In the latest update in the unending drama that is It Ends With Us, ongoing legal battle stemming from It Ends With Us, which was directed by the actor and co-starred Lively.
Taking the tit-for-tat to unprecedented heights, Baldoni’s 179-page lawsuit is seeking a whopping $400 million on the grounds of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy on Lively and Reynolds’ part. The complaint was filed in the Southern District of New York on behalf of Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, which produced It Ends With Us.
“This is not a case about celebrities sniping at each other in the press,” the lawsuit reads. “This is a case about two of the most powerful stars in the world deploying their enormous power to steal an entire film right out of the hands of its director and production studio.” It goes on to allege that Lively — who is described as “one of the world’s best-known celebrities” — used her power to “seize” control of the film only to “destroy” Baldoni’s livelihood if he “did not bend to her incessant demands.”
When those needs weren’t met, the lawsuit alleges that Lively accused her co-star of “foul and reprehensible sexual misconduct.” In summary, the complaint accuses Lively of “hijacking” control of the film and its premiere, “destroy[ing]” Baldoni’s professional reputation, and attempting to drive him “out of the business entirely.” It marks the most recent chapter in a saga that first erupted in December, when Lively first filed a civil rights complaint alleging that Baldoni sexually harassed her on the set of It Ends With Us.
While he immediately denied that claim, Lively escalated the legal battle with an official lawsuit against Baldoni, which also alleged that she was retaliated against for raising the sexual harassment through an orchestrated smear campaign to ruin her public image. That lawsuit contained text message exchanges between Baldoni and his PR crisis team, one of which mentioned that they could “bury” the Gossip Girl star.
In his most recent lawsuit, however, Baldoni is alleging that it was Lively who sought to damage his reputation, claiming it was her and “her team who carefully planned and implemented a vile smear campaign against the actor. It all gets even messier with the mention of Reynolds, whom Baldoni claims exerted “unauthorized” creative control over It Ends With Us, including re-writing one scene and making changes to the script “in secret.” As for how Reynolds and Lively exerted this control, well, that’s where Taylor Swift comes in.
Baldoni claims that he was summoned to Lively and Reynolds’ penthouse for a meeting about the script, which was also attended by the couple’s “megacelebrity friend.” Together, the trio allegedly heaped praise on Lively’s vision for the script, meaning that Baldoni “understood the subtext: he needed to comply with Lively’s direction.” While it doesn’t mention a surname, a text message included in the lawsuit and sent by Baldoni to Lively after the meeting said the actor “love[d] what [Lively] did” with the script and “would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor.”
While Baldoni’s filed by Baldoni against The New York Times, who was the first to report on Lively’s claims of an orchestrated smear campaign.
That suit accuses the paper of defaming Baldoni by publishing a one-sided story with the “cherry picked” and doctored evidence of the text exchanges with his PR team. As we await what will undoubtedly be a new update in this Hollywood drama, Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman left us with a message in of his client. “Justin and his team have nothing to hide,” he said. “Ms. Lively will never again be allowed to continue to exploit actual victims of real harassment solely for her personal reputation gain.”
Published: Jan 17, 2025 04:15 am