In a stunning unraveling of Hollywood sheen, a once-promising creative partnership has imploded into a high-stakes legal battle commanding headlines, hashtags, and heated op-eds. Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, once poised to usher It Ends With Us into romantic-drama canon, now stand at the heart of an explosive controversy that’s shaken the entertainment industry—and called into question the cost of speaking up in an era that promised change.
The Allegations: Power, Consent, and Reputational Warfare
It began quietly, behind the polished façade of press tours and premiere gowns. But in a civil rights complaint filed with California’s Civil Rights Department and later unearthed by The New York Times, Lively accused Baldoni—her co-star, director, and producer on the project—of sustained sexual harassment and psychological retaliation. The complaint, backed by thousands of subpoenaed messages and emails, paints a chilling portrait of behind-the-scenes coercion: from unsolicited nude videos and inappropriate discussions of pornography to personal jabs about her weight and deceased father.
The set, once envisioned as a space for creative exploration, allegedly morphed into a battlefield. According to Lively, she raised safety concerns, requested boundaries, and negotiated a formal agreement involving intimacy coordinators and a halt on improvised sexual content. These boundaries, she claims, were eventually weaponized against her.
Hollywood’s Mask Slips
In the complaint, Lively asserts that Baldoni and producer Jamey Heath launched a retaliatory smear campaign after fearing their reputations as feminist-forward creatives would be “tainted.” According to internal communications cited in the filing, both men sought to redirect the narrative—away from their alleged misconduct and toward discrediting their star.
Wayfarer Studios, the production house behind the film, initially approved Lively’s conditions for safer filming. Yet behind closed doors, Lively’s team alleges a “social manipulation” campaign took root, bolstered by PR strategies and quietly choreographed exclusion. The red carpet told its own story: Baldoni and Lively were never seen together during the It Ends With Us press tour. At premieres, they posed separately. Joint interviews? Absent. Whispers of a feud turned deafening.
The Counteroffensive—and Its Collapse
Baldoni, maintaining his innocence throughout, launched not one but two lawsuits in swift retaliation: a $250 million suit against The New York Times for its reporting, and a subsequent $400 million lawsuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, their publicist Leslie Sloane, and her PR firm. The charges ranged from defamation to civil extortion.
His legal team, helmed by attorney Bryan Freedman, alleged Lively and her circle engaged in “a duplicitous attempt to destroy” Baldoni’s reputation by leaking doctored communications and manipulating the media. At the core of the counterclaim? A January 2024 meeting at the Lively-Reynolds apartment, where Reynolds allegedly confronted Baldoni over fat-shaming comments and demanded an apology. Baldoni described the encounter as “traumatic.”
On June 9, however, Judge Lewis J. Liman dismissed Baldoni’s countersuit. A source close to Lively told People that she “cried with relief.”
The Video That Sparked a Firestorm
Attempting to reclaim the narrative, Baldoni’s team released a 10-minute behind-the-scenes video showing him with Lively on set—smiling, whispering, even caressing her face and neck. Framed by Baldoni’s camp as evidence of “chemistry,” the footage backfired.
Lively’s attorneys called it damning: a display of physical boundary violations, unsolicited intimacy, and abuse of power—all without consent or the presence of an intimacy coordinator. “Any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognize Ms. Lively’s discomfort,” they said in a statement.
Sisterhood Speaks: Hollywood Responds
If Baldoni underestimated Lively’s reach—or resolve—the tidal wave of support that followed proved otherwise. America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel, and Amber Tamblyn—Lively’s Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants co-stars—issued a joint statement standing “in solidarity” with their longtime friend. “Even if a woman is as strong, celebrated, and resourced as our friend Blake,” they wrote, “she can face forceful retaliation for daring to ask for a safe working environment.”
Other A-listers soon followed: Gwyneth Paltrow, Amy Schumer, Shawn Levy, and It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover all publicly voiced their support. Behind the scenes, the consequences for Baldoni mounted—his talent agency, WME, dropped him. His podcast The Man Enough, centered around modern masculinity, was suspended following cohost Liz Plank’s resignation.
What’s Next?
As of now, the legal dust is far from settled, but the cultural conversation is only beginning. The case has raised uncomfortable but urgent questions: What does accountability look like in post-#MeToo Hollywood? Can feminist branding survive scrutiny? And what happens when a woman with power still finds herself fighting to be believed?
In this saga of scripts and subpoenas, Blake Lively has emerged not just as an actress under fire—but as a voice, however tremulous, cutting through the curated noise of celebrity silence. And in an industry built on illusion, her willingness to name what others bury may be the most radical act of all.
