MANHATTAN (CN) — The legal feud between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively reached new heights on Thursday when Baldoni filed a $400 million federal lawsuit against co-star Lively and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, for attempting to “destroy” him and “hijack” the premiere of his film, “It Ends With Us.”
In his 179-page complaint filed in Manhattan’s federal court, Baldoni accuses Lively and her co-defendants of civil extortion, defamation, invasion of privacy, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and intentional and negligent interference in an effort to control the production and release of the movie.
It’s the latest entry in a sprawling Hollywood legal war that started in December 2024 when Lively came forward with allegations of sexual harassment against Baldoni.
Those accusations, Baldoni claims, were intentional falsehoods spread by Lively and Reynolds after a power struggle on the set of “It Ends With Us,” a film based on the 2016 book by the same name, which was directed by Baldoni and produced by Baldoni’s production company.
Baldoni and Lively play the movie’s central couple.
“She set out to destroy plaintiffs’ livelihoods and businesses if they did not bend to her incessant demands,” Baldoni claims in the Thursday lawsuit. “And when they refused to give way, she did exactly that, accusing them of foul and reprehensible sexual misconduct.”
Lively shared those sexual misconduct claims with The New York Times last month, kicking off the flurry of legal action between the film stars.
On Dec. 26, 2024, celebrity publicist Stephanie Jones sued Baldoni in New York Supreme Court for launching a so-called smear campaign against Lively while trying to discredit the sexual harassment allegations in the Times article. On Dec. 31, Lively sued Baldoni for harassment.
Baldoni responded with his own lawsuit against the Times on Dec. 31 in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming that its article sourced by Lively intentionally damaged his reputation with one-sided reporting — allegations the Times denies.
In his Thursday lawsuit, Baldoni took aim at Lively herself. One by one, he rebuked her claims that he was ever inappropriate on or off of the “It Ends With Us” set. Baldoni said that it was actually Lively who engaged in much of the behavior that she called problematic in her own lawsuit.
In one instance, Baldoni claims that Lively initiated several improvised kisses on the set, a practice with which she took issue in her complaint against Baldoni. In another, he says Lively made derogatory comments about his appearance by making fun of his nose and telling him he should get a nose job.
But Baldoni says he brushed aside these instances — motivated solely by the success of the movie — and insists that Lively was open and comfortable with him throughout the filming process.
“Lively was so close and comfortable with Baldoni that she freely breast-fed in front of him during meetings,” Baldoni claims in the suit — another moment that he says was reworked into harassment allegations against him.
At one point, Baldoni says Reynolds berated him after he asked Lively’s personal trainer her weight to avoid inflaming his injured back.
“‘How dare you fucking ask about my wife’s weight? What’s wrong with you?’” Reynolds said, according to Baldoni.
Baldoni said he apologized profusely for the incident, despite feeling that it was “completely unwarranted.”
“To characterize his sensitivity to her personal reaction to his creative direction, which was not only innocuous but well intended, is malicious,” Baldoni wrote. “To then share this knowingly false characterization with the New York Times for publication months before filing any formal complaint, then waiting nearly two weeks to file the complaint with this court (thus depriving him the opportunity to engage in discovery before the damage is done), is inexcusable.”
Lively’s goal, according to Baldoni, was to weaponize her and her husband’s power and “steal an entire film right out of the hands of its director and production studio” while crafting a narrative that casts her in the best possible light — at Baldoni’s expense.
“Then, when Lively and Reynolds’ efforts failed to win them the acclaim they believed they so richly deserved, they turned their fury on their chosen scapegoat,” Baldoni says.
Following the accusations Baldoni’s talent agency WME, which also represents Reynolds and Lively, dropped him as a client. Amid the controversy, the women’s rights nonprofit Vital Voices also rescinded an award it gave Baldoni for his work furthering positive masculinity.