There are more than a few recognizable names in the lawsuit Blake Lively has filed against her It Ends With Us costar and director, Justin Baldoni.
Lively, 37, sued Baldoni, 40, for sexual harassment in the lawsuit which was filed on Friday, December 20.
In the lawsuit, obtained by Us Weekly after it was reported on by TMZ and The New York Times, Lively also accused Baldoni of launching a smear campaign to “destroy” her reputation.
Celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Leighton Meester, Anna Kendrick, Ben Affleck, Hailey Bieber and Ryan Reynolds are all referenced within the court documents.
Scroll on to see how the A-listers were mentioned in the court exhibits.
Taylor Swift Mentioned in Justin Baldoni’s Alleged Blake Lively Takedown Plan
Leighton Meester, Anna Kendrick and Ben Affleck
According to a “scenario planning” document attached to the complaint seen by Us Weekly, Lively’s previous working relationships with Meester, Kendrick and Affleck were a point of interest for Baldoni’s crisis management team. (Lively worked with Meester on Gossip Girl from 2007 to 2012, Kendrick on 2018’s A Simple Favor and Affleck in 2010’s The Town)
In response to the hypothetical scenario that “Blake subtly hints at her ‘experience’ [with Baldoni in It Ends With Us] in post-premiere coverage, either in an op-ed, interview or otherwise”, Baldoni’s side suggested encouraging journalists to scrutinize Lively’s past working relationships with the three named actors as one of the response options.
“These pieces will likely come out following any potential hit piece and/or coverage from the
premiere,” the document reads. “Our recommended approach would be to provide reporters who reach out for comment, should it be obvious she’s referring to you, with the appropriate background information (listed in Scenario 1) to ensure their stories are balanced and the speculation can be turned to another one of the many people she’s had issues working with (Leighton Meester, Anna Kendrick, Ben Affleck, etc.).”
Gossip Girl executive producer Joshua Safran told Vanity Fair in 2017 that Lively and Meester “were not friends” like their characters. “They were friendly, but they were not friends like Serena and Blair,” he said. “Yet the second they’d be on set together, it’s as if they were.”
“Blake is very much in the moment,” Safran continued. “Blake knows what’s happening. You talk to Blake on a very contemporary level, and she would be like, ‘I’m doing this thing tonight. Have you been to this restaurant?’” Meester, in comparison, was “very removed and very quiet” on the set. Safran remembered that Meester would do her own thing when Gossip Girl wrapped scenes.
The two actresses haven’t spoken at length about their on-set relationship, but other cast members have denied a feud. “When we were filming, there was, ‘Leighton hates Blake, Blake hates Leighton, everyone hates Blake, everyone hates Leighton, everyone hates Chace,’ and blah, blah, blah. It really wasn’t,” Michelle Trachtenberg told the outlet. “We were all chill. It was cool.”
Lively and Kendrick, meanwhile, appear to be on good terms as they reunited for the Simple Favor sequel earlier this year. “She lives on the East Coast, I live on the West Coast, so we don’t get to see each other often,” Kendrick told People in October. “But it was lovely, and I think that those characters have such weird chemistry that it’s so fun to just get the gang back together. And it does feel a little bit like riding a bike.”
Affleck, meanwhile, praised Lively in interviews while promoting The Town, calling the actress “very poised and comfortable about it — more mature than some of the crew members” when it came to their sex scene.
Taylor Swift
Swift was also referenced within the lawsuit documents.
Exhibits attached to the complaint showed a crisis management expert working for Baldoni wrote in an August 6 email “we have seen the most innocuous issues turn giant due to socials or the hugest crises have no effect on social whatsoever. You just cannot tell at this stage. But, BL does have some of the same TS fanbase so we will be taking it extremely seriously.”
A separate “scenario planning” document from Baldoni’s side also notes “our team can also explore planting stories about the weaponization of feminism and how people like Taylor Swift, have been accused of utilizing these tactics to ‘bully’ into getting what they want.” (Lively and Swift, 35, have long been close and have documented their friendship over the years.)
Hailey Bieber
Baldoni appeared to use a social media post of Hailey Bieber as an example in an “astroturfing” plan against Lively. (Astroturfing is defined as”‘the practice of publishing opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.”)
According to text exchanges reviewed in a legal complaint obtained by Us Weekly on Saturday, December 21, Baldoni sent a screenshot of an X thread that unpacked “Hailey Bieber’s history of bullying women,” according to the text, writing, “This is what we would need.”
Ryan Reynolds
Based on text exchanges obtained by Us, Baldoni claimed in May 2024 that Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds, 48, had blocked him on social media. Baldoni also claimed Reynolds blocked his production company Wayfarer Studios on Instagram as well.
“We should have a plan for IF she does the same when [the] movie comes out,” Baldoni wrote of Lively in a text exchange with a publicist l, per court documents. “Just want you guys to have a plan. Plans make me feel more at ease.”
