It’s not ending.
Blake Lively has responded to Justin Baldoni’s $400 million lawsuit against his “It Ends With Us” co-star.
Baldoni, 40, is suing Lively, 37, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, 48, their publicist Leslie Sloane and Sloane’s p.r. firm Vision PR Inc. over the ongoing “It Ends With Us” saga, which centers on Lively’s allegations of sexual harassment against Baldoni.
The suit — filed Thursday in the Southern District of New York by Baldoni’s attorneys on behalf of the “Jane the Virgin” star, “It Ends With Us” producer Jamey Heath, publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis publicist Melissa Nathan — claims Lively took certain measures to gain control over the 2024 film.
Lawyers for Lively have issued a response to the complaint, claiming his accusations are “retaliation against sexual harassment allegations.”
“This latest lawsuit from Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its associates is another chapter in the abuser playbook,” Lively’s legal team said in a statement to The Post.
“This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender.”
The statement continued, “Wayfarer has opted to use the resources of its billionaire co-founder to issue media statements, launch meritless lawsuits, and threaten litigation to overwhelm the public’s ability to understand that what they are doing is retaliation against sexual harassment allegations.
“They are trying to shift the narrative to Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she seized creative control and alienated the cast from Mr. Baldoni. The evidence will show that the cast and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer,” Lively’s lawyers added. “The evidence will also show that Sony asked Ms. Lively to oversee Sony’s cut of the film, which they then selected for distribution and was a resounding success.
“Their response to sexual harassment allegations: she wanted it, it’s her fault. Their justification for why this happened to her: look what she was wearing,” the statement continued. “In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.”
In Baldoni’s 179-page complaint obtained by The Post, he accuses Lively, Reynolds and their associates of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage.
“Lively began inserting herself into the production process in intrusive ways well beyond the scope of her contractual entitlement,” Baldoni’s filing reads. “For example, Lively began to insist on creative control over her character’s wardrobe. While lead actors are sometimes granted approval over their characters’ general look, they generally do not receive full control over.”
Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement, “This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media.”
“It is clear based on our own all out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret,” he added. “Blake Lively was either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth.”
Freedman concluded: “Let’s not forget, Ms. Lively and her team attempted to bulldoze reputations and livelihoods for heinously selfish reasons through their own dangerous manipulation of the media before even taking any actual legal action. We know the truth, and now the public does too. Justin and his team have nothing to hide, documents do not lie.”
Baldoni’s $400 million legal action follows a civil rights complaint and lawsuit Lively filed against the actor-director in December, alleging he sexually harassed her on the set of “It Ends With Us” with inappropriate comments. The “Gossip Girl” alum also claimed Baldoni orchestrated a public smear campaign to ruin her reputation.
Lively first revealed her allegations against Baldoni in an interview with the New York Times. The Times was subsequently sued by Baldoni, who accused the newspaper of promissory fraud and breach of implied-in-fact contract in his $250 million lawsuit.
A spokesperson for the Times told the Post, “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. To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed to a single error. We published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article as well.
“We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
