Amid the release of the movie adaption of It Ends With Us, drama arose between co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. On December 31, 2024, Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds filed a lawsuit against Baldoni alleging sexual harassment and running a smear campaign to disparage Lively’s name. The same day, Baldoni’s lawyers responded rebutting these claims and threatening with lawsuits of their own, suing The New York Times for publishing Lively’s unverified claims. But the most remarkable part of this incident? With attention drawn to the New York Times, fans at home uncovered the date of October 31 embedded in their article, which Baldoni’s lawyer was able to later use in his case to prove that Lively had been scheming for months.
Before we go deeper into the talk of legal action, I want to emphasize the damage Lively had already done before the movie’s release. While we can talk about Lively’s need for creative control, which ultimately led to her and her husband’s takeover of the movie, I find the trivialization of the film’s serious themes—similar to the allegations that Lively had filed—to be a great indicator of what was to come.
It Ends With Us focuses on protagonist Lily Bloom in her journey to overcome an abusive relationship. Back in August, while the book-to-movie adaption was still undergoing its—extraordinarily tone deaf—promotion, Lively was slammed for using this opportunity to promote her hair care and alcohol brand. Later, while Baldoni was consulting with the No More Foundation to incorporate resources for viewers to learn about during the credits, Lively was encouraging fans to “grab your friends and wear your florals!”
Lively continued to trivialize the movie’s core themes in an interview with Jake’s Takes when asked, “If someone who understands the themes of this movie comes across you in public, what’s the best way for them to be able to talk to you about this?” Jokingly, Lively responded, “They can ask me for, like, my address, my phone number, or…ooh—they can ask me for my location share!” She continued to go on and on, over-exaggerating in hysterics the answer to what was supposed to be a serious question.
However, even after all of the backlash surrounding the movie’s release, the public eye wasn’t made fully aware of the tension between Lively and Baldoni until the world premiere, on August 6, 2024. While all of the other co-stars were on the red carpet—decked out in their florals of course—, Baldoni was nowhere to be found. It was not until January 16, after Lively’s lawsuit, when Baldoni revealed that he and his family had been banished off to a “makeshift holding area surrounded by concession stand stock, with only fold-out tables and chairs arranged in a square.” Attached to this statement, Baldoni included pictures, where he and his family can be seen making the best out of what they were given.
On January 27th, Lively and Reynolds finally requested to dismiss the case. However, after the countless attempts made to ruin his image, Baldoni was not going to let them off so easily. Instead, he and his team launched a website releasing additional documents, falsifying each of Lively’s claims.
As mentioned, viewers at home noticed the date October 31 embedded into the New York Times article, proving the claims in Baldoni’s document that Lively had been planning to destroy his reputation for months. However, the plot thickened when fans pointed out an anonymous thread on Reddit posted back on August 12, detailing a story that strangely line up with the events that would not follow for another six months. In the post, the anonymous user claims to have inside information on the situation and states Lively had threatened Baldoni’s Sony team to go to the New York Times if they didn’t let her have her edits in the movie.
One of the claims I find most striking, just because of how easy it was for Baldoni to disprove, was the incident dated April 25, when Baldoni visited the Lively residency and was verbally berated by Reynolds for “fat shaming” his wife. We later found out from Baldoni that this “fat shaming” was just him inquiring about Lively’s weight for a lift scene that is seen in the movie (despite Lively’s claims that this scene didn’t exist). However, only two days later, on April 27, Lively invited Baldoni to fly on her private jet back to LA—a weird turn of events if she had just been “fat shamed” by him on set.
What is most bizarre to me is how some of the evidence being used to falsify Lively’s claims comes directly from the movie—the movie she starred in. Is it possible that the web of lies became too much for her to keep up with?
I acknowledge how crucial it is to take allegations like this seriously, which is why I find it shameful on Lively’s part to create such false claims in a world where it is already difficult enough for women to speak up. In instances like these, where we are dealing with Hollywood celebrities, I think it’s important to recognize how much money and power can play a role in not only swaying the mainstream media but also putting on a show.