Even by the standards of high-profile Hollywood spats, the interminable brawl between actress Blake Lively and her co-star, director Justin Baldoni is enough to warrant another Rocky sequel.

But who would be the villain?

With wild accusations and even wilder counter claims being traded neither party is smelling of roses.

Lively, 37, accused Baldoni in an 80-page federal lawsuit in December of bizarre acts of Sєxual harᴀssment on the set of the movie ‘It Ends With Us’ and of orchestrating a smear campaign against her.

Baldoni, 41, responded by suing the New York Times for publishing Lively’s claims and then by slapping a $400 million lawsuit, alleging defamation and extortion, on the actress, her publicist and her A-list actor husband Ryan Reynolds

And now that Reynolds is being dragged into this confusing crisscross of lawsuits, it’s not only Lively and Baldoni whose behavior has come into question. 

In a bizarre text exchange with Baldoni, Lively appears to refer to her husband as her ‘dragon.’ That’s not exactly the ‘Nice Guy’ public image cultivated by this Canada-born rom-com hero. 

Indeed scratch beneath his shiny surface and an altogether less appealing version of Reynolds seems to emerge.

Ryan’s wounded songbird

Reynolds moved to Los Angeles to pursue a showbusiness career in his early 20s and landed his first famous girlfriend in ‘Jagged Little Pill’ singer, fellow Canadian, Alanis Morissette, now 50.

Canada-born rom-com hero Ryan Reynolds (pictured in New York City on January 30) has always cultivated a ‘Mr Nice Guy’ public image.

Reynolds moved to Los Angeles to pursue a showbusiness career in his early 20s and landed his first famous girlfriend in ‘Jagged Little Pill’ singer, Alanis Morissette, now 50. 

Now that Reynolds is being dragged into this confusing crisscross of lawsuits, it’s not only Lively and Baldoni whose behavior has come into question.

The pair – who, Morissette says, bonded over their roots in the Great White North – met in 2002 at the 27th birthday party of actress Drew Barrymore.

The glamorous couple graced many a red carpet… with plenty of PDAs.

Morissette could barely contain herself in a 2004 interview with People when she described their ‘pᴀssionate’ relationship, yet some of her statements left fans scratching their heads.

‘I feel so loved by him, in a trampoline kind of way,’ she said. She also called him her ‘soul brother.’

It all seemed like a showbiz fairy tale when they got engaged in June 2004, but they’d never marry and – after a split and attempt at reconciliation – the couple called it quits in a cringeworthy statement claiming they ‘remain close friends and continue to have the utmost admiration for each other.’

In 2008, Morissette wore her heart on her sleeve in songs she wrote for her seventh album, ‘Flavours of Entanglement,’ in which, the singer revealed, she channelled the sting of that very public break up.

‘One step, one prayer. I soldier on. Stimulating, moving on,’ she sings in the emotionally charged track ‘Torch.’

For Reynolds, it doesn’t seem to have been as much of a struggle.

Within barely two months of that broken engagement Reynolds traded his songstress for a bonafide megastar in the shapely figure of Scarlett Johansson, 40.

The Scarlett Letter

Reynolds’s relationship with Johansson did not exhibit the same degree of slobbering PDA that he’d shown with Morissette. In fact, the couple did their utmost to avoid the paparazzi.

Fans were shocked that they were even an item when they announced their engagement in May 2008 and married in September of that year.

Two months after he broke off his engagement to Alanis Morissette, Reynolds moved on to bonafide megastar Scarlett Johansson. (Pictured at 64th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 13, 2010)

Fans were shocked that they were even an item when they announced their engagement in May 2008 and married in September of that year.

Johansson didn’t gush about her chisel-jawed husband and his unfailing support. Her take on their marriage seemed almost jaded – a far cry from the typical over-romanticized Hollywood pairing.

‘We work and then go home and – I, anyway – just stare at the wall for a few hours before I go to sleep,’ Johansson told Time Out New York soon after their one-year anniversary.

‘Like in any profession, it’s difficult. You want to make sure you have time to invest in your family. It’s a challenge, but it’s worth it.’

Soon there were whispers that Reynolds was ‘an overbearing control freak’ who expected his more famous spouse to ‘drop everything and come to him.’

Johansson, insiders said, was not a fan of this behavior.

The power-couple parted ways in December 2010, issuing yet another syrupy statement that they were leaving the marriage with ‘love and kindness.’

The sanctimony did little to quell rumours that Reynolds had been envious of his wife’s career. She had recently been named one of the world’s highest paid actresses at the age of 25, while he was still awaiting his big break.

But, more serious than the jealousy theory, some suggested that his split from Johansson dovetailed rather too closely with a flourishing on-screen partnership with Lively.

Reynolds had started filming the Green Lantern movie with longtime friend Lively in July, five months before he and Johansson called it quits.

A waitress, who allegedly saw the pair at dinner together in 2010, told the Daily Mail that despite Reynolds being married at the time, ‘They were laughing and flirting. It looked like a date. If you didn’t know who they were, you would definitely ᴀssume they were a couple.’

Some suggested that Ryan Reynold’s split from Scarlett Johansson dovetailed rather too closely with a flourishing on-screen partnership with Blake Lively

So very Lively…

Lively and Gossip Girl actor Penn Badgley had been dating for three years before they split in September 2010. Reynolds and Johansson’s break up followed swiftly on.

But any suggestion that the mutual unravelling of his and Lively’s relationships was anything less than clean-cut left Reynolds incensed.

In an interview with Details magazine in May 2011, he said, ‘There was no story and no scandal.’ And he railed at the press, adding, ‘The media was not invited to my marriage, and they’re definitely not invited into the divorce.’

Reynolds said in the same interview that he didn’t think he’d ever want to get married again. It turned out that Lively would be the woman who made him change his mind.

The pair’s official first date was in October 2011, three months after Reynolds divorce from Johansson was finalized.

Speaking on a podcast, he said they were already ‘friends and buddies’ but had always been dating other people. He later claimed that they kept in touch ‘casually’ before they found themselves both working in Boston. The proximity led to romance; Reynolds revealed.

The couple wed in September 2012 – less than 18 months after Reynolds had so publicly expressed his doubts about getting remarried. The lavish ceremony caused controversy because it took place on a historic plantation in South Carolina. The newlyweds later apologized for choosing the venue with links to the slave trade.

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively’s official first date was in October 2011, three months after his divorce from Scarlett Johansson was finalized.

Blake Lively and Gossip Girl actor Penn Badgley (pictured) had been dating for three years before they split in September 2010. 

While the woke mea culpa didn’t get the marriage off to the most auspicious start, this union appears to have thrived. They welcomed their first child James in 2014, Inez followed in 2016 with a third daughter, Betty, arriving in 2019. Lively delivered their son, Olin, in 2023.

Thirteen years and four children later, it’s probably safe to ᴀssume that Lively knows Reynolds as well, if not better, than anyone.

So, it’s worth noting that alleged text messages have surfaced that appear to show Lively referring to Reynolds and best friend Taylor Swift as her ‘dragons’, while she cast herself as ‘Khaleesi,’ from the Game of Thrones saga.

Fire-breathing and gold-hungry – ‘dragons’ are hardly the most flattering analogy for either – but perhaps there’s a few past lovers who might find it fitting for Reynolds ‘the nice guy’.