In 2016, author Colleen Hoover published her award-winning novel It Ends With Us. The novel follows a young woman named Lily Bloom, who becomes entangled in an abusive relationship with a charming and violent doctor, Ryle Kincaid. It Ends With Us has been on multiple bestseller lists and has sold more than one million copies.
In 2019, Wayfarer Studios gained the rights to the hit book and announced that it would be adapted into a feature-length film. The movie was released on August 9, and starred Gossip Girl star Blake Lively as Lily and Jane the Virgin star Justin Baldoni as Ryle. Mr. Baldoni is also the co-founder of Wayfarer Studios.
Related: ‘X-Men’ Star Says Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds Bait-And-Switched Her About ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’
While fans might have loved the on-screen chemistry between Lively and Baldoni, things behind the scenes were anything but loving. According to multiple sources, Baldoni and Lively did not get along at all. In fact, they seem to downright hate each other.
Fans began speculating about tension between the two when Mr. Baldoni and Ms. Lively both attended the August 6 world premiere, but did not take pictures together or with the entire cast. They also watched the film in separate theaters and did not do any joint interviews during the film’s massive press tour.
Stories also started to leak about how Baldoni did not appreciate how Lively was trying to take over the film’s production. She even reportedly brought in an editor she and Ryan Reynolds use and had her own version of the film created. In the end, it was decided that more people liked the original cut and Lively’s was left on the editing room floor.
Now, we have discovered just how bad things were between the film’s stars, as Blake Lively has filed a lawsuit against Justin Baldoni, lobbing a number of disturbing allegations against him.
Accusations of Sexual Harassment and Weight Shaming
Before the lawsuit was filed, fans discovered that things were not all rainbows and unicorns behind the scenes of It Ends With Us. Lively had reportedly accused Baldoni of making her feel bad about her weight. She had given birth to her fourth child with husband, Ryan Reynolds, just months before filming.
Mr. Baldoni has a history of back problems and wanted to know how he could safely lift Lively during filming without injuring his back. Because of that, Ms. Lively felt that her costar was fat-shaming her.
However, on December 21, it was reported that Ms. Lively had filed a lawsuit against Mr. Baldoni, accusing him of a number of things, including sexual harassment and a “coordinated effort” to destroy her reputation.
A copy of the lawsuit was first obtained by TMZ, who revealed some of the disturbing details.
According to the lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, things got so bad during filming, there was an all-hands-on-deck meeting to address what she claims was a hostile work environment. Ryan Reynolds, Blake’s husband, was among the attendees.
The lawsuit lists the demands that were addressed … she says because of Baldni’s [sic] conduct. Among those demands — no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous “pornography addiction,” no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew’s genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake’s weight, and no further mention of Blake’s dead father.
There’s also a demand that there be “no more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing by BL outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project.”
Related: Blake Lively Praised for Normalizing Breastfeeding, Pumping at Disney
Ms. Lively also said that Mr. Baldoni and her team were planning on creating a smear campaign against the actress in hopes of destroying her reputation. She provided screenshots of text messages between Mr. Baldoni, PR Executive Jennifer Abel, and crisis management expert Melissa Nathan. They were reportedly using stories about Hailey Bieber to shape how they would go about framing stories of Ms. Lively.
After TMZ reported on the lawsuit, Ms. Lively released a statement to the outlet, saying:
“I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
A Strong Denial From Justin Baldoni
Shortly after the lawsuit began making headlines, Mr. Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, released a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, denying all of the claims made against his client.
“It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions.”
The “negative reputation” Mr. Freedman is talking about is the backlash Ms. Lively faced when a reporter revealed that Ms. Lively almost made her want to quit her job.
Journalist Kjersti Flaa revealed that, in 2016, she interviewed the actress and congratulated her on “her bump”, as Ms. Lively had publicly confirmed she was pregnant not long before. Ms. Lively bit back and congratulated Ms. Flaa on her bump. Ms. Flaa was not pregnant and was actually infertile and could never have a child of her own.
After that, Lively began getting called out for using It Ends With Us to promote her own hair care line and for being rude and insincere during interviews.
Mr. Baldoni used the film’s domestic violence premise to speak on the dangers of toxic relationships, speak with survivors, and encourage others to get help if they found themselves in a dangerous situation.
Ms. Lively, on the other hand, joked about sharing her location when asked about what she would say to fans who approached her to speak about the film’s serious storyline.
Mr. Freedman also said that Ms. Lively made things uncomfortable on set, even threatening not to show up when things did not go her way. He stated that Ms. Lively hired a PR team to help plant negative stories in the press.
“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media. Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager prior to the marketing campaign of the film, to work alongside their own representative with Jonesworks employed by Stephanie Jones, due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met.”
“It was also discovered that Ms. Lively enlisted her own representative, Leslie Sloan with Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to plant negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media, even prior to any marketing had commenced for the film, which was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to commence internal scenario planning in the case they needed to address,” the statement read. “The representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity. What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.”
Dropped by His Agency
Just hours after Ms. Lively’s lawsuit against Mr. Baldoni was reported, Deadline learned that his talent agency, WME, had dropped him. Baldoni and Lively were both represented by WME. Lively is still being represented by the agency.
WME did not respond to Deadline when asked for comment about the decision to part ways with the actor.
Colleen Hoover Supports Blake Lively
Throughout filming and the drama that has since unfolded, one thing has remained very clear — Colleen Hoover is Team Blake.
In an Instagram Story, Hoover tagged Lively and sent her a message of encouragement.
“@blakelively, you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met. Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt.”
It Ends With Us is not the only Lily Bloom story written by Colleen Hoover. She wrote a sequel — It Starts With Us — was published in October 2022. And after the success of the first film, it seems like a sequel film would be an absolute must.
However, with everything going on between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, along with Hoover’s support of Lively, it seems unlikely that Mr. Baldoni or his studio would be interested in working with either of them anytime soon.
Whose side are you on, Justin Baldoni or Blake Lively’s? Do you think that Lively is trying to salvage her reputation by suing Baldoni? Share your thoughts in the comments!
The post ‘It Ends With Us’ Ends In MESSY Lawsuit appeared first on Inside the Magic.
