Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s legal battle intensifies with new lawsuit website, texts and 1st court hearing
Lawyers for the feuding former “It Ends With Us” co-stars are in court Feb. 3.
Attorneys for Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have their first court hearing on Feb. 3 for the It Ends With Us drama, but that’s just one of several new developments in the case.
Over the weekend, Baldoni’s legal team filed an amended lawsuit against Lively, who he’s suing for $400 million, alongside her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy. They also launched a website with documents related to the case.
Lively initiated the legal battle, first with a complaint and then a lawsuit, alleging that Baldoni sexually harassed her on the set of the 2024 film, which was based on Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel, and then launched a smear campaign against her when she spoke up. Baldoni directed the film and played Lively’s love interest.
Neither Lively nor Baldoni is expected to be present for the hearing, according to CNN.
New York federal Judge Lewis J. Liman told both sides to be prepared to address complaints about attorney conduct and pretrial publicity, with the possibility that a gag order might be imposed. Lively’s lawyers have accused Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, of making “misleading and selective” public statements about Lively in a public PR campaign, which could taint a jury pool. Baldoni’s legal team accused Lively of a publicity campaign that left him and other defendants the “objects of public scorn and contempt.”
Another issue due to be discussed is when Lively will be deposed. Baldoni’s team said they wanted it to be as soon as possible but claimed her lawyers indicated she wouldn’t agree to have her deposition conducted by Freedman, because of “unspecified statements” he had made.
Lively and Baldoni’s lawsuits against each other will likely be combined into one case for trial, which is expected to begin in March 2026. However, attorneys for Lively and Reynolds indicated that they intend to file a motion to dismiss Baldoni’s lawsuit.
On Jan. 31, Baldoni’s lawyers filed a 224-page amended lawsuit against Lively, Reynolds, the New York Times and Lively’s publicist Leslie Sloane, alleging that they colluded to smear him.
Freedman said in a statement to Variety, “This fresh evidence corroborates what we knew all along, that due to purely egotistical reasons Ms. Lively and her entire team colluded for months to destroy reputations through a complex web of lies, false accusations and the manipulation of illicitly received communications.”
The new allegations include the claim that the New York Times had access to Lively’s civil rights complaint, which outlined her sexual harassment allegations, before it was filed on Dec. 20, for the story it published on Dec. 21. Baldoni’s attorneys said metadata discovered by online readers showed that a “message-embed-generator” used in the article to display text messages sent by Baldoni and his publicity team “referred to a date of ‘2024-10-31.’” They claim the PDF of the complaint was uploaded on Dec. 10 and a video accompanying the story was finalized on Dec. 12, per metadata.
A spokesperson for the New York Times denied to TMZ that the outlet “had early access to Ms. Lively’s state civil rights complaint.” They said the date was generated by Google software and was unrelated to the date when the outlet received it. “Baldoni’s lawyers base[d] their erroneous claim on postings by amateur internet sleuths, who, not surprisingly, are wrong,” the statement said.
Another addition to the amended complaint was the allegation about Reynolds allegedly mocking Baldoni with his Deadpool & Wolverine character Nicepool. The lawsuit claims the scene was shot in January 2024, after Baldoni alleged he was called to Lively and Reynolds’s penthouse, where Lively read him a list of grievances and Reynolds allegedly berated Baldoni.
“Reynolds portrayed Nicepool as a vicious caricature of a ‘woke’ feminist before concluding the character’s arc with his violent shooting death at the hands of ‘Ladypool,’ a character voiced by Blake Lively,” Baldoni’s lawsuit stated. It also claimed Nicepool “intended to be a transparent and mocking portrayal of Reynolds’s warped perception of Baldoni.”
The members of Baldoni’s legal team said they planned to publicly share documents related to the case on a dedicated website aimed at defending the filmmaker against Lively’s allegations, and followed through on Friday.
The website, titled Lawsuit Info, has the amended complaint as well as a 168-page “Timeline of Relevant Events” related to the dispute and the film’s production. It begins with an email from Baldoni to Hoover on Jan. 1, 2019, about the It Ends With Us book, and ends with the claim about the New York Times metadata on Jan. 29, 2025.
Included were previously unseen — and unverified — text messages, including one Lively sent to Baldoni in April 2023 discussing a rewrite of the movie’s rooftop scene.
“if you knew me (in person) longer you’d have a sense of how flirty and yummy the ball busting will play. It’s my love language. Spicy and playfully bold, never with teeth….,” she allegedly texted Baldoni.
Another was purportedly sent from Reynolds to Baldoni in February 2023, saying how excited he was for Lively to work with Baldoni.
“I’m excited for Blake to crack open her creative piggy bank with someone as dynamic as you. This is gonna be INCREDIBLE. I happen to adore you, Justin,” Reynolds allegedly wrote.
Baldoni, who claimed he was steamrolled by Lively in a bid for creative control of the film, also claimed the actress declined to meet with the intimacy coordinator for the film. He shared notes from that meeting.
“These notes would later become the basis for Lively’s Complaint, in which she states that Baldoni would talk about his own sex life and insert gratuitous scenes with Lively’s character orgasming,” Baldoni’s timeline stated. “As seen in the notes, these mentions come directly from the intimacy coordinator’s notes. … Ideally, these conversations would have taken place directly between Lively and the intimacy coordinator directly, as Baldoni had requested; however, Lively declined to meet with her.”
Baldoni also claimed Reynolds had him fired from their mutual agency, WME, which WME has denied. The timeline on the website states that Baldoni’s production company was “informed that Reynolds contacted Baldoni’s personal agent at WME” on July 15, 2024, and called Baldoni “a ‘deranged predator.’” It also claimed that Reynolds “approached a senior executive at WME” at the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere after-party on July 22 and said, “the agency is working with a ‘sexual predator.’”
Baldoni also published on the website a statement he claimed Lively and Reynolds demanded that he release in August 2024. This was around the time of the premiere, as rumors ran rampant of infighting between the co-stars. Baldoni said he refused to issue the statement.
“It Ends With Us was a troubled production which we take full accountability for,” the alleged statement ran. “We are very sorry to everyone we caused upset to privately and publicly. Blake Lively, Colleen Hoover, the entire cast and crew led with professionalism every step of the way, any negativity aimed at them is ours to own. We mutually agreed that the cast would be promoting the film separately and understood why.”
The website launch followed the release by Baldoni’s team of a 10-minute clip of a slow-dancing scene Baldoni and Lively shot for the film. Baldoni also included some texts in his lawsuits against the NYT and Lively.
Lively’s initial lawsuit against Baldoni also included texts. Baldoni asserted that he was smeared by the news outlet and Lively because they took texts that he had sent and reported them out of context.
With multiple lawsuits and even more plaintiffs, here’s a quick guide to the legal battle…
Aug. 9, 2024: It Ends With Us hits theaters. Ahead of its release, there were rumors of a feud between the director-actor and actress.
Dec. 20, 2024: Lively files a sexual harassment complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department.
Dec. 21, 2024: The New York Times story, “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine” comes out with texts purportedly showing Baldoni’s alleged campaign to tarnish Lively’s reputation after she accused him of misconduct.
Dec. 31, 2024: Lively officially files a federal lawsuit against Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios and his publicists, alleging she was retaliated against for reporting the misconduct.
Baldoni and his publicists file a $250 million lawsuit against the New York Times for libel over the article.
Jan. 16, 2024: Baldoni countersues Lively, Reynolds and her publicist for $400 million, accusing them of defamation.
Jan. 31, 2024: Baldoni files an amended complaint against Lively, Reynolds, her publicist and the New York Times and launches his lawsuit website.