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The “It Ends With Us” saga continues.
Justin Baldoni, 40, is now suing Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, their publicist Leslie Sloane and Sloane’s PR firm Vision PR, Inc. over the continued drama of “It Ends With Us.”
Baldoni’s attorneys filed a $400 million lawsuit in the Southern District of New York on Thursday, on behalf of the “Jane the Virgin” alum, producer Jamey Heath, publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis publicist Melissa Nathan, claiming Lively, 37, took certain measures to gain control over the 2024 film.
Baldoni is suing on claims of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage, according to the complaint obtained by the Post.
“Lively began inserting herself into the production process in intrusive ways well beyond the scope of her contractual entitlement,” the suit alleges. “For example, Lively began to insist on creative control over her character’s wardrobe. While lead actors are sometimes granted approval over their characters’ general look, they generally do not receive full control over.”
Additionally, the complaint includes a text conversation between Baldoni and Lively about the “rooftop scene” — which also references Lively’s good friend, Taylor Swift.
“I really love what you did. It really does help a lot. Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan or Taylor),” Baldoni wrote. Lively allegedly responded by stating she wants him to “win” as a director and actor, and that Reynolds and Swift are “absolute titans.”
“I’m so lucky to have them as creative barometers,” she wrote.
However, Baldoni’s attorneys are arguing now that their client “felt obliged to text Lively to say that he had liked her pages and hadn’t needed Reynolds and her megacelebrity friend to pressure him.”
“The message could not have been clearer. Baldoni was not just dealing with Lively. He was also facing Lively’s ‘dragons,’ two of the most influential and wealthy celebrities in the world, who were not afraid to make things very difficult for him.”
In a statement, Baldoni’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.”
“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.”
Freedman’s statement concluded: “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.”
Baldoni’s lawsuit comes on the heels of Lively suing the director and his associates in late December, making claims of sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign orchestrated by Baldoni.
Freedman previously alluded to the newest lawsuit during a January 2 interview with NBC News. He shared at the time, “We want the truth to be out there. We want the documents to be out there. We want people to make their determination based on receipts.”
In Lively’s Dec. 20 complaint, the “Gossip Girl” alum claimed that Baldoni’s alleged behavior while making “It Ends With Us” and during its promotion caused her “grief, fear, trauma and extreme anxiety.”
She said the smear campaign caused harm to her business and led to her family experiencing “severe emotional distress.”
“It Ends With Us,” a domestic violence drama based on the bestselling book by Colleen Hoover, was released in theaters this past summer.
During the film’s debut, rumors swirled of a feud between Lively and Baldoni, who refused to appear together to promote the flick.
Lively also suffered a barrage of bad publicity upon the movie’s release, dubbed a “mean girl” after a journalist claimed a past uncomfortable interview with the actress led her to quit her job.
Freedman told The Post about Lively’s lawsuit: “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, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation.”
Baldoni also sued The New York Times for $250 million on Dec. 31 for libel in response to its article “We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.“
The suit alleged that the newspaper used “‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead” in its article about Lively’s complaints against Baldoni.
The New York Times, however defended its article as “meticulously and responsibly reported.” Lively said within that story: “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
The Post has reached out to reps for Lively, Reynolds, and their publicist, Leslie Sloane — who is also named in Baldoni’s lawsuit — and a rep for Swift, but did not immediately hear back.
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