Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds are accused of ‘bullying’ the producer and director of the film It Ends With Us, Justin Baldoni, in a bombshell lawsuit which says Reynolds ‘berated’ Baldoni in a heated meeting at their New York penthouse.
Reynolds, one of the biggest stars in Hollywood who is on a high after the success of last year’s movie Deadpool & Wolverine, is said to have ‘aggressively’ accused Baldoni of a string of offences against his wife, including ‘fat shaming’ her.
On the evening of January 4 last year, the lawsuit says Baldoni plus other producers and a representative of Sony were invited to the home shared by the couple
It says: ‘They arrived eager to discuss plans for the next day’s filming, prepared with their production materials. Instead, they were blindsided by Lively and Reynolds, who presented a list of grievances that were both unanticipated and troubling.
‘Reynolds launched into a tirade, berating Baldoni in what Baldoni later described as a ‘traumatic’ encounter, stating he had ‘never been spoken to like that in his life.’
Reynolds demanded an apology to Lively for actions that were mischaracterised and demonstrably false, the lawsuit says.
It adds: ‘When Baldoni resisted apologising for what he had not done, Reynolds became further enraged. Everyone, including the producer Lively had asked production to engage and a representative of Sony that was in attendance, left that ‘meeting’ in shock. The producer offered that in his 40-year career he had never seen anyone speak to someone like that.’
Baldoni says after the filming was complete that Lively took over the movie project from him, refused to walk the red carpet with him or let him attend its premiere, and that she and husband Reynolds allegedly used their power to try and damage him.
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds attend the It Ends with Us premiere in New York last August
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in a scene from It Ends With Us, which came out last August
Blake Lively previously shared a glimpse on social media inside the New York penthouse
The lawsuit says that in July last year, before the film’s release, he got word that: ‘during the premiere of his movie Deadpool & Wolverine, Reynolds approached Baldoni’s agent at William Morris Endeavor and demanded that the agent ‘drop’ Baldoni.’
The lawsuit was filed last night against the New York Times after its story on December 20 said that a Hollywood ‘smear machine’ had been summoned into action to discredit Lively.
That article was based in part on an 80-page legal complaint filed by Lively which accused Baldoni and his partner of sexual harassment.
Instead, says the lawsuit, the ‘true source of tension between Lively and plaintiffs.. was Lively’s brazen and calculated effort to expropriate the film.’
Lawyer Bryan Freedman promises to file more lawsuits in the coming days.
Lawyers acting for Baldoni and his publicists have produced a wealth of text, email and WhatsApp evidence which they say proves that Lively undertook a ‘hostile take over’ of the film.
It lays out a litany of alleged diva behaviour by the actress. It says that she ‘disrupted’ the film by refusing to meet with an intimacy coordinator, demanded that her wardrobe was changed and that outfits were taken to her home so that she could look at them, and added lines to the film.
Eventually she took over editing the movie and produced her own cut.
It is alleged that she ‘threatened’ producers Sony that she would walk out and eventually wrested full control from Baldoni.
Justin Baldoni in a scene from It Ends With Us which was released in the UK on August 9, 2024
Blake Lively poses for photographers at a photo call for It Ends With Us in London last August
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni on the set of It Ends with Us in Jersey City on January 12, 2024
She then allegedly demanded a PGA (Producers Guild of America) credit, and despite feeling that she had not done enough to get a producing credit, Jamey Heath wrote a letter in her support, which is produced.
Baldoni says that he, his family and friends were not invited to the film’s after party, were forbidden from the red carpet and on the night of the premiere even ended up sheltering in a basement holding area because Lively wouldn’t permit them to be in the same room as her.
The lawsuit says that the allegations that Baldoni, aided by crisis PRs Melissa Nathan and Jen Abel at TAG, created a global smear campaign against the actress are false, and this was a strategy used by Lively to try and reclaim her damaged public image.
The New York Times ran an August 16 text exchange in which Nathan allegedly shared a link to an article with Abel.
The text exchange shows Abel responding, ‘Wow,’ followed by, ‘You really outdid yourself with this one,’ to which Nathan allegedly replied, ‘That’s why you hired me, right? I’m the best.’
The lawsuit says that these text messages were altered and edited.
The lawsuit includes a longer version of the exchange. In it, Nathan forwards a screenshot of an article and writes: ‘Damn this is not fair because it’s also not me,’ followed by, ‘Everything now looks like it’s me.’
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