It feels like Hollywood’s longest game of he said, she said. Over the summer, reports of tension between It Ends With Us lead Blake Lively and her director and costar, Justin Baldoni, dominated headlines as they promoted the project. Then, in late December 2024, Lively filed a bombshell legal complaint in California claiming Baldoni had sexually harassed her during filming and later attempted to ruin her reputation via vicious and targeted online attacks. The New York Times picked up on it and swiftly published an exposé about the alleged retaliatory smear campaign Baldoni and his associates waged against Lively, 37. “You know we can bury anyone,” Baldoni’s PR Melissa Nathan is alleged to have said in a text message.
Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, called the allegations “categorically false.” Still, the public fallout was swift: The Jane the Virgin alum, 41, and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, were dropped by talent agency WME, which also represents Lively and her husband of 12 years, Ryan Reynolds. Two days later, the cohost of Baldoni’s feminist “Man Enough Podcast” abruptly left the show. Over on Team Lively, her It Ends With Us costars Jenny Slate and Brendan Sklenar publicly expressed support for her, as did celebs like her Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants castmates as well as Amber Heard and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Then, it was Baldoni’s turn to strike. On New Year’s Eve, he filed a $250 million lawsuit against the New York Times, reporting that the outlet “‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.” A few weeks later, he filed a federal lawsuit accusing Lively, Reynolds and their publicist of defamation, claiming the power couple steamrolled him while filming It Ends With Us and that Lively plotted to destroy his career.
A Closer Look
On the surface, the story centers around lawsuits involving celebrities, their tangled webs of associates and, of course, what really happened between Lively and Baldoni on the set of It Ends With Us. But underneath the legal jargon, the stars have become engaged in a full-on PR war, one that’s exposing Hollywood’s secret world of machinations and manipulation, in which smear campaigns can be used to cause irrevocable harm to reputations and shape entire narratives.
While PR spins are par for the course in showbiz, social media has provided a vast (and sometimes frightening) space for opinions and influence to take hold in unchecked ways. “A lot of publicists nowadays are using the public as their arm, you know, to help them in their campaigns,” PR expert Molly McPherson told NPR. “You have all these people on TikTok just waiting to chime in. So it’s a rich, fertile ground to shape public opinion.” Lively’s suit is bringing attention to this new brand of shadow campaigns. Adds McPherson: “This is the first time that I think it’s been exposed.”
Here, Us Weekly delves into how this case is affecting Lively and Baldoni personally and professionally — and what the future might hold as their reputations hang in the balance.
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s reported rift made headlines months before the It Ends With Us costars filed lawsuits. While Lively and Baldoni promoted the film in August 2024, rumors began swirling of an alleged feud between the pair. Fans noticed that Lively was promoting the movie with some of her costars while Baldoni, who […]
Personal Toll
According to licensed psychotherapist Marni Feuerman, the decision to go public with their lawsuits will have far-reaching consequences for both Lively and Baldoni. “As of now, Blake and Justin have not chosen [a private] route and instead have gone in the opposite direction, basically declaring war on each other,” Feurman tells Us. “[This] is certain to increase the emotional price they’ll pay both during the process and when trying to heal in the aftermath.”
In her lawsuit, Lively says she’s suffered mental pain, anguish and “severe emotional distress.” Feuerman notes that we can’t forget that celebrities are still human. “Any event that happens to us that overwhelms our ability to cope can be traumatizing. Being sexually harassed and bullied at work is not an uncommon experience for women, and many of them are left saddled with the same debilitating emotions [Blake] describes.”
According to Dr. Paul Hokemeyer, licensed family therapist and expert in celebrity mental health, the lawsuit also brings a set of challenges for Lively’s husband: “Not only must [Ryan] stand by as his wife is attacked for standing up for herself, he’ll need to figure out how best to support her and [their kids].”
For Baldoni, Hokemeyer notes it must be incredibly stressful to have his character called into question and believes the actor’s relationships with his wife and children will likely be scrutinized. Feuerman says Baldoni is likely concerned about whether or not he’ll ultimately be canceled. “Only time will tell,” she says, adding, “I’m fairly certain that Justin is worried about his career and relationships and future. He’s hitting back hard. Some may characterize it as ‘overkill’ [but] it appears he has some supporters.”
Among them is TV personality Megyn Kelly. On the January 22 episode of The Megyn Kelly Show, the host aligned herself with Baldoni, saying in part, “Time and time again, [Blake] accuses him of doing something, which then when you hear the full context, is an absolute nothing burger!”
Image Concerns
Women’s rights attorney Lisa Bloom, who represented accusers of late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, says that in terms of Lively’s image, her decision to stand up to her claims of harassment and bullying “is ultimately good for her reputation.” But when it comes to who’s faring better in the court of public opinion, talent manager and social media expert Courtney Lupilin says support appears to be pretty equally divided between Lively and Baldoni.
When Lively initially filed her complaint, some felt they’d been effectively manipulated by the alleged smear campaign Baldoni embarked on with his crisis PR team. Were her flowery promotional appearances — and attempts to sell her Betty Buzz brand “Ryle You Wait” themed-cocktails (named after her abusive on-screen love interest in It Ends With Us) — misfires of her own, or was she the victim of media distortion? In her lawsuit, Lively says she followed Sony’s playbook to promote the film as a rom-com and claims Baldoni went rogue with his emphasis on domestic violence victims.
PR expert and crisis consultant Mark Borkowski calls the legal battle “a Grand Guignol of egos, lawsuits, and hastily drafted PR statements attempting to stanch a hemorrhaging reputation.” He says the saga is less about justice and more about a Hollywood power play. “Let’s not be naive — reputations aren’t built on truth; they’re built on narrative control,” he tells Us. “In the court of public opinion, innocence is a quaint afterthought, and perception is the only currency that matters. Lively, with the velvet glove of media sympathy and a well-oiled machine behind her, plays the protagonist. Baldoni, now bleeding credibility, scrambles in the wilderness of cancellation.” Borkowski notes that Baldoni could have a comeback, as “Hollywood has always adored a redemption arc, provided it’s profitable.” He adds: “The real lesson here? Fame is a fickle mistress, but the one rule remains unchanged: control the narrative, or be consumed by it.”
Justin Baldoni‘s studio filed a new lawsuit against his It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively and her publicist, Leslie Sloane, seeking damages of $400 million. According to the filing obtained by Us Weekly on Thursday, January 16, Lively, 37, was “determined to make Baldoni the real-life villain in her story” to avert from her […]
Career Concerns
Neither Lively nor Baldoni will come out of this unscathed. “This case has become so controversial that no matter what, it will affect their careers,” says Little Red Management CEO Lupilin. “There’s already been so much press on it and so many opinions that there [is] bound to [be] some bias.” While Lupilin believes brands will steer clear of both Lively and Baldoni for the foreseeable future — “There are hundreds of other creators they could work with” — she maintains Baldoni will have a tougher time recovering, professionally speaking. “For some, this is the first time [they’ve] heard Justin’s name, so it might be the only reason people know him now, which is unfortunate.”
The legal battle may have already affected projects he had in the pipeline. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a Pac-Man film that Baldoni had been developing since 2022 may be in jeopardy, along with two other jobs he had in the works. So while Lively seems to be taking a bigger hit in the comments sections, she’s still an established A-list actress and half of a Hollywood power couple. Her next project, A Simple Favor 2, “is finished and coming out soon,” director Paul Feig promised in early January, dispelling rumors that the Prime Video film’s release had been delayed in the wake of the scandal. Says Lupilin: “It will be harder for Justin to come back from this than Blake no matter where this lands.”
UPDATE 1/16/25 at 12:43 p.m. ET: Justin Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios filed a $400 million lawsuit against It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively and her publicist, Leslie Sloane, on Thursday, January 16. In the 179-page filing obtained by Us Weekly, Baldoni claimed that Lively was “determined” to make him a “real-life villain in her story.” […]
Legal Matters
As of press time, a trial date has been set for March 9, 2026, with a pretrial hearing on Monday, February 3. In the 90-minute session on Monday, federal judge Lewis J. Liman noted that the March 2026 trial date could be moved up if the complaints continue to be “litigated in the press,” per Deadline.
In reaction to the first hearing, Lively’s team told Us in a statement, “We are pleased with the result of today’s hearing and eager to move forward immediately with discovery in this case. The Court granted our request that all attorneys in the matter actually follow the rule of law and not make any statements that could prejudice a jury. This case deals with serious allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation. We will hold the defendants accountable, and we are confident that once all the evidence is submitted in this matter, Ms. Lively will prevail.”
Baldoni’s lawyers, meanwhile, told Us, “Our clients are devastated and want to move the case along as quickly as possible. We just couldn’t be more pleased with how the case was handled today, how it was managed. We’re going to move as quickly as we possibly can and prove our innocence, in a world where sometimes people judge you before they give you a chance. And we’re going to change that.”
It’s a complicated, emotional case on both sides. “A lot of what’s been alleged is about people’s intentions,” notes civil litigator Caitlin Kovac. “And that’s something that we’re never going to know.”
Attorney Bloom says any possible monetary awards will be beside the point. “The court of public opinion is equally if not more important than the legal court,” Bloom tells Us. “At the end of the day, someone is going to get a ruling; maybe it’ll be $0, maybe it’ll be $5 million, maybe it’ll be $10 million. But how much are their reputations worth? How much are their film careers worth? Probably a lot more than what’s at issue in the case.”
When it comes to damages (Baldoni is suing for $400 million; Lively for an undisclosed amount), Kovac says both parties will likely bring in experts to discuss what they would have otherwise earned or what opportunities they would have had “absent the conduct of the other side.” (In Lively’s lawsuit, she claims sales of her haircare brand, Blake Brown, plummeted by as much as 78 percent because of Baldoni’s alleged smear campaign.)
On January 21, Freedman released nearly 10 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage from It Ends With Us in an effort to refute Lively’s claims that Baldoni acted inappropriately while shooting a slow dance scene for the film. Lively’s side calls the footage — which has been pored over and analyzed on social media — “damning,” adding, “any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognize Ms. Lively’s discomfort.” Says Kovac: “People can look at the same objective facts and come to totally different conclusions.” Attorney Gloria Allred, known for taking on high-profile cases, agrees. “I think both sides have supporters [who] can’t help but draw conclusions from what they’re reading and seeing,” she tells Us. “This is the way it is in 2025. So, at some point, the court may have to step in.”
As for whether Lively and Baldoni will settle before trial, Allred tells Us it’s unlikely. “Usually, lawyers will try to settle the case with a confidential settlement prior to [trial]. That’s about buying peace, but a lawsuit is like starting a [full-scale] war,” she explains. “[The case] may also settle at some point during this litigation, but it hasn’t so far, and I think it’s likely not to settle in the near future.”
For more on Lively and Baldoni, watch the exclusive video above and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly — on newsstands now.
With reporting by Travis Cronin, Andrea Simpson, Mariel Turner & Amanda Williams