Justin Baldoni Sues Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds & Publicist Leslie Sloane, Calls Out Taylor Swift
Justin Baldoni is suing his It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and her publicist Leslie Sloane.
Justin and his company, Wayfarer Studios, which produced the film, filed the federal lawsuit Thursday (January 16) accusing Blake and her publicist of orchestrating a smear campaign against himself to take control of their movie.
Blake was “determined to make Baldoni the real-life villain in her story” to deflect from getting publicly trashed as “tone-deaf” during the film’s media tour, according to the legal paperwork provided to Just Jared.
Justin says she was promoting her haircare and alcohol line while promoting a film about domestic violence.
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In the suit, he claims their battle began back in May 2023 when they started shooting the movie, when she organized a “takeover strategy” for creative control.
He also called out Taylor Swift and Blake‘s husband Ryan for getting involved in the writing of the script, claiming Blake had done a rewrite on a critical rooftop scene where the two main stars meet.
He says they had a meeting at Blake and Ryan‘s NYC penthouse about the rewrite, saying that Ryan was there to praise Blake‘s rewrite, and then hours later, Taylor showed up to also support Blake‘s version.
He also claims they battled over wardrobe, and that Blake wanted rich and sexy, while he pointed out that the role was of a struggling small business owner, per TMZ.
Justin also claims Blake hadn’t read the book when they were working on the script: “She even tried to Google the color of her character’s hair rather than pick up the book,” the suit reads.
“This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media. It is clear based on our own all out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret. Blake Lively was either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth. Ms. Lively will never again be allowed to continue to exploit actual victims of real harassment solely for her personal reputation gain at the expense of those without power. Let’s not forget, Ms. Lively and her team attempted to bulldoze reputations and livelihoods for heinously selfish reasons through their own dangerous manipulation of the media before even taking any actual legal action. We know the truth, and now the public does too. Justin and his team have nothing to hide, documents do not lie,” his lawyer Bryan Freedman said in a statement provided to Just Jared.
The suit is seeking no less than $400 million in damages from Blake and her publicist. He is also suing The New York Times for $250 million over their article. Here’s how they responded.
Blake Lively first filed a legal complaint against Justin, accusing him of sexual harassment and starting a smear campaign.
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