Cross Accusations of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni Explained

[Source: Court TV]

Celebrity lawyer and legal analyst Christopher C. Melcher, who is ranked as a best family law attorney in California, explains Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni‘s cross accusations on Court TV.

Vinnie Politan: I’m Vinnie Politan. We continue our investigation of the cross accusations between Hollywood power couple, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, and actor and director, Justin Baldoni. The plot of this lawsuit is actually more interesting, I believe, than the film that they made. Here’s the story.

Blake Lively is a very successful actor, married to super A-lister, Ryan Reynolds. Justin Baldoni is an actor and director with a successful career in Hollywood as well. In 2023, Lively was co-starring with Baldoni in a movie he was directing called It Ends With Us. It was a story about the troubled relationship between Baldoni and Lively’s characters, and included some domestic violence.

When the movie was released, there was a lot of buzz surrounding the film, but it was more about the real life drama between the actors. Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment, and intimidation. Baldoni claimed he was being defamed by Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. These accusations have resulted in a very high profile case with both sides suing one another for millions of dollars, and in the meantime, many of the communications between the parties have become public. Now, this case is slated as the next big Hollywood celebrity trial.

So we’ve spent some time talking about Blake Lively’s claims against Baldoni, which brings us to our next question in our investigation. But before we get there, I want to take a look at part of the amended complaint here. Take a look. “At the bottom, this is not a case about celebrities sniping at each other in the press. This is a case about two of the most powerful stars in the world deploying their enormous power to steal an entire film right out of the hands of its director, and production studio. Then, when Lively and Reynolds efforts failed to win them the acclaim they believed they so richly deserved, they turned their fury on their chosen scapegoat. Tolerating a year and a half of their behavior while remaining polite and professional at every turn offered Baldoni and Wayfarer no protection.”

So this is part of their claim, or complaint against Lively and everyone else on her side. So that brings us to this question, and we want to get into the specifics. What are Baldoni’s claims against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds? What’s going on here? What does he say? Why is he suing them? You understand why she’s suing him. Joining me, longtime entertainment blogger, columnist, and media personality who I believe made his way into the complaint here.

Perez Hilton is with us, and celebrity attorney and legal analyst who formerly represented Kanye West in his divorce from Kim Kardashian, Christopher Melcher. Great to have you both here. Perez, this has taken over, but it’s so difficult to really peel back the layers to understand what’s going on here. But let’s focus, now, about what Baldoni is alleging against Lively and Ryan Reynolds. What is this about? It seems like he’s saying they basically stole the movie from me, and then lied about my behavior.

Why Justin Baldoni is Suing Ryan Reynolds & Blake Lively

Perez Hilton: That’s the gist of it. He is suing for defamation, extortion, and basically in layman’s terms, shady business practices. Also, included in his lawsuit against Taylor Swift‘s best friend, and her actor husband is her publicist, Leslie Sloan. And he actually counters that she and her publicist orchestrated a smear campaign against him.

And in the amended lawsuit that Baldoni’s attorney filed on Friday, in the timeline of events, he included a treasure trove of previously unseen communications. Including, and I don’t know how Baldoni’s attorneys got this alleged text messages that Blake Lively’s publicist was sending to the media, talking to them, and disparaging him. Allegedly, lying about him. Trying to paint him out to be someone that he is not. That, alongside the other mountain of evidence, will definitely help all of Baldoni’s claims.

Vinnie Politan: Christopher Melcher, this is messy. This is really messy, and it’s all playing out public. I don’t think anyone is going to end up better off after all of this. With Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, somebody did in that case. This one, though, as messy. What are your thoughts about how it’s progressing, and whether or not one side or the other can get anyone to believe what the truth is here?

Is Lively Pretending to be the Victim?

Christopher Melcher: Well, that’s the problem. Both of them definitely are wounded, but Baldoni has no choice. She brought the claims, or went public first with it. He’s strictly in a defensive posture. And certainly, she got a lot of attention and sympathy when her claims were first raised looking like that she was kind of blacklisted, and all this stuff happening to her. But now when we see the truth, or at least Baldoni’s truth, we see the other side of it. And that eludes according to him, and many people believe this, that she was the aggressor pretending to be the victim.

Lively & Reynolds stealing Baldoni’s Film

Vinnie Politan: Now, another part of what Baldoni is talking about here is they’re stealing the movie from me. Take a look at this from his amended complaint. He alleges that Lively asked if she could, quote, “Take a pass at writing the rooftop scene in It Ends With Us, in which the characters Ryle and Lily first meet.”

“The draft of the rooftop scene that Lively sent Baldoni dramatically differed from what had been written originally. Baldoni was hesitant about many of the changes, but thanked Lively for her passion. And diplomatically told her that the scene would likely end up being somewhere between the original version, and Lively’s version.”

“Seemingly stung by Baldoni’s exceedingly mild resistance, Lively did not respond, and went silent for multiple days.” “‘Difficult,’ proved to be a gross understatement. Though Baldoni initially invited Lively to make changes to the script, Lively began altering the script daily.” The feud over the rewritten rooftop scene, apparently, resulted in Baldoni leaving a voice memo for Lively that the Daily Mail was able to obtain. Here’s part of that recording.

Justin Baldoni: “I want to start with an apology. Man, reading the second part of your message, my heart sank, and I’m really sorry. I, for sure, fell short, and you worked really hard on that. And the way you framed it, and how that made you feel, I just want to say thank you for sharing that with me. That takes a lot of trust, and vulnerability. But I just wanted you to know that I didn’t need that because it’s really good, and it’s going to make the movie sing, like you said. And I’m excited to go through the whole movie with you.”

Vinnie Politan: All right. Perez, can you tell me what’s really happening here?

Perez Hilton: Absolutely. Thank you for that. What is happening in that moment is a man who is close to breaking. At that point in the film, she had already began to exert control over so many aspects of production. Not just rewriting the script, but she had also taken over wardrobe. Causing the wardrobe budget to go over by hundreds of thousands of dollars. And she had, in my opinion, a ginormous sense of worth, and ego. And he was just trying to placate her.

Lively Repeatedly Threatened to get Her Way

Not only was he the actor, but as we’ve established, he was the director. And his production company, Wayfarer Studios, produced the movie. Sony was the distributor, and a co-financer, but he was just trying to get the film finished. According to his amended complaint, repeatedly Lively threatened, and threatened, and threatened to get her ways. And get more, and more control. Even during post-production, she threatened that she would not promote the movie unless she got this, and that.

And according to receipts that he included, email communications from Sony, she even demanded that the film’s distributor strip him, the director of the movie, from the film by credit. He directed the movie. It was a film by Justin Baldoni, but he ultimately acquiesced in order to make sure that film could be released on time. And in my opinion, he rose above, and rose above, and was way kinder and more professional than I would have been.

Lively’s False Allegations of Fat Shaming

Vinnie Politan: This is really unusual. Let’s take a look at more of the amended complaint. “Still during the pre-production phase, Lively and Reynolds,” that’s Ryan Reynolds, “…raised entirely false allegations of fat shaming against Baldoni. An accusation that, as evidence will show, was categorically false.”

“Baldoni privately reached out to Don, his personal trainer, to ask what Lively weighed so that he could train his back muscles in preparation for a lift scene. This was important to avoid injury. Not only to Baldoni who suffered from lifelong back injuries, multiple bulging discs, and chronic pain. But also, to Lively if the lift could not be completed successfully and safely.”

“Lively summoned Baldoni to her penthouse to discuss the script. However, he was met by an angry Reynolds who screamed at Baldoni, and accused him of fat shaming his wife. This confrontation by Reynolds and Lively was so aggressive that Baldoni felt he had no choice but to offer repeated, and completely unwarranted apologies for what was a good faith and reasonable question to ask of his trainer. Reynolds demanded Baldoni remove the scene entirely.”

Chris, this is a lot of inside baseball here in how a movie is made, and some of the things back and forth. I’m looking at this, and I’m wondering, is this something that is really actionable? Is this something that should really rise to the level of a federal lawsuit?

Baldoni Defends Himself with Lawsuits

Christopher Melcher: Well, I mean, she’s brought the suit, and he’s got to defend himself. And there’s some very serious allegations being made against him, and Wayfarer for harassment. So he’s coming over the top, and saying, “That’s all false, and that this was all about her.”

And I think that that quote there really shows that she’s the center of attention. She takes this opportunity that he has to train himself, and prepare for a scene is somehow relating to her weight. So I think this reflects really poorly on her, but Baldoni has to defend himself. These allegations are very serious, and he’s really got no choice but to now come out with everything that he’s got.

Vinnie Politan:

All right. Perez, in all your years of covering Hollywood, have you ever seen the smears going back and forth at the level that they are in this particular feud case, which is now a lawsuit?

Parallels to Depp v. Heard Case

Perez Hilton: Yes. I mean, even recently, there are so many parallels to the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard case. Which was extremely toxic, and at least one of the same players are involved. The crisis PR expert, Melissa Nathan, who was hired by Baldoni last summer also worked with Johnny Depp. But just to circle back for a quick moment, it had been well documented that Justin Baldoni truly did have back issues. In fact, during production, he was hospitalized for his preexisting back issues.

In his amended complaint, he included photos from the hospital, and texting his editors about being unwell. And I am excited to, hopefully, have this go to court because he has suffered from these allegations that she made against him. According to the Hollywood Reporter, which I consider to be a very reputable publication, Justin Baldoni had been set to direct a big, big movie. He had signed on to be the director of a live action adaptation of Pac-Man, and he has been removed from that. He is no longer going to be doing that in the wake of all of this.

Vinnie Politan: Wow. Perez Hilton, and Christopher Melcher, great insight. Great to see you. Thank you so much.