Blake Lively at the London screening of the film “It ‘Ends With Us” on Aug. 8, 2024, left, and Justin Baldoni, center, and Ryan Reynolds in separate photos at the world premiere of the film in New York on Aug. 6, 2024.
The murky waters surrounding the It Ends With Us sexual harassment controversy are getting murkier. On Tuesday, Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds asked a court to dismiss actor-director Justin Baldoni’s $400 million defamation and extortion suit against him, his actor-wife Blake Lively, the New York Times, and Vision PR’s Leslie Sloane. The Deadpool star said that Baldoni cannot sue him over “hurt feelings.”
A memorandum of law filed by Reynolds’ attorney says, “The entirety of Plaintiffs’ defamation claim appears to be based on two times that Mr. Reynolds allegedly called Mr. Baldoni a ‘predator.’ But, the FAC alleges no plausible facts that suggest Mr. Reynolds did not believe this comment to be true.”
For context, Baldoni accused Reynolds of bullying him by satirising his “woke feminist” image through the character of Nicepool in Deadpool & Wolverine. Baldoni had sent a notice to Disney CEO Bob Iger, Marvel President Kevin Feige, and director Tim Miller on January 7, demanding they preserve documents related to the development of Nicepool.
Meanwhile, while Reynolds’ attorneys didn’t dispute the claims, they claimed Baldoni was showing “thin-skinned outrage” by complaining about it.
Baldoni had also accused Reynolds of calling him a “sexual predator”, and of pressuring his agency WME to drop him. As per Variety, Reynolds’ lawyers argued that this wouldn’t amount to defamation since Reynolds has reason to believe that Baldoni is a ‘predator.’
“The allegations suggest that Mr. Reynolds genuinely, perhaps passionately, believes that Mr. Baldoni’s behaviour is reflective of a ‘predator’. The law establishes that calling someone a ‘predator’ amounts to constitutionally protected opinion… While Mr. Baldoni ‘may not appreciate being called’ a predator, those hurt feelings do not give rise to legal claims,” reads the motion, adding that Reynolds was merely offering his “unabashed negative opinion of Mr. Baldoni’s character.”
“Mr. Reynolds has a First Amendment right to hold Mr. Baldoni — or any man who Mr. Reynolds believes sexually harassed his wife — in ‘deep disdain,’” the motion states, as quoted by Variety. “It is, in essence, a burn book filled with grievances attempting to shame Mr. Reynolds for being the kind of man who is ‘confident enough to listen’ to the woman in his life and to hold her ‘anguish and actually’ stand with her,” the complaint adds.
The motion also argues that Reynolds belief that Baldoni is a predator is “substantially true” and that Baldoni himself has confessed, in his podcast appearances, to have “crossed boundaries” when he was young due to his pornography addiction. “It would be perverse to permit Mr. Baldoni to build an entire brand — complete with a podcast, Ted Talk, and books — off of his confessions of repeatedly mistreating women, only to turn around and sue Mr. Reynolds for $400 million for simply pointing out in private what Mr. Baldoni has bragged about in public,” Variety quoted the complaint.
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds attend the ‘It Ends With Us’ premiere in New York City, U.S., August 6, 2024.
| Photo Credit:
CAITLIN OCHS
A lot has happened since It Ends with Us, directed by Baldoni, was released in theatres in August 2024. In December last year, Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of the movie and a subsequent effort to “destroy” her reputation in a legal complaint. The complaint accused Baldoni and the studio of embarking on a “multi-tiered plan” to damage her reputation following a meeting in which she and her husband Reynolds addressed “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behaviour” by Baldoni and a producer on the movie.
In January, Baldoni filed a $250 million libel lawsuit against The New York Times. He also claimed that Reynolds “aggressively berated” him during a meeting at the couple’s Tribeca penthouse in 2023, accusing the actor-director of “fat-shaming” Lively on the set of It Ends With Us. Baldoni asserted that he merely inquired about Lively’s weight to ensure he could safely perform a lifting scene. Baldoni alleged the incident escalated despite repeated apologies, with Reynolds later pressuring the talent agency WME to sever ties with him.
Baldoni then sued Reynolds, Lively, the New York Times, and Leslie Sloane, Lively and Reynolds’ publicist, seeking $400 million for damages.
Baldoni’s lawsuit claimed that The New York Times’ article titled ‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine — which recounted Lively’s allegations — relied on Lively’s narrative, omitting evidence he says disproves her claims. The complaint also accused The New York Times of promissory fraud and breach of implied-in-fact contract.
Published – March 19, 2025 12:44 pm IST
