Justin Baldoni has filed an amended counterclaim that consolidates Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, The New York Times and others as defendants, saying the “It Ends With Us” star and her PR reps colluded with the newspaper for months to smear the director after a protracted battle over control of the movie turned hostile.
Baldoni published his 244 page-counterclaim, along with a timeline, on a dedicated website on Saturday. The complaint, filed Friday in a New York federal court, includes dozens of texts and other messages between multiple parties, including several examples of friendly, respectful and collaborative missives between Lively and Baldoni, who points out that many were exchanged during the time when Lively later alleged she was sexually harassed.
Baldoni is seeking a $400,000,000 payout in compensatory damages, plus whatever the court may award for “mental pain and anguish and severe and
serious emotional distress.” The plaintiffs are Lively, Reynolds, their rep Leslie Sloane and her Vision PR, Inc., and the New York Times. Baldoni had previously sued the Times separately, and filed a counterclaim against Lively.
“The decision to amend our lawsuit was a logical next step due to the overwhelming amount of new proof that has come to light,” Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman said in a statement.
“This fresh evidence corroborates what we knew all along, that due to a blind pursuit of power, Ms. Lively and her entire team colluded for months to destroy reputations through a complex web of lies, false accusations and the manipulation of illicitly received communications. The ongoing public interest in this case online has ironically shed light on the undeniable facts pertaining to The New York Times and how heavily Ms. Lively and her representatives were not only deeply involved in the attempted take down and smear campaign of Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and their teams but that they themselves initiated it.”
The lawsuit says Lively, Reynolds, her publicist and Jones among other “set out
on a campaign to tar and feather the Wayfarer Parties in the press. They conspired and worked in concert with the New York Times … The Lively Parties laid their trap carefully over a period of months before springing it all at once on the eve of the winter holidays.”
According to the lawsuit, with text messages as evidence, the two got along well until production began, when Baldoni says Lively began making minute-by-minute changes to things like dialogue, her character’s wardrobe and other tweaks that were disruptive and upsetting to the production crew. She began to inappropriately request to see dailies, submitted rewritten script pages and at one point even made her own partial cut of the film, despite that part of the process not being in her purview.
The news comes only two days before a preliminary hearing to address Lively’s request for a gag order, and days after a six-minute voice note of Baldoni apologizing to Lively was released. In the undated memo Baldoni apologizes from calling Lively at 2 a.m. and adds, “I am a very flawed man, as my wife will attest, and I’m going to f–k up.”
“I am going to say the wrong thing. I am going to put my foot in my mouth,” Baldoni continued. “I am going to piss you off probably, but I will always apologize and find my way back to center. That is one thing I can assure you of. I am sorry I made you feel that way.”
Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni in December. She accused Baldoni of sexual harassment, an “unconscionable” smear campaign against the actress and breach of contract. The suit also claims causes of retaliation, aiding and abetting harassment and retaliation, intentional and negligence infliction of emotional distress and false light invasion of privacy.
The lawsuit followed Lively’s Dec. 20 sexual harassment complaint against Baldoni. Documents obtained by the New York Times reveal a group meeting was held to address Lively’s concern, and that her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, also attended.
The topics discussed reportedly included “no more showing nude videos or images of women, including producer’s wife to BL and/or her employees, no more mention of Mr. Baldoni or Mr. Heath’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction’ or BL’s lack of pornography consumption to BL or to other crew members” as well as no further discussions to BL and/or her employees about personal experiences with sex.
Lively’s lawsuit counters depictions of a Jan. 4 meeting with prominent members of “It Ends With Us” team drawn in Baldoni’s New York Times suit. Lively’s husband Reynolds was in attendance because the meeting was about alleged “sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior” by Baldoni and Wayfarer CEO Jamey Heath. Attendees also included Lively, Baldoni, Heath, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Ange Gianetti and “It Ends With Us” producers Alex Saks and Todd Black.
On Jan. 27, both Lively v. Wayfarer Studios cases were consolidated and a trial date was set for March 9, 2026. A preliminary hearing for Lively’s request for a gag order was moved up to February 3.
