The legal battle between It Ends with Us stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni continues to escalate, as the film's director plans on bringing "real evidence" to counter the actress's sexual harassment lawsuit.
via: Page Six
According to the Daily Mail, the actor and director is preparing to submit legal documents when the courts reopen after New Year’s Day.
“I am not going to speak to when or how many lawsuits we are filing but when we file our first lawsuit, it is going to shock everyone who has been manipulated into believing a demonstrably false narrative,” Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, told Deadline Saturday.
“It will be supported by real evidence and tell the true story. In over 30 years of practicing, I have never seen this level of unethical behavior intentionally fueled through media manipulation.”
“It reminds me of what NBC tried to do to Megyn Kelly and Gabrielle Union and we all know how that ended up. Standby.”
In a statement to Page Six, Freedman said: “This is not a response or countersuit—it’s a deliberate pursuit of truth. This lawsuit will uncover and expose the false and destructive narrative that was intentionally engineered by a trusted media publication who relied upon nefarious sources and neglected a thorough fact-checking process to confirm the validity of these texts.”
The attorney claimed the texts and other evidence the New York Times released in their article on Dec. 21 were “doctored and spliced without context.”
“In over three decades of legal practice, I’ve never witnessed such unethical behavior, fueled by those who abuse their power and manipulate the truth,” Freedman told us.
“This isn’t an isolated case; it’s a recurring pattern in Hollywood and the mainstream media where careers and reputations are destroyed to maintain control. Legacy media has long weaponized their platforms to distort the truth, exploit vulnerabilities, and destroy lives without accountability.”
Freedman said his client’s lawsuit will ensure that “no individual or entity, no matter how influential, can continue perpetuating this cycle of fear and destruction,” adding that the “truth will not only come to light” and “it will dismantle the illusions propped up by those who believe themselves untouchable.”
According to the Mail, the lawsuit will completely flip Lively’s narrative that Baldoni and his crisis PR team allegedly planted a smear campaign to “destroy” her reputation. Instead, the complaint will accuse Lively’s publicist Leslie Sloane of doing so to Baldoni.
Sloane commented on the report to Deadline Saturday and said, “It’s clear that Mr. Baldoni and his Wayfarer Associates are suggesting that I originated press stories about HR complaints on set, which is false.”
“Please read Ms. Lively’s Complaint and the Complaint filed by Jonesworks LLC and Stephanie Jones, which provides the details of the campaign against my client.”
Furthermore, the complaint will claim that texts obtained by Lively via a subpoena that seem to implicate his team discussing how to bury the star have been misrepresented.
His team also reportedly plans to claim that Lively only submitted the filing to help rebuild her reputation after she received negative press while promoting “It Ends With Us” over the summer.
The battle between the stars comes after rumors of a feud swirled all summer long as the pair separately promoted their movie. The gossip only became louder when Lively and Baldoni avoided each other at the film’s New York City premiere.
Lively has been publicly supported by those involved in “It Ends With Us,” including the novel’s writer, Colleen Hoover, and her co-star, Jenny Slate.
Meanwhile, Baldoni was reportedly dropped by his talent agency, WME, and sued by his former publicist following Lively’s legal complaint.
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