The movie It Ends With Us was a solid box office hit in 2024, the sort of success that would be celebrated in a Hollywood dominated by sequels and remakes, and the sort of success that starts talks of sequels itself. And yet, there has been little celebration around the movie as the dominate story coming out of it has been about the battle between co-star and producer Blake Lively and co-star and director Justin Baldoni, one that has now resulted in a pair of lawsuits.
In mid December Blake Lively filed a complaint against the movies' production company, claiming sexual harassment while on the set of It Ends With Us, as well as what she claims was a smear campaign set up against her by Justin Baldoni, his producing partners, and publicists hired for the job. The New York Times covered Lively’s complaint, leading to Baldoni filing a lawsuit against the newspaper. Lively’s legal team has now issued a statement (via People) in response to the new suit, saying…
This is not a ‘feud’ arising from ‘creative differences’ or a ‘he said/she said’ situation. As alleged in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and as we will prove in litigation, Wayfarer [Studios] and its associates engaged in unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing against Ms. Lively for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set. And their response to the lawsuit has been to launch more attacks against Ms. Lively since her filing.
Baldoni’s lawsuit claims the New York Times “cherry picked” when it published texts between Baldoni and publicists, and when the full facts are known, and context is understood the story will be very different. Meanwhile, the statement from Lively’s team also states her claims are backed up by “concrete facts.”
While feuds between stars on a movie set are nothing new, Lively’s team insists that what’s going on here is more than that. And the claims, if true, certainly bear that out. Before It Ends With Us even entered theaters there were reports of problems between the cast and Baldoni.
Although some of the initial reports indicated there had been disagreements between producer Lively and director Baldoni on issues such as what music to use in the film, Lively’s suit goes far beyond that and details more significant issues.
Lively claims that Baldoni would enter her trailer uninvited while she was changing and breastfeeding, and that the director would make last minute changes to scenes that resulted in more intimate moments that had not been previously discussed or rehearsed.
While initial reports of the conflict painted Lively in a more sympathetic light, there were some that pointed the finger at Lively as the cause of the problems. The actress now claims that this was part of a coordinated effort to defame her so that her other complaints would not be taken seriously.
While there are already two lawsuits at play, a third is expected as it’s being reported that a countersuit from Baldoni against Lively is likely in the coming weeks. If and when that happens we will certainly get the other side of this story.
