On January 20, the public got a front-row seat to just how ugly things can get behind the scenes in Hollywood. A whopping 181 pages of newly unsealed court documents from Blake Lively’s legal battle with her It Ends With Us costar and director, Justin Baldoni, put private conversations on full display. The contents ranged from juicy to shocking — including messages from Lively to celeb pals Ben Affleck and Matt Damon asking them to watch her cut of the movie and offer feedback, as well as texts between Lively and Taylor Swift in which the singer called Baldoni “a bitch.” The docs also featured Lively’s castmate Jenny Slate calling Baldoni a “clown” and a “false ally,” and Baldoni’s producing partner, Jamey Heath, slamming Lively as “bats**t crazy.”
Elsewhere in the drop, one Sony exec referred to Lively as a “f**king terrorist,” while a marketing exec labeled Baldoni “a moron.” The movie studio’s president, Sanford Panitch, criticized Lively for selling her haircare line while promoting the film, which centers on domestic violence. “[It] was epic level stupid,” he wrote in an email. Baldoni’s PR person, Jennifer Abel, called her client “pompous” and “so unlikable and unrealistic as a leading man.”
The lawsuit has been dominating headlines for more than a year, but with A-listers and Hollywood bigwigs now being pulled in even deeper, the docs have marked a new low for everyone involved. Lively, 38, sued Baldoni, 42, in late 2024, claiming he’d sexually harassed her and orchestrated a smear campaign against her; Baldoni, who denied the allegations, filed a since-dismissed $400 million countersuit against Lively, alleging extortion and defamation. The case — which is set to go to trial on May 18 — can’t go away soon enough. “The feeling is frustration,” a source from Affleck and Damon’s circle tells Us Weekly. “There’s a sense of, ‘Why am I being dragged into this?’ It’s created unnecessary stress and irritation, and people feel like it’s become a black hole. Even those who have nothing to do with it are worried about getting mentioned or dragged into public speculation.”
Group chat texts show Reynolds implored Damon and his wife, Luciana, to watch Lively’s version of It Ends With Us. In response, Damon said they’d help “any way we can.” According to the source, Damon and Luciana “aren’t close friends” with Lively, and while they have been supportive throughout the whole situation, “they don’t love that their texts are public.”
Lively similarly emailed Damon’s longtime pal Affleck, with whom she costarred in 2010’s The Town, asking whether he and his then-wife, Jennifer Lopez, could screen her cut of the film. “If I would’ve just formally directed it, it would’ve been much easier, but having to troubleshoot through his taste, ego and preexisting decisions made it so difficult and that’s not even touching on any of the wild HR issues and beyond,” Lively wrote, describing Baldoni as a “chaotic clown.” Affleck “didn’t respond to Blake’s email; he was filming a busy,” says the source, adding that they don’t believe he saw the film ahead of time. Lopez, for her part, “didn’t even know this was happening at the time and wants no involvement,” explains the source. “[She] has no affiliation with Blake or the film.”
For the celebs caught in the crossfire, the fallout runs the gamut from minor annoyance to PR crisis. While the correspondence with Affleck and Damon seems relatively harmless, texts between actress and feminist Jameela Jamil and Abel, the publicist who represented both Jamil and Baldoni, may be more damaging. Jamil called Lively “a suicide bomber” and said she’s “never seen such a bizarre villain act before” in response to Lively’s light tone while doing press for It Ends With Us. On January 25, Jamil addressed her statements saying via TikTok that she was “purely venting” about Lively’s “press rollout,” adding that as the victim of domestic violence, “It offended me.” (Lively has said the marketing plan was to keep things upbeat.)
What was once a behind-the-scenes war involving Lively and Baldoni has become a Hollywood dumpster fire. The first source says there’s “a growing sentiment that the situation has crossed from a private dispute into an industry-wide headache.” Adds a Lively source: “People in Hollywood have been distancing themselves from Blake and Ryan. Even close friends of theirs have been keeping their heads down and staying neutral.” (A source close to the matter emphasizes that Lively’s private texts were only unsealed because Baldoni’s team submitted them as evidence.) PR expert Mark Borkowski says “no one wants to be an accessory in someone else’s legal psychodrama,” adding that for the stars who’ve been dragged into it, “their reputational risk is minimal — but their irritation levels will be off the charts.”
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Both Lively and Baldoni have clocked legal and PR wins and losses. It seemed Lively had the upper hand after Baldoni’s case was dismissed in June (he later missed the deadline to amend his filing), but some feel the release of the documents puts things in a new light. “Many of the messages strengthen Baldoni’s defense and corroborate his position that the dispute was about creative input, not harassment,” says entertainment and defamation lawyer Tre Lovell, noting that Lively’s missives to Affleck and Damon — in which she told them Baldoni had “zero experience” and “no taste” — are “about control.”
Senior lawyer Rachael Bennet notes that looking at the correspondence between Lively and Swift, “some of the conversations could undermine her claims that there was some kind of imbalance of power.” In a series of July 2023 texts, Lively asks Swift to endorse her script revisions even without having read them. In April 2024, the pair also discussed a plan to use Swift’s song in the film’s trailer. Swift wrote: ‘If Justin was strategic he would be like no Taylor Swift in the trailer because that gives you more power over the film, that’s your ally not his.’” Lively responded: “You are so right… How stupid. This was his only shot at having the appearance of an upper hand.’”
A source close to the matter tells Us that having her texts out there made Swift “feel exposed and kind of violated, like, something private suddenly wasn’t hers anymore. That doesn’t sit well with her.” Lively and Swift’s relationship remains strained. “It’s not what it once was,” notes the source. “There has been an emotional gap that’s hard to ignore, and rebuilding that closeness doesn’t feel simple or immediate. Their friends aren’t sure if they will ever be back to how they used to be.” The source adds that Swift has “some hesitation” about inviting her to her upcoming wedding to Travis Kelce. “It would likely trigger a media frenzy.”
A second source says the pair haven’t spoken much this past year. “They may have exchanged texts here and there since, but it’s been a long time since they’ve had a meaningful conversation. Taylor has stepped back because it has eroded a bit of trust between them,” explains the source, noting that while Swift knows Lively didn’t intend to pull her into the mess, she feels “violated by proximity.” Adds the second source: “When Taylor got pulled into this, it triggered boundary tightening… It will take time to see how things end up between them.”
Regarding Lively and Swift’s conversations, Borkowski notes that “once private emotion starts to look like coordinated positioning — especially with celebrity ballast attached — the public imagination leaps straight to power dynamics. And it rarely leaps in your favor.” However, attorney Marjorie Mesidor notes, “The defense is framing this as evidence of power plays, but it’s really just friends discussing film marketing strategy.” In May 2025, a spokesperson for Swift refuted Baldoni’s claims that Lively used her friendship with Swift to gain control over It Ends With Us, stating: “Taylor Swift never set foot on the set of this movie, she was not involved in any casting or creative decisions, she did not score the film, she never saw an edit or made any notes on the film.”
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Mesidor believes the correspondence backs up Lively’s claims of sexual harassment. “Multiple people beyond Lively complained about the same behavior [from Baldoni],” she says, pointing to Slate, and adding that Lively calling Baldoni a “chaotic clown” in “private messages to trusted friends doesn’t undermine documented workplace complaints.” Mesidor notes that the unsealed texts also prove Baldoni was aware of Lively’s harassment complaints, contradicting his claims that she later used them as leverage. (“She had the nuclear bomb. If she doesn’t promote the movie, she can leak that I’m a bad person or that she felt unsafe with me and ‘all the stuff’ she has on me,” he told Heath in a text.)
“The newly unsealed evidence shows the concerns of Ms. Lively and others were documented in real-time as early as spring 2023, and Wayfarer understood them as ‘sexual harassment’ concerns,” Sigrid McCawley, a member of Lively’s legal team, tells Us. “The evidence also documents how Wayfarer refused to investigate, but instead attempted to ‘bury’ Ms. Lively and others who spoke up through retaliation.”
Civil rights lawyer Lisa Bloom also says the docs add credibility to Lively’s case. “She’s complaining about Baldoni’s misogyny a great deal, and her allegations do not appear to be made up later as some kind of retribution, as he alleges.” Bloom says it helps that the texts from Sony studio execs “sound like they just did not give a damn about Lively or her complaints… [they] come across as uncaring corporate shills.”
However, Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, tells Us: “As stated all along, and reflected in our client’s motions, as well as in messages from Sony discussing Ms. Lively’s behaviors, the evidence does not support the claims as a matter of law. A simple read of the newly released message exchanges make the truth abundantly clear. We remain confident in the legal process and clearing the names of all of the Justin Baldoni parties.”
Public relations optics can be more important than what goes on in the courtroom. “Blake no longer occupies the clean moral high ground,” says Borkowski. “Her messages suggest strategy, alliance-building and a level of backstage choreography that sits awkwardly with a victim-led narrative. Justin’s side looks pared back and lawyered up, while Blake’s camp looks busy, [with] lots of famous names accidentally wandering into shot. It feels reactive rather than ruthless.”
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Bloom says Baldoni’s reputation has also taken a hit. “We now know he was strongly disliked by at least three actresses on set,” she says (referencing Lively, Slate and their costar Isabela Ferrer), “who accuse him of making leering, inappropriate comments.” Adds McCawley: “The newly unsealed evidence contains never-before-seen testimony, messages, and evidence from numerous eyewitnesses backing the claims in Ms. Lively’s lawsuit.”
In late December, a Baldoni source told Us the actor (who shares kids Maiya, 10, and Maxwell, 8, with his wife, Emily) and his team are “exhausted,” adding, “their family and friends just want this nightmare to be over. The contents of the newly released docs have been hard on the actor. “It’s difficult to read about people he thought he had a good relationship with, saying bad things about him,” says a source close to Baldoni. “He’s an incredible guy and just looking forward to getting the truth out there.”
Lively, meanwhile, “has been laying low, only hanging out with her family and trying to take care of herself,” says a source close to the actress and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. (They are parents to James, 10, Inez, 8, Betty, 5, and son Olin, 2.) “She wants this to be over more than anyone. She’s just trying to get through this and come out the other side.” Reynolds, adds the source, “has been very supportive behind the scenes.”
The 49-year-old Deadpool star appears in multiple communications in the cache of documents: in an email to a talent agent, he calls Baldoni “a thoroughbred, predatory fraudster” and “a character study in malignant, lazy-lidded stupidity and darkness” in another text exchange. In a statement to Us, a rep for Reynolds defended his position, saying in part, “He saw his wife fighting daily to stand up against sexual harassment in a private and respectful way, only to face retaliation for doing so. If anything, Ryan feels like he wasn’t angry enough.”
Lively has more at stake professionally. The actress — who’s worth an estimated $30 million — claims she’s missed out on $161 million in damages between past and future wages and profits from her Blake Brown Beauty and Betty Buzz/Booze lines. (She’s seeking about $500 million in damages.) “Blake is taking the bigger reputational hit, largely because she came into this with a much stronger, more established public image,” says crisis PR expert Eleanor McManus, adding that Lively will have to “rebuild trust” and “remind people why they were drawn to her in the first place” once the dust settles. Adds the Lively source: “Blake does worry about the industry’s perception of her after this.”
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Ultimately, it’s a lose-lose situation for both stars — and the people they’ve brought down with them, purposely or otherwise. “The hit this has taken on their brands is much greater than any monetary compensation that could be garnered,” says Lovell, noting that the case is likely to be settled out of court. “This case is being turned into more of a spectacle than it needs to be,” adds PR expert Steven Cuoco. “Both parties are shooting themselves in the foot.” Says Borkowski: “It’s no longer a story about right and wrong. It’s about power, proximity and what happens when private grievance collides with celebrity scale. No one leaves clean.”
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