or at least those parts that tested so well with target audiences.
Yet within only few short days, the stunning success of It Ends With Us was overshadowed by headlines as details emerged about the Lively-Baldoni feud. This was followed by the legal battle sparked over Christmas when Lively sued Baldoni and then Wayfarer sued saying she’d stolen the movie away from Baldoni.
“Justin Baldoni was perfectly fine with taking credit for Blake Lively’s editing work, until he feared she was making her sexual harassment concerns more public,” a Lively spokesperson said when the Feb. 17 amended complaint was filed. “Baldoni, Heath, Sarowitz, and Wayfarer had no complaints about lining their own pockets with the success of the film at the box office. They had no shame in reveling in a movie that, now according to them, they did not control post production. The public did not even know that Ms. Lively is the one who worked so hard to edit the movie.”
THR asked veteran studio experts whether, in hindsight, it was worth it for Sony to get caught up in such a morass. They are hard pressed to answer in the affirmative, especially if mounting lawsuits result in a March 2026 trial that could open up the studio’s execs to being called to the stand.
And it will go down in infamy how Sony — in what it thought would be its last act of playing broker — told Baldoni that Team Lively wouldn’t allow him at the premiere. A settlement was negotiated, and he walked the carpet before Lively arrived. It was hardly a fun message for Sony to relay. In another twist of irony — or not — Friday of the movie’s opening, Baldoni was asked by a journalist if he would consider directing the book adaptation of Hoover’s sequel It Starts With Us. He suggested that Lively might be best suited for the job.
Feb. 25, 2025, 11 a.m.: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Wayfarer signed a list of 30 demands in order for Lively to return to set. They only agreed to sign a list of 17. THR regrets the error.
Feb. 25, 2025, 1:50 p.m.: Updated with additional details about a May 25, 2023, call between Lively and Sony.
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