Justin Baldoni's production company Wayfarer Studios has filed a new lawsuit against Blake Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and her publicist Leslie Sloane, seeking $400 million over their alleged campaign to destroy the 40-year-old's reputation and to take away creative control of the 2024 film It Ends With Us.
The documents also bring Blake's close friend Taylor Swift into the allegations, with Justin claiming that at one point Taylor walked into a meeting between Blake and Justin in order to praise Blake's new rewrites.
In a statement, Justin's attorney Bryan Freedman said: "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."
© InstagramHe continued: "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."
In the lawsuit, Justin claims Blake rewrote a critical scene where the main characters meet, and that during production he met Blake at her New York City home to discuss it further.
Justin says Ryan was there from the start "singing the praises of Blake's rewrite" and that hours later Taylor also arrived at the apartment to "offer her two cents".
The documents, as seen by TMZ, also reportedly include emails sent between the two actors before production began with Justin alleging that Blake "expressed warm gratitude" for all the work they'd done to prepare.
© GC ImagesThe lawsuit, the first Justin and his team have filed against Blake directly, alleges that the actress was "determined to make Baldoni the real-life villain in her story" to deflect from her own perceived failings.
Blake was criticized for failing to discuss the film's themes of domestic abuse, and for using the press tour to also promote her hair care and drinks brand.
© Getty ImagesOn December 21, 2024 Blake filed a complaint against her It Ends With Us costar, director and co-producer Justin for "severe emotional distress," and alleging "sinister retaliatory tactics" in an effort to smear her name.
Days later she filed a lawsuit in which she alleged a hostile work environment so bad that a workplace meeting was held "with all parties" to address concerns; it was also attended by Blake's husband Ryan and Wayfarer Productions' Jamey Heath.
© GC ImagesBlake claimed that after she reported his bad behavior to her higher-ups, Justin hired a PR crisis team to launch a smear campaign against her, in case she ever went public with her claims.
According to Blake, the PR team proceeded to leak misleading information about her professional conduct as they tried to discredit her; the actress is also suing crisis PR Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel from the PR team.
© GettyIn response, Justin filed a lawsuit against the New York Times which published the first story on Blake's complaints, alleging that the publication was colluding with the actress to ruin his reputation, saying that the journalists "cherry-picked" quotes and "stripped [them] of necessary context and deliberately spliced [them] to mislead."
He also claimed that the newspaper engaged in libel and fraud against him; the NYT has remained steadfast in the wake of the suit, saying that their story was "meticulously and responsibly reported".
