ALBAWABA - Justin Baldoni sues Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and Leslie Sloan of defamation in harassment case.
The "It Ends With Us" director has filed a countersuit against Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and her manager Leslie Sloan for $400 million, weeks after Blake Lively sued Justin Baldoni.
Nearly a month after she sued him for sexually harassing her on the set of the 2024 movie, the filmmaker filed a countersuit today, Thursday, January 16, against his co-star from "It Ends With Us," her husband Ryan Reynolds, and her publicist Leslie Sloan.
Lively was "determined to make Baldoni the real villain in her story" and "fabricated stories" about his sexual harassment, according to Baldoni's most recent filing in a New York court. The director also claims that the "Gossip Girl" alumna's damaged reputation after the release of "It Ends With Us" was "of her own making," not a smear campaign, as her lawsuit claims.
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"Although Lively claims that Baldoni is the one defaming her, the reality is that Lively and her team deliberated and carried out a vile smear campaign against Baldoni and Wayfarer to divert attention from and blame Lively for her disastrous misjudgments," the lawsuit adds. According to the lawsuit, Wayfarer and Baldoni's "refusal" to publicly apologize to Reynolds and Lively was the catalyst for the defamation campaign.
The lawsuit goes on to say that "Lively, in cooperation with her husband, her publicist, and Jones, among others, disseminated a campaign to smear Plaintiffs in the press."
"They plotted and collaborated with The New York Times to create a huge news report that was both untrue and harmful."
The lawsuit further claims that Lively "began to destroy Plaintiffs' livelihoods and businesses if they did not comply with her persistent demands, and when they refused to give in, she did just that, accusing them of gross and reprehensible sexual misconduct."
According to Baldoni's other claims in the lawsuit, Lively "had a reputation for being difficult to work with" and "immediately" started "inserting herself into the production process in intrusive ways that went beyond her contractual rights." This includes times when she rewrote lines and took charge of her character's attire.
