While Ryan Reynolds was not present at the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards, he was still honored to receive a coveted trophy.
“Zing! Thanks @criticschoice — whole team @deadpoolmovie is thrilled,” Reynolds, 48, wrote via Instagram on Friday, February 7. “But wait a minute. … Huge congrats to @arealpainfilm.”
Deadpool & Wolverine and A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut, tied for Best Comedy during Friday’s awards ceremony. The category was not announced during the live broadcast and instead received brief recognition ahead of a commercial break.
Eisenberg, 41, was present at the Critics Choice Awards, where he was nominated for Best Original Screenplay. He ultimately lost to The Substance’s Coralie Fargeat. Eisenberg’s costar Kieran Culkin, however, did take home the hardware for Best Supporting Actor despite skipping the ceremony in favor of Broadway rehearsals in New York City. (Culkin, 42, is gearing up to perform in the stage revival of Glengarry Glen Ross.)
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Reynolds similarly missed the ceremony, where Deadpool & Wolverine was only up for the singular honor. Instead, the Canadian actor made an unrelated appearance at the JP Morgan Summit.
“Had an amazing time on stage at the @jpmorgan summit with Bob Iger and Bryan Lourd,” he wrote via Instagram Stories on Friday. “Those boys are SHARP. Surprised to discover my mom there. She wanted to see Iger.”
Reynolds has recently been involved in an ongoing, contentious and very public legal battle that even served as fodder in Chelsea Handler’s Critics Choice monologue. His wife, Blake Lively, sued her It Ends With Us costar and director, Justin Baldoni, in December 2024 for alleged sexual harassment and trying to destroy her reputation. Baldoni, 41, has repeatedly denied the claims and filed his own $400 million defamation lawsuit last month.
In his court filing, where Baldoni named Lively, 37, Reynolds and their team of publicists, the Jane the Virgin alum accused the former Gossip Girl actress of allegedly trying “to make Baldoni the real-life villain in her story” to mask her alleged “tone-deaf” promotion of the film.
Lively and Reynolds have both denied the accusations. Earlier this month, both camps’ lawyers met for their first legal hearing. While a trial date has been set for March 9, 2026, a judge ruled that it could be moved up if complaints continue to be “litigated in the press.”
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“We are pleased with the result of today’s hearing and eager to move forward immediately with discovery in this case,” Lively’s team told Us in a statement. “The Court granted our request that all attorneys in the matter actually follow the rule of law and not make any statements that could prejudice a jury. This case deals with serious allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation. We will hold the defendants accountable, and we are confident that once all the evidence is submitted in this matter, Ms. Lively will prevail.”
Baldoni’s attorneys, meanwhile, told Us, “Our clients are devastated and want to move the case along as quickly as possible. We just couldn’t be more pleased with how the case was handled today, how it was managed. We’re going to move as quickly as we possibly can and prove our innocence, in a world where sometimes people judge you before they give you a chance. And we’re going to change that.”
