Blake Lively’s Lawyers Slam Claim She’s a ‘Bully’ Who ‘Took Over’ on ‘It Ends With Us’
Well over a year after the premiere of It Ends With Us, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are still embroiled in a legal battle. In November, Baldoni’s legal team filed a motion to dismiss Lively’s lawsuit against him. Lively’s lawyers have hit back, insisting that the case should go to trial. They slammed claims made about Lively by Baldoni’s team, and accused them of trying to deny the Gossip Girl actor her day in court.
‘It Ends With Us’ director Justin Baldoni asked the judge to throw out Blake Lively’s case
On Nov. 13, Baldoni’s legal team filed a motion for summary judgment. In a 73-page filing, they asked U.S. District Court Judge Lewis J. Liman to toss out the case before it makes it to court. Lively accuses Baldoni of sexual harassment, creating a hostile work environment, and engaging in a smear campaign against her.
“When viewed in context, no reasonable juror could find that the handful of comments and miscommunications Lively has mustered amounts to sexual harassment,” the filing reads (per People). It adds, “No reasonable juror could find that Lively suffered an adverse employment action in any traditional sense.”
Judges have already dismissed the countersuits against Lively, as well as her filing against social media consultant Jed Wallace. She accused him of trying to smear her online.
Blake Lively’s lawyers pushed back against claims made about her on the ‘It Ends With Us’ set
In new court documents, Lively’s team has pushed back against Baldoni’s request for summary judgment.
“In their latest effort to avoid accountability for the hostile environment they created during the production and marketing of It Ends With Us, Justin Baldoni [and other defendants] ask this court to shield them from trial and deny Blake Lively her day in court, by throwing the kitchen sink at Lively’s sexual harassment and retaliation claims,” her team wrote in documents obtained by Us Weekly. “But defendants’ scattershot theories collapse under the weight of the overwhelming evidence, in documents and testimony from witness after witness.”
They claimed that Baldoni’s team is “throwing the kitchen sink at Lively’s sexual harassment and retaliation claims” and trying to “deny Blake Lively her day in court.” They also accused Baldoni’s team of responding to Lively’s complaints of mistreatment on set by going “….on the attack, claiming that they are victims of a ‘bully’ who ‘fabricated’ complaints to ‘take over the movie’ (ignoring the irony that this purportedly-hijacked Film enriched the Wayfarer Defendants by smashing all box office expectations).”
Baldoni’s attorneys have previously described Lively’s claims as a “litany of minor grievances.”
The actor first filed claims against Baldoni in late 2024
Lively first filed a complaint against Baldoni in December 2024, several months after It Ends With Us premiered.
“Mr. Baldoni and his Wayfarer associates embarked on a sophisticated press and digital plan in retaliation for Ms. Lively exercising her legally-protected right to speak up about their misconduct on the set, with the additional objective of intimidating her and anyone else from revealing in public what actually occurred,” read the 80-page complaint (via Deadline).
After pushing back, Baldoni directly sued Lively and Ryan Reynolds for $400,000,000 in January. They have continued battling back and forth throughout the year.
