Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively saga takes fresh twist as actor sues It Ends With Us co-star for $400m
Justin Baldoni has filed a reported $400m (£326m) lawsuit against his It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, marking the latest development in their bitter legal battle.
The actor-director filed the suit in New York’s Southern District Court on Thursday, claiming civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy.
The 179-page complaint also names Lively’s publicist Leslie Sloane and her PR firm Vision PR as defendants.
The lawsuit comes less than a month after Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and orchestrating a retaliatory smear campaign against her.
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman issued a strongly-worded statement about the lawsuit, claiming there was “overwhelming” evidence of Lively’s “duplicitous attempt to destroy” his client.
“Blake Lively and her team” had disseminated “grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media,” Freedman claimed.
The lawyer added that Lively was “either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth.”
“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,” Freedman stated.
He insisted his team had “nothing to hide” and that “documents do not lie.”
The dispute began in December when Lively filed a legal complaint accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment during the filming of It Ends With Us.
Her complaint detailed a meeting attended by both Lively and Reynolds with Baldoni and their lawyers to address her concerns.
Lively’s requirements included “no more inquiries about Blake’s weight” and “no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake”.
She also demanded “no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction'” and “no further mentions of cast and crew’s genitalia”.
The actress claimed Baldoni’s alleged behaviour had caused her “grief, fear, trauma and extreme anxiety”.
The film, released in August 2024, proved to be a major box office success, earning more than £280m globally.
Prior to this latest lawsuit, Baldoni had already sued The New York Times for libel over their reporting of Lively’s claims.
The newspaper had published an article titled “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine” on December 21.
The Times defended its reporting as “meticulously and responsibly reported”.
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Baldoni’s legal team alleged the newspaper used “‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead”.
Representatives for Lively, Reynolds and Sloane have not responded to requests for comment on Baldoni’s lawsuit.
The legal battle has drawn significant attention in Hollywood, with both stars having previously worked together on the romantic drama adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel.
The film’s contentious production received substantial media coverage, with the co-stars notably avoiding each other during promotional events.
They were not pictured together on the red carpet at the New York premiere, and Baldoni skipped the London event entirely.