In August 2024, amid promotion for their film It Ends With Us, there was speculation of a feud between stars Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively. (Her Campus reached out to both Baldoni and Lively’s team at the time but didn’t hear back.) While fans were unsure if the reported feud was a PR stunt or a legitimate clash between the costars, rumors of a rift have now been confirmed, as both have filed lawsuits in court months after the film’s release.
On Dec. 21, The New York Times reported that Lively was suing Baldoni for sexual harassment. In the lawsuit, Lively accused Baldoni and his PR team of orchestrating a smear campaign against her with the intent of harming her reputation. Lively’s suit named Baldoni; his film studio, Wayfarer; and his PR representatives, Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel. Her Campus reached out to Baldoni, Nathan, and Abel’s teams for comment about Lively’s lawsuit. A representative from Baldoni’s team told Her Campus, “In this vicious smear campaign fully orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, The New York Times cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative.”
In her original complaint, Lively detailed interactions she’d allegedly had with Baldoni. The Times reports Lively expressed concerns during an “all-hands, in person” meeting in January 2024 to address Baldoni allegedly improvising “physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed, or discussed with Ms. Lively, with no intimacy coordinator involved.”
Lively also mentioned producer Jamey Heath in her complaint, claiming that Baldoni and Heath pressured her to perform the film differently than what had originally been scripted. Lively claimed she was pressured to simulate full nudity for the filming of the birth scene “despite no mention of nudity for this scene in the script, her contract, or in previous creative discussions.” Her Campus reached out to Baldoni and Heath’s teams for comment about Lively’s claim of them pressuring her, but did not hear back by the time of publication.
Lively further claimed that Heath and Baldoni entered her hair and makeup trailer unannounced on multiple occasions while she was getting dressed, and that Baldoni made unwarranted comments regarding her appearance and that of others, stating that he would refer to women on set as “sexy.” In his complaint, Baldoni’s lawyers wrote, “The allegation that Baldoni inappropriately described Lively’s character’s attire as ‘sexy’ is exaggerated and misleading.” While Lively’s lawyers said Baldoni “showed a shocking lack of boundaries by invading her personal space when she was undressed and vulnerable,” Baldoni’s team claims that’s not what happened. In his lawsuit filed on Dec. 31, Baldoni shared texts between himself and Lively that read, “I’m just pumping in my trailer if you wanna work out our lines.” He responded, “Copy. Eating with crew and will head that way.” According to Baldoni’s lawyers, this text exchange shows that Lively “invited Baldoni into her trailer.”
A rep from Baldoni’s team told Her Campus in full, “In this vicious smear campaign fully orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, The New York Times cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative. In doing so, they pre-determined the outcome of their story, and aided and abetted their own devastating PR smear campaign designed to revitalize Lively’s self-induced floundering public image and counter the organic groundswell of criticism amongst the online public. The irony is rich. Make no mistake however, as we all unite to take down The NY Times by no longer allowing them to deceive the public, we will continue this campaign of authenticity by also suing those individuals who have abused their power to try and destroy the lives of my clients. While their side embraces partial truths, we embrace the full truth — and have all of the communications to back it. The public will decide for themselves as they did when this first began.”
In response to the Times piece, Baldoni filed a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times on Dec. 31. Baldoni is among a group of 10 plaintiffs, including publicists Nathan and Abel, who are suing The New York Times for libel and false light invasion of privacy over their Dec. 21 article.
In response to the suit filed by Baldoni, The Times released a statement that read, “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.”
Baldoni’s lawsuit claimed that if the publication “truly reviewed the thousands of private communications it claimed to have obtained, its reporters would have seen incontrovertible evidence that it was Lively, not Plaintiffs, who engaged in a calculated smear campaign.” The lawsuit further claimed that the NYT’s allegations were “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious,” adding that legal action against Lively, her publicist Leslie Sloane, and Baldoni’s former publicist, Stephanie Jones, would be taking place soon. Her Campus reached out to Lively, Sloane, and Jones’s teams for comment on Baldoni’s plans to file a lawsuit against them, but did not hear back by the time of publication.
In his lawsuit, Baldoni claimed that the NYT reporters overlooked text messages between him, Lively, and his team. In one text, Heath wrote, “So glad Blake was praised” after sharing a link to a Page Six article in a group chat that included Baldoni’s PR team. In other texts, Baldoni and his PR team claimed that they had no intent of harming Lively’s image through aggressive tactics. Her Campus reached out to Lively’s team about Baldoni’s text messages, but did not hear back by the time of publication.
It Ends With Us producers Heath and Steve Sarowitz claim that The New York Times relied on “‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.” Baldoni has hired Johnny Depp’s crisis PR team and Bryan Freeman, who is notable for serving as the Menendez Brothers’s family lawyer.
While further details of Baldoni’s lawsuit have yet to be revealed, Freeman told NBC News, “We plan to release every single text message between the two of them … We want the truth to be out there. We want the documents to be out there. We want people to make their determination based on receipts.”