Justin Baldoni has initiated a substantial $250 million legal case against The New York Times regarding their coverage of Blake Lively’s sexual harassment allegations and the claimed defamation effort intended to destroy her standing.
Baldoni claimed the Times engaged in biased coverage, stating that Reynolds and Lively confronted him at their New York penthouse where they subjected him to “aggressive berating.”
According to the legal documents, “Lively’s spouse, Ryan Reynolds, had forcefully scolded Baldoni during a gathering at their penthouse in New York, claiming he was ‘fat shaming’ Lively.” The lawsuit continues, “Baldoni, seeking to prevent further conflict with Lively and Reynolds and restore his relationship with his co-star, repeatedly yielded to her demands.”
The lawsuit also states that the pair’s “demeaning and mortifying verbal attack” on him was “carried out, possibly deliberately, while other famous friends were entering and leaving their penthouse.”
The legal document states that Baldoni’s questions about Lively’s weight were “based on Baldoni’s legitimate need for essential information to ensure safety and prevent injury during a scene.” This particular scene required Baldoni’s character Ryle to lift Lively’s character Lily – a potentially challenging task given that the actor “deals with back problems and has several bulging discs.”
According to the lawsuit, despite Baldoni’s “multiple apologies” for any misunderstanding, Lively “declined to perform the lifting scene, although it had been previously practiced with a stunt double.”
The initial allegations from Lively suggested that Baldoni’s comments about her weight and age occurred following the birth of her and Reynolds’ fourth child, Olin, in early 2023. Multiple celebrities have shown support for Lively, including her It Ends With Us castmate Jenny Slate, the novel’s writer Colleen Hoover, actress Amber Heard, her brother Bart Johnson, and others.
In her legal filing, Lively claimed Baldoni inflicted “severe emotional distress” on her and her family, suggesting that a “defamation campaign” was orchestrated against her during the release of It Ends With Us.
