Blake Lively’s Lawsuit Against Justin Baldoni, Explained

Back when the already controversial romantic drama It Ends With Us came out in early August, its premiere was shrouded in perplexing feud rumors. People began to notice that star and director Justin Baldoni was noticeably not interacting with the rest of the film’s cast at all during its press push. Or, perhaps, the cast wasn’t interacting with him. Three months later, a lot more information has come to light, as The New York Times published Blake Lively’s official legal complaint against Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and launching a smear campaign against her.

In the suit, Lively claims she held a meeting with Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios in early 2024 to address inappropriate conduct she’d experienced on set, which included showing nude videos to cast members, bringing up past pornography addictions on set, improvised kissing or intimate touching scenes that weren’t scripted, and a lack of an intimacy coordinator on set.

Things got messier when it came time to do press for the film, per Lively’s filing. The claim highlights that the movie’s cast members were obligated to not promote the movie as a story of domestic violence, but rather focus on Lily Bloom’s arc as a story of hope, in order to avoid making it sound sad or heavy. Lively accused Baldoni of going against the promotion strategy “to protect his public image” as people began noticing the cast unfollowing him online.

This all culminates in Lively accusing Baldoni and his company Wayfarer of using “social manipulation” to “destroy” her reputation. Lively’s complaint includes several screenshots of text exchanges allegedly between Baldoni and several crisis PR agents, several of which reference celebrities within Lively’s inner circle and ways to frame narratives around them.

“Our team can also explore planting stories about the weaponization of feminism and how people in BL’s circle like Taylor Swift, have been accused of utilizing these tactics to ‘bully’ into getting what they want,” one message from a PR agent reads.

Another of the text exchanges included in the filing shows Baldoni allegedly texting the PR team with an X thread of Hailey Bieber’s “history of bullying many women,” writing, “This is what we need.”

Finally, in one text exchange, the PR team allegedly pitched to turn “speculation” on “one of the many people [Lively]’s had issues working with” in the past. The three past co-stars brought up as options were Leighton Meester, Anna Kendrick, and Ben Affleck.

In light of the lawsuit, Baldoni has been dropped by his agency WME.

Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman denounced Lively’s claims in a response: “It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives,” Freedman said in a statement to The New York Times.