Justin Baldoni‘s studio filed a new lawsuit against his It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively and her publicist, Leslie Sloane, seeking damages of $400 million.
According to the filing obtained by Us Weekly on Thursday, January 16, Lively, 37, was “determined to make Baldoni the real-life villain in her story” to avert from her alleged “tone-deaf” promotion of the film. Baldoni and other plaintiffs — his publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel — claimed Lively was promoting her haircare and alcohol line while amid media surrounding the film about domestic violence. (TMZ was the first to report the news.)
Baldoni alleged that the feud between him and Lively began in May 2023 when the film started. He claimed Lively created a “takeover strategy” while they battled for creative control.
TMZ reported that the documents include emails between Baldoni and Lively before filming began, with Baldoni claiming Lively “expressed warm gratitude” for the preparation but believed she would attempt to gain control.
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Baldoni alleged that Lively hadn’t read It Ends With Us. The lawsuit reads, “she even tried to Google the color of her character’s hair rather than pick up the book.”
Following the lawsuit, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, shared in a statement to Us, “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.”
The statement continued, “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.”
“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,” the statement read. “Let’s not forget, Ms. Lively and her team attempted to bulldoze reputations and livelihoods for heinously selfish reasons through their own dangerous manipulation of the media before even taking any actual legal action. We know the truth, and now the public does too. Justin and his team have nothing to hide, documents do not lie.”
The “publicists affected by Lively” also released a lengthy statement on Thursday. “It is devastating that we are forced to answer this viciously selfish ongoing litigation littered with documented and provable lies in the midst of the tragedy impacting California where we reside,” they began.
“Five months ago Ms. Lively chose to promote a film about domestic violence in a way that caused instant negative and organic backlash due to her own highly publicized actions,” the statement continued. “Instead of accepting responsibility, she decided to cruelly blame us. This malicious attack on private individuals by Ms. Lively and her team in which they chose to spoon feed The New York Times with doctored, out of context and edited text messages in an effort to paint herself as a victim set off a chain of events that has been harmful beyond measure.”
“To be clear, Ms. Lively and her team initiated this smear campaign in the media for the sole intention of gaining undeserved public sympathy for her own missteps,” the statement read. “Over the last month we have received death threats, abhorrent abuse and vile anti-semitic slurs hurled at us due to her decision to use us as scapegoats for her own choices promoting her film in which she made millions of dollars. With this filing, we lift our own curtain of what happens when the entitled weaponize power, fear and money to destroy, intimidate and bully those who get in their way.”
Freedman previously confirmed on January 2 that Baldoni would be suing Lively.
“Absolutely … yes,” Freedman told NBC News. “We plan to release every single text message between the two of them. We want the truth to be out there. We want the documents to be out there. We want people to make their determination based on receipts.”
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s Alleged Feud and Lawsuits Explained
Baldoni, 40, previously filed a lawsuit against The New York Times for libel and false light invasion of privacy. The film director accused the newspaper of “cherry-picking” messages between him and Lively that omitted context to publish their report in her favor.
“In this vicious smear campaign fully orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, the New York Times cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative,” Freedman told Us in a December 2024 statement. “In doing so, they pre-determined the outcome of their story, and aided and abetted their own devastating PR smear campaign designed to revitalize Lively’s self-induced floundering public image and counter the organic groundswell of criticism amongst the online public. The irony is rich.”
He continued: “Make no mistake however, as we all unite to take down The NY Times by no longer allowing them to deceive the public, we will continue this campaign of authenticity by also suing those individuals who have abused their power to try and destroy the lives of my clients. While their side embraces partial truths, we embrace the full truth — and have all of the communications to back it. The public will decide for themselves as they did when this first began.”
Both The Times and Lively denied the accusations.
“This lawsuit is based on the obviously false premise that Ms. Lively’s administrative complaint against Wayfarer and others was a ruse based on a choice not to file a lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer, and that litigation was never her ultimate goal,” Lively’s attorney said in a separate statement.
Baldoni and Lively costarred in 2024’s It Ends With Us, playing lead couple Ryle and Lily. The film, based on Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name, chronicles their abusive relationship. After production wrapped, rumors swirled of a possible feud between the two stars.
Neither Baldoni nor Lively addressed the situation, with a source telling Us there had been “two camps” on set (the duo did not do any press together during the film’s promo cycle). Lively then sued Baldoni for sexual harassment last month.
According to Lively, Baldoni caused her “severe emotional distress” and fostered a “hostile work environment” during production. She also alleged that Baldoni and his publicity team launched a “social manipulation” campaign in a bid to destroy her reputation.
Baldoni, through Freedman, vehemently denied the accusations at the time.
