Endeavor and TKO CEO Ari Emanuel entered the conversation surrounding Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s never-ending “It Ends With Us” drama on Thursday night, bluntly calling it “a f–ked up” situation — on Baldoni’s end, at least.
While speaking with Stephen Dubner at the Freakonomics Radio Live show at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, the Hollywood executive opened up about his decision to fire the actor/director as a client, referring to him as Justin “Bologna” in the process.
“It’s not really fair. I’ve known Ryan [Reynolds] and Blake for over a decade. They’re really incredible people,” he said. “In Hollywood, they have been incredibly successful. People work with them, they’ve never had any bad mojo out there or treated people badly. They are charitable — we help them with their foundation — they’ve given tons of money away.”
“If what is alleged in her lawsuit that what happened on social media is true, just because she complained to the studio that things were unhealthy on the set, and that he was director and this man [Jamey Heath] was the producer, and they did to her what is being alleged, they’re really bad people,” Emanuel continued. “I know Blake, I know Ryan, they’re good people.”
Baldoni was indeed dropped by his agency WME in late December after Lively accused him of sexual harassment on the set of their movie. The actor’s podcast co-host Heath was also named in the initial complaint. Since then, there has been a high profile, back-and-forth legal battle, with both sides claiming the other is falsifying stories and utilizing online smear campaigns.
“Social media is a really good thing at times because it lets people, stars connect with their fans, but these two guys used it in an evil way if that’s true,” Emanuel said on Thursday. “We just have to be cognizant that it [social media] can ruin people and they should no longer be out there intimidating people using social media now and trying to hurt them and abusing what they have been doing prior to now to go against them. They should just stop since they think they’re innocent and let the process play itself out.”
“These are good people that have been in the business for decades, and have never had any bad press about them and all the people they work with like them,” he reiterated of Lively and Reynolds. “So if it’s true what they’re saying in that allegation, these are two bad guys.”
Earlier this week, the “Another Simple Favor” actress issued subpoenas to the “Jane the Virgin” star’s crisis PR firm, as well as multiple wireless carriers and other telecoms, in order to discover once and for all if he and his team indeed have the “receipts” to prove that she’s the guilty party here. Baldoni is currently countersuing Lively, Reynolds, their publicist and the New York Times for $400 million for defamation.
As things stand, their trial is expected to begin in March 2026.
