Blake Lively has been accused of ‘hijacking’ a movie and forcing her co-stars to sit out the premiere ‘in the basement’, a bombshell new lawsuit has claimed.
Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds are being sued by actor Justin Baldoni and his publicists who say the actress cooked up a scheme to kill their careers and discredit them by making false accusations of sexual harassment.
Court papers obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com accuse Lively and Reynolds of using their combined star power to hijack domestic abuse movie It Ends With Us, with Lively muscling in on production despite allegedly failing to read the book until filming was well under way.
The hijack allegedly went as far as relegating Baldoni and his family to the basement after arriving on the red carpet for the movie’s premiere on August 6, 2024, because ‘Lively demanded he not attend’.
The suit said: ‘Security personnel, acting as though there was a risk of “escape,” escorted Baldoni’s group to the basement of the building.
‘There, they were confined to a makeshift holding area surrounded by concession stand stock, with only foldout tables and chairs arranged in a square.’
Blake Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds are being sued by actor Justin Baldoni and his publicists who say the actress cooked up a scheme to kill their careers and discredit them by making false accusations of sexual harassment
The hijacking of the movie It Ends With Us allegedly went as far as relegating Baldoni and his family to the basement when they arrived at the premiere on August 6, 2024, because ‘Lively demanded he not attend’
Lively’s sexual harassment claims first appeared three weeks ago in a New York Times story that included texts sent between his publicists that they now say were cherrypicked and stripped of context to make it appear Baldoni was orchestrating a ‘smear campaign’ against the actress.
But the Italian actor says it was Lively who was the real orchestrator of a negative publicity campaign – alleging that she had been working with her own publicist Leslie Sloane and the New York Times for months before the article was published.
Baldoni is already suing the outlet for $250million for libel and defamation, saying his lawsuit that the story relied on Lively’s ‘self-serving narrative’.
The new filing is a cross-complaint to Lively’s own, and notes that Baldoni and his publicists were even served papers while trying to evacuate their homes during the devastating LA wildfires that ripped through the city last week.
Lively, the complaint adds, was safely at home in New York, even as she deployed process servers’ in the midst of the infernos.
The home of Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman was among the casualties of the Palisades Fire.
The suit notes Baldoni and his publicists were even served papers while trying to evacuate their homes during the devastating LA wildfires that ripped through the city last week – his lawyer Bryan Freedman lost his home in the Palisades fire
Baldoni said Lively worked with her own publicist Leslie Sloane and the New York Times for months before the bombshell article against him was published
The filing also details how Baldoni’s publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel endured death threats and a torrent of abuse after Lively’s allegations were aired, some of it anti-Semitic.
An industry source told DailyMail.com: ‘The only question to ask now that we can see the full picture is why did Blake make the decision to do this?
‘There can be only two reasons, one she did not think the other side would fight back or two, she herself was shown edited and doctored messages from her own team of advisors.
‘It will be interesting to see how she handles herself moving forward now that the public has the fully unedited communications in full.’
In a statement released exclusively to DailyMail.com, Nathan and Abel described the impact of Lively’s allegations as ‘devastating’ and accused the actress of bullying them.
‘It is devastating that we are forced to answer this viciously selfish ongoing litigation littered with documented and provable lies in the midst of the tragedy impacting California where we reside,’ the statement read.
‘Five months ago Ms. Lively chose to promote a film about domestic violence in a way that caused instant negative and organic backlash due to her own highly publicized actions.
‘Instead of accepting responsibility, she decided to cruelly blame us. This malicious attack on private individuals by Ms. Lively and her team in which they chose to spoon feed The New York Times with doctored, out of context and edited text messages in an effort to paint herself as a victim set off a chain of events that has been harmful beyond measure,’ they continued.
‘To be clear, Ms. Lively and her team initiated this smear campaign in the media for the sole intention of gaining undeserved public sympathy for her own missteps.
‘Over the last month, we have received death threats, abhorrent abuse and vile anti-Semitic slurs hurled at us due to her decision to use us as scapegoats for her own choices promoting her film in which she made millions of dollars.
‘With this filing, we lift our own curtain of what happens when the entitled weaponize power, fear and money to destroy, intimidate and bully those who get in their way.’
The new lawsuit comes after months of tit-for-tat battles between Lively and Baldoni who fell out dramatically over It Ends With Us which the actress has been accused of hijacking.
The suit said the backlash Lively got during the film’s publicity campaign was the direct result of her using it to promote her own brands, including her booze company, Betty Buzz, in a tone-deaf way – but not as a result of a smear campaign
According to the new lawsuit, the backlash she got during the film’s publicity campaign was the direct result of her using it to promote her own brands, including a booze company, in a tone-deaf way – but not as a result of a smear campaign.
The suit goes on to say that she tried to force Baldoni to issue a statement where he would ‘take accountability’ in the face of the backlash and when he refused, plotted to drive him out of the industry altogether via a ‘false allegations of sexual harrassment’.
It Ends With Us became one of the most talked about movies of the year following its release in August, but for all the wrong reasons.
The romantic drama follows Lily Bloom, played by Blake Lively, as she becomes embroiled in an abusive relationship with Justin Baldoni’s Ryle Kincaid.
One alleged point of contention was how the movie should be marketed, with Lively reportedly wanting to make the tale more upbeat in contrast to Baldoni, who felt it should be more focused on the abuse aspect.
As rumors of the feud persisted, social media reaction began to turn against Lively, who has been repeatedly criticized for her responses in interviews promoting the movie.
She was blasted as ‘tone deaf’ and ‘shallow’ after she hosted an interview with her It Ends With Us costars and failed to discuss the serious message behind the movie.
Another clash came when Baldoni asked how much Lively weighed prior to a scene in which he was supposed to lift her.
The A-list actress reportedly said this made her feel ‘fat-shamed’, while those close to Baldoni insisted that he was just trying to protect his back following an injury.
Unlike many project where controversy affects the box office, It Ends With Us still emerged a box office hit, despite mixed reviews from critics.
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