1 week ago
11
Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's Dueling Lawsuits: A Breakdown of Each Filing
Perhaps ironically, it doesn’t appear as if the legal battle between It Ends With Us costars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni will be wrapping anytime soon.
In early 2023, it was announced that they would star in the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name and that Baldoni would direct. Production began that May but paused mid-June amid the Writers Guild of America strike. What happened during that production period is what Lively and Baldoni disagree on in their lawsuits.
In both her lawsuit filed against Baldoni, his company Wayfarer Studios and others in New York Dec. 31 and her California Civil Rights Department complaint submitted earlier that month, Lively alleged she “and other cast and crew experienced invasive, unwelcome, unprofessional and sexually inappropriate behavior” by him and his company’s CEO/producer Jamey Heath (who is also listed as a defendant in both filings) on the set of It Ends With Us.
She stated in the filings obtained by E! that she “attempted to address and resolve the problems on set” before returning to production and that her attorneys sent Wayfarer’s lawyer a “Protections for Return to Production” document in November 2023 after the WGA and subsequent SAG-AFTRA strikes ended.
According to her filings, a meeting attended by Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, Baldoni, Heath, other producers and a representative for the film’s distributor Sony Pictures took place in New York on Jan. 4, 2024 to “address the hostile work environment that nearly derailed production of the Film.”
After discussing “at length the details of concerns that had been expressed by Ms. Lively and others,” her filings state, “the parties agreed to implement and follow the Protections for Return to Production to ensure that the Film could be completed, marketed, and released safely and successfully.”
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Sony Pictures
However, Baldoni, Wayfarer, Heath and others listed in Lively’s CRD complaint paint a different picture.
In a libel lawsuit they filed against The New York Times Dec. 31 for its Dec. 21 article about an alleged retaliatory smear campaign the plaintiffs purportedly orchestrated against Lively—with the article citing her CRD complaint—they accused her of embarking on a “hostile takeover of the production.”
“Lively waged war on Baldoni, weaponizing innocuous interactions from May and June 2023—long before there was any tension between them—to vilify and discredit him,” the lawsuit obtained by E! News adds. “At the time, Baldoni and Lively had a solid working relationship, and Lively expressed no unease around him. Only after the writer’s strike had ended and filming was set to resume did Lively express any concern about returning to set.”
The lawsuit also says Wayfarer "promptly agreed to her terms" in the Protections for Return to Production document “despite disagreeing with the insinuations underlying them”—adding that some terms were already in place.
“Neither Wayfarer, Heath, nor Baldoni had engaged in any of the behavior alluded to in the Return to Production document, nor did they plan to,” the lawsuit reads. “They thought that was the end of it, and they were ready to move ahead and make a great film.”
In The New York Times lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged Baldoni, Heath, other producers and the Sony representative went to Lively and Reynolds’ New York penthouse Jan. 4 to discuss resuming filming the next day.
“Instead, they were blindsided by Lively and Reynolds, who presented a list of grievances that were both anticipated and troubling,” the lawsuit adds. “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.'"
E! News reached out to Reynolds’ rep for comment but has not heard back. While the plaintiffs called The New York Times’ report “false and defamatory,” the outlet stands by its reporting—saying the article was “meticulously and responsibly reported.”
It Ends With Us premiered in August, and Lively’s filings note “the film has been a resounding success.” However, she alleges in both complaints that Baldoni and his Wayfarer associates embarked on a “digital retaliation campaign” for her raising concern about the alleged misconduct on set.
In The New York Times lawsuit, the plaintiffs denied accusations of a retaliatory campaign and allege “that it was Lively, not Plaintiffs, who engaged in a calculated smear campaign.”
In The New York Times article, the actress denied that she or her reps planted or spread negative information about Baldoni or his company Wayfarer.
To learn more about the timeline of the lawsuits and what Lively’s and Baldoni’s lawyers have said, keep reading.
For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App
English (US) ·