Justin Baldoni countersues Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds; seeks $400 million-plus in damages

Justin Baldoni has filed a countersuit against his “It Ends With Us” co-star Blake Lively, her publicist Leslie Sloane and her husband Ryan Reynolds, dramatically escalating the legal battle over their tumultuous collaboration on last year’s romantic drama.

The latest twist in a dispute that has already sent shockwaves through Hollywood, the 179-page complaint, filed in federal court in New York on Thursday, accuses Lively, Sloane and Reynolds of smearing Baldoni and wresting control of the film, which he directed, away from him. The suit is seeking no less than $400 million in damages.

The legal and PR clash stems from Lively’s allegations that Baldoni engaged in sexual harassment on set and hired a crisis PR team to orchestrate a retaliatory smear campaign to damage her reputation in the run-up to the film’s release. The allegations first surfaced in a Dec. 21 New York Times article, and Lively formally filed suit against Baldoni in federal court on Dec. 31. That same day, Baldoni and nine other plaintiffs — including his crisis PR team and executives at Wayfarer Studios — filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against the New York Times over the article, headlined “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.”

Baldoni’s countersuit, jointly filed by Wayfarer Studios, executive Jamey Heath and members of their crisis PR team, alleges that Lively’s accusations are baseless and have caused serious harm to his career, reputation and personal life. Baldoni, best known for his role as Rafael Solano in “Jane the Virgin,” has long cultivated an image as a progressive, socially conscious storyteller and feminist ally, guided by the principles of his Bahá’í Faith. In recent years, he has transitioned from actor to filmmaker and producer, launching Wayfarer Studios in 2019 to champion “purpose-driven” content.

Drawing heavily on private text messages and emails, as did Lively’s suit, Baldoni’s countersuit offers a sharply contrasting account to the one laid out by the actress’ legal team. According to the complaint, Lively was “determined to make Baldoni the real-life villain in her story” and, along with Sloane and with help from the New York Times, falsely accused him of sexual harassment in order to shift attention away from public backlash against her own “tone-deaf” interviews during the film’s press tour. “Defendants laid their trap carefully … advancing a fabricated narrative in the press,” the complaint alleges.

The countersuit further accuses Lively of making unreasonable demands during the film’s production, rewriting key scenes along with Reynolds and refusing to collaborate on intimacy choreography while blaming others for the disruptions. “Lively set out to destroy Plaintiffs’ livelihoods and businesses if they did not bend to her incessant demands,” the complaint alleges.

According to the countersuit, Lively seized creative control of the film, sidelining Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios despite contractual limitations. “Lively deliberately and systematically robbed Plaintiffs … of their movie” and “used threats and extortion” to exclude them from the premiere, the complaint claims.

Baldoni’s legal action marks the fourth lawsuit to emerge from the production of “It Ends With Us,” which, despite the controversy that overshadowed its press tour, became a financial success, grossing over $350 million worldwide. On Dec. 26, Stephanie Jones, Baldoni’s former publicist, filed her own complaint, alleging that the actor’s crisis PR team orchestrated a campaign to undermine her credibility and deflect blame for what she described as a retaliatory smear campaign against Lively.

The countersuit follows a litigation hold letter sent last week by Baldoni’s legal team to Marvel president Kevin Feige and Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger, among others, calling on the studio to preserve all relevant documents with regards to Baldoni. Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, has stated that he believes Reynolds was mocking Baldoni in a scene in last summer’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” featuring an overly earnest alternate version of Deadpool called “Nicepool.”

In the film, Nicepool delivered lines like, “Where in God’s name is the intimacy coordinator?” and answered criticism of his own misogyny by replying, “It’s OK, I identify as a feminist.”