Justin Baldoni has sued Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, alleging that the Hollywood couple sought to “destroy” him and his career, after hijacking his film, “It Ends With Us.”
Baldoni’s complaint is the latest escalation in the ongoing legal battle stemming from the film that Baldoni directed and co-starred in with Lively.
“This is not a case about celebrities sniping at each other in the press. 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,” the lawsuit states.
“Lively wields immense power as one of the world’s best-known celebrities,” the suit continues, alleging that Lively “used that power to seize control of the film,” which was directed by Baldoni, and produced and co-financed by Baldoni’s production company. “She set out to destroy Plaintiffs’ livelihoods and businesses if they did not bend to her incessant demands, and when they refused to give way, she did exactly that, accusing them of foul and reprehensible sexual misconduct.”
The 179-page complaint — in which Baldoni is seeking $400 million and demanding a jury trial — was filed in the Southern District of New York on behalf of Baldoni, his company Wayfarer Studios, as well as his producing partner, Jamey Heath, his crisis manager, Melissa Nathan, his publicist Jennifer Abel and the It Ends With Us LLC. The defendants are accused of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy.
“Lively stole Wayfarer’s movie, hijacked Wayfarer’s premiere, destroyed Plaintiffs’ personal and professional reputations and livelihood, and aimed to drive Plaintiffs out of business entirely,” the lawsuit states.
Lively’s legal team told CNN in a statement Thursday that Baldoni’s suit “is another chapter in the abuser playbook. This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim.”
“They are trying to shift the narrative to Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she seized creative control and alienated the cast from Mr. Baldoni. The evidence will show that the cast and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer. The evidence will also show that Sony asked Ms. Lively to oversee Sony’s cut of the film, which they then selected for distribution and was a resounding success,” the statement also said.
The ongoing saga between Lively and Baldoni erupted in December, when Lively first filed a civil rights complaint, claiming that she was sexually harassed by Baldoni during production of the film and then was retaliated against for speaking up about her alleged mistreatment. Baldoni immediately denied Lively’s claims.
Lively eventually escalated her civil rights complaint, officially filing a lawsuit against Baldoni just weeks ago.
Lively alleged that after being sexually harassed with inappropriate comments and behavior on set, Baldoni’s team then orchestrated a smear campaign against her to ruin her reputation in the public sphere. Lively’s complaint contained hundreds of text messages between Baldoni and his crisis PR team, including one text that read they could “bury” her.
Baldoni’s new suit presents a much different perspective, accusing Lively of actually defaming Baldoni.
“Though Lively claimed Baldoni was the one smearing her, the reality is that it was Lively and her team who carefully planned and implemented a vile smear campaign against Baldoni and Wayfarer to deflect attention and blame for Lively’s disastrous misjudgments,” Baldoni’s suit states. “Lively would recast herself as the long-suffering martyr by portraying Baldoni and Wayfarer as her persecutors: the masterminds behind a smear campaign that evidence will show did not exist.”
The public legal battle has exposed the inner workings of the teams behind Hollywood stars with multiple lawsuits, all of which have accused publicists on both sides of wrongdoing.
Lively and Reynolds’ publicist, Leslie Sloan, is also named as a defendant alongside Lively and Reynolds in the complaint filed Thursday.
Sloan did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment on her behalf or for her clients, Lively and Reynolds.
Baldoni’s team has said that Lively’s lawsuit contained “cherry picked” text messages that only told her side of the story.
After Lively filed her initial complaint, Baldoni sued the New York Times in a $250 million lawsuit, accusing the newspaper — which was first to report on Lively’s allegations — of working alongside Lively’s team to publish a one-sided article that benefited Lively and contained doctored evidence. Baldoni’s suit against the publication contained more text messages that appeared to show additional context.
The New York Times has denied Baldoni’s allegations and said it stands by their reporting.
Bryan Freedman, the attorney representing Baldoni and all plaintiffs, told CNN in a statement on Thursday that he has an “overwhelming amount of untampered evidence” that proves Lively, Reynolds and their team attempted to destroy Baldoni and his team by “disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media.”
“Justin and his team have nothing to hide, documents do not lie,” Freedman said. “Ms. Lively will never again be allowed to continue to exploit actual victims of real harassment solely for her personal reputation gain at the expense of those without power.”
“It Ends With Us” explores intimate partner violence. The central couple is played by Baldoni and Lively. The film, based on the best-selling book of the same name, made more than $350 million globally at the box office.
“Heartbreakingly, a film that Baldoni envisioned years ago would honor the survivors of domestic violence by telling their story, with the lofty goal of making a positive impact in the world, has now been overshadowed beyond recognition solely as a result of Lively’s actions and cruelty,” his suit states.
Baldoni’s lawsuit claims that Lively sought to take over much of the film’s creative direction, including having her husband, Reynolds, re-write a scene and make “unauthorized changed to the script in secret.” (Reynolds had no formal role on “It Ends With Us.”)
The suit claims that Lively “summoned” Baldoni to the penthouse she shares with Reynolds in New York City for a meeting about the script, where Reynolds, along with a “mega celebrity friend” of the couple, praised Lively’s proposed revisions to the script.
“As the meeting was ending, a famous, and famously close, friend of Reynolds and Lively, walked into the room and similarly began praising Lively’s script,” the lawsuit states. “Baldoni understood the subtext: he needed to comply with Lively’s direction for the script.”
One of the text messages included in Baldoni’s suit appears to show an exchange between Baldoni and Lively about the script: “I really love what you did. It really does help a lot. Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor),” he wrote with a wink emoji. “You really are a talent across the board. Really excited and grateful to do this together.”
While Baldoni’s text message does not include a last name for “Taylor,” Lively is close friends with the artist Taylor Swift. CNN has reached out to representatives for Baldoni, Lively, Reynolds and Taylor Swift to inquire whether the “Taylor” mentioned in Baldoni’s text is, in fact, Swift.
According to Baldoni’s lawsuit, a screenshot of a text message shows that Lively then replied to Baldoni, “That’s very appreciated,” then writing, “We’re in this together.” In that same text message, Lively later wrote, “I have no motives except to you to win. As an actor. As a studio. As a writer. If you win, I win. If you win our movie wins. We are aligned. And I will bring everything I have to this.”
The new suit also claims that Reynolds once “swore at Baldoni and accused him of fat-shaming his wife” at the couple’s New York home. Baldoni denied the allegation in his lawsuit, stating he inquired about Lively’s weight to his trainer so he could prepare for a scene in which he was supposed to lift her, while working with a back injury.
Baldoni’s latest lawsuit brings Reynolds — one of Hollywood’s highest-earning A-list stars — into the legal drama. Baldoni’s previous filings have mentioned Reynolds, but now he is officially named as a defendant, accused of assisting his wife in taking over the film and taking down Baldoni’s career.
After Lively’s initial complaint accused Baldoni of sexual harassment, Baldoni was dropped as a client by the talent agency, WME, which also represents Lively and Reynolds. Baldoni’s lawsuit accuses Reynolds of encouraging WME to drop Baldoni, which the agency has denied.
In the wake of Lively’s lawsuit, Baldoni was also rescinded an award from a women’s organization. Baldoni’s public image has been intertwined with feminism – the actor and filmmaker hosted a TED Talk and a podcast about redefining masculinity.
