Justin Baldoni is suing his It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds for allegedly attempting to “destroy” his reputation and career.
The $400 million lawsuit, which has been seen by The Independent, was filed in the Southern District of New York on Thursday (January 16) on behalf of Baldoni, producer Jamey Heath, publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis publicist Melissa Nathan.
The suit accuses Lively and Reynolds 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.
In a statement to The Independent, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman said: “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. Blake Lively was either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth.
“Ms Lively will never again be allowed to continue to exploit actual victims of real harassment solely for her personal reputation gain at the expense of those without power. 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.”
The Independent has approached representatives for Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds for comment.
The lawsuit is just the latest development in legal proceedings between the two parties. Last month, Lively brought a lawsuit against Baldoni accussing her It Ends with Us co-star and director of sexual harassment during filming as well as organizing a “smear campaign” against her in the months that followed.
That suit stated that there was a meeting attended by individuals, including Lively, Reynolds, Baldoni and their lawyers, to address her claims.
Lively had a number of requirements in order for her to work on the film that included “no more inquiries about Blake’s weight,” as well as “no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction,’ no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew’s genitalia.”
Baldoni sued The New York Times for libel over their reporting of Lively’s claims, and his lawyers have also accused Reynolds of mocking Baldoni through the “Nicepool” character in his recent movie, Deadpool & Wolverine.
