Blake Lively’s legal team furiously accused Justin Baldoni of using the ‘abuser playbook’ in his $400 million lawsuit against her and her husband Ryan Reynolds.
Lively and Reynolds were sued for defamation Thursday by Baldoni and his publicists, who say the actress cooked up a scheme to kill their careers and discredit them by making false accusations of Sєxual harᴀssment.
Court papers obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com accuse Lively and Reynolds of using their combined star power to hijack the domestic abuse movie It Ends With Us, which Baldoni co-starred in and directed.
The new defamation action is the latest broadside in an increasingly labyrinthine legal battle that began just before Christmas when Lively sued Baldoni, claiming he Sєxually harᴀssed her and created a toxic work environment on the set of the film. He has staunchly denied the allegations.
In response to Baldoni’s new lawsuit, Lively’s attorneys issued a fiery statement to DailyMail.com, declaring: ‘This latest lawsuit from Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its ᴀssociates is another chapter in the abuser playbook.’
They added: ‘This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of Sєxual harᴀssment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender.’
Blake Lively’s (left) legal team furiously accused Justin Baldoni (right) of using the ‘abuser playbook’ in his $400 million lawsuit against her and her husband Ryan Reynolds
The statement alleged Baldoni’s production company Wayfarer Studios ‘opted to use the resources of its billionaire co-founder to issue media statements, launch meritless lawsuits, and threaten litigation to overwhelm the public’s ability to understand that what they are doing is retaliation against Sєxual harᴀssment allegations.’
Lively’s attorneys added: ‘They are trying to shift the narrative to Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she seized creative control and alienated the cast from Mr. Baldoni. The evidence will show that the cast and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer.
Read More Ryan Reynolds looks sheepish as he’s seen for first time since new Justin Baldoni lawsuit against Blake Lively 
‘The evidence will also show that Sony asked Ms. Lively to oversee Sony’s cut of the film, which they then selected for distribution and was a resounding success.’
They continued: ‘Their response to Sєxual harᴀssment allegations: she wanted it, it’s her fault. Their justification for why this happened to her: look what she was wearing.’
The statemetn concluded: ‘In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.”
In Baldoni’s new lawsuit, he accuses Lively muscling in on production despite allegedly failing to read the book until filming was well under way.
The hijack allegedly went as far as relegating Baldoni and his family to the basement after arriving on the red carpet for the movie’s premiere on August 6, 2024, because ‘Lively demanded he not attend’.
The suit said: ‘Security personnel, acting as though there was a risk of “escape,” escorted Baldoni’s group to the basement of the building.
Lively is pictured with Reynolds at the 2014 Met Gala
‘There, they were confined to a makeshift holding area surrounded by concession stand stock, with only foldout tables and chairs arranged in a square.’
In addition to not reading the book before filming started, the lawsuit claims she initially pushed back on having to read it at all.
And despite the novel’s dark subject matter, Lively allegedly failed to take it seriously during the promotional campaign – even naming a cocktail after the abusive lead male character.
This, the filing says, is evidence of the ‘insensitivity’ that sparked an ‘organic backlash to the actress last summer.
She also refused to meet with the domestic violence charity Baldoni had paired up with while promoting the film.
The hijacking of the movie It Ends With Us allegedly went as far as relegating Baldoni and his family to the basement when they arrived at the premiere on August 6, 2024, because ‘Lively demanded he not attend’
The lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds was filed in New York on Thursday
Baldoni’s suit claimed Lively hadn’t read the book before filming started and she initially pushed back on having to read it at all citing
The suit said Lively allegedly failed to take it seriously during the promotional campaign – even naming a cocktail after the abusive lead male character
Baldoni and his family were relegated to the basement after arriving on the red carpet for the movie’s premiere on August 6, 2024, because ‘Lively demanded he not attend’
Lively’s Sєxual harᴀssment claims first appeared three weeks ago in a New York Times story that included texts sent between his publicists that they now say were cherrypicked and stripped of context to make it appear Baldoni was orchestrating a ‘smear campaign’ against the actress.
But the actor says it was Lively who was the real orchestrator of a negative publicity campaign – alleging that she had been working with her own publicist Leslie Sloane and the New York Times for months before the article was published.
Baldoni is already suing the outlet for $250million for libel and defamation, saying in his lawsuit that the story relied on Lively’s ‘self-serving narrative’.
The new filing is a cross-complaint to Lively’s own, and notes that Baldoni and his publicists were even served papers while trying to evacuate their homes during the devastating LA wildfires that ripped through the city last week.
Lively, the complaint added, was safely at home in New York, even as she deployed process servers’ in the midst of the infernos.
The home of Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman was among the casualties of the Palisades Fire.
The filing also details how Baldoni’s publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel endured death threats and a torrent of abuse after Lively’s allegations were aired, some of it anti-Semitic.
An industry source told DailyMail.com: ‘The only question to ask now that we can see the full picture is why did Blake make the decision to do this?
The suit notes Baldoni and his publicists were even served papers while trying to evacuate their homes during the devastating LA wildfires that ripped through the city last week
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman lost his home in the Palisades fire
Read MoreEXCLUSIVE Justin Baldoni’s explosive fightback against Blake Lively revealed: Claims her team smeared HIM, ‘weaponised’ WhatsApps and lawsuit is ploy to rebuild her image. Read ALISON BOSHOFF’S bombshell world exclusive 
‘There can be only two reasons, one she did not think the other side would fight back or two, she herself was shown edited and doctored messages from her own team of advisors.
‘It will be interesting to see how she handles herself moving forward now that the public has the fully unedited communications in full.’
In a statement released exclusively to DailyMail.com, Nathan and Abel described the impact of Lively’s allegations as ‘devastating’ and accused the actress of bullying them.
‘It is devastating that we are forced to answer this viciously selfish ongoing litigation littered with documented and provable lies in the midst of the tragedy impacting California where we reside,’ the statement read.
‘Five months ago Ms. Lively chose to promote a film about domestic violence in a way that caused instant negative and organic backlash due to her own highly publicized actions.
‘Instead of accepting responsibility, she decided to cruelly blame us. This malicious attack on private individuals by Ms. Lively and her team in which they chose to spoon feed The New York Times with doctored, out of context and edited text messages in an effort to paint herself as a victim set off a chain of events that has been harmful beyond measure,’ they continued.
Baldoni’s suit alleged that Lively’s publicist Leslie Sloane (pictured), one of Hollywood’s most influential women, tried to smear Baldoni by planting stories with news organisations
It Ends With Us, based on the 2016 bestseller by Colleen Hoover, was released in August and was a box office hit, grossing more than $350million against a $25million production budget
‘To be clear, Ms. Lively and her team initiated this smear campaign in the media for the sole intention of gaining undeserved public sympathy for her own missteps.
‘Over the last month, we have received death threats, abhorrent abuse and vile anti-Semitic slurs hurled at us due to her decision to use us as scapegoats for her own choices promoting her film in which she made millions of dollars.
‘With this filing, we lift our own curtain of what happens when the enтιтled weaponize power, fear and money to destroy, intimidate and bully those who get in their way.’
The new filing also sheds fresh light on Lively’s behavior during filming, including an incident where the actress threatened Baldoni by emphasizing her celebrity connections and hinting that they could make life difficult for him.
Comparing herself to Game of Thrones heroine Khaleesi, Lively allegedly described them as ‘my dragons’ during a row over her rewrite of the film’s rooftop scene.
Baldoni claims he would have agreed to make the changes she suggested without the additional pressure and was taken aback by the threatening approach.
The new filing also sheds fresh light on Lively’s behavior during filming, including an incident where the actress threatened Baldoni by emphasizing her celebrity connections and hinting that they could make life difficult for him
Comparing herself to Game of Thrones heroine Khaleesi, Lively allegedly described them as ‘my dragons’ during a row over her rewrite of the film’s rooftop scene
The suit goes on to say that she tried to force Baldoni to issue a statement where he would ‘take accountability’ in the face of the backlash and when he refused, plotted to drive him out of the industry altogether via a ‘false allegations of Sєxual harᴀssment’.
It Ends With Us became one of the most talked about movies of the year following its release in August, but for all the wrong reasons.
Also included in the filing are the full versions of text conversations between Baldoni’s publicists which the lawsuit claims were obtained when Sloane seized Abel’s phone after she quit her job with her PR firm and selectively edited.
Included in the papers are copies of entire conversations, all of which contain extra messages that contradict Lively’s claims of an orchestrated smear campaign.
The new lawsuit comes after months of тιт-for-tat battles between Lively and Baldoni who fell out dramatically over It Ends With Us which the actress has been accused of hijacking.
According to the new lawsuit, the backlash she got during the film’s publicity campaign was the direct result of her using it to promote her own brands, including a booze company, in a tone-deaf way – but not as a result of a smear campaign.
The suit said the backlash Lively got during the film’s publicity campaign was the direct result of her using it to promote her own brands, including her booze company, Betty Buzz, in a tone-deaf way – but not as a result of a smear campaign
The suit goes on to say that she tried to force Baldoni to issue a statement where he would ‘take accountability’ in the face of the backlash and when he refused, plotted to drive him out of the industry altogether via a ‘false allegations of Sєxual harᴀssment’
The romantic drama follows Lily Bloom, played by Blake Lively, as she becomes embroiled in an abusive relationship with Justin Baldoni’s Ryle Kincaid.
One alleged point of contention was how the movie should be marketed, with Lively reportedly wanting to make the tale more upbeat in contrast to Baldoni, who felt it should be more focused on the abuse aspect.
As rumors of the feud persisted, social media reaction began to turn against Lively, who has been repeatedly criticized for her responses in interviews promoting the movie.
She was blasted as ‘tone deaf’ and ‘shallow’ after she hosted an interview with her It Ends With Us costars and failed to discuss the serious message behind the movie.
Another clash came when Baldoni asked how much Lively weighed prior to a scene in which he was supposed to lift her.
The A-list actress reportedly said this made her feel ‘fat-shamed’, while those close to Baldoni insisted that he was just trying to protect his back following an injury.
Unlike many project where controversy affects the box office, It Ends With Us still emerged a box office hit, despite mixed reviews from critics.
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