Justin Baldoni Sues Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds for $400M Over Alleged Defamation Plot

The conflict between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni started months ago during the filming of ‘It Ends With Us.’ After the movie wrapped, Lively accused Baldoni of harassing her on set, body shaming, inappropriate romance scenes, and burying her public image following the release of the movie.

Things calmed down for a while, but Lively later filed a legal complaint, turning it into one of the biggest celebrity controversies of the year, and eventually a Federal Lawsuit. Recently, Baldoni filed his own complaint, and lawsuit against ‘The Times,’ with consideration to pursue a lawsuit against Lively as well.

It seems that the actor decided to pursue his legal options after all. Justin Baldoni, along with his film studio Wayfarer, CEO Jamey Heath, and PR representatives Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, have filed a lawsuit in New York federal court. The lawsuit claims extortion, defamation, breach of contract, and other charges, seeking at least $400 million in damages.

The lawsuit also includes Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively’s husband, and Leslie Sloane, Lively’s public relations representative at Vision PR, though Sloane has yet to respond to a request for comment.

Bryan Freedman, Baldoni’s attorney, stated that the lawsuit is “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.”

He further added, “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.”

The lawsuit comes after Lively decided to sue Baldoni and his PR team, claiming they planned to ruin her reputation because she spoke out about sexual misconduct on the set of a movie. On the same day Lively took legal action last month, Baldoni sued ‘The New York Times ‘for working with Lively’s PR team to push a “false and biased story” while ignoring evidence that went against her claims.

This legal fight has caught Hollywood’s attention because of the complicated relationships between everyone involved. After ending their relationship with Baldoni, WME — which also represents Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds — made a statement saying that the couple didn’t pressure the agency to drop Baldoni.

Baldoni’s lawsuit claims that Ryan Reynolds pressured his agency at the ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ premiere to drop him as a client, something WME denies, saying Reynolds and Lively had no involvement in that decision.

Baldoni argues that Reynolds approached his agency during the premiere and called him a “sexual predator,” later demanding that Baldoni be dropped. The lawsuit also accuses Lively of manipulating the production behind the scenes by demanding a list of 17 points suggesting misconduct, using this leverage to take control of the movie, secure her own cut, a producer credit, and remove Baldoni from all marketing efforts.

The lawsuit claims that after Lively’s promotional efforts backfired and caused a public backlash, she instructed her publicist, Sloane, to spread false stories about Baldoni, painting him as a sexual predator.

Baldoni also provides details about the split between Stephanie Jones of Jonesworks and Abel, her partner at the PR firm for Wayfarer and Baldoni. The lawsuit states that Jones became increasingly unprofessional and hostile, leading Wayfarer to sever ties with her, and alleges that Jones took Abel’s phone to gather messages and create a false narrative claiming Baldoni and his team had launched a smear campaign against Lively.

Recently, Baldoni also demanded that Disney save all documents related to the development of the Nicepool character from Ryan Reynolds’ most recent movie, as the character has been allegedly modeled after Baldoni all in an attempt to ruin his reputation.

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