Move over, It Ends With Us because in real life, this saga is far from over! Hollywood has once again delivered a storyline juicier than any rom-com, and this time, it’s not playing out on the big screen. Instead, it’s unfolding in courtrooms, Instagram captions, and the land of lawsuits, where Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have become the leading stars of a legal thriller meets soap opera.
The Complaint Heard Around Tinseltown
Just when we thought the biggest Hollywood drama of 2024 was AI-generated actors, Blake Lively dropped a plot twist that would make even Gone Girl look tame. Four months after the release of It Ends With Us- a film ironically about a toxic relationship Lively filed a sexual harassment complaint against co-star and director Justin Baldoni on December 20.
According to Lively, working with Baldoni wasn’t exactly a walk through a whimsical Hollywood set. Instead, she claimed that he engaged in “misconduct” during filming, and when she and her husband Ryan Reynolds (yes, Deadpool himself) tried to set boundaries before production resumed, Baldoni allegedly agreed—only to hire crisis PR pros for a smear campaign later.
Enter the Instagram Uplift & the Courtroom Cliffhangers
The very next day, Colleen Hoover, the beloved author of the book on which the film is based, came swinging like a literary superhero in Lively’s defense. In an Instagram Story filled with enough warmth to melt the ice-cold halls of Hollywood legal offices, she wrote: “@blakelively, you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive, and patient since the day we met. Never change. Never wilt.”
And just like that, Team Lively had its first official endorsement.
Meanwhile, Baldoni wasn’t sitting around waiting for the next chapter to be written without him. On December 31, he filed a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times, claiming they had dragged his name through the mud in their article “We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.” (With a title like that, they might as well have handed out popcorn with the print edition.)
The $400 Million Counterpunch!
Not to be outdone, Baldoni upped the ante faster than a Marvel movie adding post-credit scenes. On January 16, he hit back with a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, Reynolds, and their publicist, claiming defamation, extortion, and more. (At this point, this legal battle has a bigger budget than most Oscar-winning films.)
Meanwhile, Lively’s legal team fired back with a statement to PEOPLE, saying:“Her serious claims of sexual harassment and retaliation are backed by concrete facts.”
To which Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman essentially said, Oh, you want facts? Well, we’ve got receipts. He promised to release “all the evidence” showing a pattern of bullying and threats from Lively’s side. (Somewhere, the Mean Girls cast is nodding in approval.
Will Hollywood see a settlement or an all-out courtroom showdown? Will Ryan Reynolds make a Deadpool-esque quip about this in his next interview? Will Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit make its way into a future Law & Order episode?
One thing’s for sure: this real-life drama is far from over, and we, the innocent popcorn-eating spectators, are buckled in for what’s shaping up to be Hollywood’s biggest legal thriller of the decade.
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