Ryan Reynolds was all smiles in his first red carpet appearance since his wife Blake Lively sued Justin Baldoni.
The Deadpool & Wolverine actor, 48, stepped out in New York City on Tuesday, January 7, for the National Board of Review Annual Awards, where he presented the Best Film award to Wicked.
Reynolds cut a suave figure on the red carpet, wearing a gray suit with black satin lapels. The star accessorized his look with a dashing pair of reading glasses.
Wicked stars Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and Ethan Slater joined the actor on stage at Cipriani Wall Street as he presented them with the Best Film prize. Reynolds was pictured hugging both Grande and Erivo as they took the stage.
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Tuesday’s red carpet appearance comes after Reynolds, Lively and Deadpool & Wolverine costar Hugh Jackman opted not to attend the Golden Globes on Sunday, January 5, amid Lively’s ongoing legal battle with her It Ends With Us costar and director.
“Ryan and Hugh were not confirmed to attend and the decision has nothing to do with [sic] legal battle,” a source confirmed to Us Weekly on Saturday, January 4.
According to Deadline, Lively, Reynolds and Jackman decided not to attend the awards ceremony on Sunday well before the It Ends With Us legal issues, and their respective absences were unrelated to the ongoing scandal.
Lively, 37, filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, 40, on December 31, accusing him of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment on the set of their Colleen Hoover film adaptation. On the same day, Baldoni filed a lawsuit against The New York Times for its coverage of an earlier complaint Lively filed with the California Civil Rights Department, accusing the publication of libel and false light invasion of privacy, among other things.
Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, confirmed last week that the actor/director is planning to file a separate lawsuit against Lively.
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“We plan to release every single text message between the two of them. We want the truth to be out there,” Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman told NBC News on Thursday, January 2. “We want the documents to be out there. We want people to make their determination based on receipts.”
Reynolds, for his part, has found himself drawn into the costars’ legal battle. In Baldoni’s lawsuit against the New York Times, he accused Reynolds and Lively of an “inappropriate and humiliating berating” in an allegedly hostile meeting at their New York City apartment before filming It Ends With Us and that they chastised him for “fat-shaming” Lively. Baldoni said the confrontation was “delivered, perhaps intentionally, as other celebrity friends were coming in and out of their penthouse.”
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Baldoni also claimed that Reynolds pressured Baldoni’s agent to drop him as a client at the New York City premiere of Deadpool & Wolverine last year in an attempt at “destroying Baldoni’s career and personal life.” (Baldoni was dropped as a client by WME last month.)
On January 1, WME told The Hollywood Reporter, “In Baldoni’s filing, there is a claim that Reynolds pressured Baldoni’s agent at the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere. This is not true. Baldoni’s former representative was not at the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere nor was there any pressure from Reynolds or Lively at any time to drop Baldoni as a client.”
