It Ends With Us becoming such a huge commercial success was surprising enough but nothing could’ve prepared us for what happened behind the scenes. In a legal he-said-she-said battle, lead stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are nowhere near finding common ground and convincing the audience, as the latter just doubled down with another lawsuit.
The It Ends With Us drama had been reportedly going on since filming for the film started in 2023, with Justin Baldoni allegedly sexually harassing Lively and others on the set, as well as starting a smear campaign against the Gossip Girl star to cover his tracks and win the public’s support.
Right before Christmas, Lively filed a lengthy lawsuit addressing every detail that happened since filming started. Her 80-page lawsuit includes text messages between Baldoni’s PR and crisis team, a lengthy list of celebs, and clarifications about the marketing plan Sony Pictures and Baldoni’s Wayfarer Productions agreed on. While her lawsuit started changing people’s opinions of her, Baldoni won’t go down quietly.
Justin Baldoni filed a $250 million lawsuit against the New York Times
Not only has Justin Baldoni filed his countersuit against Lively but he’s also filed a lawsuit against the New York Times, Variety reports. The outlet was the one that released online the bombshell report Lively filed against the Jane the Virgin actor.
The outlet claimed the actor “repeatedly entered her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding.” According to Baldoni, Lively started the exchange and said she didn’t get an updated version of the script because of her assistant. “She didn’t realize they were new,” Lively wrote. “New pages can always be sent to me as well please,” inviting him to go over the lines. She signed with “X,” a symbol for a kiss. Baldoni replied, “Copy. Eating with crew and will head that way.”
As Lively filed her lawsuit just before Christmas, on the last day of the year, Baldoni filed his. The other plaintiffs include his publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel who are suing the newspaper for libel and false light invasion of privacy, as well as producers Jamey Heath and Steve Sarowitz, who claim the outlet “cherry-picked” and altered their messages “stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.”
With a lengthier legal complaint of 87 pages, Baldoni and co. accuse the Times of promissory fraud and breach of implied-in-fact contract. A spokesperson for the outlet has also responded to the legal affair:
“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead. Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article. To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed to a single error. We published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article as well. We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
Some of the claims noted that Lively embarked on a “strategic and manipulative” smear campaign of her own and used false “sexual harassment allegations to assert unilateral control over every aspect of the production.” He also accuses Lively’s husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, of “berating” Baldoni during a meeting at their home after allegedly “fat shaming” his wife, and that the actor pressured Baldoni’s agency WME to drop him, which a rep has subsequently denied.
As for the smear campaign, the text messages hint at a Daily Mail piece that slams Lively for her “tone deaf” promo of the film dealing with domestic violence, where Abel and Nathan seem to take credit for it. In the lawsuit, they claim The Times omitted to include a message that preceded the exchange, claiming “Damn, this is unfair because it’s also not me,” Nathan wrote. Baldoni, Nathan, and Abel are ready to share the full messages.
Since the breakout of the lawsuit, Lively’s attorneys said they had filed a federal complaint against Wayfarer Studios, Baldoni et al in the Southern District of New York.
Published: Jan 1, 2025 11:49 am