The It Ends with us drama is showing no end in sight as Blake Lively is facing a $7million (£5,620,461) lawsuit from a crisis publicist she named in the complaint. Last December, the Gossip Girl actress, 37, filed a bombshell complaint against her co-star and director of author Coleen Hoover’s best-seller Justin Baldoni, 41, alleging sexual harassment. Jed Wallace, who is employed by Texas-based crisis management firm Street Relations, Inc., is reportedly suing Lively for defamation after alleging that he was hired by Baldoni’s PR team to assist in the alleged smear campaign against her.
‘The digital smear campaign’ in question was allegedly used to manipulate public opinion and build negative social responses. Wallace denies claims he was involved. In retaliation to Lively’s bombshell lawsuit, Baldoni’s legal team then filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit – $400million (£323m) – suing both Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, as well as publicist Leslie Sloane and her PR firm, Vision PR Inc.
Most recently, lawyers representing Baldoni and Lively appeared in court for a pretrial meeting at federal court in Manhattan, New York on Monday February 3. Shortly before the hearing, Baldoni published a website Entitled Lawsuit Info, which features two PDFs. One is his ‘Amended Complaint,’ which Baldoni and five other plaintiffs – including his production company, Wayfarer Studios – filed in response to Lively on January 16.
The other is a 168-page ‘Timeline of Relevant Events,’ which recalls Baldoni’s version of happenings leading up to and following production on It Ends With Us, beginning with his first email exchange with Hoover in January 2019. During the promotion of the film earlier last year, Lively became the centre of huge backlash as people complained about her seemingly light-hearted approach to promoting a film that includes heavy themes such as domestic violence.
At premieres and media interviews, she was seen promoting her new hair care range, speaking in depth about her character, Lily Bloom’s clothes, and, on the official It Ends With Us movie TikTok page, even encouraging viewers to ‘Grab your friends, wear your florals, and head out to see it.’. Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are announced as the leads of It Ends With Us, based on the Colleen Hoover book of the same name. They are cast as characters Lily and Ryle, who's idealic romance turns into an abusive relationship.
Baldoni is also chosen to be the director and his production company Wayfarer Entertainment secured rights to the book. Initially, there is excitement around the actors coming on board with Hoover calling it a 'dream'. Filming begins for the movie in New Jersey but is quickly halted just weeks later due to the writers' strike in the US. Things only get started again in January 2024 and the scheduled release date is pushed back from February 9 to June 21 and then August 9. Some pictures later emerge from the set, with fans convinced the actors look tense while communicating.
The press tour for It Ends With Us gets underway, and fans quickly spot that something doesn't seem right. When the film premiered in New York, it was noted that Baldoni spent little to no time with any of the cast and crew, nor did he take any photos with them. This apparent rift was compounded at the screening in which the film was introduced by Blake and Colleen. Again, he was no way to be seen.
Lively and Baldoni keep their interviews separate, and seem to strike a different tone. While Baldoni highlighted the reality of domestic abuse, Lively was the centre of huge backlash as people complained about her seemingly light-hearted approach to promoting a film that includes heavy themes such as domestic violence. However, the discussion rapidly turned from the film promotion to unearthing old interviews with Lively or generally criticising her style, personality, and life.
Despite the hints of backstage fracture, Baldoni complimented Lively in some interviews. While speaking to Movies.ie, Baldoni spoke about how great it was to work with Lively, describing her as an ‘all-encompassing creative who makes everything she touches better’. He added: ‘I believe she gave the performance of a lifetime, and I can’t wait for people to see how great she is in this film.’.
In an 80-page legal document Lively accused Baldoni of ‘repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behaviour’. Lively’s complaint claims that during filming, the atmosphere on set became so uncomfortable that an all-staff meeting was called to try and work through the problems creating a hostile set. The studio behind the romantic drama is also accused of embarking on a ‘multi-tiered plan’ to damage Lively’s reputation.
