The ongoing legal battle between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively has heated discussions among netizens for the past few days. Now, the case took a dramatic turn as Baldoni filed a $250 million counter-lawsuit against The New York Times for libel and invasion of privacy. They accused the newspaper of misrepresenting facts in its December 21 article, “We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.”
The countersuit accuses Lively of publicly humiliating him and ostracizing his family during the premiere of It Ends With Us. The lawsuit also implicates Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds. It alleges that the Hollywood power couple orchestrated a campaign to damage Baldoni’s career.
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US Weekly has obtained court documents. According to them, Baldoni alleges that Lively initially attempted to ban him and his team at Wayfarer Studios from attending the film’s premiere. It was only after serious pressure that Lively agreed to let them attend. Their attendance was granted under “humiliating conditions.”
“Further undermining Baldoni’s role, Lively initially refused to permit his attendance at the Film’s premiere,” the lawsuit states. “Only after significant pressure did she reluctantly agree to allow Baldoni and the Wayfarer team to attend, but under humiliating conditions. The Wayfarer team and their families, including Baldoni and [producer Jamey] Heath, were segregated from the main cast, barred from the exclusive after-party, and forced to organize their event at additional cost.”
Baldoni also alleges that his red carpet time was intentionally shortened. He, along with his family, was restricted to a basement holding area before being excluded from the main event. Further allegations include, “Not only had Lively stolen the Film, but she also robbed Baldoni and his team of any genuine opportunity to celebrate their hard work.”
The lawsuit has also accused Ryan Reynolds. It alleges that his actions alongside Lively were targeted at sabotaging Baldoni’s career. Baldoni accuses Reynolds of engaging in “aggressive behavior” and claims the actor pressured his former agency, WME, to drop him as a client.
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“In Baldoni’s filing, there is a claim that Reynolds pressured Baldoni’s agent at the ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ premiere. However, WME has clarified in response. “This is not true.”
Baldoni also stated that Reynolds had accused him of “fat-shaming” Lively. The lawsuit suggests that these actions were part of a bigger attempt to isolate and damage Baldoni’s professional progress.
Lively has filed her lawsuit against Baldoni, alleging offenses including “creating a hostile work environment,” “sexual harassment,” and “launching a smear campaign” against her. Shortly after the filing, WME cut ties with Baldoni.
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Baldoni, who served as the film’s director, executive producer, and co-star, also claims that his role was deliberately diminished and that the alleged treatment undermined both his professional contributions and his ability to celebrate the film’s success.
As the legal battle keeps taking a turn from this to others, netizens seem quite frustrated. Some of the social media users wrote the movie is ‘crap’ while one user noted the movie is ‘garbage and not worth all this destruction.’
