When It Ends With Us came out in August, the rift between producer and star Blake Lively and director and star Justin Baldoni was noticeable. Fans did their detective work and discovered the cast didn’t follow Baldoni on social media after he stayed far away from them at the red carpet premiere. The feud was right there in plain sight. Now, the on-set issues have carried over to the courts.
Lively is suing Baldoni for sexual harassment, according to TMZ. The court documents obtained by the media outlet allege that Lively struggled with Baldoni, who reportedly showed nude images and videos of women, divulged his former “pornography addiction” to her, discussed Lively’s postpartum weight, and loved to share intimate details of his sexual life. The legal papers also noted that an emergency meeting took place to discuss the “hostile work environment” and was attended by Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds.
Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has already reacted to the suit, telling TMZ, that Lively is attempting to “fix her negative reputation” and that the suit is filled with “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt.” Freedman claims that it was Lively who was difficult on set, “threatening to not show up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release.”
The movie, based on the book by Colleen Hoover, did well at the box office, generating $350 million worldwide on a $25 million budget, per The Numbers. Studio executives hoped to green-light the sequel for Hoover’s It Starts With Us, but the feud has gotten in the way. “This is uncharted territory, and nobody has any idea of what a sequel could look like,” an insider told Variety in late August. “There’s probably no world where these two will work together again.” Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer Studios owns the rights to the sequel, and while he could recast Lively’s role, she is a big-name draw to the box office.
While Baldoni reportedly struggled with Reynolds rewriting a scene and not telling him as the director, Page Six claimed that it wasn’t just Lively who had problems with Baldoni. The source described the working environment as “extremely difficult.” The bitter battle seemed to die down after a few weeks, but little did everyone know that Lively was gearing up for something more serious — a legal fight that could get ugly.
Before you go, click here to see celebrity co-stars who allegedly hated each other in real life.
