D-Day Has Arrived

On Thursday, Justin Baldoni sued his former co-star Blake Lively, her publicist, and her husband in a bombshell suit that includes multiple text messages and none other than Taylor Swift.

By Audra Heinrichs | January 16, 2025 | 4:37pm

Photo: Getty Images Celebrities Celebrity News

The day Justin Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman has threatened since December has finally arrived: his client has officially sued his former co-star, Blake Lively, her publicist, Leslie Sloane, and her husband, Ryan Reynolds.

On Thursday, the actor-director, his production company, Wayfarer, chief executive Jamey Heath, and their public relations representatives, Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, filed a $400 million lawsuit in the Southern District of New York, alleging the defendants took measures to obtain control of It Ends With Us, and defame the plaintiffs. Among the claims of wrongdoing in the filing are: civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage.

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“This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media,” Freedman said in a statement to People. “It is clear based on our own all out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret. Blake Lively was either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth.”

Baldoni’s lawsuit—which arrives just weeks after he sued the New York Times—refutes many of his former co-star’s claims in her suit and details a myriad of allegations against Lively and co., including, first and foremost, the use of many manipulation tactics behind the scenes (both during pre and post-production of the movie). The most striking example? Lively refused to return to production after the writer’s strikes concluded without the company first agreeing to a 17-point list of demands that implied misconduct during filming. It was via these stipulations that Lively leveraged control of the movie, the suit claims. Ultimately, she was permitted to make her own cut of the film and given a producer credit. Wayfarer, meanwhile, claimed to be blindsided.

After the film wrapped, Baldoni was allegedly cut from all marketing and promotional efforts at her command. And when the Lively-helmed promotions failed, resulting in public backlash and accusations that she was tone-deaf for marketing a film about domestic violence alongside her own haircare and alcohol products, she is accused of directing Sloane to circulate falsified narratives in the press that portrayed Baldoni as a sexual predator.

The alleged attacks on Baldoni’s character extended to the premiere of Deadpool & Wolverine in July, where Reynolds is accused of approaching an executive at WME (Baldoni’s former agency) and disparaging him with a suggestion that they were working with a “sexual predator.” Weeks later, at the It Ends With Us premiere, Baldoni and his family were allegedly barred to the basement.

“There, they were confined to a makeshift holding area surrounded by concession stand stock, with only foldout tables and chairs arranged in a square,” the filing reads.

Perhaps the most notable allegations detailed in Baldoni’s filing, however, is that Lively didn’t actually read the book and pushed for her character’s wardrobe to reflect someone who “had money” despite owning a small floral shop. Additionally, Lively is accused of seeking defense from Reynolds and her “megacelebrity friend” aka Taylor Swift during production. It’s long been reported (and admitted by Lively) that she and Reynolds participated in re-writing the rooftop scene in It Ends With Us but apparently, Swift also weighed in during an appearance at a meeting at Lively and Reynolds’ home.

When Lively allegedly sent “dramatic” edits that she and Reynolds made to the scene to Baldoni, he replied “diplomatically” and told her the scene would land somewhere between what he worked on and the one she and Reynolds wrote, according to the filing. Lively, per screenshots of their test thread, didn’t reply for days and when she did, confirmed his text “didn’t feel great for her” nor Reynolds or Swift. Further referenced in the filing is a meeting in which Baldoni met with Lively at her home where Reynolds answered the door and offered “enthusiastic praise” of Lively’s edits. Then, Swift allegedly dropped by and did the same.

After the meeting, Baldoni reached out to Lively as he “felt obliged to text Lively to say that he had liked her pages and hadn’t needed Reynolds and her megacelebrity friend to pressure him.” In her reply, she referred to Reynolds and Swift as her “dragons” who protect and advocate for her as they “don’t give a shit” about “threatening egos” or “affecting the ease of the process” as she does.

“The message could not have been clearer. Baldoni was not just dealing with Lively. He was also
facing Lively’s ‘dragons,’ two of the most influential and wealthy celebrities in the world, who
were not afraid to make things very difficult for him,” the filing states.