Justin Baldoni's 'Intense Year' Takes Dark Turn Amid Blake Lively Lawsuit

Justin Baldoni spoke about having an “intense year” before his legal fight with Blake Lively began.

In an upcoming podcast interview, set to be released in November 2024, the director of “It Ends With Us” made his comments, one month prior to his costar filing a lawsuit against him for accusations of sexual harassment and defamation.

On the February 10th episode of the Gents Talk podcast, Baldoni expressed that it had been a challenging year for him, and he also mentioned experiencing anxiety. This is evident from a clip shared on February 7th.

In late December, Lively initiated a lawsuit against Baldoni, claiming she, along with other cast and crew members from the 2024 film “It Ends With Us,” faced intrusive, unwanted, unprofessional, and sexually inappropriate conduct by him on set. Subsequently, she stated that he attempted to harm her reputation by collaborating with a crisis PR team.

In January, the director took legal action by filing a countersuit for $400 million, targeting both Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. He claimed they had engaged in extortion, defamation, and various forms of misconduct. Furthermore, he asserted that Lively and her associates deliberately orchestrated a malicious smear campaign against him.

Speculation about a disagreement between Baldoni and Lively first surfaced last summer, as spectators observed that he was absent from all promotional events featuring her or their co-stars, even the film’s premiere in New York City in August.

As a faithful follower, I’d rephrase that statement like this: According to the director, the actress allegedly resorted to intimidation and blackmailing tactics to demote my former admired peers, forcing them to stay hidden in the backroom during their very own grand premieres.

According to the document acquired by TopMob News, it is alleged that Lively persuaded other cast members to avoid Baldoni, in a first attempt aimed at creating an impression among fans that Baldoni had committed a severe wrongdoing. The filing suggests this mistake was so significant that no one wished to take pictures with him or be in his presence.

Back in January, over a week prior to when I, as a devoted follower, filed my countersuit, a voice recording of me expressing dissatisfaction about perceived sidelining at the premiere of “It Ends With Us” was broadcast on the episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show” that aired on January 7. Notably, this show also hosted an interview with my legal representative.

In the recording, Baldoni claimed that Lively expressed discomfort about his presence not only to him but also to the rest of the cast. As a result, they guided him away from the red carpet and led him downstairs to the basement area.

When TopMob News sought a response, Lively’s representative referred back to an earlier statement that criticized Baldoni’s team for continued attacks allegedly aimed at the actress.

A common strategy for deflecting accusations of such misconduct is to shift the blame onto the accuser by implying they were responsible for the behavior, misinterpreted the actions, or are fabricating the story. Another common tactic is to swap the roles of victim and offender, claiming that the accused party is actually the one who has been wronged.

Keep reading to untangle the ongoing battle between Baldoni and Lively…

Four months following the cinematic release of the film adaptation based on Colleen Hoover’s book “It Ends With Us,” Blake Lively submitted a complaint to the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) against her costar Justin Baldoni and associated parties on December 20, as reported by The New York Times.

The complaint, obtained by TopMob News, named Baldoni, his production company Wayfarer Studios (Wayfarer), its CEO Jamey Heath, its cofounder Steve Sarowitz, Baldoni’s publicist Jennifer Abel, her company RWA Communications, crisis communications specialist Melissa Nathan, her company The Agency Group PR LLC (TAG), contractor Jed Wallace and his company Street Relations Inc. as defendants.

In her complaint, Lively claimed that Baldoni and his Wayfarer associates initiated a “sophisticated press and digital strategy” in retaliation for expressing concerns about alleged on-set misconduct. According to her, she and other cast and crew members were subjected to “invasive, unwelcome, unprofessional, and sexually inappropriate behavior” by Baldoni and Heath.

The actress further stated that this alleged campaign against her caused significant harm to her personally and professionally. The accusations listed in the complaint included sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to investigate, prevent, or remedy harassment, aiding and abetting harassment and retaliation, breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, false light invasion of privacy, and interference with prospective economic advantage.

The following day, The New York Times released a report detailing a suspected counterattack smear operation that Baldoni and his allies were accused of orchestrating against me – referencing my CRD complaint. In their article, they showcased messages exchanged between Baldoni, Abel (his publicist), and Nathan (crisis communications specialist) – all part of the complaint I had filed. The newspaper’s website also provided access to the court documents related to this case. I expressed my hope that my legal action will help expose these underhanded retaliatory tactics used against those who speak up about misconduct, ultimately protecting others from similar targeting.

Following the disclosure of Lively’s complaint, Bryan Freedman – lawyer for Baldoni, Wayfarer, and their representatives – strongly contested Lively’s accusations. In a statement published on The New York Times website, he stated:

“It is regrettable that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and undeniably false allegations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and their representatives. This appears to be another desperate attempt to improve her tarnished reputation, which was earned due to her own comments and actions during the film’s campaign; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real-time, and unedited, enabling the public to form their own opinions. These claims are entirely false, excessive, deliberately sensational, and intended to cause harm and perpetuate a narrative in the media.”

Freedman also defended Wayfarer’s decision to hire a crisis manager prior to the movie’s marketing campaign. He later added:

“The representatives of Wayfarer Studios did not take any proactive measures nor retaliate, but only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and accurate reporting and monitored social activity,” he later explained. “What is notably absent from the selectively presented correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with the media or otherwise; just internal strategic planning and private correspondence – which is standard practice among public relations professionals.

After an article by The New York Times was published on December 21, the talent agency William Morris Endeavor (WME) severed ties with Baldoni. Ari Emanuel, CEO of WME’s parent company Endeavor, confirmed this to the outlet. However, it’s important to note that WME has denied Ryan Reynolds, Lively’s husband and also a client of WME, had any involvement in their decision to part ways with Baldoni. This allegation was later made by Baldoni in his lawsuit against The New York Times (more details about that below). In response to these claims, WME stated to The Hollywood Reporter on January 1 that Baldoni’s assertion that Reynolds pressured Baldoni’s agent at the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere is not true. Furthermore, they emphasized that Baldoni’s former representative was not present at the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere and there was no pressure from Reynolds or Lively at any time to drop Baldoni as a client.

After Blake Lively’s CRD filing and a New York Times article, several prominent personalities expressed their support for Lively regarding the allegations against Baldoni. For instance, author Colleen Hoover commented on Instagram Stories, praising Lively for her honesty, kindness, and patience since they first met.

Similarly, actress Jenny Slate, who played Baldoni’s character’s sister, also voiced her support for Lively in a statement to Today on December 23rd. She acknowledged Lively as a leader, loyal friend, and trusted source of emotional support. Slate further emphasized the disturbing nature of the reported attacks on Lively and expressed admiration for her bravery.

Additionally, Brandon Sklenar, who was a love interest for Lively’s character Lily Bloom, shared a link to The New York Times article about the complaint and encouraged others to read it.

Lastly, Lively’s Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants costars America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel, and Amber Tamblyn also expressed their solidarity with Lively.

Liz Plank recently shared on her Instagram that she is no longer co-hosting “The Man Enough Podcast”. She expressed gratitude for the listeners’ trust, camaraderie, and the heartfelt stories they shared. However, she did not specify the reason behind her departure. In her closing remarks, she emphasized her continued commitment to the values they built together and urged everyone to strive for a better future. She also mentioned that she would share more insights as she reflects on recent events and continues to support those who fight against injustice.

Stephanie Jones, Baldoni’s previous publicist, and her firm Jonesworks LLC filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, his company Wayfarer, his current publicist Abel, crisis communications specialist Nathan, and others in New York on December 24th. The lawsuit claims that Abel and Nathan secretly conspired for months to publicly and privately attack Jones and her agency, break contracts, and steal clients and business opportunities. They allegedly coordinated with Baldoni and Wayfarer to launch a smear campaign against one of Baldoni’s film co-stars, then used the ensuing crisis to create a rift between Jones and Baldoni and to falsely blame Jones for the campaign, which she had no involvement in.

According to Abel’s LinkedIn profile, she worked at Jonesworks until last summer. The lawsuit asserts that Abel and Nathan are now falsely accusing Jones of wrongdoing as their own misconduct comes to light and defaming and attacking her in the industry.

Baldoni and Wayfarer, who are no longer clients of Jonesworks, are accused in the suit of breaching contractual obligations with Jonesworks and refusing to settle this dispute privately through arbitration. TopMob News has reached out to the defendants for comment.

As a dedicated follower, I’d like to share that in a recent conversation with Variety, my legal team disclosed they obtained the texts mentioned in The New York Times article through a subpoena issued to Jonesworks, not any of us. Freedman, who represents Nathan, Abel, Baldoni, and his Wayfarer associates, further clarified that none of his clients were served with a subpoena regarding this matter. However, he has announced his intention to take legal action against Jones for disclosing messages from Abel’s phone to my attorneys without proper authorization.

On December 31st, Baldoni, Wayfarer, Heath, Sarowitz, Nathan, TAG, Abel, RWA Communications, Wallace, and Street Relations filed a lawsuit against The New York Times. In this lawsuit, obtained by TopMob News, The New York Times is accused of libel, false light invasion of privacy, promissory fraud, and breach of implied-in-fact contract for an article about a supposed retaliatory smear campaign the plaintiffs allegedly conducted against Lively following her voicing concerns about misconduct on set.

The report was called “false” by the plaintiffs, who also claimed that the messages cited in the article and complaint were taken out of context. The lawsuit states, “Despite its claim to have ‘reviewed these along with other documents,’ the Times relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives.”

The plaintiffs also allege that “it was Lively, not Plaintiffs, who engaged in a calculated smear campaign,” which she has denied. In response, The New York Times stated it plans to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit.” According to TopMob, The New York Times said, “The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead. Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article.

That very day, Lively initiated a legal action against Baldoni, Wayfarer, Heath, Sarowitz, It Ends With Us Movie LLC, Nathan, his company TAG, and Abel in New York. As per court documents acquired by TopMob News, she is accusing the defendants of sexual harassment, retaliation, neglecting to investigate and address harassment, aiding and abetting such actions, breach of contract, intentionally causing emotional distress, negligently causing emotional distress, false light invasion of privacy.

The accusations in the lawsuit were initially outlined in the CRD complaint that Lively filed earlier in the month.

In response to the lawsuit, Baldoni and his associates counter-sued _The New York Times_—which does not include Lively as a defendant. Her legal team responded to TopMob by stating that “the lawsuit has no impact on the allegations made in her CRD and federal complaints.”

They added that “the premise of this lawsuit, which suggests that Lively’s administrative complaint against Wayfarer and others was contrived and that litigation was never her ultimate goal, is false. As demonstrated by the federal complaint filed by Lively today, this perspective on the Wayfarer lawsuit is incorrect.

In their lawsuit against The New York Times, Baldoni and his fellow plaintiffs have indicated that they are not finished with their legal actions. According to the court documents, there are more individuals involved who have acted improperly, and it is clear that this will not be the only lawsuit they file. In a January 2 interview with NBC News, Baldoni’s attorney Freedman confirmed that they indeed intend to sue Lively.

The discussions surrounding Baldoni and Lively haven’t ended yet.

For example, social media users have suggested that Reynolds may have teased Baldoni in his film “Deadpool & Wolverine” through the character Nicepool.

Reynolds has not spoken publicly about these rumors; however, Baldoni’s lawyer Freedman shared his thoughts on the matter.

“To me, if your wife experiences sexual harassment, you don’t make light of Justin Baldoni,” Freedman stated during an interview on “The Megyn Kelly Show”, available on YouTube as of Jan 7. “You don’t joke about the situation. You treat it seriously. You file complaints, raise the issue and follow due process. What you shouldn’t do is mock the person and turn it into a jest.

In response to recent events, Lively’s legal team has asserted that there have been further instances of adversity against her since she filed her lawsuit. To clarify, the lawsuit filed by Ms. Lively before the Southern District of New York concerns severe accusations of sexual harassment and retaliation, substantiated by verifiable facts. This is not a disagreement stemming from creative differences or a he-said-she-said scenario. Instead, Wayfarer and its associates, as stated in Lively’s complaint, and what we will demonstrate during the trial, engaged in unlawful, retaliatory behavior against Lively for taking steps to safeguard herself and others on a film set. Since filing the lawsuit, these actions against Lively have only escalated.

While navigating through the legal process, they reminded everyone that sexual harassment and retaliation are illegal in every workplace and industry. A common tactic to divert attention from such misconduct allegations is to shift blame onto the victim by implying they invited or brought it upon themselves, misunderstood intentions, or even lied. Another tactic is to reverse the roles of victim and offender, suggesting that the offender is actually the victim.

Lively’s legal team described these tactics as normalizing and trivializing serious misconduct allegations. They also emphasized that media statements are not a defense for her claims, and they will pursue justice in court.

On January 16th, Baldoni, Heath, Wayfarer, publicist Abel, crisis communication specialist Nathan, and It Ends With Us Movie LLC filed a lawsuit against Lively, Reynolds, Leslie Sloane (Lively’s publicist), and Sloane’s firm Vision PR in New York.

The suit, obtained by TopMob News, accuses all defendants of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, breach of good faith and fair dealing, intentional interference with contractual relations, and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage.

Lively and Reynolds are specifically accused of seizing control of It Ends With Us, using it to tarnish the plaintiffs’ reputation in the press after Lively faced backlash for her promotion of the film. The plaintiffs deny Lively’s allegations of sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign against her. They claim that she worked with Reynolds, Sloane, Jones, and others to damage the plaintiffs’ reputation after the backlash. (Lively has stated in her filings that she promoted the movie according to Sony’s marketing plan.)

In their lawsuit, plaintiffs claim defendants collaborated with The New York Times to release a sensational yet untrue news report. The media outlet maintains its report is accurate.

In response to TopMob’s inquiry, Freedman stated, “Either Blake Lively was deceived by her team or she deliberately misrepresented the truth.

Lively’s legal team referred to his lawsuit as “a new page in the script used by abusers,” explaining to TopMob News, “This scenario is all too familiar: A woman presents solid proof of sexual harassment and reprisal, and the abuser tries to shift blame onto the victim. This tactic is often labeled DARVO – Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.

Additionally, she alleged that he responded by counterattacking after she brought accusations towards him, stating that Baldoni aims to divert attention from the fact that Lively took control creatively and reportedly estranged the cast from Mr. Baldoni.

It was further stated that the proof will reveal that both the cast members and others had unfavorable encounters with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer. Additionally, the evidence will demonstrate that Sony requested Ms. Lively to supervise their portion of the film, which they subsequently chose for distribution and went on to achieve significant success.

Her team went on to slam Baldoni’s reaction to her allegations of harassment.

In response to sexual harassment accusations, they claimed she invited it and held her responsible. Their explanation for the incident was that she dressed provocatively, according to their lawyers. To put it simply, while the victim is focusing on the abuse, the abuser is targeting the victim. This tactic of blaming the woman is a last resort, it does not disprove the evidence in Ms. Lively’s case, and it will ultimately fail.

In a statement, Baldoni’s lawyer shared previously unseen footage from the set of “It Ends With Us“, stating that the actor’s actions on camera directly contradict Ms. Lively’s portrayal of him.

In a statement, Baldoni’s lawyers explained that the particular scene was intended to depict the two characters developing feelings for each other and yearning for closeness. It’s clear from their performances that both actors were acting appropriately within the context of the scene and maintaining mutual respect and professionalism.

Yet, Lively’s lawyers argue that the video fully supports, word for word, what Ms. Lively claimed in her lawsuit, and they contend that every second of this scene was spontaneously created by Mr. Baldoni without any prior conversation or agreement.

The video depicts Ms. Lively pulling back repeatedly and requesting the characters to merely converse, as reported to TopMob News in a statement. This situation resonates with any woman who has experienced unwanted physical contact at work, given her evident unease.

In simpler terms, they wrote a letter to the presiding judge during their trial, asking him to restrict Freedman, who leads Baldoni’s defense team, from disclosing any information outside of court to prevent inappropriate behavior.

A seven-minute audio message, supposedly sent by Baldoni to Lively while they were working on “It Ends With Us“, was made public. In this recording, it seems that the director discussed the film’s rooftop scene, which Lively had rewritten, and how these changes were apparently presented to him during a meeting with Reynolds and their friend, Taylor Swift.

He said to Lively, “It’s great to have friends as amazingly creative as them, and I can tell you, when the three of you are together, it’s just incredible!

In the recording, Baldoni appeared to express an apology to the actress for not being more receptive to her script, stating, “I made a mistake. Something important for you to understand about me is that I’ll own up to my mistakes and offer an apology when necessary.

Approximately a month following the submission of Lively’s legal complaint against Baldoni, a court hearing was scheduled on March 9, 2026.

2025-02-10 00:24

Justin Baldoni’s ‘Intense Year’ Takes Dark Turn Amid Blake Lively Lawsuit

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